Support NeoGAF

[Gaia Theory]

I found this interview to be quite informative. I liked hearing from the inside about wacky development studios like Alpha Dream (Mario & Luigi SS) and the Wario Ware dev team.

The ESRB stuff is very interesting too, especially the comparisons between Zelda 2005 and Ocarina of Time.

The interview is worth a read. Bill Trinen and Nate Bihldorff of Nintendo's Treehouse get interviewed by PGC:

http://www.planetgamecube.com/specials.cfm?action=profile&id=514

 

[BobbyRobby]

good interview

"Oh yeah, we took out one chalk outline of a dead Toad in the road with the blood smear. A lot of times, it's not we think it's that inappropriate, because nobody's really offended by that, but sometimes, in the U.S. market, if we decide we want to get an 'E', which did for Paper Mario, you know, we really feel that it appeals to all ages."

:lol

 

[Joe]

Trinen: (whispers) Zelda rocks!

uhm?

 

[Scrow]

PGC: What games are you working on now? For localization?

Bihldorff: That we can talk about?

Trinen: Yeah (laughs) classic answer to that question, uh, well, we just finished up on Paper Mario, just finished up Minish Cap, that's gone gold. Nate’s been working on…

Bihldorff: …Mario Tennis, Metroid Prime: Echoes, um, we're doing Jungle Beat, I guess that's not a big secret, we’re allowed to talk about that, which is awesome.

PGC: Yeah, Bill’s favorite game!

Bihldorff: Yes, my favorite game, too.

Trinen: Yeah, that game is like, the magic of the original Super Mario Brothers to me. Just pure brilliance.

 

[Socreges]

Jungle Beat has to suck. Otherwise I have to buy Donkey Konga for the accessory and I'd really rather not.

 

[Jonnyram]

Jungle Beat has to suck. Otherwise I have to buy Donkey Konga for the accessory and I'd really rather not.

I think it'll come with Jungle Beat too. It does in Japan, at least.

 

[Socreges]

Well, ok. That's awesome. But now I'm afraid that I'll get my hopes up and NOA will crush them.

 

[SantaC]

PGC: I don't want to get too far into territory you can't talk about, but do you think with the new Zelda with the new style and vastly better graphics on the GameCube, do you think there's going to be an issue of E or T?

Bihldorff: I don't think there's any question it'll get a T personally

.

 

[john tv]

I hope the US version of Minish Cap answers some of the questions I haven't been able to figure out about the UK one, even after playing through it and unlocking practically every secret in the game. Stuff like

Spoiler

the fact that the last bomb bag doesn't seem to be in the UK version, even though you could buy it in the shop for 600 Rupees in the J-version

, among other things...

 

[AniHawk]

Well, so finally we'll have a T rated Zelda game. I thought OoT and MM kinda pushed it in parts (as far as ESRB goes). Hope this means the translation team doesn't have to work to mask everything up in the dialogue then. I mean, if there's all that stuff in the Japanese versions of SMRPG 3 and 4 about Peach, then I wonder what they'd put into a Zelda game.

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

Jungle Beat has to suck. Otherwise I have to buy Donkey Konga for the accessory and I'd really rather not.

you can play jungle beat with a normal controller .. right ?

 

[Socreges]

almokla, I don't think so. Therefore we must pray that the Kongas are packaged in.

SMRPG 3 and 4

People need to stop doing that. It takes me like 10 seconds to figure out what you're even talking about. Identifying PM with M&L is confusing enough without linking them to the one by Square.

 

[AniHawk]

you can play jungle beat with a normal controller .. right ?

I would hope so, if they aren't bundling it. I'm not sure we've had definite word either way. I think the price will dictate their final decision with it.

People need to stop doing that. It takes me like 10 seconds to figure out what you're even talking about. Identifying PM with M&L is confusing enough without linking them to the one by Square.

Super Mario RPG 2 was the name for Super Mario Adventure for a long time until it was finally unveiled as such. Then it was renamed Mario Paper, and then again to Paper Mario.

I always either label them as part of the SMRPG series, or by their subtitles. Legend of the Seven Stars, Paper Mario, Superstar Saga, and The Thousand-Year Door | SMRPG 1,2,3, and 4.

 

[Socreges]

Super Mario RPG 2 was the name for Super Mario Adventure for a long time until it was finally unveiled as such. Then it was renamed Mario Paper, and then again to Paper Mario.

SMRPG2 was incredibly tentative, though, wasn't it? They named it that for the purposes of development. Yet they knew that the games share absolutely no lineage, play completely differently, and are made by entirely different people.

I always either label them as part of the SMRPG series, or by their subtitles. Legend of the Seven Stars, Paper Mario, Superstar Saga, and The Thousand-Year Door | SMRPG 1,2,3, and 4.

*golf clap* I guess that's the curse of having one character littered across the industry so indiscriminately. People begin to forfeit simple reason for convenience at the expense of anyone trying to follow what they're saying.

 

[Myoclonic Jerk]

Trinen: (whispers) Zelda rocks!

 

[AniHawk]

SMRPG2 was incredibly tentative, though, wasn't it? They named it that for the purposes of development. Yet they knew that the games share absolutely no lineage, play completely differently, and are made by entirely different people.

Paper Mario and The Thousand-Year Door were made by some of the same people, I'm sure. Every story revolves around seven stars too. TTYD is the real sequel to Paper Mario, but they don't mention the events of Paper Mario. Why? Because no one plays Mario games for the deep, engaging story. Does that mean they aren't part of the same series? I don't think so.

*golf clap* I guess that's the curse of having one character littered across the industry so indiscriminately. People begin to forfeit simple reason for convenience at the expense of anyone trying to follow what they're saying.

I just like to call them that so I don't ever have to worry about Square coming back and actually making "Legend of the Seven Stars 2."

 

[Socreges]

Paper Mario and The Thousand-Year Door were made by some of the same people, I'm sure. Every story revolves around seven stars too. TTYD is the real sequel to Paper Mario, but they don't mention the events of Paper Mario. Why? Because no one plays Mario games for the deep, engaging story. Does that mean they aren't part of the same series? I don't think so.

Do you even remember what you said? You were talking about the first Paper Mario, relative to Square's SMRPG. That's what I responded to. Not PM and PM:TTYD, which, of course, share a lineage, share the same fundamental gameplay, and share [mostly] the same development team.

 

[AniHawk]

Do you even remember what you said? You were talking about the first Paper Mario, relative to Square's SMRPG. That's what I responded to. Not PM and PM:TTYD, which, of course, share a lineage, share the same fundamental gameplay, and share [mostly] the same development team.

I actually read the second part and moved up. Sorry 'bout that.

I guess LotSS ---> Paper Mario = SMB ---> SMB 2/USA. Big changes in gameplay, but still both are widely regarded as the sequel to the first, though not the official ones.

I've seen many people compare LotSS to PM to SS to TTYD (the latter more recently, obviously), because many people believe they're part of a same series.

 

[Socreges]

I know other people consider it the same series. They can think whatever they'd like. The games themselves, in how they can be sharply distinguished, will not depend on how some people choose to categorize them. It just seems very silly/retarded/unusual to me when people begin to identify them as a series, as if naturally. That's all.

 

[AniHawk]

.

 

[Socreges]

guess I've got to edit mine too now

 

[AniHawk]

.

 

[Socreges]

I think Donkey Kong is second from the right

 

[AniHawk]

.

 

[SantaC]

Well, so finally we'll have a T rated Zelda game. I thought OoT and MM kinda pushed it in parts (as far as ESRB goes). Hope this means the translation team doesn't have to work to mask everything up in the dialogue then. I mean, if there's all that stuff in the Japanese versions of SMRPG 3 and 4 about Peach, then I wonder what they'd put into a Zelda game.

Wait, was oot and mm rated E?

 

[AniHawk]

Wait, was oot and mm rated E?

Yeah. OoT was changed because of the blood being red at the end to it being green to avoid getting future versions slapped with a T, I guess. MM... I don't know. I guess there wasn't a lot of actual violence to warrant a T rating, but I feel it was the darkest/most disturbing of the Zelda games released.

 

[SantaC]

Yeah. OoT was changed because of the blood being red at the end to it being green to avoid getting future versions slapped with a T, I guess. MM... I don't know. I guess there wasn't a lot of actual violence to warrant a T rating, but I feel it was the darkest/most disturbing of the Zelda games released.

both Oot and mm definitley had some disturbing moments, especially for children.

 

[DSN2K]

im bored

 

[Solid]

OMG GAMECUBE HAS GONE FROM KIDDIE TO TEEN! W00T!

 

[SantaC]

OMG GAMECUBE HAS GONE FROM KIDDIE TO TEEN! W00T!

Metroid Prime 2 is Teen

 

[geogaddi]

Gaussian Blur,
Median,
Unsharp Mask


Good work.

im bored

 

[NWO]

you can play jungle beat with a normal controller .. right ?

Yes you can play it with a normal controller. It was made to be played with a bongo but you can still play it with a regular controller just like you can with Donkey Konga.

 

[AirBrian]

Well, so finally we'll have a T rated Zelda game. I thought OoT and MM kinda pushed it in parts (as far as ESRB goes). Hope this means the translation team doesn't have to work to mask everything up in the dialogue then. I mean, if there's all that stuff in the Japanese versions of SMRPG 3 and 4 about Peach, then I wonder what they'd put into a Zelda game.

Just imagine a T-rated Mario Bros...

Mario defeats Bowser
Toad: "I'm sorry Mario, but the Princess is in another castle."
Mario: "You son of a bitch!"

 

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

Yeah. OoT was changed because of the blood being red at the end to it being green to avoid getting future versions slapped with a T, I guess. MM... I don't know. I guess there wasn't a lot of actual violence to warrant a T rating, but I feel it was the darkest/most disturbing of the Zelda games released.

I didn't know that the blood in OoT was changed. Was it changed after the launch shipment or something? I'm almost positive my copy has red blood (which I found very surprising at the time, and still do to this day.. it is a Nintendo made game, after all). All I remember being changed was that Muslim chant in the one fire dungeon place.

 

[ge-man]

I didn't know that the blood in OoT was changed. Was it changed after the launch shipment or something? I'm almost positive my copy has red blood (which I found very surprising at the time, and still do to this day.. it is a Nintendo made game, after all). All I remember being changed was that Muslim chant in the one fire dungeon place.

It was changed afterwords if I remember correctly. There are many people like you who claim that they have red color blood in their copy of the game.

 

[Soul4ger]

:lol at the Wario team loving poop.

 

[Deku Tree]

I hope this means they're deep into working on the localization for Zelda Reborn so that I can play it in english soon enough.

 

[SantaC]

I didn't know that the blood in OoT was changed. Was it changed after the launch shipment or something? I'm almost positive my copy has red blood (which I found very surprising at the time, and still do to this day.. it is a Nintendo made game, after all). All I remember being changed was that Muslim chant in the one fire dungeon place.

The Legend Of Zelda, Ocarina of time is split up into 3 versions depending on updates of the game after it's release.

Version 1.0: Almost all gold cartridge games. At the end of the game, Ganon throws up red blood.

Version 1.1: Very few of these. Where made on the last few gold cartride games. Ganon now throws up green blood, and the fire temple music is slightly different.

Version 1.2: Grey cartridges. If you bought a the game recently, it's this one.

 

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

The Legend Of Zelda, Ocarina of time is split up into 3 versions depending on updates of the game after it's release.

Version 1.0: Almost all gold cartridge games. At the end of the game, Ganon throws up red blood.

Version 1.1: Very few of these. Where made on the last few gold cartride games. Ganon now throws up green blood, and the fire temple music is slightly different.

Version 1.2: Grey cartridges. If you bought a the game recently, it's this one.

Wow, you're very informative. Thanks! Very interesting stuff...

I hope this means they're deep into working on the localization for Zelda Reborn so that I can play it in english soon enough.

You didn't hear? It's coming out before Christmas.. THIS YEAR!

I would die if that happened. Seriously. I would.

And the world would be a better place! Yay!

 

[Jonnyboy117]

Well, these guys know a lot about Zelda because they've played it. That video at E3 was cut from a playable demo sent to the Treehouse. That's why I asked the Zelda questions.

 

[SantaC]

Well, these guys know a lot about Zelda because they've played it. That video at E3 was cut from a playable demo sent to the Treehouse. That's why I asked the Zelda questions.

So are they working on that Zelda right now? Trying to get this baby out in the US as fast as possible.

 

[olimario]

Can somebody cut and paste the Zelda parts of that interview?

 

[SantaC]

Can somebody cut and paste the Zelda parts of that interview?

PGC: I don't want to get too far into territory you can't talk about, but do you think with the new Zelda with the new style and vastly better graphics on the GameCube, do you think there's going to be an issue of E or T?

Bihldorff: I don't think there's any question it'll get a T personally. We'll probably have to look at it and have a long discussion with the ESRB. But that is one of their bigger issues, that you can get away with, well, Wind Waker has beautiful graphics but it looks a lot like a cartoon, but the more realistic you get, the more you're going to get [in terms of ratings]. From what we've seen, I don't think there's any question that...

Trinen: We can't talk about what we've seen (laughs)

Bihldorff: I mean, recently we just recently met with the ESRB and talked about Ocarina of Time, and that had some dicey moments, whether or not it was going to get an E, you know, the original one where Ganondorf pukes out all that blood at the end, and then you end up ramming your sword down the pig's throat, you know, when he transforms, and it's not exactly non-violent, and if you imagine a scene like that with vastly improved realistic graphics, I think that'd probably be in the T range.

Trinen: We're really good about working with them too, like, the way submission works, you're basically supposed to send them a video tape of basically the most violent or reprehensible content in the game, and we let them know about the scene in the end where you finally defeat Ganondorf.

Bihldorff: Late, though. We had to tack that on...

Trinen: Did we? I thought we did that at the same time.

Bihldorff: We did an early submission on that, and then we saw that, and were like, "whoa...!"

Trinen: And we saw that and thought that was pretty intense there, and so we showed that to them, and they looked at that and took it into consideration based on the look of the game and how much of the game that represents in terms of the overall gameplay.

Bihldorff: There was no blood, and he turned to stone, and died. They took all that into account.

Trinen: You're not supposed to... you gave the whole thing away, Nate! (laughs)

PGC: Okay, do you guys have anything you want to say in closing?

Trinen: (whispers) Zelda rocks!

.

 

[Diomedeskun]

both Oot and mm definitley had some disturbing moments, especially for children.

The Zora dying right at your feet was definitely something I did not expect from a Nintendo game.

 

[geogaddi]

The Zora dying right at your feet was definitely something I did not expect from a Nintendo game.

NO!! YOU DID'T SPOILER TAG IT!! MY EARS, MY EARS!

 

[FoneBone]

Wind Waker had

Spoiler

Link stabbing Ganon in the head

(do I really still need to spoiler-tag that?), and it still got an E rating.

 

[lexi]

PGC: Well, he’s the “King of Kings”. (laughter) You guys have got to lobby for that to be kept on the box.

Bihldorff: I somehow doubt it. (laughs)

Damn it.

 

[Bregor]

The scene in MM that really surprised me was

Spoiler

the little girl protecting her zombie dad

 

[SantaC]

The scene in MM that really surprised me was

Spoiler

the little girl protecting her zombie dad

indeed, and I jumped when he came out of the closet

 

[AssMan]

MM was the king of Zelda games when it came to a dark and twisted art design, characters, etc. Just looking at the moon coming down in it's final moment was a bit creepy.