Weekly Famitsu – January 31, 1997

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This is a dialogue showcased in a section featured once every few months in Weekly Famitsu. One of the editors, Yasuhiro Nagata, conducted several interviews with Itoi during his time with the magazine. Nagata later went into freelancing for a few years before eventually working for Itoi’s company, where he is now.

This dialogue is different from other interviews in that it has a very casual tone to it and is less focused on the nitty gritty. It feels more like you’re eavesdropping on three Japanese men at the bar who just happen to be talking about Nintendo 64 games.

Let the wackiness begin!

Special MOTHER 3 Course

Teach us, Itoi and Iwata Sensei!

Interview with Editor Nagata

Nagata  What, you were gonna have some dog or kid handle the interview with Itoi?! No! Which is why I took the 7 AM bullet train to Kyoto, and here I am. Good moooorniiing!

Itoi, Iwata  Good morning~

Nagata  I guess we’ve only got 40 minutes for our interview so let’s get rolling. Starting with the usual question. Is the game really coming out this year?!

Itoi  (laughs) Here we go again. Today we have the director here with us, though. Tell him how it is!

Iwata  We would like to release it sometime this year.

Nagata  That again!?

Itoi  We truly hope for its release!

Nagata  I dunno, man.

Itoi  But we’ve got Iwata! Iwata! Once he joined MOTHER 2, the thing spontaneously finished, after all.

Nagata  Ah, that’s reassuring!

Itoi  Right? So now the readers are going to wonder. “What, so Iwata made that game?” (roaring laughter)

Nagata  So, I see the names of the characters have been announced.

Itoi  I named them.

Nagata  One would assume.

Itoi  They’re good, right? The person from this village is… huh? Who is this?!

Nagata  (roaring laughter) Hey, now!

Itoi  I’ve never seen this before!!

Iwata  Yes you have.  I showed you before but it’s been a little more processed since then.

Itoi  Oh! I get it. But… hey! What kind of business are you running!?

(All laugh)

Nagata  Is it alright to assume this boy is the main character?

Iwata  This time around there are twice as many characters as previous games; that’s because MOTHER 3 is arranged into chapters. It’s not an omnibus, but it’s split into chapters and the main character changes depending on the chapter.

Itoi  Ahh you finally said it. Now I can relax. I’ve been holding that in this whole time. (laughs)

Nagata  So eight people?

Iwata  Over eight.

Itoi  But it’s more fun to be in the dark.

Nagata  Yeah, it really is!! In a way it’s really tough to cover a game that I really like.

Itoi  Right?

Nagata  To be honest, I just wanna ask when it’ll come out and then go home.

Iwata  Now that would make people angry.

Nagata  And the show goes on. How’s the 64DD been treating you?

Itoi  Damn. You’re good.

Iwata  It’s all about the ability to overwrite. There are things I want to put an end to with the creation of MOTHER 3—doing the same kind of adventures in all the same ways all over Japan.

Nagata  So, you’re not making it purely multi-scenario?

Itoi  Not a chance!! I hate that! Multi-scenarios are the worst. That’s just abandoning the rights and duties of the writer.

Iwata  Yeah. We’d rather make the games we leave behind in this world really stick around. We’re always throwing things out or leaving them around, right? We scratch things up, and that stays.

Itoi  If you go on a trip when your place is messy, it’s going to be just as messy when you get back.

Iwata  Yeah, that’s what I mean. So at that point the writeable hardware of the DD is perfect.

Nagata  I see. Moving on, what’s the deal with the battles that Itoi’s always raving about like a madman?

Itoi  How rude! (laughs) I’d like to talk about what it is, but I can’t yet.

Iwata  It’s still in the testing stages. For example, MOTHER 2 had the monsters visibly walking around the field map. And when you touched one of the monsters, you entered the battle. So first and foremost we wanted to expand on that. In short, we’d like to allow strategies against the monsters right on the field. Not so battles become obligations, but so it becomes more fun.

Itoi  Something that makes you happily squeal, “I wonder if I can get a battle!” (laughs)

Iwata  We’re testing various things.

Nagata  Like what? Like what??

Itoi  You’re a persistent one.

Nagata  It’s cuz I wake up at six in the morning.

Itoi  So do I. Well, today my alarm didn’t go off, so…

Nagata  Um…

Iwata  So? What time did you wake up?

Itoi  By the time I took my pajamas off it was 7:15…

Nagata  Morning habits aside, let’s get back to the battles…

Itoi  And my Shinkansen seat was 17A.

Nagata  Uh-huh, uh-huh… But, look, we’ve only got 15 minutes left…

Itoi  And I was torn whether to buy a lunch box, but I ended up settling for  a sandwich.

Hongo (Nintendo PR employee)  Oh! You ate a sandwich?

Nagata  Hongo, don’t encourage him.

Hongo  No, it’s just that we’ve prepared lunch boxes already, so…

Itoi  Hey have you heard Hongo sing Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi?

Nagata  Ohhhh dammit all!

Iwata  I will say this. We’re thinking of incorporating sound into the battle scenes.

Nagata  Iwata-san you are too kind.

Itoi  Well, if I were to blurt it out it’s all quite simple.  So when you press a button on the controller, there’s a sound, right? A little blip or something.  And if you make it so you can create all kinds of sounds, the controller becomes a pretty solid instrument. So we’re going to include that instrument in MOTHER 3.

Nagata  Hoho!

Itoi  And if you get good at playing that instrument, you’ll fight battles more efficiently.

Nagata  That sounds really fun! Maybe you’re doing better than I thought!

Itoi  Well, things might change. We’re still in testing, after all. I tend to play and putz with it at the very last minute.

Iwata  Oh, but, once it reaches a certain level of playability, Itoi really steps up to the plate.

Nagata  So in other words, before it’s where you can play it, he’s bumming around the bench. (laughs)

Iwata  Right. Even if you hand him specifications—nothing. (roaring laughter) Is that going too far?

Nagata  Dangit, we’re outta time. Alright, can we at least get a special Famitsu-exclusive scoop before we finish?

Itoi  Umm—is Famitsu like, a Shonen-Jump kinda thing?

Nagata  Ohhhh dammit all!!! (laughs)

Itoi  …Alright, I’ll tell you! When this aligator gets mad, he stands up!

Nagata  That’s written in this handout.

(All roaring laugh)

Nagata  Ok we’re seriously out of time! Uhh, uhh, closing statement!

Itoi  Hiiii everybody! Did you have a good new yeeears?

Nagata  That’s not closing anything!!!

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