New Sakurai Interview from Famitsu

[mygamecube]

I never take Sakurai and his development team for granted. The Smash Bros. series is one of the most in depth, deep, and polished game series I've ever played. All 3 of them. That's why every single one has a spot in my gaming heart.

Smash 4 should be no different.

 

[Kaye Cruiser]

Lets see you develop a better game in 3 years with constant pressure from higher ups and split fans. Honestly, the ungrateful people bashing Brawl are just irritating.

The fans weren't split at all UNTIL Brawl happened. Kind of a moot point.

Besides, just because not everyone here can make a video game of the same nature doesn't change the fact that it was mediocre and a letdown as a game majorly, nor does it mean that we have to automatically pardon it and everything Sakurai wants to do.

It also doesn't mean we have to feel sorry for him when he whines and complains himself about his job. He's been at this for years. He knows what he's getting into. Like I said, shut up and do your job and if you can't handle it anymore, leave. Simple as that.

 

[SpaceJell0]

The fans weren't split at all UNTIL Brawl happened. Kind of a moot point.

Besides, just because not everyone here can make a video game of the same nature doesn't change the fact that it was mediocre and a letdown as a game majorly, nor does it mean that we have to automatically pardon it and everything Sakurai wants to do.

It also doesn't mean we have to feel sorry for him when he whines and complains himself about his job. He's been at this for years. He knows what he's getting into. Like I said, shut up and do your job and if you can't handle it anymore, leave. Simple as that.

Oh dear, a Melee elitist. Stop acting like you're speaking for the entire Smash Community cause you're not. I loved Brawl more than Melee to be honest but that's my opinion, I don't wave it around like it's a fact. Stop your whining and go on the Melee forums and leave us be.

 

[Pyra]

Can we have one thread without this asinine argument?
Honestly.

 

[MargnetMan23]

Content doesn't make up for a medicore game and tripping.

Well good for you, just because you don't like it doesn't mean it wasn't hard work -_-

 

[Renji64]

Lets see you develop a better game in 3 years with constant pressure from higher ups and split fans. Honestly, the ungrateful people bashing Brawl are just irritating.

I respect sakurai it is just hard to believe brawl took hardwork from a gameplay design standpoint lol it is so lazy and basic. I bet he spent countless hours perfecting those tripping mechanics lmao.

 

[Kaye Cruiser]

Oh dear, a Melee elitist. Stop acting like you're speaking for the entire Smash Community cause you're not. I loved Brawl more than Melee to be honest but that's my opinion, I don't wave it around like it's a fact. Stop your whining and go on the Melee forums and leave us be.

Sorry, but I'm not a Melee elitist at all. I haven't really touched it since Brawl came out.

I just don't like how Brawl turned out as a video game in general. Not everyone who dislikes Brawl is a Melee fanboy.

What, is this a newsflash for you? XD

 

[Groose]

I respect sakurai it is just hard to believe brawl took hardwork from a gameplay design standpoint lol it is so lazy and basic.

There's still the fact that they had to design a dozen completely unique characters, dozens of enemies for the SSE, create over a hundred CGI cutscenes, more bosses than the series had ever seen, and more.

Additionally, the amount of planning that goes into the game is incredible. Who makes the roster? What do we reveal today on the DOJO? How do we satisfy these crazy Ridley fanboys?

Even stuff like implementing tripping, working on the online mode, creating a slowed-down engine, and making Ganondorf suck took a lot of work. It may not have made you happy, but it took a lot of work.

 

[Kaye Cruiser]

Even stuff like implementing tripping, working on the online mode, creating a slowed-down engine, and making Ganondorf suck took a lot of work. It may not have made you happy, but it took a lot of work.

...I'm not sure who you're trying to convince with that statement, but I can almost guarantee you that it's not gonna work unless that person is a complete ******. It doesn't sound very positive. ¦D;

Got a better example? ¦D;

 

[Renji64]

Sorry, but I'm not a Melee elitist at all. I haven't really touched it since Brawl came out.

I just don't like how Brawl turned out as a video game in general. Not everyone who dislikes Brawl is a Melee fanboy.

What, is this a newsflash for you? XD

Pretty much this I never even played melee competivetly I played casually only for years but i always loved how fast and well designed it was and i love the n64 verison as well once you get past brawl's content it is meh.

 

[Kaye Cruiser]

Pretty much this I never even played melee competivetly I played casually only for years but i always loved how fast and well designed it was and i love the n64 verison as well once you get past brawl's content it is meh.

Pretty much this for me, too. I loved 64 and Melee, but I only liked Brawl while the hype was still up. After about a week or two, it quickly became "meh".

Key differences here, Melee fanboys and elitists dislike Brawl because it isn't Melee.

People like us dislike Brawl because it's Brawl and turned out the way it did.

Hopefully, it shouldn't be too hard to understand what I'm saying here. ¦D

 

[Pyra]

Can we have one thread without this asinine argument?
Honestly.

 

[MasterOfKnees]

Content doesn't make up for a medicore game and tripping.

But the fact is that it still took a lot of work to make everything. Melee's game engine, even if it played better in some regards, didn't take longer to make than Brawl's did. Each of the engines have been through a lot of testing.

And if you read I never claimed Brawl was better, even if it is my opinion it had nothing to do with my post. It still took a lot of hard work, and it saddens me to see how ignorant some people are towards that. Look at it this way: I don't like carrots very much, I think they kind of stink, but if someone uses hours making a big fat carrot cake for me I don't slap them in the face.

And guys, let's not turn this into a Melee vs Brawl thread, there's been plenty enough of those brainless arguments already.

 

[Renji64]

But the fact is that it still took a lot of work to make everything. Melee's game engine, even if it played better in some regards, didn't take longer to make than Brawl's did. Each of the engines have been through a lot of testing.

And if you read I never claimed Brawl was better, even if it is my opinion it had nothing to do with my post. It still took a lot of hard work, and it saddens me to see how ignorant some people are towards that. Look at it this way: I don't like carrots very much, I think they kind of stink, but if someone uses hours making a big fat carrot cake for me I don't slap them in the face.

And guys, let's not turn this into a Melee vs Brawl thread, there's been plenty enough of those brainless arguments already.

It is hard for me to believe that game was the result of hardwork.

 

[SpaceJell0]

But the fact is that it still took a lot of work to make everything. Melee's game engine, even if it played better in some regards, didn't take longer to make than Brawl's did. Each of the engines have been through a lot of testing.

And if you read I never claimed Brawl was better, even if it is my opinion it had nothing to do with my post. It still took a lot of hard work, and it saddens me to see how ignorant some people are towards that. Look at it this way: I don't like carrots very much, I think they kind of stink, but if someone uses hours making a big fat carrot cake for me I don't slap them in the face.

And guys, let's not turn this into a Melee vs Brawl thread, there's been plenty enough of those brainless arguments already.

^yes to this, so... CHANGE IN SUBJECT Wow that 20 characters stuff is interesting right?

 

[soviet prince]

brawl is a good game despite all the whining

 

[MasterOfKnees]

It is hard for me to believe that game was the result of hardwork.

It's simply just not aimed at you, in general Brawl was aimed at the casual Wii crowd, even Sakurai admits that.

However, it's not hard to see how much work it took. Just look at how big SSE is, just look at how many different movesets are in the game. While the engine is very campy and slow, all the content is still there. It'd have taken just as much work if it had the Melee engine, actually, it'd have taken less work.

Now, let's just drop this.

 

[N3ON]

Please try to refrain from having this turn into a Melee v. Brawl topic. There are already plenty of places to have that discussion.

 

[Kaye Cruiser]

^yes to this, so... CHANGE IN SUBJECT Wow that 20 characters stuff is interesting right?

No, not really.

20 isn't nearly enough. Even with good balance, it just won't fly this late in the franchise.

 

[SpaceJell0]

No, not really.

20 isn't nearly enough. Even with good balance, it just won't fly this late in the franchise.

I agree, it's nice to know Sakurai doesn't just put in what he wants just to make it easier for himself.

 

[Accf124]

LET'S HAVE 101 CHARACTERS, U ARE THE 101TH CHARACTER.

 

[Hong]

I don't think people should be fixating on numbers, anyways. It was just a number he pulled out as a ballpark figure.

All this article really does is give us a most comforting insight into Mr. Sakurai''s design philosophy. It is a statement indicative that he knows the complications that come with each character. He rather focus on making each character everything it can be. Of course the reality of game design is if you are at all passionate about what you do, you never have enough time and you always want to add this or fix that. Brawl especially suggested he ended up with a much bigger picture than he initially envisioned, and even with delays he was not able to make it everything he wanted it to be. He bit more than he could chew. It happens.

It was still a great game of course, though as with anything I am sure everyone involved took something away from this experience.

 

[Mr. Mumbles]

Various people (mostly Fatmanonice) have provided good and reasonable interpretations of what this quote might mean, "For example, I think pretty much the limit when it comes to creating characters for a Smash Bros. is about 20, counting those from older games. We remake them completely each time, after all, and the teams and personnel and specs are all different. But we all go beyond what the work calls for because we want to do our best to retain fans of each character."

However, I still find myself curious about one thing. Is there any chance that "counting those from older games" is mistranslated and means something closer to "when you take into consideration those from older games?" As in, when you consider they still have to remake all the old characters 20 is the absolute max amount of characters they can add. Just a thought.

That said, "limit" being hyperbole or being mistranslated seems more likely given what he says next. I rather hope it is the latter as "limit" does seem like an odd word to choose given that that number of total characters can obviously be surpassed. But there again, no one chooses the perfect words every time, and thus those who dissect what he says are doomed to be disappointed.

Anyway I'm not sure I learned much from this article, as the focal point seems to be how hard they work regardless of what exactly some of the individual sentences mean, and I already knew that. It's good to have it reiterated though, as it seemingly hasn't gotten through to some people.

 

[kisamefishfries]

20 eh?
-
1.mario
2.Luigi
3.Bowser
-
4.Fox
-
5.Link
6.Gannondorf
-
7.Kirby
8.king Dedede
-
9.captain Falcon
-
10.Ness
-
11.Samus
-
12.Yoshi
-
13. Wario
-
14.Pikachu
15.Jigglypuff
-
16.DK
-
17.Megaman
-
18. Wii fit trainer
-
19.villager
-
20.Marth


Idk how I would feel about that. It seems really small. I know its an all star game... but idk.

 

[IhaveSonar]

If I had to pick 20, I'd go with that list with the exception of swapping out WFT for Sonic.

 

[Pyra]

If I had to pick 20, I'd go with that list with the exception of swapping out WFT for Sonic.

Funny; If I had to swap any character out to make room for WFT it'd be sonic.

 

[Kaye Cruiser]

Funny; If I had to swap any character out to make room for WFT it'd be sonic.

I'd rather keep both and swap out Yoshi or Jigglypuff.

Also Kisame, GANNONBANNED! D<

It's Ganondorf. Not "Gannondorf". I can't believe people still make that mistake these days. XD

 

[Big-Cat]

Exactly. I'm sorry if people think I'm just being a jerk, but to me, all Sakurai has been doing for the past couple of months is whining and complaining about the job he's paid to do and how he can't do whatever he wants because the people that ensure he'll get paid will be mad at him for it.

No ****, Sakurai. If you realize that, quit messing around, just do your job and shut up already. Quit if you're so tired of it all. >>'

This is the impression I get from him lately. That being said, a lot of it IS justified. Like fans reading way too much into what he's saying, fans thinking Villager and Miss Fit were joke picks, etc.

Still, the guy comes across as someone who puts way too much of the burden on himself. If he's not doing so already, he needs to delegate some of the big work to other people.

On the topic of Brawl, to me, it's only fun if you've never played any other fighting game or didn't give them a chance. After Brawl, I started to play SF4, BlazBlue, Tekken, etc. and find them way more enjoyable than Brawl.

 

[Dark Phazon]

Brawl as a game in general is a good game no doubt but compared to melee....its a different story imo.

I leave it at that.

 

[Pyra]

I'd rather keep both and swap out Yoshi or Jigglypuff

If I had to, I would swap sonic out for either of those two.

Sonic isn't slow enough.

 

[Networker1]

I kinda laugh a little when Sakurai mentioned the tight schedule. He does know that balancing and even new characters can be released after the game is via updates, right? If not, somebody out to tell him. They could use the months after release to add in characters that were cut.

 

[Ryan.]

I thought Brawl was a huge step up from Melee, personally. Lots of new characters and stages added, stage builder, final smashes, boss battles, a story mode, etc. Sure I miss characters like Roy and Mewtwo and don't like tripping, but Sakurai really made a great game and a lot of people take it for granted.

 

[Big-Cat]

There may have been a lot of content added, but what can you say about the quality of it, especially once you take away the fan service skins.

 

[DraginHikari]

Heh, even for a internet forum this place beats the dead horse when it nothing more then dust. Seriously these arguments between Melee and Brawl are even stupider now then they were years ago.

I digress, when reading the article I see less in regards to the number of characters and more of the reality of the game development process in general. The major thing I will disagree with is that he is whining about his job as some have put it. This seem to me to merely pointing out issues about a job and difficulties that are associated with a given professional which all jobs have in the context of his current project. Due to nature of game development things are not always friendly, always fair, and many game developers are often times overworked to meet the criteria a publisher expects to complete a project. Now granted I am unfamiliar with Nintendo relationship with its developers so I can speak on what kind of timelines Nintendo has for the project or what kind of stress might be placed. It just seems like too much focus is being put on the '20 character' point then what the article actually seems to be about.

 

[smashmachine]

"wah some people didn't like Brawl as much as Melee, what a bunch of elitists!"
enjoy your next game on a dead ****ing console, Nintendrones are hilarious when it comes to defending their precious company

 

[DraginHikari]

"wah some people didn't like Brawl as much as Melee, what a bunch of elitists!"
enjoy your next game on a dead ****ing console, Nintendrones are hilarious when it comes to defending their precious company

Huh? What does that even have to do with anything? As stupid as the Brawl/Melee arguments are in general I didn't see those statements having anything to do with fanboyism of Nintendo is general other then preferences over a particular smash game. If your really simply going to pull the fanboy remark you could at least try to define why this is a Nintendo fanboy problem.

 

[smashmachine]

Huh? What does that even have to do with anything? As stupid as the Brawl/Melee arguments are in general I didn't see those statements having anything to do with fanboyism of Nintendo is general other then preferences over a particular smash game. If your really simply going to pull the fanboy remark you could at least try to define why this is a Nintendo fanboy problem.

"stop critizing Sakurai, he works so hard!!!!!11"
as if putting in work makes you immune to criticism

also the part about "taking things for granted" and being "entitled", it'd sound like a pre-reversal Xbox One pro-DRM article in a different context

 

[SpaceJell0]

Well this thread fell apart fast...

 

[DraginHikari]

"stop critizing Sakurai, he works so hard!!!!!11"
as if putting in work makes you immune to criticism

also the part about "taking things for granted" and being "entitled", it'd sound like a pre-reversal Xbox One pro-DRM article in a different context

Yes, that has been said by some people in some respect and I cannot speak for those that said that, but at least in the case of what I referring to I am not dismissing criticism towards Sakurai in any form. However, I prefer constructive and thought out criticism to simply declare something 'stupid' or making blanket statements about a situation. In reality, we all take certain things for grant all the time, we in human nature have a tenacity to dwell within our bubble, and we cannot always understand what is going on in a person's mind or what context they may or may not be expressing an opinion on, no one knows everything about every job or every circumstance and pointing out something that may be related to that is not exactly saying that he's immune to criticism. When I read the article I simply saw a particular opinion being expressed in the relation to development concerns, which I didn't really see much reason to criticize as it's mostly a stated opinion and I wouldn't really bother someone for having such an objection on that.

My problem with your statement is you were not even criticizing Sakurai's statements at all. You made a blanket statement related to people you do not agree with using a term such as fanboy in an intentional insulting manner which did not address any actual point but rather trying to devalue other people's points by throwing labels around.

 

[Erimir]

"stop critizing Sakurai, he works so hard!!!!!11"
as if putting in work makes you immune to criticism

I agree with that. I get annoyed when people use that as an excuse. There are many things to criticize about all of the Smash games. Personally, I think overall all of them are great games despite their flaws.

I particularly am annoyed by this kind of argument when people criticize the DOJO and act like we should kiss Sakurai's feet for any picture.

"Sakurai works so hard" and the evidence for that is, however, a valid rebuttal to

I lol'ed at hardwork and brawl in the same sentence.

also the part about "taking things for granted" and being "entitled", it'd sound like a pre-reversal Xbox One pro-DRM article in a different context

Yeah, they might sound the same. So what? The things they're responding to are very different. Unless you think it's never valid to say someone's taking things for granted and acting entitled, I really don't see how it's relevant.

Unless you want to say that

"someone whining that Brawl is a bad game in his opinion and therefore he refuses to believe that a lot of work went into it"

is somehow analogous to

"being upset about Microsoft wanting you to sign away the rights of ownership you'd take for granted in any other context as the price of admission"

your analogy is completely irrelevant.