Devil's Third

I have a clear policy on this, and that is that you can't make a game focused for any group of people - you have to make it a game that appeals to people in general. We need to make a game that has central themes anyone can understand and appreciate.

There's also something I want to say about the story. We can't talk about the story yet, but I believe in any shooting game up to this point, none has had a story as big and involved and elaborate as this one.

And I also think that the multiplayer - really, single-player and multiplayer are both the main modes of this game. The multiplayer will also be really very fun. So the game itself is maybe 10 per cent done, but I'd say the "battle engine" is at about a beta state now. So when we had Danny and everybody out to the studio in Tokyo to play the demo, after 15 minutes everyone was just playing games and the meeting kind of fell apart.

This is the first time I've made a shooting game, but I am a veteran at making games that involve competition between people, so I feel confident that we can bring that core essence of competitive gameplay to the shooting genre as well.

Everything. And not just myself, but the whole team I'm working with. We've brought all the lessons and know-how to bear on this project. For example, in Dead or Alive details such as going from standing state to crouching state - how many frames should that be, and the real details of working a system like that. There are only a couple of people in the world who really understand how that works, and that's just one piece of knowledge we're bringing to this.

Compared to the time when we made that game, we've kind of developed to the point where we want to and can make games that appeal to a broader audience. It's harder to make easy-to-play and fun games than it is to make a hard-to-play and fun game. I feel that now we've compiled enough experience over these genres that we can do a good job of making a game that is both easy to get into and fun.

Along those lines, as you mentioned earlier, making the last 10 per cent of the game takes 50 per cent of the time - you're correct that we will spend a long time on the last 10 per cent of this game as well. That is one of the main reasons that I decided to work with THQ - we can do that here. Danny has been very clear on that concept - that we will only make good games.

Well you know, when I'm talking to girls, I'll say I like one more than the other, but when we're talking about hardware I really don't have much preference. When I was speaking about hardware, [it was] if I were to build the machine, maybe I would do it that way, but it's kind of an engineering approach discussion - I have no emotional involvement in the issue.

I don't know if I'm allowed to say. It's all NDAed. I don't think we're allowed to speak of it. But in saying that... I can't speak of it. You'll see it next week!

Errr, if I saw it I'd probably think it was cool. Hey, you know what, if JR says it's cool, it must be cool!

Tecmo gave me the game as a present, but I've not had time to play it yet. But I have a good relationship with Tecmo now - we're all friends.