Takahashi discusses GamePad usage in Xenoblade Chronicles X
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 2 Comments
Speaking with EDGE this month, Xenoblade Chronicles X executive producer Tetsuya Takahashi discussed how the title will be taking advantage of the GamePad.
“We decided that it would be perfect to use as a navigation device, in the same way that a lot of tablet computers are,” Takahashi said. “We’ve put some important features relating to the game system and your objectives onto the GamePad, so I feel that this should create a very user-friendly experience for players.”
Xenoblade Chronicles X will be coming to Wii U sometime in 2015.
Nintendo doesn’t think Mario Maker will negatively impact sales of the main games
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 7 Comments
Mario Maker is unique in that it will allow players to create their own Mario levels for the first time. This led EDGE to ask Nintendo producer Takashi Tezuka in its latest issue if he believes the Wii U game could harm sales of future Mario titles.
Tezuka said in response:
“I think part of the fun of Mario is how you play and experience a series of courses, with boss battles, too, all of which get progressively harder. Mario developers build up the whole world, making sure the different courses all fit well together. I don’t think the overall fun you can have with an entire Mario game is the same as playing a single course made in Mario Maker, and of course future Mario games will include lots of new features… so I don’t think the two will ever be in competition.”
Mario Maker will be coming to Wii U in the first half of 2015. Players will be able to use assets based on the original Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros., though other classic Mario titles will likely be featured as well.
More: interview, Mario Maker, Takashi Tezuka, top
Reggie on first wave of Amiibo figures, different from Skylanders/Disney Infinity, third-parties will come to Wii U as install base grows
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 72 Comments
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime spoke about a few different topics in a recent interview.
First, regarding the initial wave of Amiibo figures, he stated:
“We wanted to make sure that the breadth of characters we had for the initial ‘amiibo’ line-up supported the fan favorites, as well as showcase the variety of people Nintendo speaks to — from kids to adults. For example, you’ve got a character like Marth from the ‘Fire Emblem’ series. We thought exposing Marth to a wider collection of consumers through ‘amiibo’ made a ton of sense, but, of course, we had to have Mario, Princess Peach and Donkey Kong in that initial line-up, as well.”
More: Amiibo, interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, top
Eshiro talks Ace Attorney – AA5 difficulty, anime/drama series, more games after The Great Ace Attorney
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments
Dengeki recently caught up with Motohide Eshiro, the producer of Ace Attorney 5. Eshiro spoke about the game’s difficulty, the possibility of an anime or even a drama series, where the Ace Attorney future lies after The Great Ace Attorney launches, and more.
The folks over at Court Records translated some of the tidbits from Dengeki’s interview. You can find them below.
– A lot of fans reacted positive to Apollo’s role in the game
– Some people thought the game was too easy and they’ll keep that in mind for future games
– Eshiro was overwhelmed when Apollo ranked first in the NicoNico GS character election (dates from August 2013). Also glad that characters like Blackquill and Fulbright ranked in high.
– Eshiro likes case 2 (he likes the creepy and mysterious atmosphere) and case 3.
– Yamazaki likes the last case
– Eshiro knows a lot of fans want an anime, but such a project costs a lot of time, and they just never managed to get the timing right for something like that. And just an anime would be boring, so he would like to do something special with it if they were to produce one.
– Personally, Eshiro would want to do a late night TV drama series, because he thinks the format fits GS well.
– The interviewer suggests a GS concert, to which Eshiro said he would think about it (laugh)
– Yamazaki would like to do something like a real-life game (i.e. escape the room games).
– GS5 is not the end of the GS series, DGS is coming and they’ll want to do even more after that.
More: Capcom, interview, Motohide Eshiro, top
Sakurai on the need to appeal to all types of gamers, new Smash Bros. “more interesting” than the others
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, GameCube, News, Wii, Wii U | 57 Comments
This month’s issue of EDGE features interviews with a number of different developers, including Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai. Among other things, Sakurai was asked to comment on how tournament players tend to focus on Melee as opposed to Brawl, and what will be done to ensure that something similar doesn’t happen this time around.
Sakurai answered with a very lengthy response that can only be summarized in so many words. Many of his comments addressed the need to appeal to both casual and inexperienced gamers.
He also mentioned, “Although the pace of the game had to be lowered compared to Melee in order to achieve this balance, we have managed to keep the dynamism because we didn’t have to gear towards novice players like we did with Brawl. In fact, we recreated all characters almost from scratch. Also, I feel on a personal level that this game is more interesting than the three previous games in the series.”
Head past the break for all of Sakurai’s comments. Believe us when we say there are plenty of them!
Aonuma wants to take fan reaction into account while developing Zelda Wii U
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 31 Comments
Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma made some comments during interviews at E3 which initially suggested that the character featured in the new game for Wii U could be female. Eventually though, his remarks were clarified.
Aonuma spoke about the situation with EDGE this month and told the magazine, “this reaction from the fans is something I would like to take into consideration as we proceed with development”. He was quick to clarify, however: “that doesn’t mean that we are going to change the main character to a girl.”
Check out Aonuma’s full comments below:
More: Eiji Aonuma, interview, top, Zelda Wii U
Xenoblade Chronicles X quests will be “much more user-friendly”
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 18 Comments
Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii featured a quest log that could quickly become very long and intimidating for some players. For the game’s successor, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Monolith Soft is looking to make “a much more user-friendly experience”.
Executive producer Tetsuya Takahashi told EDGE this month that in the Wii U game, “objectives and relevant people will be displayed on the map.” Monolith Soft is also implementing “a number of other features to help with quests”.
Miyamoto says Nintendo will be sticking to dedicated gaming hardware for the long term
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 12 Comments
Don’t expect Nintendo to ditch dedicated gaming devices anytime soon. Shigeru Miyamoto expressed the deep need for such hardware in an EDGE interview this month, telling the magazine, “A unique software experience can always be realized with unique hardware that has a unique interface.”
Below are Miyamoto’s comments in full:
“As I said before, there are always people who really want to get deeply into a game. We want to create, and they want to experience, something unprecedented all the time. For us to meet these goals, we need dedicated hardware that is designed to cater to the needs of these avid gamers. People might say that software is software. No. A unique software experience can always be realized with unique hardware that has a unique interface. That is why I believe Nintendo is, and will be, sticking to these dedicated gaming machines.”
More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, top
Nintendo “talked about the possibility” of featuring Mario in Splatoon
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 11 Comments
At one point, Nintendo “talked about the possibility” of featuring Mario as the main player character in Splatoon. That’s according to Shigeru Miyamoto, who revealed the information to EDGE this month.
Miyamoto told the magazine:
“There were heated debates over who the main player character should be. Whether it should be Mario, or a squid. When we talked about the possibility of it being Mario, of course we could think of the advantages: anybody would be willing to touch it as soon as we announced that we had the new Mario game. But at the same time, we had some worries. If it were Mario, we wouldn’t be able to create any new IP.”
Splatoon was first announced at this year’s E3. It’s a brand new third-person shooter of sorts from Nintendo and includes completely unique characters.
More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, Splatoon, top
Aonuma further discusses Zelda Wii U’s open world
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 13 Comments
Eiji Aonuma, producer of Zelda Wii U, shared extensive comments to EDGE this month about the game’s open world without giving too much away.
EDGE started out by asking Aonuma about the challenges of adapting a linear design to a world that can be freely explored. He said in response:
In the original Legend of Zelda, there was no clear way to lead the main character to his goal. It was something that we entrusted to the players to find by themselves. As the game later expanded into a franchise, the structure of the game worlds became more and more complex – especially with the introduction of 3D – making it necessary for us to point the player in the right direction. Consequently, progression in the games became more linear.
To recreate a similar experience to the original, we have to give the game world a simple structure that players can understand intuitively. In doing so, it’s very important that we make every aspect of the world feel real and physically connected, so that it’s doesn’t look fake.
We can achieve this thanks to the hardware features of Wii U, but to truly get a deep understanding of the game world, we also need a real map that depicts the world as it is. The GamePad is very effective for displaying this, and thus also [for] providing players with a constant hint on where to head to. I think we can safely say that the innovations in this new game are only possible thanks to the Wii U hardware.
