Wife made Legends director like Halo

By Robert Purchese Published 6 August, 2009

"I just sort of got addicted after that."

Halo Legends creative director Shinji Aramaki has admitted he would never stumbled on the Bungie universe were his wife not a Halo 3 fangirl.

"I've always been a fan of video games, and my wife told me that Halo 3 is the best game on the 360," Aramaki told Famitsu, spotted by 1UP.

"I just sort of got addicted after that. It's a very intricate world. It's hard to do such an epic story in movie form these days, but it's easy to get into it as a game. There's just enough humour in it, too.

"It's a great piece of pure entertainment," he added.

Announced recently at Comic-Con, Halo Legends is a series of seven short animated episodes each tackling the licence in a unique style.

Aramaki said he originally fleshed-out 10 or so short stories from Halo concept materials before whittling them down to seven with Bungie's Halo overlord Frank O'Connor.

He then selected studios best suited for each tale and shipped the stories out, granting his blessing for them to add any "unique touches".

"The resulting variations you see turned out very well, I think," he said.

Halo Legends airs in part on Xbox Live this autumn, with the complete series to follow on DVD early next year.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mashk #1 3 years ago

    Girls play Halo 3?

  • b00n #2 3 years ago

    Actually quite excited about this. Hope it turns out to be similar to The Animatrix.

  • kangarootoo #3 3 years ago

    I always felt Halo 1 had the stronger clearer story of the series. 2 went a bit weird, and I struggle to actually remember what 3 was all about. Often the case I think that sequels naturally start dealing with sub-topics and threads, and lose some of the impact of the original.

  • Xerx3s #4 3 years ago

    No.

  • Inquisitor #5 3 years ago

    1 had a pure story. It was quite simple but things like the shock introduction of the flood (as much as we grew to hate them) and Fohammers death were done really well. Halo 2 was interesting in that it dared do something different, exploring the Covenant side of the story was a brave move which paid off in my opinion, though many others disagree. 3 was the weakest story wise by far. The cutscenes are all fantastic but it just wasn't told quite as well as the first 2, too much to pack in, too many loose ends to tie up and those horrificly frustrating, embarrassing Cortana scenes.

    Oops, sorry for that, still, I'm a big Halo fan so I'll be checking these out definitely. Some of the books are pretty good so I'm hoping for something decent here.

  • InvisibleCrane #6 3 years ago

    What was so frustraiting and embarassing about the Cortana scenes in Halo 3

  • septimus #7 3 years ago

    Hope it is in more of a straight anime with a consistent style. I liked Animatrix, but some art styles were jarring in the amount of change.

    Hopefully it will be more like the Devil May Cry anime.

  • Darren #8 3 years ago

    Halo 3 is the best game on the Xbox 360? Gawd, I hope not... :?

  • kangarootoo #9 3 years ago

    @Inquisitor

    Ah, I'd forgotten about the Covenant stuff in H2. Maybe I was thinking of 3 when I said it went weird, but had forgotten which was which :)

  • dominalien #10 3 years ago

    I love these movies made to accompany games, even if they're not really ground breaking material, usually. Yes, the Animatrix shorts were nice, but I especially liked the animated comics for Dead Space and Heavenly Sword.

    Also, this will give me a chance to make the acquaintance of the Halo universe, which I have only briefly come into contact with in the 1st Halo demo.

  • Onny #11 3 years ago

    Small pedantic note: Frank O'Connor doesn't work for Bungie, he works for MS.

  • Diabeu #12 3 years ago

    any tentacles involved?

  • BobsUncle #13 3 years ago

    So he'd not heard of Halo until his wife told him of Halo 3?

    Wow, what a fan.

  • miiiguel #14 3 years ago

    "Halo 3 is the best game on the Xbox 360? "

    Er... the "best game on the Xbox 360" is the game *you* think it's the best game on the Xbox 360.

  • kangarootoo #15 3 years ago

    @Onny

    If MS own Bungie, doesn't everyone work for MS?

    I would have thought a good reference point is that you work for whoever is able to fire you or make you redundant.

  • Pro_Gamer #16 3 years ago

    Halo 3 is not just the best game on the 360, it is without equal on ANY platform, bar none.

  • bad09 #17 3 years ago

    "Girls play Halo 3?"

    Seems so, my Mrs likes it to. Not mad for it but it's probably the only shooter she will play.

  • kangarootoo #18 3 years ago

    "MS doesn't own Bungie anymore, they became independent almost two years ago. Where have you been?"

    Christ, really? Well then I ask myself exactly the same question!

    Finger on the pulse of the games busines, thats me :)

  • kangarootoo #19 3 years ago

    @Pro_Gamer

    Halo 2 was much better imo. The enemy difficulty and level design was all over the place in H3. H2 improved on 1 in just the right places and made for a much tighter experience.

    Edit: I am talking sp and co-op here. Can't speak for competetive mp.
    Edited by 1 at 06/08/09 @ 13:57

  • muscleblade #20 3 years ago

    @Pro_Gamer

    I agree.

    @kangarootoo

    Halo 2 didnt have 4 player coop so no.

  • kangarootoo #21 3 years ago

    "Halo 2 didnt have 4 player coop so no."

    Lack of 4 player co-op didn't make a difference for me at the time. I enjoyed Halo 3 as well, and played a fair amount of it cooperatively with 3 people, but overall I just don't think it was as well put together as H2. Each to their own.

  • RedSparrows #22 3 years ago

    I definitely preferred the H3 SP to H2, although I still enjoy H2 every now and then. It's funny to go back and play some of the levels that you forget about.
    Edited by 1 at 06/08/09 @ 15:08

  • GamesConnoisseur #23 3 years ago

    Interestingly... Mrs Aramaki and Mrs Bad09 both liked Halo3, so it would indicate the central plot of Cortana's pains and yearnings for John paid off?

    Halo3 was the most romantic of the whole franchise, I mean the interruptions during gameplay was when Cortana communicating with you! I thought these were not a well implemented in a very active battling FPS game. Where the AI opponents on harder modes try to tactically outflank you and you do the same with your co op players or AIs. THAT for me what was Halo all about other than the fun online element.

    I would prefer they do a more stronger story telling but through skippable cutscences rather than being plonked into the gameplay and agree that the previous Halos were better told but Halo3 is still a reasonably fun game but not taking my vote for the best ever on X360.

  • bad09 #24 3 years ago

    TBH GamesConnoisseur she only ever played online so I don't think story had anything to do with it. Probably more the ease of play in Halo. It's a very deep shooter but it is also very easy to pick up and play.



    And OI! who minused my Mrs playing Halo, come on own up!

    / shakes manly protective fist