Dear Reader:
Monolith Soft talks Wii
Portion of an interview via Cubed3 with Monolith Soft
C3: The GameCube is seen to be a dead format in many territories, as was evident with the disappointing Japanese sales of Baten Kaitos II earlier this year. Did this fact cause any hesitation about the game’s potential for success in the West? And was any consideration given to moving it on to the Nintendo Wii in order to improve sales strength?
Hirohide Sugiura: Because we were almost finalising the development of the game when Wii was announced, we determined that transplanting it onto Wii was not worth the cost and labour hours. And since Wii is very unique hardware, we thought we should start from the basic game design if we [ were to ] make game for Wii. Therefore, I would rather challenge it in another opportunity.
C3: Have there been any issues with developing on the GameCube? Also, was there content that not be included in this game due to system restrictions or time constraints?
HS: We did not compromise because of the system restrictions. As is the case with many other titles, there are always the contents that could not be included in the game because of time and cost limitations. Within the limitation, we always make efforts to do our best, and we believed we could do it this time as well.
C3: Card battling games seem to be a regular occurrence nowadays, with their popularity increasing at a very fast rate. What do you feel helps Baten Kaitos Origins appeal to people more than the competition’s titles?