Issue 1/23 of Weekly Famitsu celebrate the new year by interviewing 21 Japanese game “creators” who they think will make waves in the year 2009. I always love these interviews, especially when developers explain the thinking behind their games or reveals how difficult it is to make them. Each creator gets a page to talk about 2008, 2009 and their games, so read on if you’re interested. PSP and PS3 creators can be read here and here.

Atsuhi Inaba (Platinum Games) & Hifumi Kouno (nude maker)

The duo says they spent most of their time in 2008 working on Infinite Space for the DS, thanks to the increase in content (three times more than originally planned). The most important thing for them in 2009 is to release the game. They reckon it will gives players a lot of satisfaction and Kouno says he is very happy with the script, he even cry while writing them. He hopes his next game will be a horror title. As for Inaba, he says Infinte Space, Madworld (Wii) and Bayonetta (PS3, Xbox 360) will be completed and hope he can mention Shinji Mikami’s new work.

Rieko Kodama (Sega) & Kazuya Nino (Imageepoch)

Both are currently working on Seventh Dragon for the DS and after careful consideration, they picked March 5th as the release date to avoid clashing with Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito. Development for the game started in 2007, it’s also Nino’s first project since leaving Atlus. The duo discuss about developing for DS, which they found its audience seems to only like certain type of games after seeing some pretty good games didn’t sell well.

Seventh Dragon was compared to Atlus’ Sekaiju no Meikyuu (aka Etrian Odyssey) series, especially in the difficulty area. Nino says normal battles in Seventh Dragon are easier but tougher battles has the same difficulty levels as Sekaiju no Meikyuu. Kodama adds that the game will requires players to think carefully. For 2009, Nino hopes to have dialogues through their games with players in order to find out the best ways to make games under tight budget and to understand the gaming trend better.

Akihiro Hino (Level-5)

Hino says 2008 is a year where he tried many new things, animated TV series and movie are among them. Famitsu congratulates him on the success of the Layton Kyouju (aka Professor Layton) series and Inazuma Eleven. Hino says he never thought Layton will be such a huge hit and he is pleased that Inazuma Eleven is still selling to this day. He is currently working on the sequel of Inazuma.

As for Layton movie, Hino says he already received suggestions of making it a series. As for the game, he hopes it will become the first game in people’s minds when they think about adventure games. If there is a new Layton game, his sales target will be 1 million copies simply because there are not many adventure games that managed to do so.

Moving on to the just released Shirokishi Monogatari: Inishie no Kodou (aka White Knight Chronicles), Hino says three years were spent making this title and everyone in the team is pleased to see the game finally went on sale. This is also the first time that the team has actually made a game with online multiplayer modes.

Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito, another high profile game Hino and his team are working on, is currently at its most crucial development stage. Hino says even though he knows the game will be released in 2009, he keeps having the impression that it will go on sale in 2008.

2009 will be a year of “exploration” for him, besides the Layton movie, Ninokuni: The Another World, which Level-5 collaborates with animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli, is a fusion between book and game. He also mentioned PSP’s Danboru Senki, which he says will has plenty of new ideas too.

Posted in News on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 4:05 pm |
Comments Feed | You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.