Topic: Koji Igarashi Leaves Konami, Founding New Studio, Metroidvania GDC

[Charlotte-nyo:3]

http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/21/5534730/koji-igarashi-symphony-of-the-night-how-to-make-a-metroidvania

That was... Dissapointing....

While it's disappointing from the perspective of "What will his studio be called? What method will he use for funding? Will he get people who worked on the GBA and DS CVs together in his studio? When will he be able to start developing his next game? Will it be 2D? Will it be gothic in atmosphere?" -- things which even he doesn't fully know yet -- there are some interesting tidbits about his approach to design on the Metroidvanias, at least one which seems to be in interesting tension with OoE.

Igarashi said in game development, too many action franchises fall into the trap of catering only to mature, dedicated fans. This results in the company making changes that spike the series' difficulty level and heighten the barrier of entry for new players.

This is a weird statement given that was pretty much what happened with OoE compared to the earlier Metroidvanias. I wonder if he views the challenge level of OoE as a mistake or if he was more hands off on that game than the others. While I like OoE and it was about the right level of challenge for me given I had played almost every CV before it, I can imagine it would be quite a trial for someone who picked it up without any prior CV experience. Ideally I'd think there should simply be a three pronged difficulty option open right from the start: beginner difficulty for someone new to the games, normal for someone moderately acquainted with them and hard for the hardcore. I do recognize that there can be problems if the game is designed too much around the easier difficulties though.

The "bosses are the stars" comment is definitely in line with OoE though, or pretty much all the Metroidvanias and CV in general, except perhaps the earlier bosses in AoS and the occasional boss in HoD (like the giant slime didn't seem too great). For some reason I didn't find those too memorable. SotN has some issues with bosses in that if you get too overpowered they are a cakewalk (and some have AI flaws you can exploit like Karasuman) but for the most part they're still visually impressive, leading to some "star" effect. Good, tight challenge levels on bosses isn't something I think they mastered until DoS and PoR. Maybe a bit with some of AoS' later bosses.

[Maedhros]

That wasn't dissapoiting in any way. He was talking for developers about development, this isn't E3 where he goes to show his game to people liks us.

And he's still looking for people there, publishers/studios that want to fund his game or people who want to make it happen.

[beingthehero]

The bosses in SotN, HoD, and AoS were certainly stars in the sense that they were usually well-animated and quite appealing to look at. Like the Max Slimer boss had this quasi-realistic glare effect going on and the way it bounced was very well animated. On the other hand you defeated it by standing in place and just mashing the button until it died. I guess it wasn't until Dawn that KCET realized that the actual fight itself has to be very memorable as well.

And he's still looking for people there, publishers/studios that want to fund his game or people who want to make it happen.

Given the reaction on twitter, i certainly hope so.

[crisis]

when i first fought Blackmore from ooe, i was like "how the hell am i supposed to beat this guy??" took me a while to figure it out, lol

i also enjoyed eligor and how interactive he was, although once you figure it out most of the danger fades rapidly

Wallman is probably the easiest/quickest boss in the entire series, tho

[Maedhros]

Order of Ecclesia is the pinnacle of the series regarding bosses. I don't remember any other game with so many enjoyable bosses. It's simply the best on the series in this regard. Reason why I love it (other reason being the combat system, more streamlined and relevant than SOTN).

[DarkPrinceAlucard]

OOE proved in many ways that IGA could make a metroidvania that was actually hard and challenging which is something many complained about with previous metroidvanias.

I must say I had not played a metroidvania that hard since COTM.

[EstebanT]

That wasn't dissapoiting in any way. He was talking for developers about development, this isn't E3 where he goes to show his game to people liks us.

And he's still looking for people there, publishers/studios that want to fund his game or people who want to make it happen.

"I made symphony of the night, remember guys?"

[Maedhros]

"I made symphony of the night, remember guys?"

It was a talk about metroidvania design. The best and most regarded game of this style, SOTN, was his first game. IT was a talk about the game and it's design, for developers.

I dunno what the fuck you expected.

OOE proved in many ways that IGA could make a metroidvania that was actually hard and challenging which is something many complained about with previous metroidvanias.

I must say I had not played a metroidvania that hard since COTM.

And COTM was supposedly hard because of it's design. The way the characters control is more like the older games, even though the control is a bit better.

[EstebanT]

I dunno what the fuck you expected.

I expected talks about the future, not about the past.

[Maedhros]

I expected talks about the future, not about the past.

Yeah, that wasn't what the talk was about, sorry about that. But everyone who actually took part on the talk knew about this. You would have too, if you have readed what it was about.

[Kingshango]

I expected talks about the future, not about the past.

That's why he was there in the first place.

[Harrycombs]

His talk seemed rather vague. I found it disappointing, especially after how Naoki Yoshida nailed his talk earlier on MMO design this GDC. Hopefully he'll being doing more interviews while at GDC and we can learn some more information about his approach to game design and his future plans.

Its interesting that he says the boss fights are the most important parts of the game. I can definitely see that when looking at his later work, especially since Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia had some very interesting and well designed fights, but his earlier works had atrocious boss fights. Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow were generally terrible, and Symphony's were very hit or miss.

Also, in the Polygon interview, he mentioned that some people at Konami asked him if they could go with him. I wonder if anyone decided to quit in the end to join him.

[Shiroi Koumori]

I don't think there was anything new in his GDC talk except for the bosses part. But at least he is talking, after all, we know him as being recluse.

OH and i would like to comment to some posts a few pages back.
@Jorge: IGA's drinking partner is Michiru Yamane and not Ayami Kojima.
Source: http://www.usgamer.net/articles/the-resurrection-of-koji-igarashi
@whoever was complaining Re. IGA's love for CV3, well, it's his favorite Castlevania game. Thus, he would always think of it highly.

NEW Interview:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a559424/ex-konami-producer-wants-to-make-new-metroidvania-games-gdc-2014.html

[Charlotte-nyo:3]

Also, in the Polygon interview, he mentioned that some people at Konami asked him if they could go with him. I wonder if anyone decided to quit in the end to join him.

Probably that's still in the future. He hasn't acquired financial backing to assemble his studio yet so he's probably waiting until that happens to offer them the positions.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a559424/ex-konami-producer-wants-to-make-new-metroidvania-games-gdc-2014.html

[He] revealed the Inverted Castle from Symphony of the Night was a result of designers not wanting to create new characters.

Here's something I don't get just from what is in the article. Maybe's it's just transcribed or phrased wrong, but the inverted castle seems to be saving on tile sets and level layout design time, not characters. Unless the statement is referring to the fact that it's a bit easier to palette swap enemies and get them to thematically fit into an area when it's just an inverted version of an existing area, but even then there were a decent amount of inverted castle-only enemy designs.

Also we should probably keep in mind that this was a 1 hour talk and the articles are just summarizing bits and pieces, so it's possible some other interesting design tidbits were mentioned that the writers of these articles didn't think were important or that they glossed over.

[Nagumo]

Igarashi explained the team began creating a new story that accommodated the main Castlevania timeline, but glossed over any inconsistencies between it and their own creation. The team also decided to give the game's visuals a fresh coat of paint, changing the game's look and feel from the main Castlevania line.

This makes a lot of sense since they basically retconned everything about the NES games, lol.