Nintendo’s Scibetta on Wii U sales, third-party games, GamePad, digital events, Smash Bros Wii U/3DS release dates
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos, Wii U | 0 comments
More: Charlie Scibetta, interview
Game Freak on balancing Pokemon strength
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
The Pokemon series has continued to grow, including the amount of creatures. There have been over 700 Pokemon created thus far.
Game Freak naturally has a daunting task in keeping all of the Pokemon’s strength balanced in each one of their games. How do they go about that?
Battle director Shigeki Morimoto explained:
We start off with an idea in mind, like “How would this little fellow have to be used to be able to beat that guy when it’s about this strong?” Keeping that in mind, we assign stats to each Pokémon. After that, we do all kinds of playtesting among ourselves and adjust areas where the balance seems off as we go along. Even so, after the games are released, we find that they are still sometimes used in ways that we never imagined. There is still room for customization by deciding moves and Abilities, and so it’s really interesting to see what trends develop on the battle scene after the games’ release.
More: Game Freak, interview, Pokemon, Shigeki Morimoto
Atlus on how Persona Q came to be
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments
In an interview with Famitsu, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth chief producer Katsura Hashino explained how the 3DS game came to be.
It all started with an interest in working on a new collaboration title following Persona 4 Arena. Hashino said they were aware of fans who had hoped to see the Persona series on 3DS and “felt the need to respond to that”.
Hashino’s comments in full:
“We were able to make the series’ first fighting game with Persona 4 Arena in collaboration with the folks at Arc System Works, and we also felt the desire to work on another fun collaboration. …while we were making Etrian Odyssey games and many other Atlus games for the 3DS, [we were reminded about] all the voices from fans who’ve been wanting to see a new game from the Persona series for the 3DS, and we felt the need to respond to that, and that’s how the plans of a collaboration within Atlus came to be.”
Voice chat undecided for Splatoon
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 11 Comments
It turns out that voice chat hasn’t been officially confirmed for Splatoon after all. Producer/manager Hisashi Nogami and project lead Tsubasa Sakaguchi, speaking with GameRant said that the functionality hasn’t been decided just yet.
“The core concept of Splatoon is that by looking at the way the ink is being spread around and progressing, you know, you can kind of see what your enemies are doing, what your teammates are doing, and then you’re able to decide what you want to do. And that’s kind of the main thing we’re always thinking about, and we kind of get similar questions about the number of people that can be in a multiplayer match, but for this game it’s really that four-on-four is the best number. With four-on-four, the amount of influence that a single player has is perfectly balanced, but also the speed at which the battle changes, the way the battle is developing changes is also completely perfect.”
“The idea being that the core concept is basically that players look at the way the ink is being spread around, the way it’s being painted around, and decide what to do. If in any way that doesn’t disrupt that balance we’ve created, we’ll definitely consider different ways of communication and introduce that to the game as we go forward with development.”
Nogami concluded his comments by stating: “Basically, I haven’t decided.”
More: Hisashi Nogami, interview, Splatoon, Tsubasa Sakaguchi
Bayonetta 2 director on decision to make the sequel, Nintendo’s input, interest in continuing the series
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 7 Comments
A new Bayonetta 2 interview has come online over at CVG. The site spoke with director Yusuke Hashimoto, who talked about the decision to make a sequel, how Nintendo provided input, interest in continuing the series, and quite a bit more.
You can find CVG’s interview in full here. For notable excerpts, head past the break.
More: Bayonetta 1, Bayonetta 2, interview, PlatinumGames, top, Yusuke Hashimoto
Senran Kagura producer on why Marvelous isn’t investing in as many new IPs
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
These days, it may not seem like Marvelous is investing in as many new IPs as it did just a few years ago. Whereas titles such as No More Heroes, Little King’s Story, and even Senran Kagura came out of the company in recent years, Marvelous now doesn’t appear to be taking as many risks.
Senran Kagura producer Kenichiro Takaki told Siliconera that producers at the company “get a lot of freedom” to make the games they desire. Back in the day, Marvelous was creating new IPs to find a hit title, which just so happened with Senran Kagura. Now that attention has been given to the series, Takaki is “thinking of new ideas and I would like to try some of those out.”
“It’s not that orders are coming down from above that we have to make franchise titles. I feel that the producers get a lot of freedom to do what they want to inside Marvelous. When we were experimenting with a lot of little titles, the goal was always to find that IP that hit and can be developed into a series. That happened with Senran Kagura, which is why I’ve been focused on that now. I am thinking of new ideas and I would like to try some of those out.”
“The Kagura series really comes from me trying to make a worldwide hit in the past. I wasn’t able to find success that way, so I decided to focus on what I know by a Japanese person for Japanese people. That was the starting concept for Senran Kagura. I don’t want to lose sight of that, but I do want to listen to feedback from Western users. It’s kind of a difficult situation, things like gameplay systems or how the game plays would be easier to adjust.”
More: interview, Japan, Kenichiro Takaki, marvelous
Bertil Hörberg on his cancelled Zelda-inspired project, Gunman 2 length/price, may hit Wii U, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
Nintendo Life has published an interview with Bertil Hörberg, the creator of Gunman Clive. Hörberg spoke about the cancelled Zelda-inspired project for 3DS, and shared new information about Gunman Clive 2.
We’ve picked out excerpts from the interview below. You can find the full discussion here.
More: Bertil Hörberg, Gunman Clive 2, indie, interview, top
Aonuma talks the scale of Zelda Wii U, thinks of Kyoto as his base
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 21 Comments
As part of an interview with Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma, MMGN asked how big of an open world we can expect in the new Wii U game. Aonuma responded by saying that he uses Kyoto as his base.
Check out the conversation between the two below:
MMGN: This is the first truly open world in a Zelda game — you showed how Zelda has progressed since the NES in terms of map layout and movement — so in the biggest world yet, how “big” can we expect?
Mr. Aonuma: In terms of the scale of the new Zelda world on Wii U, I always think of Kyoto as my base.
Do you know Kyoto?
Ummm…a little [laughs]
MMGN also asked how the team plans to reward players for exploring the world of Zelda Wii U. Aonuma’s response was interesting, with him noting that it comes down to gaining “acquired experience” that helps you progress further and better reach your goals.
More: Eiji Aonuma, interview, top, Zelda Wii U
Devil’s Third – Itagaki fought with Nintendo, how the Big N shaped the game, interest in making a trilogy and other media
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 6 Comments
Polygon has put up a massive feature about Devil’s Third, featuring commentary from creator Tomonobu Itagaki and Danny Bilson, who is also working on the game. There are quite a few interesting quotes here concerning fights with Nintendo and how the company shaped Devil’s Third, hopes of making a trilogy and branching out into other media, and more.
We’ve picked out some comments from Polygon’s feature below. You can find it in full here.
More: Danny Bilson, Devil's Third, interview, Tomonobu Itagaki, top
Armillo’s estimated completion time
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
Just how much content does Armillo offer? In an interview with 4 color rebellion, Fuzzy Wuzzy Games co-founder James Saito estimated that players will be able to complete it in roughly “4-6 hours depending on how much of the game you want to unlock.” The studio’s other founder, Yanni Fyssas, feels it can take 7-8 hours for those who aren’t as quick to finish games.
