Senran Kagura producer on why Marvelous isn’t investing in as many new IPs
Posted on 10 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
Marvelous on Story of Seasons’ name, series will continue, more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment
At E3 2014, GameSpot and NintendoWorldReport spoke with Yoshifumi Hashimoto, head of development over at Marvelous AQL, to discuss Story of Seasons. Hashimoto spoke about the game’s name, the separation between the title and Harvest Moon and plans to continue the series, same-sex relationships, and more.
You can find excerpts from the interview below. Head on over to this link for the full thing.
More: marvelous, Story of Seasons, XSEED
Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson screenshots
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Screenshots | 0 comments
Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson – Inochigake footage
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos | 0 comments
Story of Seasons teaser trailer (E3 2014)
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos | 0 comments
More: E3 2014, marvelous, Story of Seasons, XSEED
Forbidden Magna boxart
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Images | 0 comments
More: boxart, Forbidden Magna, marvelous
A few more Forbidden Magna character screenshots/details
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments
More screenshots and details have come in for Forbidden Magna. You can find them rounded up below.
Elfrede:
– Lux visited the island’s largest town, Elenam
– Here he sees a girl who was selling some crystal
– Crystal is a valuable resource
– After hearing the townsfolk talking about this girl named Elfrede, he finds out that she’s actually a a spirit girl
Gabrielle:
– Lux and the others saw a girl drowning while exploring a ship
– After defeating a monster and saving this young girl named Gabrielle, she reveals that her nickname is “Rielle-sama”
More: details roundup, Forbidden Magna, Japan, marvelous
Story of Seasons dev on the theme of life and death
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 2 Comments
This information comes from head of development Yoshifumi Hashimoto…
“[The original Harvest Moon] released at a time when games were all about battles and monsters, and we made a game about being a farmer, but not a farmer with a tractor,” he said. “You took care of things with your bare hands. If you didn’t take care of your animals, they would die. Initially, we received complaints from parents who said the game was too dark. But this whole game is about a farmer’s life. I want people to experience what life is like.”
– Hashimoto doesn’t see a game like Story of Seasons or any of the Harvest Moon titles forcing a message onto players
– He believes the actions and consequences in the game make it easier for players to understand life and death
– He said he recently heard on Japanese radio of a kid whose pet died, and who explained to his parents that the pet had “run out of batteries”
– He hopes Story of Seasons helps younger players understand that the world is a bit more complex than that
“Death is a touchy subject to talk about. But it’s one of the things I’m really proud of doing in my games. I was thinking of what kind of life I could have the user experience … I wanted to make it easier for players to understand life and death.”
Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson video
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos | 0 comments
Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson screenshots/art, lots of details
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 1 Comment
– Orochi is summoned by Dogen
– Described as the physical manifestation of shinobi malice
– Was summoned in an incomplete form
– Because of this, parts of its body are initially lacking, compelling it to rebuild itself using the wreckage of destroyed castles to compensate
– Juura is a new enemy spirit
– It takes shape as 2 spheres
– The story behind it entails the spirit falling out of a gigantic shadowy bosom
– Juura is the physical form of the collective regrets of deceased young girls who idolized adults
– Goza’s body resembles an octopus
– Goza has something of a proclivity for water
– Goza is driven mad by the faces that are drawn all over its body
– As a result, Goza subsumes a ship whole and clings to it for dear life
– Mikami is another antagonist
– Mikami is a pair of sisters whose bodies are half-human on top and half-centipede on the bottom
– Mikami likes to cause loud thunder and gusts of wind for fun that are so strong they actually break through shinobi spiritual barriers and affect the outside world
– Challenge mode
– In these, players need to clear successive rooms of enemies without being able to heal up
– A band of ten especially powerful spirits are said to be present in the mode
– Their strength are derived from the power of shinobi blood
– Get weapons by clearing rooms
– When clearing a room for the first time, players can start later runs in Spirit Den from that point as they attempt to reach the end
– The game will also feature an alternative set of Special Missions that require players to accomplish obtuse objectives in ways that aren’t viable during normal play
– Ex: destroy every crate in an area, defeat enemies only be repelling them
– Beat these missions to gain powerful equippable Shinobi Gems
– Three of these can be assigned to a character at any given time, with sharing between characters possible
– Game also has a new Desperation mode that can be triggered during Shinobi Tenshin when the player has accumulated the maximum number of scrolls that can be carried on hand
– Doing so increases attack speed and power for a limited time, as well as enables the free use of Secret Ninja Arts without expending scrolls
– You’ll take damage when an attack doesn’t land on an enemy when using Desperation mode
