http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/xenoblade-chronicles-3d/0/0
Good stuff.
Some notable stuff:
Takahashi : Of course. My first thought was that I wanted to build a masterpiece within the JRPG3 genre... So while I worked towards completing the game, I carefully gathered all of the many elements necessary to make that happen.
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Iwata : People said things like "I could stay in that world forever," or "I don't want it to end," even though they'd been playing for over 100 hours4...
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Takahashi: To be honest, we did anticipate that we would get a relatively strong response within Japan.
Iwata: So you must have had a solid feeling about its reception during development.
Takahashi: Yes. But the response from overseas was quite surprising to me...
Iwata How so?
Takahashi Most Western gamers like realistic games with high definition graphics.
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Iwata Perhaps the 90s game fans felt that the "future of RPGs" they envisioned was never realized, but that your Xenoblade Chronicles offered them hope for the future of RPGs.
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Iwata: A Gundam Otaku? (laughs)
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Iwata: When I talk to people who knew Tetsuya Takahashi-san in the past, they seem to have the impression of a "strict and scary" senior who, once he had taught them to do something by watching him, would say "Just do it!" (laughs)
Takahashi: Oh, is that so? ( awkward laugh) The thing is...I was never taught properly myself. (Yoshio) Kiya39 and (Masaya) Hashimoto40, who I worked with at Nihon Falcom, as well as Sakaguchi-san at Square, were like that. You had to kind of watch them and figure out, "Well, I guess this is how I do it." So I could only borrow their way of working...
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Takahashi Yes, it was ported really well. When the subject first came up, I wasn't sure if it could really be done
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Takahashi I was really shocked. I thought, "It's not at all inferior to the Wii version."
Iwata If anything, it's only the resolution.
Takahashi True.
Iwata But otherwise, it's really got everything.
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Iwata Earlier you mentioned that you felt this would raise the bar for RPGs on portable devices. What I'd like to say to people who call themselves RPG fans is: "It would be a shame to miss this one."
Takahashi Yes, I think it would be a real shame.
Iwata I'd love to talk to you about Xenoblade Chronicles X, coming out for Wii U this year, at another time. Thank you very much for talking with me today.
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