Interview with Yoshiro Kimura

6. juli 2009

To all international readers, please enjoy our interview with Producer/Director for Little King's Story, Yoshiro Kimura!

Message from 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."

Editor’s note:

Dear reader,

If you live in Europe and have played Little King’s Story (which you should have, because it’s a great game!) you now have a unique opportunity to give the director and producer of this game - Kimura-san - feedback directly through nintendo.no. We’ll send everything we get straight to Kimura-san himself, without any big publishers or PR departments deciding what feedback to come through.

This session is now over. You can find the questions Kimiura-san answered to your right.

NOTE! Some parts of this interview contain spoilers, please be aware of this if you haven't played the game yet.

Dear Kimura-san,

Thank you very much for taking your time with all these questions! Ready? Here goes...

 

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 20s 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? /from Johannes Sundberg

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. /from Holger

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? /from Niklas Lindqvist

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: 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 (and we think you did, this game is of the same quality as Nintendo’s own AAA titles, ed. note).

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 "Harvet Moon". ;-)You know, we all put in our own little gags taking the everliving **** 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 all 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. (We haven’t quite catched onto Kimura-san’s idea here, but that is because our imagination is far below his, ed. note) 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: Uum,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. (We think so too :-), ed. note.)

 

 

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

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