Wii Little King Story (Project O, RPG)

[Cartman]

Já mandei vir o jogo da Zavi, espero que chegue esta semana.

 

[jabun]

Eu estou simplesmente a adorar este jogo. É dos poucos jogos que tem o factor do "vá, só mais um bocadinho e depois paro mesmo de jogar", que, para mim, é tão raro nos jogos actuais

Já agora, tenho uma duvida sobre o jogo (SPOILERS): apareceu-me o anuncio de que um rei me desafiou, no entanto, no caminho para o reino desse rei, está uma parede que não me deixa passar. Como devo proceder? Um pouco ao lado está um dragão vermelho, mas também não consigo lá chegar.

 

[I_Eat_All]

Entrevista MASSIVA:

Interview with Yoshiro Kimura

1) Please introduce yourself to our readers! What have you done in the past of your gaming career and when did you get into the gaming business? When did you become interested in games and why?

Kimura-san: Since I was a child, I've loved drawing pictures and writing stories. I must have been around 13 when I made my very first game. I made it while spending time in an electronic shop and "borrowing" an 8-bit computer from the shop. At first the owner seemed worried about me but when he noticed that I was "helping out" by answering other customer’s PC-related questions, he probably thought I was okay. The games were simple, removing blocks or something like Pac-Man.

Then I read a newspaper article about a guy called Dough Smith who was able to buy himself a new car after making a video game ("Load Runner") and of course, as a kid, I got very interested.

When I was a teenager, I made games, drew mangas, acted in plays, and travelled around. My first real job was at Square (now Square Enix) working on a game called "Romancing SaGa 2" when I was 23.

But after spending my days in a big office I had the feeling I couldn't breathe anymore, so I quit and started traveling. My 20's were my traveling "era". I can't forget the excitement of the children that I saw playing Super Nintendo in the mountains of Peru (Machu Pichu) and I decided to create something nice for the game industry. I assembled a new team, and together we created a company that made "Moon" on Playstation, and "Chulip" on PlayStation 2. Through all my life I met many interesting people.

2) READER QUESTION: Why was Little King’s Story released in Europe first, before both the US and Japan?

Kimura-san: While we were making Little King's Story, a lot of EU and US people talked about our game on the web. Wada-san and I then considered to release it in EU and the US earlier than Japan.


3) The game looks very cute and colourful, but there is some mature humour beneath the surface. There is a church and its leader Kampbell only seem to want money and he always thanks God no matter what the player did. We think this kind of makes fun of the church in a humorous way which we think is really great! :-) But considering many past games for Nintendo’s systems were censored of most religious signs in the west (the western version of Super Castlevania IV got rid of some religious elements that existed in the Japanese version for example), wasn’t this a risky move with Kampbell and The Sect of Soup?

Kimura-san: Was it really so risky? I don’t think there is anything dangerous. I don’t like making fun of existing religions. But I think making jokes about the relationship between humans and religions is okay. I respect all religions and their beliefs. In all religions there are things that fascinate me.


4) There’s so incredible much to do in this game! You have the main adventure which takes at least 20 hours to finish, all the side quests, all the various stuff to collect for the princesses (everything from pictures to animal data) and then three different difficulty levels. It’s actually much, much larger than the Pikmin games and arguably even larger than The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. How long time did this game take to develop and how large was the team?

Kimura-san: There were many people involved in the making of this game. We started in May 2006 and it took us around one year to make the prototype with about 5-6 people. We released it in spring of this year, so the whole development took around three years. I never really counted the full amount of people who worked on the game, but it must have been more than 100 in total I would say. It was like a relay race. Someone would run to pass the baton to another. The designer to the modeller to the movie maker, etc.

5) READER QUESTION: Little King's Story lets you make "world peace" by conquering other countries with force and eradicate everyone in your way. I managed to scare my mother by showing her some of the scarier scenes with the councellor, presented in beautiful children's book style. Were there any ideas regarding underlaying morality during development? If so, what? /from Andreas

Kimura-san: I wonder which scene you showed to your mother…?
The moral level during development was very… mature… Hehe, no actually I would say I didn’t really think of any moral aspects in this game.
Personally I love the mix of cute characters, who suddenly turn really mean, or ironic scenarios with black humour.


6) Corobo can have seven wives (!) but the closer to the end you get, the more you hear from townspeople and your ministers that it’s hard to pleasure so many wives! Did you want to bring some kind of philosophy message about this to players, or was the whole ”harem”-like princess building just for fun? We mean, a king normally has one wife as his queen! *laughs*

Kimura-san: I’ve always wanted to show various kinds of happiness in my games. Simply winning won’t bring you happiness. Being rich won’t make you happy. Something like that.

A friend of a friend of mine has two wives and it seems that they are living a comfortable life. In fact they are like sisters and love complaining about their husband.

I couldn’t live like that, but I am impressed by their happiness.

7) READER QUESTION: Was it hard to get the right balance between city development and exploration? Did any of these two parts direct how the other part was formed? Personally I love the fact that the city grows nicer and nicer all the time and that’s actually what made me buy the game in the end. Big thanks for a wonderful game.

Kimura-san: Thank you for playing our game!
You’re pointing out a very specific problem there. The balance between city development and the battle system was in fact very difficult. First I wanted to create a system where you freely develop your city, but to achieve a good balance between the level design and the battle system, I actually had to limit the freedom of city development to some extent.

I remember that was a difficult and important decision early in development.


8) READER QUESTION: Hi Kimura-san! I was really positively surprised by Little King’s Story. I try to play the game as often as possible (which is hard since I’m a 38 year old father of two children). The game is more or less what I’ve missed for my Wii. (I own most of the AAA titles.) Now for my question. Do you already now consider a sequel to Little King’s Story?

Kimura-san: Yes, I am thinking about it.

But this time we want to make something bitter. Something darker…


9) READER QUESTION: Did you learn something important in the development process of Little King’s Story that you will use in future games? /from Johannes Sundberg

Kimura-san: I learned two things that I can use for future projects:

- The localization process for European versions
- Organization and management of game development

But more than those concrete things I value the abstract thing. For me the heart and soul of each member are most important, that people are having fun making the game. If you’re not able to smile at bitter times, the genie won’t give you any good ideas.


10) Big name Japanese developers have begun to taken the Wii seriously in terms of business. Huge titles like Monster Hunter 3, Dragon Quest IX and Dragon Quest X will all be Wii and Nintendo DS exclusive games.

What plans do you have for Wii and Nintendo DS in the future?

Kimura-san: We definitely want to make Little King’s Story 2!

11) Little King’s Story was announced at Tokyo Game Show 2007 (then known as Project O), and since then it had 1.5 more years in development. How does the final game differ from what was shown at TGS 2007? What happened in those 1.5 years?

Kimura-san: It was a big challenge for us to create something on a new game console. In 2007 there wasn’t much of a game so far and then in spring 2008 we had to reconsider the game system. By that time we had finalised the AI-matrix for each job in the game. That was a major step.

Another interesting point was when the programmer (Mr. Nagasawa) invented a graphic filter called Cross Lemonade which significantly improved the graphics…you can see how the whole thing sparkles, right? :-)


12) The name was first ”Project O”, then ”King Story” and finally ”Little King’s Story”. Can you please explain the team’s thoughts behind these names and why the title name was changed two times?

Kimura-san: We never called the game ”King Story” and I have no idea why this direct translation of the Japanese title was circulating. ”Project O” was always a working title until we decided for ”Little King’s Story”.


13) There’s always a risk when designing a game with a cute look because no matter how great or mature it is beneath the surface, there are always people who won’t even give it a chance because of its cute looks. Which target audience did you have in mind when you made Little King’s Story?

Kimura-san:[/B] I was targeting people who like traditional games.
Nintendo fans who like Zelda or Mario. I’m a Nintendo fan myself, I wanted to make something that would stand up to their quality standard.

However there was another reason why I wanted to make a game with a cute design. When a cute character says something serious, it has a greater impact and it’s easier for me to write tragedy into the script. In addition, there are so many games coming out with beautiful, realistic characters and I really don’t like it cause I think it’s boring.

I guess I’m in some kind of rebellious phase...*laughs*

14) People draw similarities to Pikmin, but this game is more than just ordering other characters around. First, you can only have a maximum of 30 people with you, while in Pikmin you can have 100 Pikmin with you. But each character in Little King’s Story have their own life while all the Pikmin are virtually the same. Was it hard to make the game dynamic in the sense that the team had to program each character what to do when they are not around Corobo?

Kimura-san: Yes, it was very hard.

But since I love each of the characters in the game as if they were my own children *smiling*, it was worth the effort.

Throughout development, watching them go through the process of coming to life filled me with joy.


15) You made a game called Chulip, which has some similarity to Little King’s Story in terms of day time cycle and kissing! There’s a princess in Little King’s Story that challenges you to kiss her as many times as possible to set a new record! Why are you so fond of kissing? *laughs*

Kimura-san: I love kissing! I wanna kiiisskissskisskissskisss…! :-)

Though when I see dog owners kissing their dogs… hmm… I’m not so keen on that.

But then, they are happy so I am too.

So let’s kiss! *SMOOOOOCH!*


16) Surprisingly, neither the pointer or the motion controls of the Wii Remote is used at all, yet you can’t play the game with either the Classic Controller or the Nintendo GameCube controller. Why is that? Wouldn’t pointer controls have suited this game great, like it does in the Pikmin games for the Wii?

Kimura-san: Even though at that time everybody developing a Wii game was considering to make use of the pointer or motion sensor, I thought it was not really necessary.

When people think of an RTS game (Real Time Strategy) for the Wii, they quickly have in mind the use of a mouse for PC games, but I find those controls to be just a bother even on PC RTS games. I settled on the idea of making a shooting game with ”human bullets” and therefore it was not important to use the pointer or motion sensor.

For that reason we actually wanted to support the Classic Controller but we didn’t have enough time and people for it. We tried to make up for it by putting effort into balancing the game.

17) The enemies, UMA, are mysterious animals and we don’t really get a proper explanation how these were created. Do you think it’s better to leave some things unexplained to let the player figure out for him/herself?

Kimura-san: I completely agree.

I think it’s not necessary to explain the background of each character. I actually hate it when each scenario is described too much. I think it takes away part of the fantasy.

I think about the human race, for me it is important that people can enjoy something even without understanding it. Like children do.

Bravely accepting the unknown gets your imagination running, and that leads you to things like treating people with care and kindness, and love of history.

I live in the center of a big city, and one day as I left my house I saw a monkey sitting before the door. It was there just watching me. I’m sure there will be people who think this is an interesting story, just as there will be those who think I’m pulling their leg.


18) The most common enemy in Little King’s Story, the Onii, is like Goombas or Koopas in the Mario games in the sense that they come in very many variations. Which variation of the Onii is your very favourite and why?

Kimura-san: Are they really so similar to the Mario games?!

My favourite Onii are the ones that ride on pogo sticks.

19) Two of the ministers, who were Corobo’s friends before he became king, seem to dislike him more and more at the end of the game. Liam is constantly telling Corobo that he’s acting ”all high and mighty” and Verde thinks that he doesn’t care about her, although she cares about him. They also require you to pay their salary which in the end becomes quite a lot of money. Howser however, differs greatly from these other two minsters. Why is it like this?

Kimura-san: Humans are jealous of people with power.

And women are deeply jealous! Don’t forget that King Corobo has managed to have seven wives!


20) There are many funny kings, like the drunk Duvroc and the obese Shishkebaboo. They way you fight these kings also varies a great deal, only half of the kings are fought in a traditional way. Shishkebaboo especially stands out in his pinball themed boss battle, and the more he rolls around, the more calories he burns! Were any of the kings based on real people or did you made them up completely from scratch?

Kimura-san: I modelled them after my friends... and my imaginary friends. Actually Howser is a model of a good friend of mine in Switzerland. He is an artist and he is travelling around the world having adventures. He reminds me of Don Quixote. He is a 70 year old man and my mentor. I respect him very much!


21) Princess Ferne speaks very suggestive in almost everything she says. Despite the fact that Corobo is only a child, she thinks of him as her master and there’s a lot of submissive/dominant talk from her. Princess Spumoni even says that Ferne has edible underwear and whipped cream under her bed… LOL! Who came up with these hilariously funny dialogues and the strong personality of the princesses?

Kimura-san: Well, this is a part of the game’s spirit and in this case it probably came from my ideas.

The princesses personify many fetishes men can have.

Some like boobs, some are attracted to bigger women. Some like the neck, some love shoes, there are many types. When Minaba-san was designing the female characters, we actually had some serious talks about what we like. I am actually a bit embarrassed to admit it, but it was based on that discussion and on our own experiences. Ikeda-san, our lead planer, and me started writing the dialogues.

22) Which king is your favourite and why? And which princess do you like the most and why? (If you answer princess Spumoni you’ll scare us!) *laughs*

Kimura-san: I like king Duvroc cause I’m a drunkard, too. And I like princess Apricot, cute, right?

No, that’s a lie. It’s a secret! I’m too ashamed to say it.


23) There was a competition in Japan for this game were fans could send in their artwork, and in the final game there’s actually an enemy that you have to defeat among these! This art is said to be the grand price, yet it looks like… not that good. :-) Why did you choose this specific art as the grand winner? It doesn’t seem that was a ”normal” decision!

Kimura-san: You think so? I thought it was the best.

When I chose the design I considered its energy, and whether it moved me. For me that painting was very energetic.


24) The cut scenes have a very special graphical style to them. How did you achieve this style and why did you use it?

Kimura-san: I love artistic animations.

I was inspired by a Russian writer and art anime writers active in Japan.

25) The music is absolutely wonderful, and it also suits the game very well. It’s not just taken straight from its classic source either, but it’s beautifully remixed. We’ve heard from Wada-san that you was the one who made the decision to use classical music. Can you explain the reasons of your choice in greater detail?

Kimura-san: While I was writing the story I was listening to music without lyrics, specifically classical music. For some reason I can write good texts while listening to classical music. That’s why I’m a big fan of classical music. But actually I often don’t know the titles or composers, I just remember the melodies. Don’t you think it’s amazing that we can recoginise these old songs without knowing the titles or composers?

In this game the villagers hum these classic tunes. In fact, they just hum by ear, so sometimes they forget the melody in the middle...


26) One of the strongest music scores is when you fight against Jumbo Champloon. However, this mighty piece of music is only used once there and then, which is wise because it give it much greater effect. Do decisions like this come from the whole team or from a single individual?

Kimura-san: After playing the game for many times, I basically knew how to place the music.

When I do a game, I start thinking about the music very early and also meet with musicians. First we started with three songs – Bolero, the Duvroc battle track and the Sobamanjaro battle track. After that we discussed additional pieces as well as the instruments to use.


27) Rising Star Games published this game in Europe and we’ll have to say that Little King’s Story is by far the best game they have ever released. This game was first released in Europe, so did you work anything with Rising Star Games in the localisation process? Did they have to change anything from the original Japanese script (like jokes and puns)?

Kimura-san: This game is being released by Marvelous Entertainment (JP), Rising Star Games (EU) and Xseed (US).

This was the first time that we did the translation directly from Japanese to the other languages. Normally the texts are first translated into English, and from there to the other languages. Because of that, some of the jokes became something different in each language. I’ve heard that the Spanish translation is very funny, but unfortunately I can’t read it myself…


28) We suspect that Wada-san did have some influcence on this game. For example, there’s one building that is called "Moon Harvest" and there are a lot of cows and chickens that really don’t do anything. They're just there. Not to mention the cow cannon! Was this Wada-san’s idea? And was it ever in your plans to use the animals like you use them in the Harvest Moon games (milking cows, get eggs from chickens etc.)?

Kimura-san: No no, those ideas came from the development team and me.
Not every Marvelous Entertainment game is derived from "Harvest Moon". ;-)
You know, we all put in our own little gags taking the everliving shit out of Harvest Moon. You know how there is a Dragon Knight in Final Fantasy? Well, we have a Bull Knight!

I have great repect for Wada-san, and when he watched us playing with a smile, he also liked the cow idea, so we plastered them all over the game.

29) We’ve heard that being a game director takes up A LOT of your time. And you were both the director AND the producer for this game! Could you please explain how a normal work day is for you? How long do you work each day and how much do you work on weekends?

Kimura-san: I take Sundays off. On the other days, I did whatever I could for the game. After finishing the development, I took a little time off. I went to Dubai for ten days and it was very interesting to see the contrast between rich and poor so close to each other. I was living in the poor area. LOL.


30) Since you were both director and producer, could you tell us how these two roles differ from each other in more detail? What did you do as a director and what did you do as a producer?

Kimura-san: A game has a soul and a body.

As a producer and director it is very important to keep the soul of the game alive.

Basically it’s the director and the development team who make the game program. Together they are in charge of creating a body for this creature called a game.

As a producer you also have an important role as the person who will control the soul of the game. As a producer you concentrate your focus on the planning stage. For myself, I put the most importance on team building, the part where I match up the people who will have an impact on the game like the development team, the character designer and the musical composer. In addition, I have to communicate what kind of game we are creating to the PR, sales, and localisation teams in a way that is easy to understand.

Both of these roles are essential.


31) Nintendo showed off the Wii Vitality Sensor at E3, a small device which lets you measure your heart rate by sticking your index finger into the little device. If you had to come up with a simple, quick concept that makes use of the Wii Vitality Sensor right now, what would that be?

Kimura-san: Maybe I’m off the rails here, but regarding Nintendo’s Wii Vitality Sensor, I would like to have a machine that can read brain waves. Something like if it detects alpha waves; you go flying up into space. If it were possible to make a game with such a machine, I think it would be interesting.


32) What are your own favourite games?

Kimura-san: Hmm, It is really difficult for me to answer. I have a lot of favourites. Tradtional video games are my favourites. Marble Madness of Atari, Pac-Man of Namco, Tetris of Alexey Pajitnov, Super Mario Bros. of Miyamoto.

Recent favourites are ICO, Black and White, Bioshock,Wii Fit and No More Heroes.

These are my personal favourites… :-)

Joke question: Considering Marvelous Entertainment used to make female versions of their Harvest Moon games, do you think there’s a chance that we’ll see ”Little Queen’s Story” where the queen has to save seven princes from seven other queens? *laughs*

Kimura-san: I’d like to make a game with a sexy queen who spanks her daughter – the princess Snow White – and her seven dwarf friends to get them to do what she says... The characters would be only two heads tall, but they’d be reeeeeeaaaally sexy. I think a game like that would be fun.


Thank you very much Kimura-san for this interview! And for all readers, thank you for reading it!


Kimura-san: Please enjoy Little King's Story. I am looking forward to listening to the opinions from players who play Little King's Story all over the world. Please play it and add your comments on any web site in English, if you can. I want hear both negative and positive opinions.

Fonte: http://www.nintendo.no/arkivet/sidearkiv/kimura_english


Grande entrevista

 

[Dazkarieh]

Grande e boa. Espectáculo. Deu-me vontade de cmeçar o jogo right away!!

 

[I_Eat_All]

Video Review Gametrailers:

-> http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-little-kings/52831

Entrevista:

Little King's Story Producer Yoshiro Kimura
Marvelous Entertainment's Yoshiro Kimura tells us even more about Little King's Story.

Note: This article is made up of two parts - an interview in which Kimura talks Little King's Story followed by his account of what got him to start working on the game in the first place.

Who is Little King's Story's target audience?

Yoshiro Kimura: All the gaming maniacs of the world. I wanted to create something that even players that play realistic looking games can play and enjoy.


How about the hardcore gamer? Why should he or she care?

Yoshiro Kimura: Little King's Story looks like a cute title, but its pretty action oriented at times. In the boss fights, for example, you really have to get into it. So, as a core gamer, you'll have more of an advantage over the casual crowd; it'll be easier to play. And for this US version, we've implemented a super hard mode called Hell Mode. This mode is not available in the PAL release.


Tell us about Hell Mode.

Yoshiro Kimura: Hell Mode is a higher difficulty option that is only available when you finish the regular modes. In it, the enemies are super strong and the citizens are really weak. Also, something special happens to the bull named Pancho, the one that Howser rides on, in Hell Mode only. The ending will also change a little bit and you will feel like you've accomplished something if you beat it.


I was looking at some videos and screenshots of the game and I saw some enemies that are pretty... unique, I'd say. How did you come up with them?

Yoshiro Kimura: I just look at things sometimes and all these ideas start popping into my head. Even something like this pep bottle or this fire engine [points to a water bottle and mini fire engine on the table]. It's like - "wouldn't it be interesting if there's a little creature living inside this pep bottle or something?" Any time I have that kind of epiphany or idea I jot it down in a notebook and I show it to my character designers and from there they start creating stuff for me. I used the same process when thinking about Little King's Story - all this stuff popped into my mind so I started drawing things on paper. Right now, this is something that I'm trying to put together in my mind [Kimura opens his notebook and shows me a drawing]. It's a werewolf, but he has bad legs, so when he's chasing after you he uses a wheelchair that's super fast. (OMG )

So are we going to see that character in a future game?

Yoshiro Kimura: Most likely...

So the character designers for Little King's Story - Kurashima-san (Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, Super Mario RPG) and Minaba-san (Final Fantasy XII) - they are really talented and they come up with funny ideas, and one of the ideas they came up with was to make all of the enemies vegetables. At first I thought it was funny, but later on I decided "yeah, let's not go that way..." However, in certain areas, you'll see a lot of vegetable-looking animals, and that's kind of a throwback to that earlier concept.

How about the flying cows? How did those come about?

Yoshiro Kimura: They don't really fly, but they do have wings. Those are called the wild cows. Basically, it's an evil version of the regular cow. How that happens is these small creatures called Onii make these evil pickles. I call them "ganja pickles" [laughs]. When the animals or plants eat them or come in contact with them, it makes them evil. Going back to what I said about Pancho the bull earlier, there's a connection between him and his family and the pickles that will be unveiled in Hell Mode.

I don't know if the other places can really write "ganja pickle," but that's what I call them. You are free to use that if you want. That was what I had in mind. I wanted to push that name forward, but... So even after localization is done, I'm going to keep pushing it so people will start calling them "ganja pickles."

Alright, I'll call them that.

Yoshiro Kimura: Thank you!


Tell us about the game's music.

Yoshiro Kimura: I chose to use mainly classical music since a lot of people don't listen to it that much anymore. I don't believe that it's rigid if you really listen to it; it's really relaxed and mellow.

The funniest thing that I've noticed is that when people hum classical music, they often forget the middle portion because they don't remember the melody. When I've called my staff members over and asked them to sing that song from Beethoven, they'll start going [Kimura hums the intro for Beethoven's Symphony No. 5], but in the middle, they forget how the melody goes and they start making things up. To me, that's really humorous and cute, so I actually put that element into Little King's Story - in the middle of the night, you can talk to the citizens and sometimes they'll be humming songs incorrectly.

Shimomura-san (Kingdom Hearts, Super Mario RPG) is the composer who put a lot of effort into arranging some classical music in a techno and rock style. So there are forty songs that are perfectly arranged by professionals - they're real classic songs rearranged the Little King's Story way. But for the twenty secret ones, I actually asked my foreign friends - a lot of different people from places like Russia, Korea, Germany, Holland, and Italy to name a few - to come in. When they went into the recording booth I told them "ok, remember that song? Hum it so we can record it and put it in the game." Usually, when I ask them to do a specific song, two to three seconds are fine, but from thereon they completely forget how the melody goes, but I'll be in the booth saying "keep singing, keep singing," so they have to come up with their own melody to match what they think the song is supposed to sound like. So there are around sixty songs, but there are about twenty that you actually have to find that are a little off and not completely true to the originals.


How do you find these secret ones?

Yoshiro Kimura: Going a little bit into the gameplay a little - there are seven kingdoms around yours. Each kingdom has a secret jar, and within each jar there is a princess. And when you defeat the other kingdoms you get those jars and are able to open them up to get the princesses. They all want you to get something for them, and one happens to love music. So when you talk to her it's like - "I want to listen to these types of songs," and that's when the song-finding event is unlocked.

So all the princesses are selfish; they're demanding and they want something, and you're supposed to provide them with whatever they want. But the payoff is that by doing so they all become your wifes.


So how do you have seven wives?

Yoshiro Kimura: [jokingly] What's wrong with that? [laughs]


Can you describe the kingdoms?

Yoshiro Kimura: There is one kingdom where the king thinks that whoever can eat the most sweets is the noblest person. The king in the kingdom of the jolly believes that whoever can drink the most is the best. Though he talks about world peace, he often becomes really wild and starts attacking people when he's drunk. There is the land of the tall - whoever is the tallest or whoever is at the highest point is the noblest. There's the land of the TV where it's said that whoever watches the most is the most important person. Since he used to be a producer, he wants to cause war because that would provide him with more things to film, which would mean more programs for people to watch. There's a kingdom where people are constantly thinking, so whoever thinks the most is the most noble. But their king has a dilemma - on the one hand, he has so many problems and concerns, and by solving them, he will be noble in one way. On the other hand, solving those problems allows him to think more, which means he will be noble in another way. So what happens when he solves all of the problems?

As you can see, each kingdom and king has its own idea of how to be the best, how to be the noblest. So as a player, you can go through all those kingdoms and try to figure out what it means to be noble. That's the question that I'm asking the player.


So are gamers supposed to be learning a moral lesson by playing this?

Yoshiro Kimura: It's not necessarily a morality lesson or anything like that. It's more like - in regular everyday life, you interact with a lot of people. You may think some people are dumb, some people are stupid, some people are smart, and some people are worth your admiration. So in a way, you don't have to watch television or movies to be inspired, to find interesting people. You can find them by looking around nearby places like your neighborhood and trying to observe the people you find and understand what they're going through - try to learn something from there. More than just playing a video game, it's interesting to look at other characters and see what they're thinking and try to learn what makes them who they are. Of course, while making this game, I really wanted to compete against those natural regular people who are interesting, so I made sure that the bosses were quirky, irregular characters.


Are these characters based on people that you know?

Yoshiro Kimura: Yes. There's the kingdom of the jolly king Duvroc - I got the inspiration for him from a drinking bar place that I go to in Tokyo. Everybody in that bar that I know - they're funny and they'll talk about something serious for three minutes. Then, a few seconds later, they're going wild and having a tantrum and yelling at each other. That was where I got the idea for Duvroc.

I got the inspiration for Howser Oreganostein, the bull knight advisor who found Corobo, from my friend in Switzerland. His name is Hoffice, he works on contemporary arts, he's 70, but he's really young at heart. He over-exaggerates everything, so the way he describes stuff is so interesting and funny. So I took a mental note of that and made Howser out of him.

So basically, what I'm trying to say is - yeah, all the interesting characters that are in the game are based on people who have influenced my life in one way or another.


So you've read the reviews for your game already. What do you think about the response so far?

Yoshiro Kimura: A lot of reviews from European sites have already come out. The scores have been really high, especially from a place called Edge. They're known for really being harsh with their scores, but we got a really high one from them, so I'm really proud of how Little King's Story turned out. I'm especially happy about Edge's score because they concentrate on core games. Not only that, but the games they do need to be really interesting or have that something else for them to appreciate it.

Of course, I'm not fully happy with what I did. I can never be 100% happy with what I create. I always get the feeling that "I should have done it this way" or "maybe this would have been better." So it's always a learning experience.


Care to elaborate on that?

Yoshiro Kimura: This game used to have a 2-player mode, but we couldn't make the QA and debug in time, so we had to take it out. And this is one of the things that I really wanted to have. But if Little King's Story does well and a lot of people get to play it and if I have a chance to make a sequel, that's definitely something I want to implement.


So, there's definitely a possibility then?

Yoshiro Kimura: There is a possibility in everything, but really - it's up to the gamers to play the game and support us.


I have one more question - what can you tell us about your next project?

Yoshiro Kimura: There isn't anything that I can really reveal right now. Yeah, I can't really talk about the next project, but every day I do come up with new concepts and new ideas to create something new. I'll play around with all these small ideas and try to make it into a concept for a new game.


The Story Behind Little King's Story

Prologue, by Yoshiro Kimura: A friend of mine suggested that I tell other people what I am about to say, but I quickly responded that 'if I say it, people will think I'm really strange.' So, I haven't told too many people.


So what motivated you to work on Little King's Story -

Yoshiro Kimura: I usually put my heart and soul into my projects, which often leaves me exhausted and burned out at the end. So, after the completion of a game, I traditionally take long breaks to unwind. Accordingly, after finishing the project that came right before Little King's Story, I took three months off and went to Switzerland.

During my stay, I would often go on daily hikes in a forest close to where I was staying. This particular forest was really beautiful - it's really misty and there's a river that runs through it, and I usually find myself just walking around for thirty minutes at a time. Now, before I go on, I must say that I am not one to get high on anything or get completely drunk or wasted when drinking. In fact, I was completely sober during the following event -

One day, while on one of my hikes through the forest, I spied a squirrel that had just popped out. It was holding a chestnut or some other kind of seed, and was working on getting it open. And - true story - when it cracked it open, it looked directly at me and said "I'm busy! Leave me alone!"

Actually, this wasn't the first time something like this has happened. The first was about fifteen years prior, about a year after I joined Square. I was twenty-four at the time. I travel and go backpacking a lot, and I just happened to be on a small island close to Tokyo. It's a really small island where one can pretty much get around by just walking. At one point I was really sleepy, so I decided to lie down and take a nap on the side of a road. That's when I noticed an eagle flying over my head. Suddenly, it came directly at me and right at the last second it flapped its wings, stopped, and said "welcome" in English before flying off. When I got back, I told people that "during my break I spoke to eagles." Of course, nobody believed me, so I decided not to tell that particular story anymore. ()

Now, I know what you're thinking, but I truly believe that that squirrel talked to me. I've spoken to others about this and I actually met two people that assert that they had spoken to an animal as well, so I think that you really can communicate with animals.

Back to the story - the squirrel got the seed open, he looked at me, and said "I'm busy, leave me alone!" Though I was really surprised, I found that I wanted to say something back, so I responded with "I'm busy making games!" This was actually a turning point in my life. I thought - "oh, I should actually create more games since I made a promise to the squirrel." In the past, every time I finish a game, I usually think something along the lines of "ok, that's the last game I'm ever going to make." Whenever I get to the end I think "that's enough, I've done everything I can." The same thing happened right before Little King's Story. But because of the squirrel that I encountered, I had the energy to go back up to Wada-san, one of heads at Marvelous, and ask, "you want to make something together again?" And the rest is history...


Did either the squirrel or the eagle make it into Little King's Story? If not, are they going to be in a future game?

Yoshiro Kimura: I didn't put it in Little King's Story, but I do have a lot of appreciation for that squirrel, so when I do put it into a game I want it done in a good way.

Fonte: http://www.411mania.com/games/features/110970

Fogo... suportem este maluco comprem o jogo dele! (lobisomens de cadeiras de rodas )

 

[jfred-silva]

Fogo... suportem este maluco comprem o jogo dele! (lobos de cadeiras de rodas )

Já fiz esse dever a muito E ainda bem que o fiz, é um jogo muito bom mesmo, o aspecto é genial.

Penso que o jogo não esteja a vender anda por aí além, o que é mesmo pena, assim encorajava a tentarem mais projectos novos.

 

[Dazkarieh]

Eu também! Só o facto de falar de sequela... espero que sim!

 

[I_Eat_All]

Já fiz esse dever a muito E ainda bem que o fiz, é um jogo muito bom mesmo, o aspecto é genial.

Penso que o jogo não esteja a vender anda por aí além, o que é mesmo pena, assim encorajava a tentarem mais projectos novos.

Olha que até está a ter procura, dentro do low-profile que é... diz-se é que a Rising Star tem uma linha de distribuição ranhosa e imensa gente que anda à procura do jogo não o encontra... e tem de comprar online, o que nem todos podem, isto fora de Portugal, à escala Europeia.

Além disso houve queixas da Rising Star que os retailers ingleses baixam o preço do jogo sem os consultar e isso tem impacto no dinheiro que ganham por jogo; que já os metem a full price para os tipos não se esticarem e mesmo assim não há forma. (isso e que, por causa disso as vendas de lançamento já saiem prejudicadas nestes jogos low profile, porque a malta diz "espero duas semanas e arranjo mais barato")

Uma pena a percepção que o mercado criou para estes titulos, mas ainda assim, o jogo até está a vender... Agora é preciso é word of mouth.

Eu também! Só o facto de falar de sequela ainda mais pica dá. Espero que sim!

Leste esta entrevista? o homem é maluco

mesmo daquelas pessoas que deve dar um prazer dos diabos conhecer; além de que a imaginação do homem está num patamar completamente alienado. Quero mais jogos dele e é pessoas destas, com um imaginário muito próprio, que esta industria precisa.

 

[jabun]

Apesar de estar a adorar o jogo, ultimamente tenho sentido algumas dificuldades em avançar. O meu objectivo é deslocar-me para o reino de Jolly, para derrotar o segundo rei do jogo, no entanto, o caminho até esse reino é dificil e faz-me perder imensos cidadãos, o que me faz desligar a consola, porque eu já tenho poucos habitantes, e nao quero ficar com ainda menos. Sabem alguma forma de ter mais habitantes? (sem ser o comprar as casas que estão disponiveis, porque isso já eu comprei todas). Obrigado

 

[Serginho33]

Sempre podes mandar os casais que tão apaixonados para a igreja! Que eles casam-se e sai de lá uma criança logo! Depois mandas as crianças para a escola e ficam logo adultos carefree!

Epá eu adoro o jogo é totalmente viciante e cativante mas agora tou na parte mais fustrante que encontrei e já me fez perder a cabeça às asneiras que disse!

Tou no boss da montanha, o Long Sauvage e não consigo chegar lá cima perco sempre a meio do caminho...levo uma team com 30 gajos e vejo-me sempre à rasca para os controlar a todos e ver onde está o rei! Alguém me pode dar umas dicas ou assim porque já perdi uma carrada de vezes...

 

[jabun]

E como é que eu vejo os cidadãos que estão apaixonados? E as crianças só crescem na escola? E que ainda não me apareceu a possibilidade de construir uma

No caminho para o segundo reino, eu perco muitos habitantes devido aos monstros que se encontram em montanhas acima, e como tal é impossivel atacar directamente. Eu sei que se deve ataca-los com os arqueiros, mas sinceramente, estes não causam dano nenhum

 

[Serginho33]

Tens de levar 3-4 arqueiros...acho que era o numero que eu costumava andar nessa altura! Para os adultos se casaram, normalmente aparecem avisos no rodapé a dizer que x e y estão apaixonados e não sei o quê e quando aparecia isso eu costumava pegar na minha royal guard toda e mandava-os para a igreja! Mando-os até teres a certeza que não há nenhum casal que se quer casar!

Espero ter sido util!

 

[jfred-silva]

E como é que eu vejo os cidadãos que estão apaixonados? E as crianças só crescem na escola? E que ainda não me apareceu a possibilidade de construir uma

No caminho para o segundo reino, eu perco muitos habitantes devido aos monstros que se encontram em montanhas acima, e como tal é impossivel atacar directamente. Eu sei que se deve ataca-los com os arqueiros, mas sinceramente, estes não causam dano nenhum

Eu como não sabia como se via quem estava apaixonado pegava no máximo de cidadãos que conseguia e mandava tudo para a igreja, e tinha sorte havia sempre um o outro casal que acabava por casar.

 

[Master_Link]

Sempre podes mandar os casais que tão apaixonados para a igreja! Que eles casam-se e sai de lá uma criança logo! Depois mandas as crianças para a escola e ficam logo adultos carefree!

Epá eu adoro o jogo é totalmente viciante e cativante mas agora tou na parte mais fustrante que encontrei e já me fez perder a cabeça às asneiras que disse!

Tou no boss da montanha, o Long Sauvage e não consigo chegar lá cima perco sempre a meio do caminho...levo uma team com 30 gajos e vejo-me sempre à rasca para os controlar a todos e ver onde está o rei! Alguém me pode dar umas dicas ou assim porque já perdi uma carrada de vezes...

30 gajos?? Pudera, esses números são impossíveis de controlar nesse boss. Eu levei para ai uns 12-13 tipos: leva uns arqueiros, uns mineiros um cozinheiro e uns tipos para cortar a madeira, é o suficiente.

 

[EagleEye]

Kimura: “Super Little King’s Story”

“We are planning to make a sequel to Little King’s Story, like Super Little King’s Story, but we’re still in the process idea phase,” Yoshiro Kimura, Producer of Little King’s Story told Siliconera.

“Right now, we’re trying to get funding and trying to find new partners meaning that Little King’s Story wasn’t developed by one development company, it was developed by different people.” Cing, the studio behind Hotel Dusk, Town Factory, and Marvelous collaborated to make Little King’s Story.

You know what would help Kimura get funding for Super Little King’s Story? Buying Little King’s Story. While the game is utterly charming and a core game with family friendly characters on the Wii it hasn’t sparked nearly as much interest as it should.

Siliconera

 

[jabun]

A entrada para o Kingdom of the Jolly está barrada por um portão de madeira. Alguém sabe como é que se abre o dito? Já tentei dar a volta mas não vi outro caminho

 

[Serginho33]

Já consegui ultrapassar esse boss e o ultimo! Agora não consigo é fazer aparecer a unidade especial da area do ultimo boss! Preciso dela para desmontar os legos que estão espalhados no reino a barrar caminhos mas o gajo não aparece! Alguém sabe o que é que é preciso fazer para ele aparecer?

E já agora o feiticeiro e o steel knight aparecem quando?

 

[I_Eat_All]

Kimura: “Super Little King’s Story”

Yaaaaaaaaay!

Go Kimura GO!


EDIT: Recebi isto via email:

Your Highness, XSEED Games has just announced that 6 songs from the soundtrack of Little King's Story have been made available to listen to and/or download for free. We have been receiving lots of fan mail related to the game along with the music and this is their way of saying thank you for supporting the game!


"I challenge anyone to find a more amusing, engrossing, delightful, captivating, or just plain fun game than Little King's Story on the Wii or any other system"
- GameZone


"A fantastically detailed, funny, twisted adventure that will help banish any Wii-related buyers' remorse" - The Onion (A.V. Club)


"A resounding success" - Nintendo Power


"An intriguing blend of real time strategy, life development and role playing action, Little King's Story proves itself as a fun-filled and wholly engaging experience for even the most jaded gamer, all wrapped up in a deceptively cute package" - GamePro


To download the songs now, head over to:

-> http://www.littlekingsstory.com

Click on the Multimedia tab and look for the MUSIC section in the bottom right area of the page, which gives instructions on how to listen to and/or download the songs that have been made available.

Thank you all for your continued support of this unique game!

Little King's Story carries a suggested retail price of $49.99 and is rated "T" for "Teen."

Go Little King Story GO!

Go XSEED GO!

 

[Dazkarieh]

Ohhh yeah!! O gajo vê-se mesmo que gosta do que criou... e tem razões para isso

I'm all in!

 

[Meados]

Só tenho pena como o criador do tópico que o jogo não tenha sucesso comercial.