Yoshio Sakamoto

[Trishbot]

Team Ninja probably would have made a better game if they had more control, but I'm not convinced they were right for the job in the first place.

Same here. Metroid is all about great level design, and Team Ninja hasn't made anything that makes me think that they can pull off non-linearity. Though for all I know Sakamoto did all of the layouts for Other M. I don't know who did what for this game.

Speaking of that: Is it true that they went with Team Ninja because the Fusion/Zero Mission team has no experience with 3d graphics?

That's what I've read elsewhere. On the Nintendo wiki, it says

"[Sakamoto's] team, however, was not accustomed to developing 3D video games for Nintendo's home system, primarily being a handheld developer. With the approval of Nintendo, Sakamoto approached Team Ninja, asking for their assistance. The team, big Metroid fans, agreed to take on the challenge."

I also read that Sakamoto had great difficulty finding people that "got' his vision for Metroid. One of the interviews was about "why Team Ninja?" because they certainly weren't the first team Sakamoto looked at.

"Sakamoto explained that several people were confused after hearing his requests, but Hayashi understood him perfectly."

Maybe I'm reading into that too much, but one of the reasons Sakamoto didn't work with Retro Studios was because their direction was different from his, so it's possible even the old Metroid team from Fusion/Zero Mission didn't see eye-to-eye either. Team Ninja was open to the idea, however, so that'd be the path of least resistance.

It does beg the question, what's the old Fusion/Zero Mission team doing now? I hope they didn't go the way of Rare and got stuck doing WarioWare spin-offs or something.

[AuroraUnitComplex]

Speaking of that: Is it true that they went with Team Ninja because the Fusion/Zero Mission team has no experience with 3d graphics?

Yeah, pretty much. Although, it wasn’t just because the small Fusion/ZM teams didn’t have much experience with 3d, but because Team Ninja had the specific type of 3rd person experience and action flair know-how that they were looking for.

For some historical context, in 2003, the Academy of Arts and Sciences nominated Metroid Prime for a slew of categories and eventually gave it the single award of “Console First Person Action Game of the Year.” Simultaneously, they also awarded Metroid Fusion as: “Best Handheld Game of the Year.” There is an intrinsic reason why that single R&D1 team could not have been awarded for best Console and Handheld Metroid: they didn’t have the 3d experience that Retro had, the necessary manpower, or a concept of how to craft an excellent 1st person Metroid experience.

One of the reasons why there wasn’t any 3D Metroid title for N64 was because Sakamoto couldn’t conceptualize how to make one, and felt that he would need some other studio to help make it a reality. Once he finally came up with a 3rd person cinematic action concept, he turned to Team Ninja, and even last year, he acknowledged that he now has a much better idea of how to construct 3D games and which of his ideas are more feasible. I think it’s rather telling, and regardless of how one slices it, this is still his first attempt crafting a 3D Metroid game, and there was some significant experimentation going on. Even Team Ninja said that their programmers started coming up with too many ideas, and they had to start scaling things back.

[okey]

It does beg the question, what's the old Fusion/Zero Mission team doing now? I hope they didn't go the way of Rare and got stuck doing WarioWare spin-offs or something.

I think they're working on Rhythm Heaven Wii. Still, that's a scary thought. There might not be anyone at Nintendo that's capable of making a Metroid game anymore. And that would shoot down my hopes of seeing a Metroid game filled with vibrant, hand-drawn 2d graphics...

If they pulled a Rare we would have heard about it. Rare got bad because all of their talent literally got up and left.

One of the reasons why there wasn’t any 3D Metroid title for N64 was because Sakamoto couldn’t conceptualize how to make one, and felt that he would need some other studio to help make it a reality. Once he finally came up with a 3rd person cinematic action concept, he turned to Team Ninja, and even last year, he acknowledged that he now has a much better idea of how to construct 3D games and which of his ideas are more feasible. I think it’s rather telling, and regardless of how one slices it, this is still his first attempt crafting a 3D Metroid game, and there was some significant experimentation going on.

Now that you mention it Other M does feel a lot like an n64 game. It's got the stationary first person mode, the level design is really static and simple, there are mismatching art assets, the framerate's inconsistent. Its like the majority of devtime went into making sure things worked right in 3d.

That bit about Sakamoto having better ideas on how to do things is really good news, hopefully it means he's the type that learns from his mistakes.

Even Team Ninja said that their programmers started coming up with too many ideas, and they had to start scaling things back.

Now I want to know what these ideas are. If people at Team Ninja are drawing up stuff like morph ball puzzles in their spare time then maybe I wouldn't mind seeing them take another crack at Metroid.

[James Pierce]

The Fusion/Zero Mission team was part of the development of Other M, so they are still making Metroid games. Hosokakwa was even one of the games directors, so the team is still alive and well. Currently, they're developing Friend Collection 2 for 3DS, which is gearing to be one of their biggest titles ever, so Sakamoto and co are probably 100% invested in that game.

[okey]

I have one more question about Sakamoto. What's the guy's writing experience?

[YamI]

I have one more question about Sakamoto. What's the guy's writing experience?

Writing experience? What specifically do you mean by that?

[okey]

As in, what kind of stuff did he write before Other M's script.

[YamI]

As in, what kind of stuff did he write before Other M's script.

Hm....I think he wrote Fusion's and Metroid Prime 1-3's. Thats it, I think, not sure on that, let me find something to confirm it..

EDIT: Yeah, I'm not sure, it says he wrote a lot of them on here. I dunno what to tell ya.

[Remnants]

Well well, this has been a bit of an eye-opener for me. Now I look forward to another Metroid game from him because now I'm convinced he's out to make improvements from his previous experiment. Only time will tell us how much he's learned when the next Metroid game's been released. My money's on the second half of 2014.

[Naner]

Metroid Prime 1-3's

What? Sakamoto had no involvement whatsoever with the Prime games.

I believe he wrote most of Fusion, which has lots story, and Zero Mission, which has very little but still more than Metroid. He probably had considerable involvement in the script and backstories of the first three games. He also created most characters that appear in the series, including Samus.


So yeah, the man you all seem to hate is the same one who made all those awesome things years ago.

[YamI]

Really? I thought Sakamoto was part of the reason Prime was even made. I guess that shows you how much you can learn from a Pac-man Ghost.

[KingBroly]

Metroid Prime 1-3's

What? Sakamoto had no involvement whatsoever with the Prime games.

I believe he wrote most of Fusion, which has lots story, and Zero Mission, which has very little but still more than Metroid. He probably had considerable involvement in the script and backstories of the first three games. He also created most characters that appear in the series, including Samus.

So yeah, the man you all seem to hate is the same one who made all those awesome things years ago.

It's a matter of trust. Do fans of Metroid trust Yoshio Sakamoto anymore? That's really the question.

[okey]

So yeah, the man you all seem to hate is the same one who made all those awesome things years ago.

I think people are more worried that crazy-mode has kicked in, kind of like what happened to Peter Molyneux.

Well well, this has been a bit of an eye-opener for me. Now I look forward to another Metroid game from him because now I'm convinced he's out to make improvements from his previous experiment. Only time will tell us how much he's learned when the next Metroid game's been released..

I feel the same way. Other M's got a lot of problems but it'd be pretty easy to fix this stuff for Metroid V.

[Chris]

It's a matter of trust. Do fans of Metroid trust Yoshio Sakamoto anymore? That's really the question.

There's probably about, I dunno, 200 fans or so (pure guess) who know who Sakamoto is and what his role is, the rest don't know or care, you pick, and they just buy the games regardless of who's in charge because they are fun.

Point is, only a small minority know who this guy is and what his involvement is with Metroid.

Do fans trust the Metroid brand anymore? That would be a more appropriate question.

[Infinity's End]

It's a matter of trust. Do fans of Metroid trust Yoshio Sakamoto anymore? That's really the question.

There's probably about, I dunno, 200 fans or so (pure guess) who know who Sakamoto is and what his role is, the rest don't know or care, you pick, and they just buy the games regardless of who's in charge because they are fun.

Point is, only a small minority know who this guy is and what his involvement is with Metroid.

Do fans trust the Metroid brand anymore? That would be a more appropriate question.

QFE. But man why am I not surprised of KB using his own judgement and trying to claim he's speaking for all the fans?

And Sakamoto WAS involved with the Primes, he just wasn't directly involved. He provided support and advice to the team, most likely through translated emails. But it was probably not too in-depth.