Every year at E3, Nintendo invites members of the press to a special presentation by Shigeru Miyamoto and other developers. Q&A is included. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=23369 NOTE: The following notes are just that and include copious paraphrasing. No direct quotations are implied.
Miyamoto, Konno, Trinen, and O'Leary enter the stage. Aonuma sits in the front row until the Zelda demo begins.
Miyamoto discusses Ocarina of Time, says it was one of the first things he wanted to see when he first experienced the 3DS screen.
Steel Diver is almost finished, has been in development for six years. Demo was originally shown for the DS in 2004. It's like a "submarine pet" in your aquarium at home.
With Star Fox, it can be hard to see where your shots will go or when you will fly through a ring. If all we did was port these over, we'd just have old games with 3D visuals. We are working to come up with new ideas and improvements for them.
In a fully 3D world like a Mario game, it can be hard to judge the distance of objects in the distance. With 3D visuals, all of that becomes very clear and easy to understand.
When it's all self-contained, developers know what to expect and what they have to work with, so every player can have a consistent experience.
Iwata and I have decided to put Hideki Konno as overall producer of the 3DS project. He is known for Mario Kart series and Nintendogs, but now he is involved with everything going on with 3DS. If the system goes well, that means I can retire. (laughs)
Konno: I've been working at EAD as a software producer, but now I am overseeing hardware development. It's a new experience, and I was scared at first. I used to be one of the software guys who complain about the hardware limitations, but now I have a better understanding and appreciate how hard their work is.
Miyamoto: Why don't we move on to Nintendogs + Cats?
Konno: I hoped to keep this title secret until E3, but last year Miyamoto announced that he got a cat.
Miyamoto: I thought people would assume we were making Nintencats, not Nintendogs + Cats!
Konno: Gardening/Pikmin, Dog/Nintendogs, Cat/...I was a little sad. When we first made Nintendogs, we experimented with some cats as well.
Miyamoto: Cats are interesting; they're kind of like girls. When they come and talk to you it's great, but when you go talk to them, it doesn't always go so well. Cats like to do their own thing.
Konno: We decided to add cats based on Miyamoto's comments on how interesting it was to see dogs and cats interacting with each other. We can really bring out the different fur types on 3DS.
We wanted to add more interaction between the player and the dog. We're using the inner camera to recognize the player's face. The dog will match your facial movements and lick your face if you come close. It's adorable. It will even react differently if your friends and family try to play with your dog.
Miyamoto: And you've combined your history with Nintendogs and production of 3DS to enhance the Bark Mode idea.
Konno: My ambition is to make Bark Mode more widely used and more popular. We built it right into the 3DS hardware. Name drops Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, as well as Nintendogs as games that could use this feature.
Miyamoto addresses difference in population density between US and Japan with the tag modes from Nintendogs and DQ9. This is prevalent in Akihabara and "electric towns" in Japan where people cluster around to swap data. We set up relay stations for Nintendogs so people could experience it even after the game became less popular. Dogs were held at these stations so you could drop one off and someone else could pick it up later. This would be simple to do with the Internet, but it's fun to have it interact within the real world. Maybe next year you'll all have exchanged dogs with each other at next E3.
Aonuma takes Konno's place to discuss Zelda: Skyward Sword
Aonuma asks everyone to turn off phones and wireless devices to avoid interference. People are usually asking about number of dungeons and story elements, but we have really based this game around the core gameplay ideas. Last year, we showed a single piece of art. The gameplay was very far along, but the only graphical elements we had to show at that time was the one piece of art. Due to this different kind of development, the game is taking longer than usual. We're still adding a few dungeons and harder bosses, but most of the game is complete. I thought it would be best to play it safe and avoid promising it for this year.
Did you see the story scene where Link jumps from a cliff? That's a very important moment in the game. Link is a young boy who lives in a land above the clouds called Sky Loft. One day he learns that there is another world beneath the clouds. The ground world is ruled by demons and evil forces, but Link must go there for some reason. A major part of the game is traveling back and forth between the sky and ground worlds.
That ghostly character shown in last year's artwork is actually the Skyward Sword (which becomes the Master Sword), who takes that form when guiding Link. Sky is a very important theme for the game. Showing the clouds and vistas was a key reason for using this graphical style, which I really like a lot.
Miyamoto: I like it too and approved it quickly. I am a fan of impressionism; the sky and mountains you see in the demo have a definite Cezanne feel to them. Expressing angle-specific attacks and defenses requires an exaggerated presentation that works very well with this art style. If we'd just used the same graphics from Twilight Princess, this game would already be done.
Aonuma: We think there's a great marriage between the gameplay and graphical style, but there's still a lot of work to be done.
Miyamoto: We are trying to change the structure of Zelda, in terms of going through dungeons and the world. Mr. Aonuma is my victim from the time of Ocarina.
Aonuma: How many people remember the Water Temple and thought it was tough? We thought it was horrible! I've been living with that for over ten years. But with 3DS, we have a touch screen. I'd like to lay this evil to rest by making it very easy to put on and remove the Iron Boots and tunics.
Miyamoto: This is also an area we've been working on with Skyward Sword, with the item interface. We've found that switching between MotionPlus and pointer was awkward for people, so this game lets you control the cursor with your movements, not the pointer. We've actually turned off pointer functionality for E3 to avoid interference, but the final game will use both and integrate them for smoother control.
Q&A:
Wireless access for 3DS? Konno: It's not "always on" or 3G compatible. But with WiFi, you can receive updates automatically, such as overnight. As for discussions with wireless carriers, we're not announcing anything right now.
Zelda remote overlay final/optional? Aonuma: You will be able to turn that off.
Zelda music orchestration and voice acting? Miyamoto: I don't think we could do orchestra for Galaxy 1/2 and then not do it for Zelda!
Pikmin update? Miyamoto: I picked up a BAFTA in March and mentioned something about Pikmin, then everyone started reporting on a new Pikmin game. I was worried that it wouldn't get enough attention at E3, but rest assured, we are still working on it.
3DS battery life? Konno: We'd like to match DSi.
Whip? Same guy put it in both Spirit Tracks and Skyward Sword.
Tiring sword controls? Miyamoto: It can be. Aonuma: The final version won't be so combat-heavy all the time. It will be broken up with puzzles and other gameplay so you don't get too tired. Miyamoto: And you can play with smaller movements, but the big swings and standing up make it feel better.
Is the trailer's sequence of Link evolving related to the new game's story? Aonuma: Sorry, we just thought it would look cool.
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