Nintendo considered voice chat for Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, multiplayer talk
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 1 Comment
This information comes from director Hiromasa Shikata…
In a lot of multiplayer games there are a lot of people, but they’re not really playing together, That was the main focus — building a multiplayer game that requires cooperation At its heart, Four Swords was kind of a party game.
On how you can use the touch screen to send pre-selected Link messages with emotions…
It’s actually creating a new form of communication. I believe it might be a little bit stressful for players to try to figure out how to communicate what they want to do, but I think that because of that feeling, when you’re able to do it successfully there’s a level of satisfaction that you don’t find in other games.
On voice chat…
Yes, we did (consider voice chat). With voice chat, what we would see is a highlight in the difference of experience levels between the players. Higher players would tell lower players what to do, and lower players would wonder why they’re being told what to do.
Super Mario Maker – Nintendo’s tips on making a good level, e-manual details
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 2 Comments
This information comes from Takashi Tezuka…
In Mario games, each one has 60 to 80 courses, and each course needs to have its own unique defining element. If you build too many elements into every course, they start to feel the same. That’s something you need to be careful of. To me, the real trick is limiting [the number of] course objects. That’s what makes it really special.
People try to have a tendency to cram every cool feature into one. The role of Super Mario Maker isn’t trying to recreate a course or compete against something that you would purchase created by a professional level designe. It’s trying to do what you haven’t seen in a game and make it your own, to have fun. I think it’s great to find something that you think that works really well, copy it, mimic it and try to think of ways you can improve it. It’s a good way to learn.
I think the book that comes with the game will help people hone their skills and learn techniques they can add to their own courses. If we were to name this book, we would call it ‘The Seeds of Super Mario Maker.’ We give you all the basics to make something great.
More: interview, Super Mario Maker, Takashi Tezuka, top, Yosuke Oshino
Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem – origins, difficulties, fans, music, and more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News | 18 Comments
This comes from Atlus producer Shinjiro Takata and Nintendo producer Hitoshi Yamagami…
On the speculation there was about the project…
Shinjiro Takata: Everybody is pretty much off the mark with what they’ve thought about this game, but one thing that people got wrong the most in Japan—at the end of the first trailer we announced, there was a line that said—people who are fans of Japanese voice actors knew the voice of Yuichi Nakamura. He generally voices main characters, so they were saying, oh, Nakamura’s going to voice the main character. Actually, he voices someone completely different. They were off the mark there.
On how the project came together…
Shinjiro Takata: What happened was, in the process of making this game—the whole idea started when Mr. Hitoshi Yamagami, who is a producer at Nintendo, brought the idea of making a simulation, a strategy game, to Atlus. This was a problem, because Atlus is well known for making JRPGs. That’s our bailiwick. The next thing was, well, what do we do? Do we make it fantasy-based, because Fire Emblem is known for fantasy settings? That kind of fantasy game isn’t really what Atlus tends to put out, though. In the beginning phases of making this game, we really didn’t know which direction to push it in. Do we push it closer to Fire Emblem or to the modern setting of Shin Megami Tensei?
On how long it took to get to a point where that decision was solidified and production went forward…
Shinjiro: Deciding what to make it closer to, that happened a bit after Mr. Yamagami brought us the idea. The problem is, if you make it too much like a Fire Emblem game, then why doesn’t Intelligent Systems just make it themselves? The goal for this was to do something that the Fire Emblem series can’t do. In the end, the reason the game looks the way it does, the reason the content is the way it is, is because this is something we wanted to do as an Atlus game, a game only Atlus could make.
Reggie again says Nintendo focused on “the here and now” at E3
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 110 Comments
This information comes from Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime…
“We focus on the here and now. We’re not like other players in the space that might show a little bit of something that is going to be years in the making. It’s simply because we believe that in getting the fan base excited, we really want to satiate that excitement as soon as possible.”
More: interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, top
Randy Pitchford believes Nintendo should try connecting with new people
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 19 Comments
This excerpt is from a GamesIndustry article with Randy Pitchford (Gearbox Software, Borderlands) and Amazon’s Mike Frazzini…
While much of the discussion covered larger industry trends, one question put to the participants specifically dealt with Nintendo. Considering the company has been putting out games with enviable Metacritic averages, why is it that Nintendo seems to have struggled so much in the market of late.
Pitchford said it doesn’t matter how good their games are if people don’t know they exist, and likened it to a common situation in movies. He said he’s noticed a trend whenever he goes to Rotten Tomatoes to look for the best films now playing.
“It tends to be that some of the highest rated things on Rotten Tomatoes are films I’ve never even heard of,” Pitchford said. “They’re indie things that are marketed not to me. Nintendo’s gotten really good at talking to Nintendo customers. But I think that Nintendo could at least lead more if they figured out how to talk to new people that they’re not already talking to. And that’s a very difficult problem.”
More: interview, Randy Pitchford
Reggie says the current state of VR isn’t fun
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 41 Comments
This information comes from Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime…
“We have knowledge of the technical space, and we’ve been experimenting with this for a long, long time. What we believe is that, in order for this technology to move forward, you need to make it fun and you need to make it social. I haven’t walked the floor, so I can’t say in terms of what’s on the floor today, but at least based on what I’ve seen to date, it’s not fun, and it’s not social. It’s just tech.”
More: interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, top
Star Fox Zero devs thinking about co-op, more controller options
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 9 Comments
This information comes from Shigeru Miyamoto…
On whether Nintendo would consider one-versus-one local ship battles for Star Fox Zero…
“It’s difficult to have two people playing when you need two screens to play for one person, so it’s definitely something that we’re thinking about. We basically created this game as one you need the GamePad to play, but there is a secret There is another option.”
Star Fox Zero co-director Yugo Hayashi also said:
“As one kind of variation, we were thinking about a co-op control scheme. Basically one person would control flying the Arwing and the other person would be aiming and shooting. This is something maybe parents and children could be doing together.”
– Hayashi said, in this case, you could have a skillful player piloting the Arwing
– The less skilled player would be targeting and shooting
– The main pilot would use a Wii remote and Nunchuck attachment to steer
– The team was also trying to support the Pro Controller
Reggie: Iwata didn’t apologize for the Nintendo Digital Event
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 30 Comments
This information comes from Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime…
“It was not an apology. It was not a statement about the content we’re showing, essentially it was an ‘I hear you’ message.”
“Mr. Iwata is in Japan and what he’s trying to do is help explain to consumers in Japan what’s going on at E3. The correct translation of his message was: ‘Thank you for your feedback. We hear you and we are committed to continuing to meet your expectations,’ was essentially his message.”
“One of the things I find interesting is that if you look at E3 historically for Nintendo, typically what happens is a press briefing happens or our digital event happens, and then over the course of the next couple of days people see the games get to play the games and the appreciation and understanding of what we’re doing increases over those three days and continues to build into the holidays.”
More: interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, Satoru Iwata, top
Zelda: Tri Force Heroes – story, princess isn’t Zelda, unsure where it fits into the timeline
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 6 Comments
This information comes from Zelda: Triforce Heroes director Hiromasa Shikata…
On the story…
The story takes place in a world that is not Hyrule. It’s a kingdom that is sort of fashion-obsessed and in that kingdom, an event happens involving the princess of the kingdom –
On whether the princess is Zelda…
No. The king, of course, wants to solve this problem so he puts a general call out to the kingdom for heroes to assemble, and who answers the call, but Link and that’s the beginning of your adventure.
On where it fits into the Zelda timeline…
That’s a tough question. The Zelda timeline is “complicated” and if you look at the history of Zelda you will see there are three branches. I can’t really designate which one of those branches we’re looking at, but as far as the design itself, we looked to Link Between Worlds. But it’s not – as far as a timeframe – it’s not before or after. We haven’t really settled on that.
On whether it takes place in the same universe as a Link Between Worlds…
With the history of Zelda we have these three parallel worlds. I can’t say which one it’s on/in at this point.
– Play along two paper dolls called “dopples” in single-player
– Can’t play the game as two players and bring along a single paper doll dopple
– It’s either 3-player co-op or single-player
– If you want to play with only one other player, you can duke it out in the game’s coliseum mode
– Again, Download Play supported
Reggie on why Zelda Wii U missed E3, still on that console and in 2016
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 132 Comments
This information comes from Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime…
On the decision not to show Zelda Wii U at E3…
Reggie Fils-Aime: “It goes back to the statement i made earlier about how we view E3. We just fundamentally don’t believe in showing content at E3 that is going to be a long term proposition. We like to show content that typically will launch in the upcoming Holiday and maybe extending into the first half of the following year. And at this point, the new Zelda for Wii U is not a 2015 project.”
On how Nintendo showed Zelda Wii U last year even though it seemed like a Q3 game…
Fils-Aime: “No, but when we showed it last year, we believed it was a 2015 game.”
