Platinum Games’ Inaba-san and Kamiya-san Talk About ‘The Wonderful 101’ Remastered
Another PAX East has come and gone, fun was had, and games were played. And on Day One, yours truly had the sublime privilege of interviewing two juggernauts of the gaming industry; Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya of Platinum Games. For the uninitiated Inaba-san is the studio’s executive director and producer while Kamiya-san is the studio’s chief game designer and director. The two have previously worked together on the Viewtiful Joe, Devil May Cry, Ōkami and Bayonetta series. In 2013 the duo reunited once more to create a hidden gem on the Nintendo Wii-U, The Wonderful 101. While not a household name like many of Nintendo’s flagship titles, it had some very passionate fans (myself included.)
So, imagine how overjoyed I was when I heard that Platinum Games was crowdfunding a remastered edition of The Wonderful 101 for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.
Allow me to share my experience of meeting these icons.
Byron D. Zero: I am with two fantastic gentlemen who are two of the most prolific gaming personalities today. Introduce yourselves, please.
Atsushi Inaba: Platinum Games’ executive director and producer, Atsushi Inaba.
Hideki Kamiya: Platinum Games’ chief game designer, Hideki Kamiya.
BDZ: My first question is; I see a very strong influence of tokusatsu [in The Wonderful 101]. Where did the idea of meshing tokusatsu into this narrative come from?
HK: Originally, I had a plan to talk with Nintendo about making a game where there were a lot of heroes from one particular series; for example, something like Smash Bros. that has a lot of famous characters. I had also considered going the Kingdom Hearts route, that had a lot of characters from, for example, Disney. But when we approached Nintendo with it, it had just been pending and pending and pending so unfortunately that didn’t pan out. So, I still wanted to make a team-up action game with many heroes, so it formed into what kind of heroes I like. And I just happen to like a lot of sentai heroes, so I took on the task of designing the 100 heroes myself and I moved on from there. But the original idea to gather 100 heroes was the same.
BDZ: Which franchises did you draw inspiration from more, Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, or Ultraman?
HK: All of them *laughs*
BDZ: So, for this remaster, what little tweaks can we expect this time around?
HK: So, there are three main points; Firstly, it will be on hardware that is upgraded from the Wii-U, so it’s going to be higher spec, and higher frame rate.
The second point is that a few tweaks were made in order to make the game more user friendly. There were a few aspects from the original release that I wish I could have changed, so the changes aren’t much content-wise but instead a more streamlined user experience.
But more than anything, what I am looking forward to the most is having it reach fans who didn’t have the chance to play it on the Wii-U. So with the fact that it will be released on the Switch, Xbox One, PS4, and PC. I am really looking forward to giving more people the chance to play it. And that alone is a huge positive.
BDZ: Will there be dual audio?
HK: Yes, voices will be in both English and Japanese.
BDZ: Now this project is being crowdfunded by KickStarter right?
HK: Yes.
BDZ: Given the failure to success ratio, were you trepidatious to rely on crowdfunding for this project?
AI: We were super worried about it, yeah. Seeing as though it was a new thing to us in the office, we weren’t sure if it would hit the first goal, we didn’t know if they’d reach their goal, or what we’d do if it didn’t succeed. That it was funded in record time, we were ecstatic. The biggest thing for us is just gauging the fan support, we are very happy that so many people support the game and Platinum Games as a company.
BDZ: One thing that I noticed is that the game is something of a fusion of tokusatsu and Katamari Damacy. Was there any inspiration from that series for this title?
HK: While I know the game very well, there was no inspiration from that series, in fact I have never actually played Katamari Damacy. It actually came from a children’s book called Tsui-ni; it’s about a fish that gathers friends [and] they get bigger and bigger. Then it creates shapes based on gathering various creatures from the sea, and that story [had] a huge impact on me as a child. In manifesting it into the game, I wanted to make a team action-hero game where having a large group of characters together allowed them to make different shapes like a sword, fist and gun, things like that. So that’s where I drew inspiration from.
BDZ: Interestingly enough, this isn’t my first time seeing this reference in a video game, there’s a Pokémon called Wishiwashi. And he has a school form, where a school of fish transform into a bigger fish.
BDZ: One last question as a personal favor to me, please tell me your favorite Sentai team. Heisei or otherwise.
HK: Gorenger is my favorite since I was about 4 or 5 when it was on tv originally.
BDZ: Mine is Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.
HK: A bit of a difference in generations, but I know that one.
BDZ: It was a pleasure meeting you both and I look forward to playing the game. Is there anything that you would like to say to the fans?
HK: I really appreciate all the feedback from the fans, but I am also aware that there are many who have not had the chance to play The Wonderful 101 and I would like to move forward with this project and let fans see a different side of Platinum Games.
BDZ: Well, Platinum Games is a brand synonymous with quality, so I have no doubt.
I would like to thank the “wonderful” folks at Platinum Games for their time and courtesy; and thank you, reader, for checking out this interview.
The Wonderful 101 remaster releases on May 19, 2020 on Switch, Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
