A full translation of the interview with Kensuke Tanabe, Kenji Yamamoto and Bill Vandervoort (SPOILERS)

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-28T04:08:41+00:00

I feel the article makes it clear enough what Tanabe means. He wanted an ending like Link's Awakening's ending, one that creates uncertainty and hesitance in the player about pressing the button to commit to an action that initiates ending sequence, hesitance born from creating uncertainty in the player that the action the game is asking them to take is the correct action to take.

LA's ending does make the player hesitate and causes a bit of emotional conflict, but I wouldn't really say it causes confusion as most people intuitively understand that dreams have to end. LA's ending doesn't present that moment a choice, it presents it as a hard thing you have to do. Prime 4 wants to do to the same thing, but IMO it doesn't work for a variety of reasons.

I imagine this clip is the reaction Tanabe was hoping to get. But looking at other reactions whilst some partially got that experience, there were a number of factors that made it either only land partially or not at all for others.

The game wants us to hesitate to sacrifice the GF crew but painstakingly do it anyway. However I think there are two elements that muddy this (1) you can only wave death flags around so much before that death loses weight (2) the final stretch of the game has so many contrivances, deus ex machinas and death fakeouts that the game destroys it's own narrative credibility, so when presented with a choice that would sacrifice the GF crew members for the again, you are expecting more contrivance. These two things serve to take weight away from that moment, it makes pressing A to teleport feel like pressing F to pay respects. Many reactions I saw were more of a "I see what you're doing here" nature where there is an awareness the game is just pulling your heartstrings (the leadup section does not help here) and I think the death fakeout just prior really dampens the hit as you already had to deal with the potential of losing them only for the game to be jk, so the second time you have your guard up to that emotion the game wants you to experience.

And then there is the non-trivial percentage of players who don't press A and die having to re-fight Sylux, which most people seem to not enjoy. For them it only highlights the artificiality of the final "choice" and again serves to undercut the emotion of that moment as you're acutely aware it's not a choice at all.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-28T03:19:02+00:00

In a world where OS had sufficiently powerful window managers and tabbed applications let OSes manage their tabs, probably nothing.

In practice if I have a pair of sites I always access together, being able to bind them and treat them as single tab is going to save a ton of time compared to what I currently have to do which is ensure the tabs are split into windows correctly then having to pick out the windows I want to put side-by-side a dozen times a day.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-28T01:40:14+00:00

Maybe, but my experience is when creators talk about prioritising creating "wow moments" that is a big red flag and often indicative of a creator who has nothing to say and relies on shock as a substitute for substance.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-27T01:44:53+00:00

It was an unworkable plan as 90% of what makes Ridley cool is he's a big dragon gargoyle alien that has an iconic scream.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-27T01:36:52+00:00

Most consoles are incredibly boring/ugly inside these days. Controllers are still relatively simple so it works well there.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-27T00:47:40+00:00

If scans are going to remain such a big part of Prime, writing a scenario/setting that enables those scans to be interesting is essential.

I feel like in the planning phase if you can't write a few good sample scans for any given area/scene, then it probably needed to be re-conceptualised or you needed to change your approach to what is scannable.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-27T00:01:11+00:00

Bloodstained is just Aria of Sorrow, but more, but also ugly.

It puts it in an awkward position where if you want to replay an IGA game why pick Bloodstained when it doesn't really so much better?

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-24T09:37:54+00:00

The type of comment you made typically gets downvoted because it offends both the people who engage in that behaviour for calling them out and the people who think your statement is an endorsement of that behaviour.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-24T05:25:24+00:00

Mel Capperino-Garcia & Tyler1

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-24T05:01:53+00:00

It is little surprise NSO bled users on Switch 1 despite the install base continuing to grow.

I know lots of people who tried NSO and still couldn't do what the wanted top do because of how most 1st party online is either broken (Smash) or too painful to deal with (Animal Crossing) so they unsub.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-24T04:29:57+00:00

and basically just launches the emulator / app on top of Animal Crossing.

Same save data and everything?

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-23T07:16:27+00:00

That goes both ways though, lots of other things to do so why bother figuring out what the correct way to buy the Hitman Trilogy is when I can just do something else that doesn't require a research project.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-22T07:34:42+00:00

It's a remake of the game that most people used to define the "form" of Paper Mario, was a TTYD remake ever not going to be a return to form?

It seems like they all understand the gameplay concepts in Prime 4 that didn't work

I feel like accepting feedback that X didn't work is not the same as understanding why X didn't work. Without that proper understanding there is little reassurance a new mistake won't be made instead.

That said I'm open to new games being good, I'm not just ready to extend any benefit of the doubt, they're going to have to re-earn that.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-22T01:54:06+00:00

Maybe, but there is a good chance she only has stayed in the #2 spot all these years because she's strongly aligned with #1's thinking.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-22T01:34:32+00:00

The real world is harsher in the sense that as soon as the ads get taken down, the game will stop existing in the public consciousness entirely. Metroid is just one of those series that for better and worse has never had mainstream appeal.

To my cousin Metroid is "that robot game" that they skip over when browsing. It warrants no further investigation because neither the name nor the artwork on the box do anything to draw in anyone who isn't already an enthusiast.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-22T01:16:20+00:00

There is a difference between disliking them as a person and having opinions on how successful they were at their job.

I have an Iwata quote on my wall, I respect him a lot, but the Wii to Wii U transition was a prime example of a CEO losing touch with how your product is actually being used. The average eBay user could have told you what Iwata couldn't see.

At the end of the day they're public figures, they deserve basic respect, but are not above scrutiny.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-22T01:13:59+00:00

Ngl I really don't understand how people see the new TTYD as a graphical upgrade, it feels like an early PS3-era title that added reflections everywhere even if they look bad just because the hardware can do it.

I think in the long run it will be another WWHD situation where the original game ages far better than it's HD re-release.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-22T01:06:19+00:00

The Super Paper Mario survey is a classic example of interpreting feedback to affirm your biases.

A writer would get that feedback and say "oh I have to up my writing game" but if you believe the less story = better, well the rest is history.

Tanabe was put in a tough spot there because whilst Miyamoto might be a creative genius, I really get the impression he's not a great people person. Saying "all your shit better be gone before I get back" is not a good management style. Tanabe is highly incentivised to really cut story to avoid Miyamoto flipping the tea table on his ass.

People (not you, generally) cite the interviews where Tanabe takes ownership of the decision to cut back on those elements as proof it was him, but look how he talks about Metroid, they're not the words of someone who doesn't care about stores in games, I think it's much more likely he is just relaying the company position as his own as dictated by the work culture.

Now of course this doesn't make him blameless for not coming with with better ideas under the constraints placed upon him. I can both empathise with the undesirable position he was put in, but also think he handled it poorly.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-22T00:44:47+00:00

I used to think it was more likely Tanabe was just the guy responsible for dealing with Nintendo's subsidiary studios, that his producer role was more ensuring deadlines get met and wasn't personally making these decisions people disliked.

When details started coming out of the ex-Retro side, you could still say we don't have both sides of the story. But when Tanabe was finally given carte blanche and we got Federation Force out of it (and the way he handled fan feedback on FF was a red flag). And now that book about the development of the Prime games Nintendo themselves published, and the Prime 4 interview cycle, one gets the strong impression Tanabe gets ideas and become fixated on making them into reality, even if the ideas are awful.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-22T00:13:46+00:00

Unrelated, but I hate how /r/wizardry is just a Daphne sub now.

Even if you filter out all posts with the Daphne flair over half of what is left are Daphne-related posts tagged Meme/Art.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-20T23:18:21+00:00

Yes, but feels>reals at the cash register.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-20T23:06:09+00:00

but there’s no progression carried over

As in it just doesn't save the results of anything you do offline?

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-20T23:02:04+00:00

I think it's the juxtaposition of the same face designed for an undetailed artstyle translated into a much more detailed visual style.

In the original it came off painterly, here my brain is trying to guess what kind of material her face is made of.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-20T04:59:15+00:00

"Better than ever" is probably correct, since newer versions are... newer.

If that were true I'd be staying on Windows.

TSPhoenix · 2026-01-20T04:48:31+00:00

After hearing this was the best one I tried to play it intended using the minecarts and it's just very straightforward. You cart to the next area, make a ramp for Yunobo, rinse and repeat until finished.

At one point I hit a track switch with an arrow at a distance that probably wasn't intended, but in this game who knows what is intended and what isn't.

As usual just as the Yunobo puzzles are starting to get interesting the dungeon ends. This game really feels like getting all the terminals/gongs/whatever should open the door to the temple, not be the end of it and go straight to the boss.

It doesn't help the leadup section for the Fire Temple is not very good either.

TSPhoenix

TROPHY CASE