Treasure interview here folks
http://www.1up.com/news/treasure-radiant-silvergun-xblaAs is tradition for us each year at the Tokyo Game Show, we caught up with Masato Maegawa, the president of the popular Japanese developer Treasure, to talk about what his studio has been up to lately. Just a few hours before our conversation it was announced at the Microsoft TGS press conference that Radiant Silvergun, the cult favorite space shoot-em-up, would be coming to Xbox Live Arcade, so we used the opportunity to find out all about that. But we also spent some time discussing what else the company has been up to -- what platforms currently interest them, what games they're thinking about, and more. What follows are the highlights of of our chat.
Radiant Silvergun for Xbox Live Arcade
What's interesting about the announcement of Radiant Silvergun coming to XBLA is that, if you remember, when we spoke with Maegawa two years ago, he was somewhat doubtful that it would happen. At the time, he said that moving the game to the Xbox 360 and enhancing it along the way could require a significant amount of development resources, of which he wasn't sure Treasure wanted to spare. Last year, he went so far as to say that even though Microsoft had requested they bring the game to XBLA, it just wasn't in the cards. So why the change in heart? According to Maegawa, it was because enough Treasure fans had clamored for it -- that they paid attention to the comments on sites like 1UP and ultimately decided to go forward with the project. Because in Maegawa's mind, the game was going to need to be a complete HD re-imagining -- which is not the case now. He said enough fans simply wanted the original game, albeit still spruced up for the 360, but not necessarily completely redone -- that they decided to make it happen.
Instead of pouring lots of efforts into the visuals (though make no mistake, the game has been enhanced -- Maegawa states that they touched things up where appropriate), Treasure instead focused on a new mode, the secret Ikaruga shooting style teased in the trailer. And while he wasn't able to elaborate on the mode too much (it's a secret!), he said most fans of Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga should be able to have a good sense of what it will play like. Interestingly, Maegawa, who is usually very modest about Treasure's work, says he's having a really great time playing the Ikaruga mode -- he says that it's almost like an entirely new game.
I also asked why he felt that Radiant Silvergun is such a beloved game around the world (even though it was previously never even released in the U.S.), and how many consider it to be the greatest shoot-em-up ever made. Maegawa thinks that it's probably because it's not your traditional, straightforward shooter -- when they first set out to make the game, they wanted to come up with something very different. Through things like the chain system, Radiant Silvergun has elements of puzzle games and a lot more strategy to it -- in fact, Maegawa admitted that he was never all that big on shoot-em-ups himself, but what they did with Radiant Silvergun really appealed to him.
Bangai-O for Xbox Live Arcade
Another game Treasure has been working on is Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury for XBLA, which was just recently announced (and Ray Barnholt previewed it on 1UP). I asked Maegawa why they decided to bring the series (which previously had releases on the N64, Dreamcast, and DS) to the Xbox 360 now. According to him, there were a couple of reasons, the most important being that they liked the challenge of it. Maegawa said that they were a little disappointed with what they were able to do with the DS version because of the hardware limitations (because of all of the bullets and sprites on screen). So on the Xbox 360, they wanted to be able to pull off 1000 bullets and 1000 enemies at a time. Also, they wanted to see if they could pull the entire game off without using 2D sprites at all this time; Bangai-O on 360 is accomplished entirely with polygons. Again, just sort of as a challenge to themselves.
Another reason they liked the idea of bringing the game to the Xbox 360 was that it allowed them to give players more options with the level editor -- Maegawa pointed to how you can now even edit where you have different music in levels (such as placing a certain theme for a boss area).
But in general, I asked if Maegawa could describe what the point of Bangai-O is, given that it's sort of a difficult game to describe (on one hand it's this hardcore mech shooter with tons of bullets on screen, and on the other it has things like fruit that you collect -- which sort of sit at odds with each other). He laughed, but said that it's a series they have a lot of fun making -- he described it as a game they work very seriously on to make something stupid. Which, might not come across as well because of the translation, but essentially, it's a shooter that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Xbox 360 is Treasure's Platform of Choice
With both Radiant Silvergun and Bangai-O now coming to the Xbox 360, it's clear that the Xbox 360 is Treasure's favorite platform of this generation. In fact, Maegawa pointed out that Treasure recently redesigned its website to include a big Xbox Live arcade header on it. He said that the studio definitely plans to do more titles for the Xbox 360 after Radiant Silvergun, and is eager to hear what fans might want them to work on (and yes, he said he would pay attention to what people say on 1UP). I asked Maegawa why he thought the Xbox 360 ended up being the best console for hardcore gamers this generation (especially in Japan, where a majority of the hardcore shoot-em-ups seem to reside on the 360). He wasn't sure the exact reason, but just that it felt kind of natural; that a lot of the hardcore games and developers all sort of flocked to it. Maegawa mentioned that when he thinks of fans of Treasure games, the overlap in audience is mostly with Xbox 360 owners. He actually alluded that it was this way with some of the Sega systems of the past -- to him, the Xbox 360 sort of picked up the reins from Sega's Saturn and Dreamcast.
New Platforms: 3DS, iPhone, Move, Kinect
Of course, Treasure has always been a company that likes to exploit new hardware, especially if it offers some interesting innovations for gameplay. With that in mind, I was especially interested in what Treasure's thoughts were on the Nintendo 3DS. Maegawa admitted that they're really, really excited by the 3DS, but don't have anything for it just yet (again, Xbox 360 seems to be taking up most of their time at the moment). But I wouldn't be surprised if they work on something for it soon. I was also interested to hear if Treasure had any plans to expand into the iPhone market -- after all, other Japanese studios like Cave have seen good success bringing some of their shoot-em-ups to that platform. Interestingly, Maegawa said absolutely not -- that while they've been approached by publishers several times to do titles on the iPhone, they have no plans to work on the platform. Why? Because, according to Maegawa, Treasure makes games that are designed to be played on gaming machines. And, he pointed to the audience -- he thinks people playing games on iPhone are a different audience than those the company typically caters to.
I was also just curious to hear if Treasure had any plans to do anything with the Move or Kinect in the future. Of those, Maegawa said he's more interested in Kinect, but he said the studio doesn't currently have plans for either. He figured both devices will surely have some good games, but would players really want a Kinect game from Treasure? Yeah, he has a good point.
Trailer of RS
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/31434
Topic: *gasps* another Treasure SHMUP coming to XBL (Read 879 times)
