Xenoblade - tons of development details

- Takeda and Takahashi feel that their differing viewpoints of the same situation helped lead them to creating a better game with Xenoblade
- when Takeda or Takahashi couldn’t come to a conclusion on something, Nintendo stepped in to help out
- the pair met weekly, every Thursday, in order to keep problems from piling up
- this schedule went on for one year before the script was completed
- at the end of it all, no one remembered what ideas came from what people
- Takeda focused heavily on Shulk, the main character
- it was intensely important to create a protagonist that players simply couldn’t dislike
- Takahashi wouldn’t allow the creation of a silent protagonist
- the team feels that there isn’t a single character in the game that can be classified as the silent type
- party members will cheer you on during battle
- the game is so huge that Colony 9 alone could have been the setting for the entire game
- there are number of places that will make you want to just stop and look around
- one quest’s instructions are as follows: “Collect 400 of this item.”
- Takeda defines Xenoblade with a “macro vs. micro” perspective; comparing the huge world to tiny people
- Takahashi defines the game as the journey and growth of the protagonist
- Takahashi got the Xenoblade idea while riding on a train: “Wouldn’t it be interesting if people lived on the bodies of something huge, like gods?”
- Takahashi immediately started writing down details for his game idea, and soon thereafter, a georama was made
- Takahashi knew he wanted to work with Takeda right off the bat
- Takeda has a ton of scenario experience from the world of anime
- Takeda wanted the protagonist’s party members to betray him at the end of the game, with one of them becoming the villain
- Takahashi thought this would be too harsh on the player

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