[Wii] Iwata speaks with the team behind Sin & Punishment 2

[Dave]

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently spoke with the team behind Sin & Punishment 2 for Wii, to celebrate the game's release in Japan. They discussed the development issues of the highly anticipated sequel, such as trying to create a game that not only pleases the series' fans, but isn't so difficult for new gamers.

Participating members (from left to right):

Satoru Iwata – President of Nintendo
Shingo Matsushita – Software Planning & Development Team
Yurie Hattori – Software Planning & Development Team
Hitoshi Yamagami – Software Planning & Development Team
Masato Maegawa – CEO of Treasure Corporation
Atsutomo Nakagawa – Director of Treasure Corporation
Yasushi Suzuki – Art Director

Here's a peek at what was said:

Nakagawa: I worked extremely hard on the first game, so I was very firm in my “This is just right” when it comes to the difficulty level.

Iwata: Is it because you talked about it a lot with Yamagami-san?

Nakagawa: Yes. However, this time there were many hardcore gamers in the development staff, so we developed the game using the Gamecube controller we were used to instead of the Wii Remote.

Iwata: Yes.

Nakagawa: So then I made it as I liked it. Really hard.

Iwata: As expected of one of Treasure (laughs).

Nakagawa: I gazed at it from the corner of my eye, and I thought, “They’ll probably tell me to fix this later on…” Even though I thought that, I would get irritated when I told myself, “Fix it!” so I waited for Nintendo to tell me.

Iwata: It irritated you when you told yourself that, so you were waiting for and looking forward to Nintendo telling you (laughs).

Nakagawa: Yes. And then, they told me the opposite…

Iwata: What?

Nakagawa: They said, “It’s too easy” …and also, “What the hell is this?”

Everyone: (laughs)

Nakagawa: They told me, “The enemies get destroyed immediately,” and when I replied, “What?! It should be really hard…?!” they even said, “Fans won’t like it if it’s this easy…”

Iwata: The people from Nintendo even said such things to Treasure…

Parts 1 & 2 of interview
Parts 3 & 4 of interview
Parts 5 & 6 of interview

Sin & Punishment 2 is expected to be released early 2010 in Australia.

[rom_maniac]

(laughs)

[Infernal Monkey]

Surprised to see Treasure originally made it too easy, and Nintendo actually told them to increase the difficulty. An easy Treasure game?! Crazy.

Originally Posted by rom_maniac

(laughs)

(laughs)

[Gookanheimer]

They must have switched the names around to make themselves look good.

[Bhaskar24]

Sounds just like the play testers of the Super Mario Club, elite.

[Some1onearth]

Nakagawa: That’s right. The screen only shows up to the area right above the foot. So you think “This is a huge boss … or I think it is, but there’s only a foot.”

Everyone: (laughs)

Fighting a huge foot is still good as long as there are shots/attacks still coming at you from almost every direction. D:

Hattori: Ufufu (laughs).

She actually said that "ufufu"...(laughs)

[Kabal]

Originally Posted by rom_maniac

(laughs)

But it's actually a fantastic read. Especially how Nintendo told Treasure, of all companies, that their game was too easy.

[plufim]

The whole thing is a fantastic read, especially the start when they talk about how difficult the N64 was to work with - especially that Iwata himself was very frank about the limitiations of the system.

I wish we'd hear people be more frank about current gen programming, but I doubt we'll hear any candid stories for at least 5 years.

[BernkiLOL]

Oh god, I re-read that over a few times and keep thinking that Nakagawa is talking about his penis.

Nakagawa: So then I made it as I liked it. Really hard.

Iwata: As expected of one of Treasure (laughs).

Nakagawa: I gazed at it from the corner of my eye, and I thought, “They’ll probably tell me to fix this later on…” Even though I thought that, I would get irritated when I told myself, “Fix it!” so I waited for Nintendo to tell me.

Iwata: It irritated you when you told yourself that, so you were waiting for and looking forward to Nintendo telling you (laughs).

Nakagawa: Yes. And then, they told me the opposite…

Iwata: What?

Nakagawa: They said, “It’s too easy” …and also, “What the hell is this?”

Everyone: (laughs)

Nakagawa: They told me, “The enemies get destroyed immediately,” and when I replied, “What?! It should be really hard…?!” they even said, “Fans won’t like it if it’s this easy…”

[pikachu13]

("Make it Harder") I LOLed hard.

[Mo Joe]

Originally Posted by Dave

not only pleases the series' fans, but isn't so difficult for new gamers.

God dam those 'new gamers', i'm sure there still happy with Wii sports resort and Baby sitting party.