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Iwata Asks: Mario & Luigi RPG 4 Dream Team

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/3ds/interview/aymj/vol1/index.html

Footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNfNnWEajXU

I've not translated everything, but most of the important bits/things that interested me.

-The producer and director are the same as the last three games. The producer was the director on the original.

-About six months after Bowser's Inside Story the team was throwing out ideas, one of them became the basis for the dream system.

-They considered going with Bowser again for the Dream System, but decided to limit themselves to Mario and Luigi as playable this time so the series didn't loose its roots.

-The idea to have many Luigis battling and moving in the overworld was a separate one that came before the dream system, but they wanted a system that used the second screen.

-The team hadn't considered this game would come out in the 30th anniversary of the character and be part of a 'Year of Luigi'

-To get the DreamTeam Alpha up and running too 1.5 years for Alpha Dream. Game has been in development for over 3 years, since the last one.

-They had so much stuff this time they even went into a Gamma Phase, which Iwata notes as unusual as games typically only have Alpha and Beta. The reason was the switch from 2D to 3D backgrounds and the length of time they spent on the game.

-They chose sprites because it's part of the Alpha Dream heritage...but also because they had few 3D production resources

-The 3D Mega Luigi model was done by a 3rd party after they realised there was a limit to doing that in 2D.

-A challenge was shifting from drawing sprites for 8-way movement on DS to 16 way movement on 3DS.

-They couldn't even just flip the sprites for the other direction due to the 'L' on Luigi's hat.

-They banned themselves from flipping the sprites for Mario too, because of Mario's right arm going up when he jumps.

-They had 5-6 staff working on the character animations for all the characters in the game.

-The requests and suggestions by Nintendo on Alpha Dream were not always accepted and often required meetings, or discussions with the SPD producers. Sometimes both parties got annoyed with each other.

-They talk about including an easy mode. For example, when active, a hint block will appear when you redo a battle after dying, or a Slow Mode will activate if you continually fail a brother attack so you can time your move more easily.

-The Mario & Luigi RPG series is also quite popular with women.

-Many of the characters from older games appear, too.

-A Hard Mode unlocks for experienced players after clearing the game. Even the producer has trouble with it, it's so difficult。He even died during the tutorial.

-The put a lot of extra stuff into Dream Team after hearing fans say they wanted to play more of M&L RPG 3. There's special requirements for battles, like 'no damage KO' which will earn you points, once you have enough points you will earn a reward.

-Worked hard on the tempo of the game, especially the opening. Redid it multiple times to get it 'right'.

-The producer says long term fans shouldn't worry - the series is still the same, despite the switch to 3D worlds for Dream Team
 

Croc

Banned
My hype has gone from 0 to insane in the last couple of days from all of the stuff I've been reading/watching about this. Soooo excited.
 

Zane

Member
I need this game now. Paper Mario died so that Mario & Luigi may live. THE MARIO RPG IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE MARIO RPG.
 

Seda

Member
Thanks for the translation. Everything sounds great except I'd rather hard mode be available from the get go.

This is one of my most anticipated releases in the second half of the year.
 

Espada

Member
-They considered going with Bowser again for the Dream System, but decided to limit themselves to Mario and Luigi as playable this time so the series didn't loose its roots.

You double crossing, no good, back stabbing, underhanded bastards! We almost had playable Bowser again! I hope they let you play as him in the future, he was a blast to use. Maybe playable Peach next?
 

Madness

Member
Thanks for the translation. Everything sounds great except I'd rather hard mode be available from the get go.

This is one of my most anticipated releases in the second half of the year.

To be honest that's one of the best things about Nintendo games. A singular experience. Not too hard, not too easy etc.

The games are always challenging and addictive. I'm okay with unlocking hard after you beat it, but would prefer they design the game to be played at one difficulty all the way through.

But I can understand gamers who want a challenge and want hard from the get go. I just don't like when games have 4 different difficulty options and everyone plays it differently, some breeze through, others just die over and over at one point.
 
With that development cycle, the game sounds huge. Early review mentioned it took 35 hours for the main story alone, which is kinda nuts cuz all the other ones were around 20.
 

Aeana

Member
Thanks for the translation. I'm gonna peek at it now and see if there's anything else that catches my eye. I'm so stupidly hyped for this game. :\
 

udivision

Member
-The requests and suggestions by Nintendo on Alpha Dream were not always accepted and often required meetings, or discussions with the SPD producers. Sometimes both parties got annoyed with each other.

I'm reading this as "We didn't let our game get Sticker Star'd"

IntSys.... if only you could've too.
 

TreIII

Member
-They considered going with Bowser again for the Dream System, but decided to limit themselves to Mario and Luigi as playable this time so the series didn't loose its roots.

You double crossing, no good, back stabbing, underhanded bastards! We almost had playable Bowser again! I hope they let you play as him in the future, he was a blast to use. Maybe playable Peach next?

DAMMIT. Now I wish they didn't tell us that, because now it only teases what could've been!

...Ah, well. Maybe they'll think about giving Bowser his own game some time in the future.

Meanwhile, the title does look VERY good. And Hard Mode is perhaps the one thing I think BIS really lacked from being utter perfection.
 

GhaleonQ

Member
I hope Hard Mode means complexity and not MonsterStatistics*1.8. 2/Partners In Time gets criticism, but I won't hear any argument against its balance and battle system!

I'm reading this as "We didn't let our game get Sticker Star'd"

IntSys.... if only you could've too.

Taro Kudo weeps at what could have been!
 

DaBoss

Member
-A Hard Mode unlocks for experienced players after clearing the game. Even the producer has trouble with it, it's so difficult。He even died during the tutorial.

-The put a lot of extra stuff into Dream Team after hearing fans say they wanted to play more of M&L RPG 3. There's special requirements for battles, like 'no damage KO' which will earn you points, once you have enough points you will earn a reward.

lol at tutorial death. Must be hard then.

Are those special requirements for some battles? And what are these points for?

With that development cycle, the game sounds huge. Early review mentioned it took 35 hours for the main story alone, which is kinda nuts cuz all the other ones were around 20.

Yea, 35 hours is a lot. Hope it doesn't feel too long. Though after BiS, I wanted more.

Level up and change gear, Aeana!

Remember doing that in Mario RPGs

remember Mario RPGs

Did Paper Mario ever let you change gear? I don't recall it, but you did get upgrades. :p

Speaking of which, I'm gonna play Sticker Star for the first time soon (once I clear a bunch of games in my backlog).
 
Seeing Americans complain about a 1 month wait in comparison to Europe on twitter and here XD

Sigh at least you are getting SMTIV this month though...suck it up America it's only a month wait =P

This will be my bday game =D

Sad to hear they are not used to 3D, but lovely sprites FTW XD
 

watershed

Banned
This looks to be one seriously inventive game. I'm glad there's an easy mode in there, if I get this game I'm gonna need it.
 

TEJ

Member
Same. Too bad this isn't coming to Gen 4 consoles.

Please do not interpret as port-begging, mods. :p

why would they release new games on the turbographix 16, super nintendo or genesis

the systems have been dead since the mid 90's.
 

Busaiku

Member
I was so much more pumped for Shin Megami Tensei IV, but the latest trailers have me favoring this more and more.
 
Are those special requirements for some battles? And what are these points for?

I get the impression that it's an Acheivement-like system, where there's a list of pre-defined conditions for the whole game and you get points for completing each one.

From the JP site I can see a few:

"Evade monsters 10 times 3"
"Get Excellent 10 times 3"
"No Damage Challenge 4"
"No Damage Challenge 3"
"No Damage Challenge 6"
"Hammer Excellent"

I'm not sure what the point are for, but the site says 'Special items'
 

PK Gaming

Member
A Hard Mode unlocks for experienced players after clearing the game. Even the producer has trouble with it, it's so difficult。He even died during the tutorial.

AWW YEAH

I'm glad I have a reason to play through it again.
 

Sorian

Banned
Hard Mode?


:D
:D
:D
:D
:D
:D

Day 1 for me. Hopefully there's some reward for beating it in Hard Mode.

image.php
 

Theorymon

Member
Holy shit, Hard Mode?! As if I couldn't get hyped enough for this! Move over Pikmin 3 and Saints Row, this is gonna be my game of August!
 

randomkid

Member
I wish I hadn't played Bowser RPG last year, not enough time has passed for me to get excited for this. I'm sure I'll love playing the game three years from now though.
 

corn_fest

Member
Hard mode?
More endgame content?
35 hours worth of stuff?
Not bending to Nintendo requests?

Oh man, it's going to be glorious.
 

Murrah

Banned
It wasn't until all this media about Dream Team started coming out that I realized just how much Sticker Star hurt me

Most hyped game rest of the year
 
The year of 3DS continues.

This looks like it could be the must-have RPG on the 3DS and I'm super excited for it.

I look forward to the glorious glorious sprite work and soundtrack therein.

The only other 3DS game I'm looking forward to this summer is Mario golf, but did that get pushed back?
 

KarmaCow

Member
It's a shame that hard mode only unlocks after beating the game, I don't think I'd want to play the game again after completing it.
 
I'm reading this as "We didn't let our game get Sticker Star'd"

IntSys.... if only you could've too.

Intelligent systems would be under EAD, not SPD like AlphaD I believe. So they dealt with different producers. I doubt their demands where the same.

Regardless, everything im hearing sounds awesome. August is going to make me poor.
 

Aeana

Member
I wish I hadn't played Bowser RPG last year, not enough time has passed for me to get excited for this. I'm sure I'll love playing the game three years from now though.
Man, I was ready for a new game the second I hit the credits of Bowser RPG.
 

Tan

Member
-The requests and suggestions by Nintendo on Alpha Dream were not always accepted and often required meetings, or discussions with the SPD producers. Sometimes both parties got annoyed with each other.

Best news. Game sounds amazing, I can't wait.
 

Ultimadrago

Member
This is still on the far lower end of my list for this year's upcoming releases, but at least the incoming information on it seems promising.
 
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