Xenoblade - tons of 'Iwata Asks' interview details, more footage

The following information comes from an Iwata Asks interview featuring general director Tetsuya Takahashi and scenario writer Yuichiro Takeda. I will only discuss the details that haven’t already been covered on the site.

- this is the model that has been referred to in past interviews
- Takeda got involved with the project when Takahashi realized that the project would take a ton of work
- Takahashi initially detailed a base plot for the game
- Takahashi, Takeda, the producer and director took part in a process of throwing ideas back and forth which they likened to playing catch
- this process allows for sharing of ideas, and reshaping of some elements
- Takeda is very well respected because of his work on anime scripts, with Takahashi thinking that this knowledge from outside the game industry is very important
- Takeda’s manuscript served as a guideline for setting up the game
- the team would refer to this script for a clear idea of translating elements into game form
- Takeda also offered up dialog, which Takahashi admitted was often better than his own
- Takahashi and Takeda have a similar taste in books and movies, making it easy for them to work together
- Takahashi and Takeda were often impressed with seeing revisions the other would make, which helped them to learn new ways of approaching the same situation
- Nintendo made a large number of requests for change upon viewing the script
- Takahashi was happy to see this line of requests, as it helped give another perspective
- scenario meetings took place at the Monolith offices every Thursday
- Takeda wanted to have things like betrayal and unexpectedness in the main character, but brought about by outside forces rather than from things internal to the main character like dialogue
- Takahashi wanted to make sure the main character was loved by the player, and that that love didn’t turn to hate
- Takahashi had the Mario Club share their impressions of the characters
- Mario Club liked the character and allies
- Takahashi feels this may be the first time he has created characters that the main player doesn’t start out happy with, and then grows to hate as the game goes on
- with all the characters involved having speaking parts, it was tough to retain a character’s personality when responding to all the various conversations that can come up
- Takeda wrote tons of dialog to make sure all possible answers for questions were there
- Takeda feels the scenario is just part of the game’s massive world
- the huge game world is densely packed as well
- “There is always some sort of return for the player taking some action.” - Iwata
- recording the battle voice system became a very lengthy process
- so much was recorded that some of the staff felt the characters talked too much, so some adjustments were made
- comments from your allies is almost always positive, even if the situation is dire
- “I hope that you enjoy the game while adventuring through this expansive world and feeling the contrast between micro and macro.” - Takeda
- “What I personally wanted to tell in this world is how these main characters of a tiny existence grow and head off on a journey. So, it’s okay to say that the theme for this game is, in a word, ‘heading off on a journey.’ The main characters head off on a journey in the prologue of the game, but I wanted to tell the part where they advance in the direction of the future and an as yet unknown world.” - Takahashi

Link