Taken from the Psychic Force 2012 Official Setting book, here are several "failed" character designs that never made it past the planning stage.

You might have seen this picture of Itoi making the rounds earlier this month. I think I had that exact rayon shirt in the 90s actually 😎

Here we have Shimomura (respectfully) throwing a little shade at Koichi Sugiyama and Dragon Quest. 😅

One thing I love about this interview is the friendly vibe between Shimomura and Yamane, who had suprisingly similar musical upbringings. Here Shimomura shares a funny anecdote about musical snobbery that I'm sure many will relate to.

Sasano and Kawade share their favorite moments.

Here Kawade talks about the Ninji partner they had planned to add.

A neat little passage from Iwata and Miyamoto about the maps in Kirby's Adventure.

Aaaand here it is, the picture that launched a thousand clicks. But the whole interview is worth reading!

Did you know Sega solicited the public for story ideas for Phantasy Star II? Here we see Fumiko Sato, the winner selected from over two thousand entries. She apparently made some setting suggestions too. I'd love to know what was adopted...!

Here's one last tidbit of Cyberbots trivia from the Secret File, told in manga form. Santana: "The truth is... we were actually brother and sister!!" Devilotte: "WHAAA--?!" Santana: "Well, only during the planning stages, mind you."

Early Cyberbots concept art for Mary Miyabi. Handwritten notes read: "In anime, you often see a "passionate" protagonist paired with a calm, collected "rational" foil. In this case, that foil just happens to be a woman." 1/2

Keiji Inafune on the common Horokko Reaverbot: "Round characters look cute, so making them appropriately scary as enemies can be a challenge."

Early concept art for Jin from Cyberbots. The handwritten notes read: "Samurai Boy. This is the original 'right-wing boy' version. I'm really glad this got scrapped… Note the rising sun on the back of his jacket."

Did you know the Japanese subtitle of Shining Force, Kamigami no Isan ("Legacy of the Gods"), was actually the original title?

The Takahashi brothers of Climax/Camelot were always very friendly with the gaming press, so the coverage for the Shining Force series is overall quite good. Here they are goofing around and cosplaying a battle scene.

I always like it when developers narrate specific gameplay bits like this; it tells you a lot about their intentions. It's funny because in all my playthroughs, at some point about 1/3 of the way in, every boss is trivialized even without the Alucard Shield.

"I intended to design a pure bakeneko, but while playing around with different ideas, it became a cat-spider. Doesn't the thought of something like this lurking underground make you afraid to walk into a bamboo grove...?" (Inoue) Full interview: shmuplations.com/guwange

Some early concept art for Kosame in Guwange. Her design underwent many changes, and she was originally called "Emi". Full interview: shmuplations.com/guwange

Did you know a sequel was planned for Guwange?! I love those designs! Alas, it seems it never got beyond the initial planning/concept stage.

Inoue shares some of the influences of Guwange. Princess Mononoke probably comes as no surprise, but Genpei Touma Den is less known in the West (it was a massive hit in Japanese arcades)

A couple neat passages to highlight: here Inoue shares the NSFW final boss that almost was...

Did you know Bushido Blade used motion capture, inspired by historical Japanese dramas? (jidaigeki)

Lots of neat insights within, here's two: director Chihiro Fujioka describes a mushroom idea that got abandoned and Nintendo's policy on weapons.

I love the poetry of this exchange, and it certainly presages Nintendo's increasingly open-world game design from the 90s onwards. shmuplations.com/itoimiyamoto/

This interview is an absolute goldmine of Miyamoto and Itoi quotes, and I could practically snip the entire thing. Here's Miyamoto conjuring up visions of Animal Crossing... in 1989! shmuplations.com/itoimiyamoto/

"Corporate programmers are like factory chickens." shmuplations.com/endoitoi/

In other news, I've added a long-requested feature to our archive, the ability to sort interviews by the date we translated them. The front page highlights our most recent ~2 months worth of work, but if you're wanting to catch up further this is a convenient tool. shmuplations.com/archive/

Here's a fun drawing the LOGiN editors added to illustrated Itoi's cheeky ramblings about women being the downfall of the new generation.

Nishida on the challenge of maintaining atmosphere in King's Field as the graphics fidelity/techniques got better. This is a contrast that most Western players haven't experienced, since the very first King's Field was never localized.

Sony telling FromSoftware to "deal with it" after changing a library that broke their fog effect 😆 Not surprising since FromSoftware was an unproven newcomer then.