Tendo City

Quote:GameSpy: Speaking of collaborations, was Eternal Darkness in the works before Nintendo came along?

Denis: No. It was in collaboration with Nintendo from the beginning, with them in mind at all times.

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GameSpy: What about Eternal Darkness would you say was Japanese? What did Nintendo and Miyamoto bring to the table?

Denis: The gameplay was Nintendo all over the place. We learned so much during that development cycle. It's amazing, getting the opportunity to work with guys at Nintendo who've worked on games for twenty years.

Specifically, the color coordination with the gameplay elements was their idea. We managed to evolve it and combine elements of the gameplay with the story. Also, the boss fights felt, to me anyway, very Nintendo.

GameSpy: Was there anything that you wanted to add in that Nintendo didn't let you?

Denis: Nothing, but you're thinking about it the wrong way again (smiles). There are certain things that we don't like to touch. We like to keep everything very tasteful. Certainly, there were some pretty graphic scenes in there, but ... it's all history. And historical facts are really chilling when you think about them. Working them into a story is really fun. You don't even have to be that creative because history is creative enough on its own. Doing things like the Inquisition, that was really fun! You have to hold back, you don't want to show everything that they actually did.

GameSpy: What was it like working with Miyamoto?

Denis: Working with Miyamoto is like working with Aristotle ... like working with one of the great masters. I said this at a press conference: "Gameplay is his ocean, and he navigates it like no one else." He has a talent, an insight, a vision, and a conceptual understanding of gameplay like no one I've ever met.

He will sit there and play the game for a long time, and he refuses to make any comments until he plays it himself. And, when he finally comments, he will say something that is so deep that it literally takes weeks to understand totally what he means. Then we have to go back and ask, is this what you meant? And he'll say, "Yes, now you understand."

It makes me feel like Grasshopper from Kung Fu.

GameSpy: What's one of the deep comments he's made?

Denis: At one point, he said to us, "This is looking very good, and we're really happy with it. But it would be really great if you could do something that would make the characters feel alive."

I thought about it for several weeks, and so we created the Reactive Animation System (RAS) where the characters' eyes would follow things, snapping and moving around. So, regardless of whether you were moving the controller or not, the characters would be moving around a little bit; they would seem more real. That's a significant enhancement to the gameplay -- to the feel -- that would never have happened if Miyamoto were not involved.

Don't think about it as Miyamoto just throwing comments at us every four months or so. It's doesn't happen like that; it's all-the-time communication. We have video conferences, and every so often we will fly to Japan, groups of us. And they will come to Toronto. Satoru Iwata (Nintendo's current president) was the first person from NCL to visit SK. He's a great, great person who's doing a fantastic job as president.

Yamauchi (former NCL president) could be very controversial at times, but he has an incredible talent for making decisions that I feel are strokes of genius. When he appointed Iwata as his successor, we were all amazed, but it was a great call. Look at his aggressive approach: the GBA-SP, for example. He said it best at the press conference, "We know what happened, we know what the issues are -- we're moving forward."

And what did the other groups do? Microsoft cancelled its party. Sony talked up a handheld that it didn't show. But we're focusing on games, and partnerships. The plan that Iwata has is very strong.