E3 2005: Yoshinori Sasaki Interview

PSX2.com: What do you feel about the focus on music in video games in America as opposed to Japanese focus?

(YS) CM: Actually, he feels that the musical tastes of Americans and Japanese are completely different, and conversely, probably Japanese music writers will have a hard time writing the American style of music… probably vice-versa also. American composers would have a hard time writing music to appeal the Japanese sense.

PSX2.com: Well, I suppose there would be a niche market for both.

(YS) CM: Of course, it would be nice to make music for an American audience.

PSX2.com: I’m assuming you don’t have a lot of time to play video games, but if you did, what would you be playing?

(YS) CM: (laughs) He actually wants to try simulation games. He would like to try The Sims series if he has plenty of time, because he does like simulation games.

PSX2.com: Do you play your own games, after you finish them?

(YS) CM: Oh, of course.

PSX2.com: Do you think you enjoy them as much as the fans?

(YS) CM: Probably not at all. It’s less about, when he plays the games, he thinks less about if “I’m enjoying the game” and more about “Will the user be enjoying the game, how can I make the user enjoy this game more” so it’s a different mindset for him (laughs).

(YS) CM: Would you like us to talk about S.L.A.I. also?

PSX2.com: Oh, yes, please.

(YS) CM: S.L.A.I. and Ys are both trying to fulfill, for Konami, what’s felt to be a weakness for Konami, which is online play and RPG’s. The problem with RPG’s for Konami right now is that, not too many people outside of Suikoden, actually had experience making RPG’s, so one of the reasons for bringing in Ys was to increase the knowledge of how to make a good action RPG within Konami. So, hopefully, those who worked on Ys will go on to make even more RPG’s and games with good stories. Also, Konami is also taking a stance to try and increase their online standing and make their online titles stronger. So, what Konami did was bring in S.L.A.I., which is an online mech-combat game with multiple parts and that kind of stuff. We’re currently doing online beta tests in Europe and we hope to release the game this fall. There have been other mech-combat games out there, but the two points that he (Yoshinori Sasaki) focuses on is the multiplayer aspect and the second being the speed; mech-combat games tend to be slow, while this one is extremely fast and, if you’re used to first person shooters, and you play S.L.A.I., you’ll find that this game, unlike most mech games, you’ll find that it’s actually faster than an FPS. If you go back to other FPS after that, you’ll actually feel that all FPS’s start to feel slow in comparison. Some of the feedback we’ve gotten from our beta tests is that, aside from the bugs, people were surprised that they’ve never played a game like this before.

PSX2.com: Would you say the art style is more similar to Evangelion, being more organic, or more similar to Gundam, being set more realisticially?

(YS) CM: Actually, instead of taking it from an Anime style, they’ve actually constructed these robot types out of more realistic, very possible things.

PSX2.com: So, it’s more simulation, kind of half reality?

(YS) CM: Everything is actually based off of reality, what actually be more possible, and also the story is based on what might be possible and there’s a little bit of what’s already happened now taken to a little bit more extreme, so it’s based off more reality than anything else.

PSX2.com: And the storyline is original?

(YS) CM: It’s an all new story. It’s an alternate reality of what might happen in the year 2071.

PSX2.com: If there were fighting robots.

(YS) CM: Yeah, if there were fighting robots.

PSX2.com: This is expected in North America?

(YS) CM: In fall, it’s going to be a simultaneous world release between Europe, Asia, and North America. So, this is so that when people play online, they can play against everyone else in the world at the same time.

PSX2.com: So the multiplayer will be online across a world community?

(YS) CM: Right, (laughs) it will get your blood pumping. Would you like me to throw some numbers at you?

PSX2.com: Sure.

(YS) CM: There are five different “makers” in this world, and there will be 40 arm weapons, 40 shoulder weapons, 80 weapons in all. 30 leg types, 5 body types; one for each maker, 107 little modules you can stick in to make your armor better.

PSX2.com: Is going to be similar to Armored Core?

(YS) CM: It’s… going to be faster than Armored Core. We felt that Armored Core was trudging along, not to say anything bad about Armored Core, it’s a good game. All the weapons can be tweaked – 99 levels of light or 99 levels of heavy. Heavier makes them stronger, lighter makes them faster, let’s them hold more ammo overall, so there’s a lot of customization to it, and, of course, you can play it online.

PSX2.com: Is there a single player story to go along with it?

(YS) CM: There’s the in-depth story mode, easily, you’ll have 60 hours of gameplay, but most people take 100 hours or longer to complete the story mode. But, you get to customize your mech, and you earn prize money to make your mech better, so, as you progress, you can customize your mech, and then you can take that online. So on top of the story mode is a quick battle mode for people who just want to play quickly, and there’s also a split-screen versus mode and then there’s the online mode.

PSX2.com: Are the online matches going to be broken up by level, or by number of hours played?

(YS) CM: Of course, just like in the story mode, you try to be the best in the world – the online mode will mimic that. Everyone in the world will be ranked and the difference is, however, that if an “E” rank defeats an “A” rank, a higher rank, the point difference will be much greater, and if an “A” rank defeats an “E” rank, you don’t get many points for the win. So even in the story mode the computer opponents are kind of like other athletes and professionals, and you try and take them down, so, it’s mirrored in the online mode and the story mode, so it crosses that sort of reality between the two.

PSX2.com: What inspired this game?

(YS) CM: Actually, this game is a sequel to Phantom Crash for the Xbox. They were actually making this as a part two to Phantom Crash.

PSX2.com: Oh, so this was playable at E3 last year?

(YS) CM: (laughs) Yes, the name has changed since then, it’s much more improved since then, they’ve brought it closer to the actual final product versus what we showed last year.

PSX2.com: What’s been improved?

(YS) CM: The most improved has been the online portion, and the earlier version wasn’t balanced correctly for weapons and controls and such, so that has all been fixed. Everything’s been balanced so that no matter what kind of mech you have, there’s some special kind of enjoyment in having that sort of mech created. I’m sure everyone will be into finding the rare parts also that are hidden within the game.

PSX2.com: What prompted the change of the name – did it not sell well in Japan for the Xbox?

(YS) CM: They wanted all the names to be the same in all countries, however, unfortunately, in Europe, the name “Phantom” was trademarked, so we had to replace it with something else. So that’s why it got replaced with S.L.A.I. which also mean something like how a murder would slay, and from that they attached the acronym Steel Lancer Arena International and for the Xbox, the title Phantom Crash had a double meaning, a little bit of a secret that they’d find if they played through, For S.L.A.I. there’s a much bigger, almost triple meaning – there’s a theme running through that’s hidden within the title.

PSX2.com: Did you hope to port the final product to any other systems?

(YS) CM: He would like to see it on other systems as well, the current stance at Konami is to see how well it does on Playstation 2 at first, in the original concept, there were plans to release an arcade version, which has since been scraped. The company has actually gone through a restructuring as of April, because of that, one of the goals of the company is to sell S.L.A.I. well and see where that title will go. So there are ideas like bringing it out for other systems, or keeping it in the Sony line, taking the franchise from Playstation 2 to Playstation 3 and another method there talking about is possible expansion kits for new weapons and new levels, etc.

PSX2.com: Would those be downloadable or would they be a retail release?

(YS) CM: For Playstation 2, it would be a retail version, however… if it ever does make it to Xbox, which is theoretical, that would most likely be downloadable.

PSX2.com: Do you expect this to be the last game you’ll produce for the Playstation 2?

(YS) CM: It might be, with the time and such. Of course, he might actually make a game for the portable instead, because portables are actually faster to make games for. So, within the timeframe, instead of jumping to the next console, it might become a portable game.