In a 2016 interview with Lufia & the Fortress of Doom's director Masahide Miyata, he was asked where the Japanese name 'Estpolis Denki' (Japanese for Biography of Estpolis) comes from. He responded:
"Estopolis Denki was originally developed under the title “Esuteeru”, but someone had already taken out the copyright for that name, so we had to change it. We chose Estopolis since the root of the word resembled Esuteeru. Estopolis means “City of the East”, and we imagined this world having four continents, in the east, west, north, and south."
"Estopolis Denki was originally developed under the title “Esuteeru”, but someone had already taken out the copyright for that name, so we had to change it. We chose Estopolis since the root of the word resembled Esuteeru. Estopolis means “City of the East”, and we imagined this world having four continents, in the east, west, north, and south."
Contributed by ProtoSnake
In a 2016 interview with the director of the first game in the series Masahide Miyata, he was asked how development on Lufia & the Fortress of Doom began. He responded:
"Four or five of us got together and started talking about making our own RPG. We developed a prototype version of “Esuto” for the PC-98, and shopped it around to different companies for distribution. This was before the era of things like powerpoint presentations, so we lugged a PC-98 and CRT monitor around with us to give our pitch. Taito was one of those companies we presented to. Then once the development was officially underway, the idea came up that, since we were gonna do this after all, we might as well make it for the Super Famicom."
"Four or five of us got together and started talking about making our own RPG. We developed a prototype version of “Esuto” for the PC-98, and shopped it around to different companies for distribution. This was before the era of things like powerpoint presentations, so we lugged a PC-98 and CRT monitor around with us to give our pitch. Taito was one of those companies we presented to. Then once the development was officially underway, the idea came up that, since we were gonna do this after all, we might as well make it for the Super Famicom."
Contributed by ProtoSnake
Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition, an expanded 2017 re-release of the game for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC, uses the full uncompressed video footage recorded for the original game. Additional bonus content includes deleted scenes like an introduction scene for the game's story and a death scene featuring Danny (which was most likely cut due to Danny's young age), as well as a behind-the-scenes developer commentary, a "theater mode" to watch all of the game's story, a "survivor mode" that will randomly place Augers in the house, and a playable version of "Scene of the Crime", the first prototype of Night Trap created in 1986 to pitch an unreleased console called the Control-Vision to Hasbro.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
In a 2010 interview with the game's director Hiroyuki Maruyama, he stated that he originally wanted to release the game on the Xbox. Despite the console's poor sales around the time it was being made, he was very interested in the network capabilities of Xbox Live, so he tried to get in touch with Microsoft to release the game on that platform. Instead, Microsoft asked the developers to release the game on their next console, the Xbox 360.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
In a 1995 interview with the game's director Yasumi Matsuno, found within the Dengeki SFC magazine, he clarified that the game was a part of the Ogre Battle series, but it was not a direct sequel to Ogre Battle: The March of The Black Queen. The games' world and environments are shared, but the gameplay systems are completely dissimilar. When asked why the gameplay system was changed, he responded:
"First off, after we finished the Ogre Battle development, we determined that doing another 3D real-time simulation game for the Super Famicom was going to be difficult. There is a special chip now for the SFC that offers more possibilities, but it’s also very expensive to use [this could be referring to the Super FX chip]. Therefore, we abandoned the idea of doing another, powered-up version of Ogre Battle, and instead decided to develop a brand new system."
"Another reason was that we actually started the planning for Tactics Ogre three months before the release of Ogre Battle. To decide on a direct sequel then would have been pointless if Ogre Battle didn’t sell well, and we didn’t have any confidence that it would. Ultimately it was very popular, so we carried over just the world and setting."
"Also, in Ogre Battle the units moved in real-time, which meant you couldn’t take your time and plan out a strategy. For us, this was a big point we wanted to improve on. From the beginning of the Tactics Ogre development, therefore, we never saw real-time as an option."
"First off, after we finished the Ogre Battle development, we determined that doing another 3D real-time simulation game for the Super Famicom was going to be difficult. There is a special chip now for the SFC that offers more possibilities, but it’s also very expensive to use [this could be referring to the Super FX chip]. Therefore, we abandoned the idea of doing another, powered-up version of Ogre Battle, and instead decided to develop a brand new system."
"Another reason was that we actually started the planning for Tactics Ogre three months before the release of Ogre Battle. To decide on a direct sequel then would have been pointless if Ogre Battle didn’t sell well, and we didn’t have any confidence that it would. Ultimately it was very popular, so we carried over just the world and setting."
"Also, in Ogre Battle the units moved in real-time, which meant you couldn’t take your time and plan out a strategy. For us, this was a big point we wanted to improve on. From the beginning of the Tactics Ogre development, therefore, we never saw real-time as an option."
Contributed by ProtoSnake
According to a 1998 Famitsu magazine interview with the game's character designer Tetsuya Nomura, preliminary meetings to plan out Final Fantasy VIII with the game's team, including director Yoshinori Kitase, began immediately after the completion of Final Fantasy VII's development.
During one of the conversations, Kitase said that he wanted to use a character that Nomura drew 3 years ago, before Final Fantasy VII, which was the sorceress Edea Kramer.
He added that although the Final Fantasy series has the word "Fantasy" in its name, it had become routine for them to feature technological civilizations and machines, and he felt the fantasy aspect had steadily weakened its presence. Therefore, Edea was added to the game to genuinely counteract those growing technological aesthetics: "a full-on, high-fantasy sorceress".
During one of the conversations, Kitase said that he wanted to use a character that Nomura drew 3 years ago, before Final Fantasy VII, which was the sorceress Edea Kramer.
He added that although the Final Fantasy series has the word "Fantasy" in its name, it had become routine for them to feature technological civilizations and machines, and he felt the fantasy aspect had steadily weakened its presence. Therefore, Edea was added to the game to genuinely counteract those growing technological aesthetics: "a full-on, high-fantasy sorceress".
Contributed by ProtoSnake
According to game's director Yasumi Matsuno in a 1995 Dengeki SFC magazine interview, it took the developers two and a half years (including several delays) to make the game, and by the end expressed that he was extremely tired from its development.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
In a 1997 interview with the game's director Yoshiki Okamoto, he stated that the game was inspired by the 1981 Namco shooter Bosconian. Specifically, he wanted to make a more hectic version of Bosconian, with added parts requiring the player to flip around and fire at enemies.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
In the 1991 World of Valkyrie storybook, there are 2 unused concept art characters that did not make it into the game. The Stone Giant was envisioned as a boss, with one of the 4 Mythical Faeries would have been imprisoned inside of him. The faerie is shown confined in a cursed tree cage by Kamooz.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
According to the SNK team in a 1995 Neo Geo Freak Magazine interview, Franco Bash's fighting style of kickboxing was implemented into the game after Joe Higashi, noted by fighting using kickboxing's "rival" style Muay Thai, had his storyline shift away from being one of the main focuses of the series, upon which the SNK team decided that there was enough room for another kick-centered fighting style.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
According to the SNK team in a 1995 Neo Geo Freak Magazine interview, Geese Howard's "Wicked Shadow Fist" move was going to be in Fatal Fury Special, but did not make the cut due to time constraints. However, Geese's move did return in Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory as it was on the SNK team's "must add" list from the very beginning of the development.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
The game's designer Richard Garriott stated that the metal ankh is based on from the 1976 film "Logan's Run".
Contributed by ProtoSnake
The character of Chuchel is based on the personalities of the game's designer Jaromír Plachý and his pet black dog Anca.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
In the United Kingdom, a poster promoting the PlayStation version of Tekken 3 prominently depicted a dead body with a severed leg in a morgue. In response, Britian's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) forced Sony to remove the poster and promptly banned it, believing the ad was "macabre" and likely to cause offence. Additionally, the ASA forced Sony to have all future poster ad campaigns be examined by them prior to publication. Sony defended the ad, claiming it was meant to show "a surreal situation by positioning the body parts in the manner reminiscent of a cartoon character". Despite the explanation, the ASA stood by their decision.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
It's possible to play Japanese-region Nintendo 64 games on a U.S. Nintendo 64 console by replacing the cartridge's back panel with a back panel of any U.S. region Nintendo 64 game to bypass the cartridge lock found within the system's cartridge slot.
NiCO was originally intended to be Russian, and her Japanese voice actress Sumire Uesaka was originally chosen for her Russian language skills. However, after changing NiCO to be Finnish, Uesaka's language skills ended up not being put to use.
Contributed by DrakeVagabond
According to the July 1997 edition of SEGA Magazine in a developer interview, Yuji Naka stated that he added the ability to perform a Spin Dash while crouching and standing still, named the "Super Spin Dash", to make it easier for players in response to critiques of the first game where players had trouble performing the normal, running version of the Spin Dash:
"As for our new additions to Sonic 2, they began and grew out of our dissatisfactions from the first game. The idea for the super spin dash, for instance, came directly from one of those complaints—namely that beginners couldn’t do the loop-de-loops very well, and if they made a mistake they couldn’t get the momentum back to loop through it. That was annoying. So what if he could dash from a stopped position…? Then we had the image of him spinning in a ball to accelerate, and rendering it graphically helped the idea take further shape."
"As for our new additions to Sonic 2, they began and grew out of our dissatisfactions from the first game. The idea for the super spin dash, for instance, came directly from one of those complaints—namely that beginners couldn’t do the loop-de-loops very well, and if they made a mistake they couldn’t get the momentum back to loop through it. That was annoying. So what if he could dash from a stopped position…? Then we had the image of him spinning in a ball to accelerate, and rendering it graphically helped the idea take further shape."
Contributed by ProtoSnake
According to the game's artist Yoshitaka Amano from a 1987 Beep Magazine interview, Square told him to make an illustrated cover of a character (Onion Knight) wielding 2 blades. Originally, Amano wanted to draw a landscape-style drawing with no human characters, but he changed it since it was an illustration for a video game, and was later glad he did as he felt the game's final cover had more impact.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
According to director/writer Hironobu Sakaguchi and writer Yoshinori Kitase, Final Fantasy V marked the first time they worked together on a game. Kitase then commented about their working relationship during the game's development:
"Mr. Sakaguchi and I worked on [the game's] events in a relay, so when we would go to work, the first thing we'd do is check the data the other had put up to check the continuity. We'd see each other's work and think 'I'll make something even better!' in a sort of competition."
"Mr. Sakaguchi and I worked on [the game's] events in a relay, so when we would go to work, the first thing we'd do is check the data the other had put up to check the continuity. We'd see each other's work and think 'I'll make something even better!' in a sort of competition."
Contributed by ProtoSnake
In a 1996 Gamest interview, some of the featured concept art shows designs for 2 characters named "Marisu" and "Teresu" who were not included in the final game. The game's character designer Mimori Fujinomiya commented:
"These were characters looked too much like ripoffs of the koropokkuru, so I abandoned them. Their personalities were too similar to Macky and Pentell, anyway. I do like their Robo-Dog though."
"These were characters looked too much like ripoffs of the koropokkuru, so I abandoned them. Their personalities were too similar to Macky and Pentell, anyway. I do like their Robo-Dog though."
Contributed by ProtoSnake
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