The People Who Resurrected Samurai Shodown

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Kaito Soranaka (Planner): He was primarily in charge of the battle system, and also served as the director of SNK Heroines. Nobuyuki Kuroki (Director): The director who supervised the entire project, also a long-time developer who worked on Fatal Fury, etc. Yumi Saji (Character Designer): She was in charge of the character design, and also worked on King of Fighters XIV. Taking a new look at what makes the series popular for the first time in about 10 years, a new Samurai Shodown game has been released. We bring you this interview with three of the staff members involved in its creation.

Hardships and Inside Stories of the Development that Created the Samurai Spirit

Please give us some details about how development on this game began. (Kuroki) I heard this from the producer Yasuyuki Oda, but apparently he was asked by a chairman within our company if we were finally going to release a new Samurai Shodown game. I guess it all began when Oda answered with "Let's do it!". The Samurai Shodown series has the most personality of all of SNK's titles when it comes to visuals and game play systems. So project planning began with us thinking about how it's so easy to distinguish from those other titles, and how it will be able to bring in new fans. Continue Reading

X JAPAN Virtual Shock 001

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Hardware: Saturn
10/20/1995 (Japan)

If you're reading this article, there's a good chance that you already know who X Japan is. But if you don't, they're possibly the most internationally popular Japanese rock band. Though they weren't signed to CBS Sony records until 1989, they'd already built a name for themselves on the indie scene long before. And they took the world of rock music by storm in Japan by basing their sound around power/speed metal, with a lot of symphonic influence (from Yoshiki's classical music background, no doubt) that would follow later as they turned into more of a prog metal band. The lineup at the time of this release was Toshi (Vocals), Yoshiki (Drums and Piano), hide (Guitar), Pata (Guitar), and Heath (Bass). Not only was their sound different, but their look as well. Like most successful visual kei bands, they'd eventually switch things up to a more standard rock band look. But they were one of the pioneers of the visual kei movement for much of their earlier career. This made them stand out quite a bit before visual kei really took hold, so their fans (who often mimicked their style) naturally stood out too. To help them feel better about this and thank them for their support, vocalist Toshi would often shout "mune hare!" ("Be proud!") repeatedly to the crowd at the end of their early gigs. Continue Reading

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered: New Features!

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Straight from the director of the original version and producer of the remastered version, Yoshinori Kitase! Please tell us about how FFVIII came to be remastered. (Kitase) Thinking about how we want all the fans of the original games in the FF series to enjoy them, even though the hardware has changed, we started planning for remasters of FFVII, FFVIII, and FFIX. The releases of FFVII and FFIX both proceeded according to plan. But for FFVIII, the move to a higher resolution on modern hardware really raised graphical quality across the board. We kept tuning the game as much as we possibly could within the limits of the porting process, so that the models and motion capture wouldn't break down. I believe we achieved a high level of quality that will make fans satisfied. Continue Reading

Space Invaders Invincible Collection: Creator Interview

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To commemorate the announcement of this new title, we have an interview with the original Space Invaders creator Tomohiro Nishikado, as well as Yuuichi Toyama, who is handling the collection. They tell us some behind the scenes stories about the legendary game that created such an enormous boom, as well as some interesting things about the collection. Pay close attention to this first hand account from the person that helped create game culture as we know it today. Tomohiro Nishikado (Taito Advisor) - The creator of Space Invaders needs no introduction. He currently works as an adviser for Taito. Yuuichi Toyama (Producer of the Space Invaders Invincible Collection) - He joined Taito in 2017, and has previously worked on the Darius Cozmic Collection.

The Game That Caused a Move From Electromechanical to Video Games

As of 2018, it's been 40 years since the first Space Invaders game. Mr. Nishikado, do you have a lot of emotional attachment to it, being the developer? (Nishikado) I continue being surprised at how much time has passed, every 10 years since its release. Continue Reading

Rieko Kodama GDC Pioneer Award Interview

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The world's biggest game developer conference, GDC (Game Developers Conference), was held in San Francisco recently. And at the GDC Awards, Rieko Kodama of Sega Games was chosen to receive the Pioneer Award, for accomplishments that drove the game industry forward. Famitsu.com held an interview with her to commemorate this occasion. Since joining Sega Enterprises in 1984, her career has consisted of being a graphic designer, director, and producer. She's also shown her abilities across many game development projects. We spoke to her regarding her feelings about and the many notable happenings along the way of the journey that she began on with the creation of Sega's home consoles, and continues on still today.

Reiko Kodama

Born in Kanagawa Prefecture, blood type A. She joined Sega Enterprises in 1984, and worked on Champion Boxing and Alex Kidd in Miracle World as a graphic designer. She also did the character designs for the original Phantasy Star, and continues to be heavily involved in the series moving forward. From there she moved on to director and producer roles, leading the way on hit RPG titles such as Magic Knight Rayearth, Skies of Arcadia, and the 7th Dragon series. She's currently working on the Sega Ages series as both a producer and director.

The Reason She Chose Sega is That She Wanted to Create Things

Congratulations on receiving the GDC Pioneer Award. First of all, please tell us how you felt when you heard about it. Continue Reading