Namco interview (Tekken 4, Soul Calibur 2)

In the interest of seeing all things from all sides, we sat down with Masahiro Kimoto, director of the Tekken series since its inception, to discuss the makings of Tekken 4 . We shot all sorts of topics at him, such as his philosophies on 3D fighting games, his response to Dead or Alive 3 director Tomonobu Itagaki\'s opinions on Tekken, and much, much more.

Kimoto-san, aside from being very busy, is also a very gracious man, as evidenced by the uncommonly candid and open nature of his responses.

Gamers.com: What\'s the biggest change in the Tekken fighting engine you made for this installment?

Masahiro Kimoto: We re-made the whole engine from the scratch for Tekken 4 in order to speed up the combat calculations. The new engine also made it possible to do more precise hit judgment with the undulation of the ground surface, a detailed expression of the muscle movements (for example, the chest muscles move in relation to arm movements), and also, you can see the characters\' hair streaming naturally, etc. Although you cannot tell on the screen, hit judgment is far more precise than the previous version.

Gamers.com: Now that 3D backgrounds are integral to the game, how extensive are they? Obviously they aren\'t as big as Dead or Alive 3\'s, but how big are they, and how interactive?

Masahiro Kimoto: In order for players to enjoy our game we set a variety of situations such as very limited space, like a room, or very wide environment, like an airport. Depending on the character you choose, a stage can give you an advantage or a disadvantage as we would like our players to enjoy different fighting situations with the various environmental conditions. For example, in a very limited space, you can utilize the walls to make a combination attack. On the other hand, in a wide space, you would have to change your fighting style by keeping a distance from the opponent, running about or making combos in the air, and so on. You might feel that some stages are much smaller than DOA3 stages, however there are actually stages bigger than those in DOA3. We believe that all stages are appropriately size for varied fighting.

Gamers.com: Tomonobu Itagaki, head of Tecmo\'s Team Ninja team has been very vocal about his opinions of Tekken 4. What do you think of his statements and what do you think of DOA3?

Masahiro Kimoto: We are not really worried about his statements. We believe that as developers they have their own opinions, and this creates different factors in each product. In other words, it is not good for the players if all products have the same contents as it takes players\' choices away. Therefore, we rather welcome their opinions. We have played DOA3 and we think that it is very well made and a very good game. We would like to try our best to make a good product as well.

Gamers.com: The Tekken universe advances rapidly, with new generations of characters appearing in each installment. Will Paul Phoenix ever just die of old age?

Masahiro Kimoto: As long as no inevitability is forced on our story line, he will not die. Our development team secretly loves him.

Gamers.com: Why did you include replicas of older characters like Eddy and replace them with younger relatives like Christie? Can we expect to see Eddy as a palette swap hidden character?

Masahiro Kimoto: When we developed Tekken 3, we thought that Capoeira movements were suitable for a female character. Although at that time we chose Eddy from several characters we designed, this time we choose Christie instead of Eddy as we have successfully made an attractive female character.

Gamers.com: Can we expect to see Eddy as a palette swap hidden character?

Masahiro Kimoto: We cannot answer to the question above at this stage. We can only say that we cannot deny the possibility.

Gamers.com: Did you guys learn anything technology-wise about the PS2 when creating Tekken Tag Tournament that you applied to T4?

Masahiro Kimoto: Every time we make a new sequel we inherit a lot of technologies of the previous title (an expression of the human body movements for example). Up to Tekken TT, we were not really good at the expression of character fingers or facial expressions, but the technologies of Tekken TT have been advanced and applied in the Tekken 4.

Gamers.com: Has the work of the Soul Calibur team affected your approach to developing T4 in any way? I hear there is a great, but friendly rivalry between the two teams.

Masahiro Kimoto: Since we are in the same department we are influenced by each other. Both teams respect the other and therefore there is a good-natured and friendly rivalry between us. We both try to do things that the other has not tried before to make a better product.

Gamers.com: Whose idea was it to lend Yoshimitsu to Soul Calibur then?

Masahiro Kimoto: This was a request by Soul Calibur team. We were happy to lend him as it is a very good opportunity for him to use his sword without any restriction since he does not really have a chance to use it at the Tekken field. Actually, no one objected although we wanted them to make him look a little bit better

Gamers.com: Is there a growing camaraderie between Namco and Sega\'s teams because of their joint arcade partnerships? The VF4 vs. Tekken 4 advertisements that ran in newspapers last year were very intriguing. Is there any plan to collaborate in the future?

Masahiro Kimoto: We do not know about any joint venture with Sega. However, it would be really interesting if a joint venture comes to be. We have met with the Virtue Fighter team a few times and they are really friendly and nice people. Both teams felt that it would be wonderful if they could do some work together someday

Gamers.com: Who came up with Steve Fox\'s original name "Dean Earwicker?" We can guess why it was changed (cuz it sounds retarded), but where did Dean Earwicker come from in the first place?

Masahiro Kimoto: When we discussed Steve\'s name, we wanted to name him "a most typical British" surname. We scrutinized all the kinds of media we could think of and found several the British surnames (surnames which are distinctly from Britain). Since we wanted to set his background as being born to a very old British family, we finally decided to name him "Dean Earwicker". "Dean" was chosen as we wanted a simple name. However, since we spent a lot of time deciding his name, we had to announce it before we made the final decision. As a result, we had to change his name in the end.

Gamers.com: Where do you think the future of 3D fighting games is headed? Is Tekken 4 prepared to lead that charge?

Masahiro Kimoto: We believe that the 3D fighting game category will evolve in the future although the direction cannot be determined/shown at this stage since everyone on the team has their own ideas. Also, we have never thought that we have been leading the 3D fighting game scene. We always tried to put our efforts in the product as much as possible and thankfully the players evaluated our achievements highly. In order to keep our reputation as high as it has been, we will continue to make our product one we can really enjoy.

Gamers.com: How much more performance can you extract from the PS2? Are people really exploiting this hardware or is there a lot more that you can do with it?

Masahiro Kimoto: PS2 is different from the other hardware in the past. Depending on the contents of the game or programming methods, you can extract different performances from the hardware. Also, in terms of the visuals, there is a way to show better graphics with fewer polygons. Actually, the character models of Tekken 4 Arcade version use fewer polygons than that of Tekken TT PS2 version. But, I am sure that those of Tekken 4 look far better, don\'t you think?

We felt the performance limit of PS, but for PS2, we feel that the performance limit will vary depending on what and how you would like to express with it. Actually, we are extracting close to maximum level of PS2\'s performance. However, if we chose a different way of expression, we could have made better game.

Gamers.com: How are the other console ports of this game coming along? Are there any distinct advantages to the GameCube and/or Xbox?

Masahiro Kimoto: Currently, we have no plans to port Tekken 4 onto the other platforms. Also, since the Tekken team does not have any experience with GameCube/Xbox development, we cannot make any comment on hardware comparison. We only guess that PS2 development might be harder than the others, but even though it might be harder to develop, we feel that PS2 is the most balanced hardware of the 3.

Gamers.com: The Tekken series is famous for its additions for the home versions. Can you give us any hint as to what\'s coming for the PS2 versions of this game?

Masahiro Kimoto: The previous modes such as VS BATTLE, SURVIVAL, etc., will be certainly added. Particularly, we would like to improve the PRACTICE mode. Regarding the other new mode that might interest you most, although I cannot tell you any details right now, we are considering to add a something new. I guess we should be able to talk about it soon. Please look forward to it.

More coming

Gamers.com: Are you concerned with having Virtua Fighter 4 competing on the same console now? Are you going to try and beat VF4\'s release date to the PS2?

Masahiro Kimoto: It would not be true to say we are not worried about it as we think that Virtua Fighter 4 is excellent title. We just believe in ourselves and try our best to make a high quality game. We expect that there will be a lot of good titles released for PS2 and we hope PS2 will attract more players. The release date of Tekken 4 was set regardless VF4 release date. We simply need more time. We are terribly sorry to keep you waiting but please look forward to it.

Gamers.com: Is the Tekken 4 team a new team, or is it mostly the same team with some new additions? What other games have the team worked on? Are there any former AM2 people on the team?

Masahiro Kimoto: Mostly the same team with new additions. A lot of staff have been involved with Tekken series including the arcade versions. I (Masahiro Kimoto) have been involved with all Tekken titles since Tekken 1 arcade version.

Gamers.com: What\'s in the future for Tekken as a series? Will we be able to fight each other online someday?

Masahiro Kimoto: Regarding online features, although it hasn\'t yet happened, it will be possible in the future. However, we will not introduce online features if we have to sacrifice speed. We are going to research it and someday we would like to include it in the features when the time is ripe. One very important issue before considering online features, if the sales of Tekken 4 is not very good, our company might not let us to make a sequel title. However, as long as players expect another Tekken, we would like to continue developing more and more attractive sequels.

Gamers.com: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions.

Masahiro Kimoto: Thank you very much.

Here is the interview + screens (Gamers.com does not support linkage to their screens)

[BizioEE]

First of all thanks for the interview.

You might feel that some stages are much smaller than DOA3 stages, however there are actually stages bigger than those in DOA3. We believe that all stages are appropriately size for varied fighting.

There\'re some stages bigger than those in DOA3? It\'s interesting...I didn\'t know it...which stages?  someone knows?

Originally posted by BizioEE
First of all thanks for the interview.



There\'re some stages bigger than those in DOA3? It\'s interesting...I didn\'t know it...which stages?  someone knows?

Ive only seen the game on PSW\'s DVD preview.. Looks very very nice..
The levels seem very big. (I saw one in a forest.. In a parkinglot, in a shopingmall, inside something with very impressive looking fog on the floor..)

Great review!  


BizioEE, you know whats so funny about bigger stages. By the time you get to the end of the stage, you end up finishing the fight.  I rather have smaller stages with more details in them.

[BizioEE]

Masahiro Kimoto: Currently, we have no plans to port Tekken 4 onto the other platforms. Also, since the Tekken team does not have any experience with GameCube/Xbox development, we cannot make any comment on hardware comparison. We only guess that PS2 development might be harder than the others, but even though it might be harder to develop, we feel that PS2 is the most balanced hardware of the 3.

...but...if they haven\'t any experience with GC and XBox...how could they guess or feel PS2 is the most balanced? and in what way?


Release date?

[BizioEE]

Originally posted by pstwo
Great review!  


BizioEE, you know whats so funny about bigger stages. By the time you get to the end of the stage, you end up finishing the fight.  I rather have smaller stages with more details in them.

check your pm

Originally posted by BizioEE


check your pm

you two in love?
maybe a menage a trois with yer new lovetoy xbox? :P

Some of the levels in Tekken 4 are bigger than DOA3, but that doesn\'t mean they are more detailed/object filled.  Like the airport stage is a huge nearly empty fighting area.  The Streets area (I don\'t know the exact name) is also pretty big, but unlike the airport stage it has things like telephone booths you can break through and fight against.

[BizioEE]

Originally posted by JP


you two in love?
maybe a menage a trois with yer new lovetoy xbox? :P

I\'m an italian stallion...no need to do sex with objects like you:p

Originally posted by BizioEE


I\'m an italian stallion...no need to do sex with objects like you:p

thank God you said that in the Console Debating forum.

Because that Statement is HIGHLY DEBATABLE !

[BizioEE]

Originally posted by ooseven


thank God you said that in the Console Debating forum.

Because that Statement is HIGHLY DEBATABLE !

Debatable?  do you want I post my pic and compare it with you?

...I could do it in the off-topic and we could let people judge who looks more sexy and virile ?

Originally posted by BizioEE


Debatable?  do you want I post my pic and compare it with you?

...I could do it in the off-topic and we could let people judge who looks more sexy and virile ?

yeah post your pic

//ooseven gets am i hot or not entry form ready muhahahahahahahahahahaha

[BizioEE]

Originally posted by ooseven


yeah post your pic

//ooseven gets am i hot or not entry form ready muhahahahahahahahahahaha

(Did it in 5 sec. with my little economic cam...)
Just know I\'m 10x better in person...I\'m not photogenic,and the quality of the pic is horrible...

now show your pic ...don\'t try with a fake...I know your face:laughing:

Hey.. You wanna compare pics??

Ok. This is me doing some stretching before playing on my PS2..
I get very stiff if I dont stretch before i play..