مقابلة Game Informer مع Tetsuya Mizuguchi مصمم Ninety-Nine Nights و Lumines ...

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

هذي هي المقابله من موقع Game Informer مع Tetsuya Mizuguchi و التي يتحدث فيها عن العديد من المواضيع و عن لعبته القادمه Ninety-Nine Nights المقابله بالانجليزي اتمنى ان هالشي مايزعجكم :)

In between events during our Japanese Experience 2005 V1.0, we were invited to check out the offices of Q? Entertainment in Tokyo. We are excited to finally bring you the exclusive fruits of this visit! Get the latest information direct from Chief Creative Officer / Producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi about N3: Ninety-Nine Nights, Xbox 360 development, and what the word is on a sequel to Lumines, and Meteos.

Game Informer: So how’ve you been doing since we last talked?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi: Ohhh! (sighs) I think it’s the busiest year in my life. But it’s been the most fun. It’s very exciting.

GI: How’d you feel about the Microsoft Xbox Summit?

TM: It was nice. This is the half way point until we’re finished with our project. We had a short presentation, but N3: Ninety-Nine Nights is not ready to fully unveil. We’re looking more at the Tokyo Game Show to show more elements of the game there.

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The brown building in the middle secretly houses Q? Entertainment

GI: Will N3 be playable at the Tokyo Game Show?

TM: I don’t know yet. We hope so. We want to. I can’t say yes now. We’re trying.

GI: Are people excited in Japan about N3?

TM: I don’t know. (laughs) I don’t have time to watch the communities and forums because I’ve been back and forth between Tokyo and Seoul so often. Tokyo and Seoul, Seoul and Tokyo. (unzips briefcase) I never show my schedule to any other people, but I can show you. It’s like this.

GI: Oh my lord.

TM: This is this week. [ed: the schedule is ridiculously full of appointments] It’s full this week, but not on Saturday or Sunday. It’s like this every week. Yeah, this is crazy. I’m spending half my time in Tokyo, and half my time in Seoul. Some times I’m in the United States. (laughs) It’s crazy.

GI: Do like all the travel, or are you getting tired from it all?

TM: I don’t really get tired from the traveling. Physically I can sleep, but mentally tired, yes. (laughs). I am really enjoying this project of N3 and the next generation of hardware, as well as the new cooperation with Phantagram.

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Mizuguchi-san at his desk

GI: How’d you find Phantagram.

TM: Phantagram has very smart and powerful programmers. I think it’s good chemistry with Q? Entertainment. It’s nice. It’s a very strong studio.

GI: Is it a big studio?

TM: Quite big. It’s between 80 people right now.

GI: As you were saying it’s a very international team. Is it often that Japanese developers work with Korean developers? Does that happen a lot?

TM: I think that this actual type of collaboration is the first case. Some Japanese publishers do have their games developed in Japan. That has happened before many times. But in our case, this is collaboration. It’s like a movie project. I am the producer, and Sang Youn Lee from Phantagram is the director. We (Q?) made the storyline, scenario, first concept, and character design, and then we brought that to Seoul. The character design was finalized by a Korean artist by the name of Mr. Park. While it looks the same from your viewpoint, this is a mixture of Japanese and Korean work. The Korean and Japanese cultures are different. One of my big roles is to adjust those kinds of things in the game. You know, character design, backgrounds, colors, game design. I can’t promise that we’re going to make the official launch date, but our goal is to at least make the Japanese launch window.

GI: I was really amazed with your demonstration at the Xbox Summit, but we weren’t allowed to show the actual trailer to our readers per Microsoft’s requests. Could you explain what was going on in that scene? Is that the type of gameplay we’ll be seeing.

TM: In that trailer, that is from the beta kit. That’s only gameplay, and not a pre-rendered cutsceen. There are many [ed: hundreds] of soldiers on the field, and some character is using a very special magic power from the nature, which causes a big explosion and many soldiers go flying. (laughs) This is a very special attack in the game.

Two characters of the main characters, Inphyy and Asphar we announced yesterday. There are 5 characters that we showed yesterday, but I can’t tell you how many characters that are playable in the game, but we showed five. Those aren’t all of them.

GI: Could you explain the story at all?

TM: In the trailer that we showed at E3, there was a crystal orb that shatters, and when the orb is together there is peace, but when it breaks it creates war. Before the stone breaks there are many races – goblins, orcs, or trolls – that live together very peacefully. After the crystal orb shatters, there is a lot of doubting, animosity, and war begins. This is a story of chaos. You can play characters from the different races and see each of the races perspective on the events that are happening in the world

If you play a character of one race, you’ll see an event your own way, which will be very different than if you’re playing as a different race. Each of the races have their own different dramas going on in the same world which are intertwined with each other. Your impression will be unique from your own race, but if you play through the same area as the enemy of your original character, your perspective of the situation will be completely different. We’re using this different point-of-view and perspective to tell the events of the game’s story.

The story is about the difference of justice. The war is always going on between the different races. All of the different races believe their cause for war is true, and everyone wants justice for their race. What is happening to our race? What is justice? I can’t explain details yet, and you’ll have to play the game to get the story, but this is how it’ll unfold.

I spent over one year to finalize the scenario, because we have to explain the story from all the different sides. It’s kind of a simulation in your head about the war, and seeing it from the different perspectives. If I kill an enemy, it doesn’t bother me. But if I play as that race and see someone kill someone of my own race, I’m like “why did you kill one of my people!” This will make my character angry. I think it’s a new experience.

GI: I’d say most of your games are new experiences.

TM: (smile)

GI: So there’s a lot of replay value with that style of gameplay.

TM: Yes.

GI: Are you planning on doing anything with Xbox Live as far as online gameplay.

TM: I haven’t decided yet.

GI: Your games have traditionally been strong musically, anything you can say about the soundtrack?

TM: I’m preparing the music right now. It’s too early to tell. It’ll be orchestrated.

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Something tells me they need a cable management system

GI: How do you like developing for the 360?

TM: Well I don’t have anything to compare it to because I didn’t develop for the original Xbox, so this is my first experience but I’ve had a lot of experience developing games for launch on many different platforms while I was at Sega. From the arcade, Saturn, Dreamcast, many platforms. Even now with Lumines for the PSP. It’s not bad. Microsoft is a very good software company. Sony is a product company. Nintendo is a toy company. There’s some difference in my impression. Every hardware has a style. My impression of Microsoft is they are a software company.

They are watching the Xbox 360 software schedule very carefully. They are double checking, triple checking. They are making sure we are on time.

GI: A lot of people, including myself viewed Sony going after Microsoft at E3 the same way they aggressively went after Sega with the Dreamcast when Sony announced the PlayStation 2. Do you think it’s different this time around?

TM: Yes. I think the hardware war will end. The PC and Game Console is going to merge because of the networking this generation. So many people predict the war, because that’s that’s always the case before the next generation. But with the medium, for example, the cell phone or the iPod – consumer production. The next generation after this new generation will be chaos. I really don’t care about the hardware. The engine will be important. They’re all more or less using the same hardware. It’s going to be all about the software, not the hardware. The contents, feel, image is what’s going to be important. I think 5-10 years down the road, I think you’ll get to play game on any hardware. Now it’s just beginning. The point I want to make, every medium, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, I don’t know about Revolution yet, will be able to exist together. That means that that’s not war – they’re going to co-exist together.

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Everyone is out playing Lumines

GI: So you don’t really care about the hardware specifically, but you care about making games that take advantage of the hardware’s specific functionality.

TM: Yes. It’s about the image I get when I think about the hardware. With Lumines for example, my first image in my mind was people playing the PSP with a headset. So what kind of game can I make? I can make this type of game! Well what is the PSP? It’s an interactive walkman. So I didn’t want to make an RPG, a racing game, or a sports game. To me, the headset, the music, and I’m going to be playing 15-30 minutes, not long. That was the process and abstract image I had in my head. I had many thoughts but then I was like, oh this is a puzzle game, with music. And with 360, it’s going to be some guy playing 360 in his apartment, and with first touch of the controller, he’s going to be like, “Wow!”, and with a big screen, in very high-def, and the drama, and not only in Japan but worldwide…so…N3, 360, the image came to me. The technology and the hardware style is very inspiring to me.

GI: Okay, I have to be honest with you. I wanted to have this meeting to ask you one single question. Will there ever be a sequel to Lumines.

TM: No comment. (big smile)

GI: No comment. As you smile. (laughs)

TM: No comment. I can say that I’m really really interested in making a sequel.

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People busy reading Game Informer Online!

GI: Would you like to work with Mondo Grosso again, or would you like to work with new artists?

TM: I haven’t decided yet about the music.

GI: Will it be techno based? You seem to like techno.

TM: I think that’s other people’s impression of me. I like techno, but I don’t love techno. Since I made Rez and Lumines people think I love techno. Looking at the PlayStaton 2 with Rez, and at the time, Techno, and early hip-hop, that was the music at the time – synthesized music. If you look at the synthesizer, it’s like it’s 1992, 1993. But now, synthesizers are getting better and better. You can make sounds that sound like they are very analog, or orchestrated. I’m running with that kind of history of hardware. Now it’s getting better and better. I want to use the music more and more naturally, and analog. Not digital and not synthesized. That’s the reason why I used the ballad at the end of Lumines. Maybe we’ll just use a cappella, like voices, and no music. Or we’ll have all different kinds of music, like rock.

GI: Do you think you want to make it on the PSP, or how about on another console?

TM: I can’t say that right now. But if there’s a reason we should bring it to other consoles, we will do that. But I wouldn’t want to make the same game on a different platform. I think that would kill the game. It would be boring. I want make Lumines the 21st Century Tetris. What is the next Lumines? That’s what I want to make. If we made the next Lumines on a new console, we would think about what would be the meaning or reason to do it on that console. What is the sound? What is the music? What is the visual effects?

GI: Did you have any input on the Lumines Remixes soundtrack that was released here in Japan?

TM: No, that was from the artist, Takayuki Nakamura. That was his work.

GI: Did you like it?

TM: Yeah, but I always play Lumines. (laughs) So, I’ve listened to it a lot. But there’s no Mondo Grosso music on there, right?

GI: No. People will have to get those records too.

TM: Mondo Grosso is very smart. The music is very different.

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The library wing

GI: Would you like to work with Sakurai-san (Meteos) again?

TM: We don’t have any plans to. He is getting very busy with projects, as I am getting very busy with Ninety-Nine Nights. But maybe in the future, but not now.

GI: There’s a big battle going on right now with people saying which is better, Meteos, or Lumines.

TM: Yes, but they are totally different games. Two totally different games using totally different brain. Meteos is a good game, good design, good level design…it’s a good game. But Lumines is an experience. I’m still playing Lumines on the plane from Tokyo to Seoul. The flight is two hours so it’s a good amount of time to play. (laughs) I played Lumines many many times. I think I’ve played it the most out of the PSP games I have. I can’t stop playing.

GI: So, last question. Which game do you like better? Lumines or Meteos?

TM: (laughs) That’s tough. I can say that I play Lumines a lot. I play it on the airplane, and in bed before I go to sleep.

GI: Thank you very much for your time.

مشكور أخوي على الموضوع
انا شفت عرضين للعبة وباين انها راح تكون من أقوى ألعاب الجهاز الجديد

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته,,,
مقابلة عادية جداً لم يوضح الكثير فيها عن لعبة N3
فقط توضيح بسيط للعرض اللي عرض في معرض الإكس بوكس الياباني
و قال إنه اللعبة ممكن تكون جاهزة للتجريب في معرض طوكيو القادم
مع إني ما أظن هالشي لأنه اللعبة باين إنها مو جاهزة أبد
على العموم لعبة N3 أكيد من الألعاب المنتظرة بالنسبة لي
و إن شاء الله يعمل جزء ثاني للعبة Lumines لأني ناوي أشتري الجزء الأول عن قريب :)
بالنسبة للصور ما شاء الله في المكتب عنده ثلاث أجهزة إكس بوكس و جهاز بلاي ستيشن 2 :09:
و أكيد جهاز بلاي ستيشن محمول علشان Lumines و المبني مالهم صغير حيل كأنها عمارة عزوبية :09:
و مشكور جاك :biggthump على المقابلة و ما يحتاج تترجمها أو تعمل لها شي لأنها ما فيها معلومات مهمة :blackeye:
و السلام مسك الختام