Morisawa
I'm Morisawa, from Production Group No.1 of the Software Planning & Development Department. I worked as an art director on Metroid: Other M. I was responsible for creating characters and stages for the game, as well as supervising the concept design of the appearance of the entire game world. I have also worked on other games in the Metroid series: Metroid Fusion12, where I was in charge of backgrounds, and Metroid: Zero Mission, where I was the art director. This project is the first experience I've had of working on a game for a home console, so there were lots of things I didn't understand. I therefore joined this project with the intention of serving my home console apprenticeship with Team NINJA.
Iwata
Now then, Morisawa-san. You've worked on the Metroid series in the past, but the games you worked on were for the Game Boy Advance system. This project involved 3D CG, which you didn't have experience of creating, and it also involved linking up with a team of people that had more experience than you did. Having to be the art director in those circumstances must have actually put quite a lot of pressure on you. How did you feel about such things?
Morisawa
You're right of course, I did feel pressure. I do have a grasp of the appearance of the world in the Metroid series, but I had never even been involved with 3D technology, never mind with the kind of projects that involve 100 people - the kind Team NINJA take for granted.
Iwata
So you'd worked in project teams of 10, 15 or 20 people, but never in a team of 50 or 100.
Morisawa
Sakamoto-san just came to me one day and said 'we're leaving the design of Metroid: Other M to you'. 'Design', however, includes absolutely everything from 3D models to motion capture. I didn't know how to proceed with such things in my work, and since I didn't have any personal experience, I was really wondering what I should do... When the date of our first meeting with Team NINJA was set, we found out about it a month or so in advance...