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Have you ever played Dungeon Fighter Online?
GK: I haven't heard of that one. Is it recent?
Two or three years old. It's a Korean MMO similar to Capcom's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons from the arcade. It's very popular in Korea and it's getting launched in America now. It's a side-scrolling 2D MMO.
GK: Oh! You mean Arad Senki [the title in Japan]! Oh, yeah, I've played that. It's pretty safe to say that if we did a net game, it might look something like that.
It seems very natural for Vanillaware.
GK: Definitely. If I had a chance, I'd love to make something that surpassed that game.
What other MMOs are an inspiration for you?
GK: I don't know if I'd call it inspiration, but I love playing Warcraft and StarCraft online. A lot of the core Odin Sphere staff were really into StarCraft, sticking around the office to play it after work and everything. We wanted to put some RTS components into Fantasy Earth, even, but it didn't work out in the end with that project. That's a field I'd definitely like to revisit at some point.
 Did StarCraft play any role in your creating [PS2 RTS title] GrimGrimoire?
GK: Well, GrimGrimoire got its start when we all said "Hey, let's make StarCraft" to each other. (laughs)
You should try to release it in Korea, then.
GK: We did, actually. Sony published it. I think it sold like 500 copies. (laughs) Odin Sphere did about the same. The ad copy went on about how popular it was, though!
I bet many times that number of people played it over there, though.
GK: Yeah. It's hard to say.
I can tell you that I've seen it available to buy on just a disc in Yongsan, the electronics district of Seoul, so -- Sorry! (laughs)
GK: Aw, you're making me cry here!
If you do some kind of net game, do you feel it has to be an MMO with community, or more like a StarCraft type of game, where it's one-on-one, or a party against another party?
GK: I've been involved in projects that took both approaches, so it's hard to say, but it's the RTS genre I'm interested in, so it'd likely be a competitive sort of online game. MMO makes for a better business plan, though. I have an interest in both styles, really.
I always have a lot of ideas buzzing around in my mind, but publishing another online game's definitely one of my goals -- and from a business perspective right now, it's one of the more feasible goals to reach.
You know, if you do that, then you have to grow a lot as a company. You need customer support, the servers, and constant community management. You may have to grow, like, five or ten times as large.
GK: Yeah. Dreams are faraway things, after all.
You can bring it closer!
GK: (laughs)
Personally, just to tell you what I'd like to see from Vanillaware in the future -- I'd like to see a pure action game of some sort.
GK: That's one of my favorite genres, too. I've been involved almost entirely with RPGs or action RPGs up to this point, but action is where my real wealth of knowledge lies. You can definitely expect an action game from me.
The action in Muramasa is quite good...
GK: Thank you very much.
Tell me more about those dreams of yours.
GK: Do you mean Vanillaware's dream? My own dream -- well, I wouldn't call it a dream, really, but all I want is to keep on making games until the day I die. I kind of wonder sometimes how many of my ideas I'll be able to put out.
What, then, is the ultimate game that you personally want to make?
GK: The ultimate game, huh? Hmm. I don't know if I have an ultimate game in mind. I have a bunch of ideas buzzing around in my head, and I know I'm never going to have the time to make all of them a reality. I'd like to get to as many as I can, though, constantly upping the quality as we did from Odin to Muramasa. Vanillaware may be a pretty poor company, but I'm happy with it because it gives me a chance to create what I want to create. The staff complains at me sometimes, though. (laughs)
Treasure has kind of a similar idea going. "We don't make much money, but at least we get to make what we want to make," sort of philosophy.
What is the feeling that you really want to get across with your games? Because they seem to be building in a certain direction. Do you have some kind of personal goal that you want to reach, aside from continuing to make games?
GK: Well, my definition of the ultimate goal would be a game that implements everything I like about video games -- a little RTS, a little action, a decent story. If I can find the perfect mix of every aspect I like and be happy with it all, that would be my ultimate title.
It could be quite difficult to integrate all of that without confusing the player, so good luck.
GK: Oh, definitely.
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Me? I want more games like Muramasa on my Wii, thank you. And hence why journalism on Gamasutra is getting ridiculous from what I expect from you guys. Journalism is not feeding your opinion through their throats, any of us can do that... it's asking questions everyone wants asked... Not just PS3/X360 owners/fans, but also Wii owners, which you totally ignored.
Second rate gaming journalism, I say.
I don't care about platforms. I care about getting the most information out of a subject possible, especially the information they haven't thought to reveal yet. To me, that's journalism. Focusing on one game, or one platform, or catering to people who want more games on one platform or another would be pandering to an audience. If you want that sort of interview, this is probably not the place for it.
The whole interview comes across to me as someone trying to forking/forcing some kind of Muramasa conversion or confirmation for it after the Wii build releases. But you have to understand that, "if" you achieved that, multiplatform owners would now have a excuse not to buy the Wii version for the game. That's what's at stake now.
One user on another board said this:
"Seems the interviewer was trying his hardest to get a 360/PS3 port confirmation, most likely so people can avoid the English Wii game. So much bias in this industry."
And I actually agree with it and can't convey it much better. I can believe it wasn't intentional, but it is still how it comes across. As a Wii owner I must say I actually can say that we must be becoming weary of the whole gaming journalism entity as a whole (which is something Gaming Journalists have to be weary of). When there's a good coming we hear the "why on wii? do you know it's a casual platform for grannies, don't you?" which is a question with the opinion of the interviewer already implied... and that opinion is that they clearly don't want good games, or that good game in specific to be on it.
You didn't do that, but just the fact I'm used to stuff like that now, means my patience for the whole way the interviews are done is decreased; not just me though, otherwise I wouldn't be quoting what other users said in the matter. And I apologize for that "weariness" but it's still there and I still have the opinion that the interview was conducted too much towards the HD. I mean not once it goes over the Wii as a platform, if they're gonna develop further games for it or not, and yet... their most recent game is for it; it just feels too cold towards it.
You say you don't "pander" audiences, but I can't help but feel PS3/Xbox were the ones pandered in this interview, because I don't think it was "impartial" in the way it was driven. Sorry, that's my opinion; which from the beggining wasn't that questions towards HD consoles shouldn't have been done... but that the interview was overly geared towards it.
Again, I appreciate the answer, and hope I have clarified my opinion towards the matter.
I'd argue that the interviewer is a fan of 2D gaming, rather than HD consoles, and would like to see it progress rather than stagnate. The fact is the Wii as a hardware platform does little to progress 2D gaming. The Wii's main strength is it's revolutionary control scheme, something that can positively impact 2D games but I'd argue most 2D fans are quite fine with traditional controller based control schemes. So if there was any pandering to, it was done to hardcore 2D gaming fans rather than fans of any particular console.
Already I'm seeing an XNA game made by only one person that is looking nearly as good as Vanillaware's efforts on the Wii. Much of this has to do with the hardware abilities. So it would be very exciting to see a large developer (in comparison to a one-person dev team) competent in 2D titles take a crack at next gen hardware.
Castle Crashers, Braid and Aquaria are all indie games made by less people sold independently and probably made just as much money overall if not more. Until Japanese developers adapt to the way games are made and sold now and in the future they will always be behind the US.
The gamer inside me is calling you out as a Nintendo fanboi, Pedro.
I'm not sure where the "Wii attacks" came from. I certainly didn't take it that way. I'm not sure anyone else who has commented has seen it, either.
Personally, I'm kinda glad it was asked about HD assets, I've been curious as to what is on the horizon for sprite work. I mean, I absolutely adored sprites from back in the 16bit era, but as someone who wants to see the old school style games make a return true to form, I'm curious how much further they can go with how far technology has advanced since 1995. I really, truly support Vanillaware's quest to fight the good fight. Making 2D games has been a crusade I really want to fight for.
And whether or not Muramasa is coming out on the PSN is a question I valued as well. I now know I can stop holding my breath. A shame, though, because I will never own a Wii but I actually have interest in owning this (Wii) game. Oh well, c`est la vie. Can't always have your cake and eat it too. Platform exclusives have always been a pillar of the console wars, so that's just the way it is sometimes.
This interview definitely did not coming off as attacking the Wii, though. Not sure why you thought it did...
Regarding the game, they only ask repeatedly what's the chances of it getting ported and whether their next games will be in the so called HD platforms (I say so called becayse I still remember 640x480 being high resolution), and after the developer says "well, perhaps" you get the feeling the interviewer is saying "THANK GOD" which, I repeat, is not impartial.
Like said above, that's my opinion, but I really don't think they've gone the right way about it, seemed like the interviewer was trying to force a port into existing HD platforms instead of focusing on the game, asking it as a off-question in one thing, another completly different is that this was a interview focused on that. I mean, Odin Sphere was already done with HD resolution down to the assets, he could have asked "Is there any chance down the road you'll get Odin Sphere and Muramasa re-compiled in HD resolution" or something, no, the interviewer went straight for XBLA as a platform and regarding a Wii game that is not even out in english already. And when such confirmation, if it ever happens... would effectively kill the product sales for those who have multiplatform.
In short, he was doing a diservice for the game itself, as well for the platform it is on.
Sometimes "silence" is worse than dissing something, I think.
It might just be that I can't relate very well to the attraction to HD graphics- I've always thought that visual beauty in games is 70% animation, 20% atmosphere and 10% everything else. Obviously such numbers are inherently silly, but I think they express my point of view. Think of knytt to see the importance of atmosphere despite everything else. Think of Shadow of the Colossus to see the primacy of animation- did anyone really care about how many Colossus hairs they could see as they watched the hero lose balance and roll around so naturally? For related reasons, Madden games can only be pretty in screenshots, I think.
Amir- the idea that any hardware does not "progress" 2D gaming is confusing to me, because I think that the quantitative improvement of graphics that stronger hardware enables is kind of a puny part of progress in game design at large. The qualitative improvement of graphics, like what Vanillaware did in Odin Sphere, strike me as more important but still a small fraction of game design as a whole. If your argument is about ease of distribution and the opening of the indie market as opposed to processing power, then I think it makes a little more sense.
I'm also confused about why anyone would not want a Wii- to not want to pay for it is one thing, but to not want it period is a pretty clear sign of bias, I think.
I really appreciate being able to read the interview, though- as Brandon mentioned, there is definitely some great information that he got from Kamitani. "Second-rate journalism" is way too strong, especially in light of what is considered acceptable by the game journalism industry at large.
As for anti-Wii bias on the part of the interviewer, to me it reads more like the interviewer wants 2D artwork in the HD era, and finds the Wii's max 480p resolution to be too little for that cause. You can read the result as either legitimate questions of "What about 'real' hi-res?" or as anti-Wii "What about 'real' hi-res?"