Nintendo did ask Aonuma to pitch new series ideas, but I guess unlike Monolith, he feels more comfortable in his designated series. I guess the takeaway is that views on the management's IP initiatives vary if you have an insider or outsider perspective.
reading the translations it seems more likely that since takahashi is still considered newer then other managers and since he isnt the ones thats popping out 10 million sellers he doesnt have the say, atleast not yet, I have a feeling, that his next game, whether it be the new IP or xenoblade 3, if it crosses the 2 million barrier(within like 6 months or something) that he would be in a better position to pitch more games
Ok, lots of stuff to cover, gonna put them into tags to not upset the thread as theres literally tonnes even with it summarised. Here goes (additional reminder that this went through the GT blender):
Xenosaga-
-Harada mentions that he only really took notice of the Western Saga fanbase recently in the past few years
-He saw that they wanted rereleases/remasters/remakes, additionally noted that they're apparently a lot louder then other Bandai fanbases in that regard
-He said he joked that "if they want it they should get a petition with 100 thousand signatures"; to which he came back to find theyd done it.
-Said he'll be looking into it, and that he was interested in doing something with the IP, though bringing it to HD would be difficult? (probably regarding all the SD assets in it such as the FMV's)
-Takahashi talked about the first Episodes development, how most of it was spent on the cutscenes
-gameplay was apparently put together in about 6 months
-Went over-budget and over-time, which led to Ep2 being much more conservative in development
-Higher ups were happy with Ep2's development due to it being on budget, but Takahashi was upset because fans were very unhappy with it.
-Wanted to right the ship with Ep3. However he thinks he failed with that and apologises to readers.
Monolith-
-Takahashi talks about all the new hiring going on
-Mentions that while they like experience, good workers. The real trait they're after is a 'love for their work'
-Monolith since conception has apparently had over 300 different employees, with 100 or so leaving over the years
-Good retention of Veteran staff
-Both Takahashi and Harada are very concerned with the current age of Monoliths management
-while the general age is 35, the Managers in particular are all in their 50's. With only about 3 or 4 being actually qualified to direct
-Wants to bring up the new generation of head developers
-Takahashi mentions he's getting on in age, can't work as intensely as before.
Crunch-
-Harada mentions theres a misconception that Monolith doesn't have any Overtime
-This is false, and when there is too much to do, they will engage in it.
-However the distinction they make with this and Crunch is that it has to be controlled and not unreasonable.
-Managers are the ones who have to request OT for devs. They have to have a very good reason for it, and are expected to act in guidelines and not lazily push hard work onto the lower devs. Overall its discouraged, however understood that in tight situations it is necessary.
-Monolith plans everything with the regular schedule in mind, OT is considered an unusual occurrence that means part of the Management chain has failed and needs to be rectified.
-Takahashi mentions that Crunch used to be mandatory in the 90's when he was at Square
-However games were also simpler then so it was less about complicated issues and more so time constraints.
-Games these days are more complicated and larger, so Crunch has changed and is no longer worthwhile these days.
-Takahashi then goes onto to basically denounce Crunch. Calling it inefficient, cruel, not-effective, and also ruins the budget plans/makes them "impossible to plan out"
-Everyone is a lot happier with the set 8 hour workdays that Monolith employ.
Nintendo vs Namco-
-Takahashi touches on working with Nintendo instead of Namco
-Mentions that he misses the freedom of being able to make lots of new IP's (Nintendo are strict)
-However, he admits that with Nintendo they have a lot more money. As well as recognition. So it's a trade off
-Expanding on the Strictness point
-Takahashi mentions that when proposing projects to Nintendo, most of the time you just get swatted down
-As such they bring about a dozen proposals to them at a time, a lot from newer employees that haven't become full directors yet
-However, Nintendo declines all of them; "only Xenoblade is passing these days"
-This actually upsets Takahashi a bit, and Harada also finds it quite sad.
Barriers of JRPG Sales-
-Takahashi talks about the max cap of his JRPG sales
-He mentions that he see's 2 or 3 million being the most he can reach
-Harada mentions the Tales team, which he's worked with before
-With JRPGs the hardest barrier is the first million sales
-If you can reach that, the game naturally gets bigger and bigger sales (likely talking about WOM)
-Mentions the difference with Fighter games sales, which are very front loaded sales wise.
-Takahashi says he's looking for ways to increase the barrier while preserving his ideals.
-Harada suggests looking at FF15, with the BIG hook being the Technology, graphics and massive open world.
-Says that Americans love big flashy technology buzzwords (lol)
-Takahashi says thats very difficult, as they have significantly less budget and hardware power (Switch specs) then Square does
-Takahashi is worried that Xenoblade will lack a hook in the future. Harada mentions that the great stories and characters will still hook JP players
-They talk about Kos-Mos and Noctis popularity. However GT wasnt able to put it together quite well so i'm not sure what theyre exactly saying.
Money and Investment-
-Harada mentions that Monolith doesnt have too much in the way of cash, so investing in bigger games is difficult.
-Takahashi rebuts, saying that XB2 sold 1.73M, and that its improving the situation financially. Although that's probably "about the ceiling" for the immediate future.
-Although he also mentions that Nintendo can put out a game and have it sell 10 million units amazingly.
-Talks about the strength of Nintendos core IP's, and that their great engineers allow them to build upon them
-Which in turn gives them the investment to continue and get even bigger
-Takahashi has asked in the past for budgets like Zeldas, to which he got stiff responses of "First, give us a track record"
-He doesn't appear upset at this though, as he understands they only want to invest that type of money in the BIG deals such as BOTW. The industry-changing types.
-They talk about how invention, innovation, and good quality are the sort of foundations for Nintendo funded games. And mean that fans have high expectations.
Extras-
-Monolith almost went with an un-named company instead of Namco in 1999. That basically would have changed their entire history.
-Monolith plans to keep making RPGs. They make comparisons to the Jojo artist, who's mentioned that he'll only ever make Jojo.
-They wont fragment off into other genres, atleast for the next 5 years or so.
-Takahashi does play through his finished games, he wouldnt feel confident putting them out without playing the whole thing himself.
-Takahashi used to play MMORPGs heavily years ago, but now he's too tired to deal with them lol
-An amusing story about playing AC7 VR while drunk
-Monolith is planning to renovate, as a lot of the furniture is quite old and bland, which they believe is having a negative impact on work ethic.
Well, that was quite a heavy read, and a lot to go through. Tbh there's even more then that, with a section on new graduates joining Monolith and other cool bits. But its nothing too important to know. I do recommend reading through the article though, maybe when the proper english release is out.
It's really interesting to me that Takahashi thinks he failed with delivering Episode III. I still feel to this day it is one of the most spectacular RPGS I have ever played and I really appreciated the suspense around it. I imagine he was pressured by angry fans of Episode II like he indicates and he couldn't finish it the way he wanted. Also, there's that huge debacle with Soraya Saga that happened so I imagine that played a role as well. I'm so glad the series helped him build Xenoblade though.
I think that Monolith Soft's culture regarding crunch should be talked about far more. Yes, sometimes overtime is inevitable, but it's nice to see them assuming that if a project isn't following it's schedule management has part of the blame instead of it getting scot free as we've read in other articles. A big prop up for them for recognizing it as something that should be avoided if possible and if not, done in very controlled bursts.
reading the translations it seems more likely that since takahashi is still considered newer then other managers and since he isnt the ones thats popping out 10 million sellers he doesnt have the say, atleast not yet, I have a feeling, that his next game, whether it be the new IP or xenoblade 3, if it crosses the 2 million barrier(within like 6 months or something) that he would be in a better position to pitch more games
I want to say part of it was that Iwata pretty much purchased Monolithsoft because he was a fan of the Xeno games. Xenoblade started out as a new IP and Iwata was like "Nah, make it a Xeno game."
It's a shame Nintendo has turned down seemingly so many new IP pitches. BUT, if that new fantasy IP is a thing, then that clearly is changing. I think that might be credited to their invaluable involvement with BOTW and XB2's success.
Plus there's been major changes to Nintendo's upper management in recent years, not just due to Iwata's tragic passing, but promotions of folks like Yoshiaki Koizumi and Shinya Takahashi.
Monolith are clearly moving up in the world with all of this expanding and new projects underway with seemingly three big ones?
Yeah it's disappointing to hear about Nintendo turning down pitches, but I guess that's just how these things are. I kind of get their position on wanting to focus on Xenoblade for now. It's an IP on the rise, but if they stalled and there were like a 10 year gap to the next game, it could lose momentum. That said, I really hope Monolith gets a chance to do another entirely original thing soon.
I doubt Monolithsoft will be showing anything yet. Earliest I'd see is in January, as that'd be 3 years after XB2 debuted in the original Switch presentation. And that seems like a good enough time between studio game reveals.
The original trailer sure brings back memories. Who'd have guessed it would become the best-selling in the franchise back then? (and of course no one guessed it'd released that same year. Or certainly a lot of people kept insisting on an inevitable delay)
I want to say part of it was that Iwata pretty much purchased Monolithsoft because he was a fan of the Xeno games. Xenoblade started out as a new IP and Iwata was like "Nah, make it a Xeno game."
It's a shame Nintendo has turned down seemingly so many new IP pitches. BUT, if that new fantasy IP is a thing, then that clearly is changing. I think that might be credited to their invaluable involvement with BOTW and XB2's success.
Plus there's been major changes to Nintendo's upper management in recent years, not just due to Iwata's tragic passing, but promotions of folks like Yoshiaki Koizumi and Shinya Takahashi.
Monolith are clearly moving up in the world with all of this expanding and new projects underway with seemingly three big ones?
It seems like the reverse of that is true sadly. Nintendo started approving new/creative games when the WiiU was tanking badly and they needed lightning in a bottle.
So far we are almost 3 years into the Switch and aside from Labo it's almost all been overly safe. If anything it seems that the Switch's success has made Nintendo more risk averse.
It seems like the reverse of that is true sadly. Nintendo started approving new/creative games when the WiiU was tanking badly and they needed lightning in a bottle.
So far we are almost 3 years into the Switch and aside from Labo it's almost all been overly safe. If anything it seems that the Switch's success has made Nintendo more risk averse.
That's one game and had to literally come from a team that makes 10M+ sellers and had nothing new to develop at the time (and I still think Nintendo dropped promotion/support too fast, it didn't even get a Smash character). Nintendo's output this gen is more safe than any other before, imo.
Torna was so reassuring. If Monolithsoft gets time to polish XBX2 or XB3 or whatever the next thing is, I'm super confident they'll knock it out of the park.
There's a neat trick to it if you have the online sub; get as many legendary as you can, make a cloud save and turn off auto-save. Pull with Zeke with Max luck and if you don't get her just quit and reload your old save and try again. It worked for me after only one try, you can get a free trial sub for 7 days giving you plenty of times to pull her.
Also, can I say, XC2 + Torna probably has some of the best action fight cutscenes of any game this gen. The choreography, the music, the direction, all incredible.
There's a neat trick to it if you have the online sub; get as many legendary as you can, make a cloud save and turn off auto-save. Pull with Zeke with Max luck and if you don't get her just quit and reload your old save and try again. It worked for me after only one try, you can get a free trial sub for 7 days giving you plenty of times to pull her.
Does it matter which character and item you use to determine which stats and level the blade has? Would KOS-MOS at max level in the game (I dunno, 100?) be the same regardless of what I do? I don't know how blades work in this way. I assume rare blades don't get duplicates right? Explain it to me as someone who follows Pokemon logic. :P
There's a neat trick to it if you have the online sub; get as many legendary as you can, make a cloud save and turn off auto-save. Pull with Zeke with Max luck and if you don't get her just quit and reload your old save and try again. It worked for me after only one try, you can get a free trial sub for 7 days giving you plenty of times to pull her.
I see a lot of people expecting Xenoblade 3. Kojima/Takahashi actually hinted that they want to take a different approach this time around. My guess is either a sequel to Xenoblade X or a new Xenoblade universe.
I think that limiting Monolith to Xeno games is almost the same as limiting them to the jrpg genre, as two xeno games can be incredibly different, only sharing the genre (not combat) and some details like noppons.
I love Monolith but I really don't want them to start making non jrpg games, like Disaster, so Nintendo limiting them to making jrpgs is fine for me.
I see a lot of people expecting Xenoblade 3. Kojima/Takahashi actually hinted that they want to take a different approach this time around. My guess is either a sequel to Xenoblade X or a new Xenoblade universe.
Well he said it might be different from both "1/2 fantasy style" and "X scifi style".
He also said before 2 that the next game might be quite different from before, but it wasn't.
Eitherway, we'll see what happens. These little snippets probably arent the best way to get info due to NDA's I guess.
I think that limiting Monolith to Xeno games is almost the same as limiting them to the jrpg genre, as two xeno games can be incredibly different, only sharing the genre (not combat) and some details like noppons.
I love Monolith but I really don't want them to start making non jrpg games, like Disaster, so Nintendo limiting them to making jrpgs is fine for me.
Well he said it might be different from both "1/2 fantasy style" and "X scifi style".
He also said before 2 that the next game might be quite different from before, but it wasn't.
Eitherway, we'll see what happens. These little snippets probably arent the best way to get info due to NDA's I guess.
I did say they could be making a new Xenoblade universe, which could be any sort of setting.
Regarding the other part, XC2 is pretty different from XCX in terms of tones, setting, plot and world structure. I don't understand what you mean by it not being different enough?
Great point, I also think Nintendo is trying to make Monolith Soft be more integrated on the Nintendo culture before trusting them with new IPs.
Honestly I think it will happen soon enough with the success of Xeno 2 and their participation on BotW
Would be at 2M already if Nintendo actually promoted it in their crossover game instead of another RPG that if you're Switch only can't even play. Friendly fire.
Xenoblade 2 deserves more respect, it's pulling amazing numbers for its genre and for a "lower profile" brand, mostly through WoM (it's really good in Japan).
[Takahashi] Mentions that he misses the freedom of being able to make lots of new IP's (Nintendo are strict) However, he admits that with Nintendo they have a lot more money. As well as recognition. So it's a trade off
Almost all Nintendo big games either already released or are already announced for the switch. I think that in 2020 and beyond they dont have much choice and will have to start reviving IPs or making new ones. Think about how the Mario Kart team made Arms because they were free, I think the same will happen with the other teams.
Monolith has 2 games in development one being a new IP and one being a new xenoblade game. I think its fair of Nintendo not wanting to take too many risks, see how the new IP sales and have one safe bet.
Monolith is my favourite non-internal Nintendo dev but asking for Zelda budget is unrealistic.
I still like the contradiction of Nintendo fans of simultaneously screeching that Nintendo has no new IPs and even using this interview as "proof" while anytime any new IP is created, the same people scream how these are failures and "why isn't team working on *insert old IP here* instead".
Well Monolith's best games are JRPGs, so it makes sense to have them focus on what they do best. Idk how well they'd tackle other genres, but repurposing a studio to tackle something else doesn't exactly sound the most efficient thing to do unless the team wants to go that route.
I mean Square spends more, for obvious reasons. And other then them there's not too many left in the solely JRPG business. Everyone else is pretty small like NIS, Falcom, etc.
Does it matter which character and item you use to determine which stats and level the blade has? Would KOS-MOS at max level in the game (I dunno, 100?) be the same regardless of what I do? I don't know how blades work in this way. I assume rare blades don't get duplicates right? Explain it to me as someone who follows Pokemon logic. :P
There is only one pikachu with set stats however you have a higher probability of pulling it with Ash (Zeke) over Misty/Brock/Gary ect due to how his stats effect the gatcha pool
Edit: blades don't have a level but rather a skill tree that you fill out by doing specific actions. Doing these unlocks nodes (think FFXV) that increase damage and other skills.
Rare blades often have unique skills and more item slots then basic blades so are more powerful. The trade off is that they take longer to level up
