GX having legs after a price drop is the kind of thing that can bode well for a sequel. The problem is that Nintendo likely saw the GBA games as GX's sequels, and since they bombed Nintendo assumed there wasn't interest.
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I've never said this before, but while we released this game with Sony, I'd done presentations about it to Microsoft and Nintendo. Back then they said "No we don't want it." Now they say, "We want it!" (laughs)
Nagoshi recently told Eurogamer.
"At the beginning of the project we spoke to all the platform holders including Sony and Microsoft," he said, "Every platform holder was negative about this prospect, but we kept on pushing because we believed in the potential, and as we kept going one platform holder that showed interest and saw the prospects of this title was Sony."
"That's how we started working with them, and that's probably not going to change."
I am kinda sad about the idea that he decided to abandon his female audience
Now that it's been 10 years, are there any expectations that have changed from the start? From the very first Yakuza game, there was always the challenge of making a CERO D (ages 17 and above) but did you expect for it to be as well-received as it is now?
"It's a title with impact, so I believed that those who would follow would continue doing so. Other than that, I also believed that those who followed with it would quickly become hardcore fans. Taht's a tendency that still hasn't changed much. What was unexpected was that the number of female players has increased. Currently, about 20% are female players."
"While that is something to be happy for, Yakuza is something that is made for male players, so we will be careful not to be too conscious of the female users and derail from what we want to make. Lately, there's been a lot more players from Asia as well. That means we need to appeal more to Asia, but not focus too much on that, too."
I can see the reboot with the new main character going multiplatform
It's incredible how much he has changed since the GameCube era. Not just in his style of game design but his physical appearance is completely different, he must have had one hell of a midlife crisis. Going from the long-haired dweeb behind Super Monkey Ball to this orange, swollen-faced Yakuza obsessive is quite a transformation.
I hope that one day he will let the Yakuza series rest and make some more wacky stuff again.
I'm so excited about Shin Yakuza. The new lead looks like a badass. Too bad he has a similar backstory to Kiryu. I'd like to see someone who tries to rise into the rank of the Tojo clan, and get the family that Kiryu was never able to create.
I'm not sure why Monster Games couldn't have been that trusted partner for F-Zero. Their Excite games aren't an exact match for the franchise, but then neither were Daytona USA or Burnout and Excitebots probably comes closest out of any of them. Monster would've been a fine match for Wave Race or 1080 too.
I've only played Yakuza 3, should really spoiler tag shit like this.
I don't get it. Yakuza is a totally third party game. Sony didn't help make it or fund it did they?
And at the time rejecting Ryu Ga Gotoku made perfect sense. Every western release of those games before 2015 sold less than a million copies. Combined.
Yeah, did he talk to Nintendo or not?
He basically said Shenmue was out of control and that Yu Suzuki is the type of person who can't stop himself from adding more & more to a game, so he had to leave the team. He acknowledged the game's importance I don't believe he meant what he said as a slight against Suzuki--that's just his take on Suzuki's style.
Just some quotes, since it's the longest part with F-Zero GX and Yakuza 1:OP: could you post what Nagoshi had to say about Daytona USA? Thanks!
The selling point of the Model 2 board was that we wera able to make games more colorful, with better graphics - so I could make a game featuring those kinds of flashy cars (note: this was after seeing a NASCAR event). And personally I felt that, while driving games were selling well back then, in Japan they were all F1 games.
That was all we had. I didn't want to create the same games as other people; I wanted to do something different. I'm the same now.
Everyone had something they wanted to do, and we had too many ideas (laughs). The scary thing about making driving games is that there are people that think an idea is great fun, but others don't agree at all. These aren't games of pure logic; they are something we feel, so they're very hard to make.
I was young back then, and I had more energy than I do now, so I spent a lot of time on people management. I just remember talking to people, constantly. (...)
I was being promoted much faster than anyone else. I was pleased to be valued, but at the same time, the faster I got promoted, the more senpai (older staff) became my subordinates. (...) I was talking so much that I did my work on the actual game after everyone had gone home, after midnight. I remember working right through the morning.
^this. He got his own division during his project, then the CEO asked him "please get this game finished". He said it was a "tough and bitter project" for him, and that the main issue with the project was that Suzuki had been creating arcade games for so long that he didn't write any planning documents, which made the development a mess and way more complicated than it could have been.He basically said Shenmue was out of control and that Yu Suzuki is the type of person who can't stop himself from adding more & more to a game, so he had to leave the team. He acknowledged the game's importance I don't believe he meant what he said as a slight against Suzuki--that's just his take on Suzuki's style.
The lead programmer was Tetsuya Kaku who is still with Sega.
The lead course designer (same role for SMB1&2), Yunichi Yamada is actually missing. He has since gone to the West to work on games.
Finally some solid evidence of my theory that the GBA games killed F-Zero, and GX didn't bomb horribly.
It's implied in this interview that the budget wasn't that high though.GX did kill the series, for the simple fact that Nintendo will never drop the amount of money necessary to top a GX game in HD. GX had a dual release (arcade/console) budget, and was delivered at the height of the pre-hd development era.
It's implied in this interview that the budget wasn't that high though.
Sure, I'm just thinking that given how it was promoted at the time (same engine, Triforce, etc), it was probably more the budget of a single big release rather than a double one.I think that's being misread to "how did you do all of this with that". You remember the amount of vocal songs and CGI movies featured in the game though? That alone wasn't cheap.
Yeah, if we're talking about lights in dark periods, Iwata would be the more conventional example for HAL.
It's incredible how much he has changed since the GameCube era. Not just in his style of game design but his physical appearance is completely different, he must have had one hell of a midlife crisis. Going from the long-haired dweeb behind Super Monkey Ball to this orange, swollen-faced Yakuza obsessive is quite a transformation.
I hope that one day he will let the Yakuza series rest and make some more wacky stuff again.
For Nagoshi, it was TuesdayI love F-Zero GX. Phenomenal game. The bit about Nintendo wanting to see the source code and know how a team of that size could make the game on that budget has me curious about its development. Team size, budget, dev time etc...
https://play.google.com/store/newsstand/details/Edge and similarHow can I get an digital copy of this issue to read on PC/Android?
Thank you!https://play.google.com/store/newsstand/details/Edge and similar
Only issue #322 is available right now though, interview is from #323 that subscribers just received.