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Lumines for PSP (aka REZ producer's new project)

neo2046

Member
http://www.quiter.jp/news/psp/040922002394.html
Quiter reports this is Mizuguchi's new PSP game
he has founded a new company called Q Entertainment
and it seems the title will be published by Bandai



Tetsuya Mizuguchi's new PSP game, Lumines
scej20.jpg
 
Marconelly said:
KobunHeat owned? :p


Can't wait. Everything Mizuguchi touches turns into gold.
Heh. FWIW everybody I talked to, including people who know Mizuguchi well, figured it was DS. Oh well, I guess I was owned in that I'm gonna be out $300 for a PSP no question ^_^
 

aoi tsuki

Member
Heh, even if it was a Mizaguchi-flavored Tetris clone, it'd be worth the price of admission. Tetris is one of the most perfect portable games, Mizaguchi could only make it better.
 

Koshiro

Member
Well it's not just a tetris game, you can see that. You can see the audio levels in the background, so I suspect controlling them has a lot to do with the gameplay. Can't f'n wait.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
What can this game be? Some kind of puzzle game, but it has to feature music prominently, that's for sure. What's that in the background? Some light lines, and buildings (satellite photo?) behind them?

Heh. FWIW everybody I talked to, including people who know Mizuguchi well, figured it was DS. Oh well, I guess I was owned in that I'm gonna be out $300 for a PSP no question ^_^
I had no idea either way, but Mizuguchi kinda seemed a bit buddy-buddy with SCEJ people (held some roundtables for them and such), so I figured he might be working for PSP or, who knows maybe for both? Also, that 3D/2D game from Sonic team looks like something he would be making so maybe that got some people confused.

Wait, who's making this, Jun Kobayashi or Mizuguchi?
It says Q-Entertainment, which is Mizuguchi's game studio, AFAIK.
 

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
Marconelly said:
What can this game be? Some kind of puzzle game, but it has to feature music prominently, that's for sure. What's that in the background? Some light lines, and buildings (satellite photo?) behind them?


I had no idea either way, but Mizuguchi kinda seemed a bit buddy-buddy with SCEJ people (held some roundtables for them and such), so I figured he might be working for PSP or, who knows maybe for both? Also, that 3D/2D game from Sonic team looks like something he would be making so maybe that got some people confused.


It says Q-games, which is Mizuguchi's game studio, AFAIK.


Those bars look like an equilizer.so yeah music is involved in some way.
 
Wow, I might be out 300 bucks because of this, right after I said I'd wait for a price drop. :/

Hopefully it'll be brought to NA quickly. Has it been confirmed that there are region lockouts on the PSP? $300 is too expensive for me to buy both a Japanese and North American PSP.
 

BuG

Member
Wario64 said:
This does not look like the sequel to rez :(
Spiritual/conceptual successor, not sequel. Spiritual successor is a pretty broad term, though, meaning anything from a straight-up sequel to a game in a completely different genre with gameplay affecting the music, somewhat. I have no idea what's going on that screen, but it's from Tetsuya Mizuguchi so I'm interested.

Letting my mind run rampant for a minute, and assuming the music plays a big part in the game (going by what appears to be an equaliser, and Mizuguchi making explicit mention of PSP's sound capabilities when comparing differences between types of games for DS and PSP in Kikizo's video interview), I came up with a game where you drop those Tetris-style pieces onto the equaliser and alter the sound produced by the game. For example, if you place a square on the low frequency side of the equaliser it adds more bass, whereas placing a different shaped piece (just pretend the orange blocks represent different shaped pieces, like a Tetris L or something) on the other end of the spectrum produces greater treble, etc. Back to reality now... >_>

edit:
Link316 said:
grrrrrrr, there better be a PS2 version
In the Kikizo interview I mentioned, he says he doesn't like multi-platform development. One game for one platform, or something like that.
 

Falch

Member
Can't wait to find out how it works. Guess we'll find out in a few days. I just recently got a hold of Rez (for only 17 euro too :D), and it's a very fun game.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
BuG, I think you are onto something. You could get scored by how much of the song frequency range you unlock, and perhaps the background changes/complexifies according to that.
 
BuG said:
Spiritual/conceptual successor, not sequel.

Well, Mizuguchi did make it seem as if the only thing holding him back from calling this Rez 2 was Sega:

GS: Are you interested in portable devices?

TM: Yes, I think my next game will be for the PSP or Nintendo DS.

GS: Will that be Rez 2?

TM: In my mind, yes. But I won't use the Rez name because that belongs to Sega.
 

BuG

Member
heavy liquid said:
Well, Mizuguchi did make it seem as if the only thing holding him back from calling this Rez 2 was Sega:
I forgot about that interview. I was referring to the Kikizo video interview though. I couldn't quite hear everything in the video, but I think I caught most of what was said.

Mizuguchi: I got a very good reaction from the people who played Rez, so I think this is a very good point.

Interviewer: Do you think that feedback would encourage Sega to make a Rez 2? Even though you're here now, do you think they would still be interested in making such a thing?

Mizuguchi: I don't know about... if Sega want to, Sega can't to... can't make that kind of thing... so, yeah... I would do that.

Interviewer: You would do that?!1!

Mizuguchi: Yeah, I would do that.

Interviewer: Would you be able to make Rez 2 without Sega?

Mizuguchi: Not Rez, but that kind of concept... is to be succeed.
Although, even that could be interpreted as what he was saying in the GameSpot interview.

Society said:
Rez is on 2 consoles.
Mizuguchi was referring to DS and PSP games in particular when he talked about not liking the multi-platform approach, saying something akin to making a game specifically for that platform and its features (i.e, dual-screen, or better sound and resolution, etc.). At least, that's how I interpreted it. I was probably a little ambiguous when I said "one game for one platform".
 

Lazy8s

The ghost of Dreamcast past
Lumines is a light show with all of that stuff going on in the background. Being a continuation of his conceptual ideals from Rez, the audio should be inextricably linked.

Rez was a concept for tying the three senses used to play videogames - sight, sound, and touch - together, and UGA felt the most basic expression of that was the simple action/reaction construct of a shooter. A puzzler is the basic form for taking interactivity one step further, so it makes sense as the genre for Lumines, the successor to Rez.

One of Mizaguchi's design ideals, even when he directed the Sega Rally series, has been to focus on the heart of the gameplay experience, the most basic and direct element of what's making it fun to play. This element is rhythm, the rhythm of whatever action/reaction makes up the particular game. This is why Space Channel 5 was designed directly around matching beats and rhythm, and Lumines too might be about piecing together the music if audio will be integral to its play challenge and not just its presentation.
 

neo2046

Member
Just find these words in the first pic:
(the red words above the screen)
"While you are playing, you are evoluted to be a computer walker"
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Rez was a concept for tying the three senses used to play videogames - sight, sound, and touch - together
It's really too bad that PSP doesn't have some kind of rumble function. I guess it would be too much to ask for that though, when the batteries are as much of a concern as they are.
 

Kon Tiki

Banned
BuG said:
Mizuguchi was referring to DS and PSP games in particular when he talked about not liking the multi-platform approach, saying something akin to making a game specifically for that platform and its features (i.e, dual-screen, or better sound and resolution, etc.). At least, that's how I interpreted it. I was probably a little ambiguous when I said "one game for one platform".
Then why did you quote a statement about ps2.
 
Too early to tell of course, but I have to assume it'll at least sound killer. Bet the sound's so intense, that PSP will fly out of your hand.
 

Lazy8s

The ghost of Dreamcast past
Marconelly,
It's really too bad that PSP doesn't have some kind of rumble function.
The rumbling of a handheld would also shake the player's view of the screen somewhat, but what they could do to provide at least some level of tactile feedback would be to direct a blowing fan onto the player's hands instead. An obvious usage of that could be to vary the wind resistance felt when speeding in a racing game, but the blowing air concept is really no more of an abstract feedback of our game scenarios than rumbling is.

Another tactile feedback mechanism could be to vary the handheld's temperature. That would be interesting in an obvious way for snow levels, lava levels, etc. Hotter can also reflect faster speeds of movement, too.

At the very least, controllers for next-gen home consoles should provide more tactile response along these lines.
 

jarrod

Banned
Marconelly said:
Can't wait. Everything Mizuguchi touches turns into gold.
Astro Boy? Or is Naka's touch just stronger? :p


Society said:
Rez is on 2 consoles.
Almost all Mizuguichi's games have been multiplatform....

-Sega Rally Championship (Model 2A CRX, Sega Saturn, PC/Windows, GameBoy Advance, N-Gage)
-Manx TT SuperBike (Model 2A CRX, Sega Saturn, PC/Windows)
-Sega Touring Car Championship (Model 2C CRX, Sega Saturn, PC/Windows)
-Sega Rally 2 (Model 3 Step 2.0, PC/Windows, Dreamcast)
-Space Channel 5 (Dreamcast, PlayStation 2)
-Rez (Dreamcast, PlayStation 2)
-Space Channel 5 Part 2 (Dreamcast, PlayStation 2)
 

drohne

hyperbolically metafictive
looks really slick, and i swear i like everything miziguchi's ever done, but to be honest i'm just not a fan of falling block puzzle games. although i'm sure there's more going on than that shot reveals. we'll see, i guess.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
but what they could do to provide at least some level of tactile feedback would be to direct a blowing fan onto the player's hands instead. An obvious usage of that could be to vary the wind resistance felt when speeding in a racing game, but the blowing air concept is really no more of an abstract feedback of our game scenarios than rumbling is.

Another tactile feedback mechanism could be to vary the handheld's temperature. That would be interesting in an obvious way for snow levels, lava levels, etc. Hotter can also reflect faster speeds of movement, too.

At the very least, controllers for next-gen home consoles should provide more tactile response along these lines.
Those are actually pretty good ideas, IMO :) I love the well done rumble support in games, and it would definitely be nice if the controllers would evolve a bit more in that direction.
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
Looks kind of like a rhythm-based Tetris that uses the same kind of "visuals respond to the gameplay" kind of thing Rez had going on.

At least, that's my guess.
 

sc0la

Unconfirmed Member
Kobun Heat said:
Heh. FWIW everybody I talked to, including people who know Mizuguchi well, figured it was DS. Oh well, I guess I was owned in that I'm gonna be out $300 for a PSP no question ^_^
We got your book in today, and my manager thought it was "soooo cool". ;)

kudos
 

sc0la

Unconfirmed Member
BTW I love the city map underlay, and the seemingly EQ readout that i am interested to see how it figures into gameplay. I am intrigued.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
erm - isn't that an overhead shot of Tokyo city in the background

Does this possibly have some sort of GPS application?

"While you are playing, you are evoluted to be a computer walker"

Phyiscally go places / directions to play the music maybe?

(okay, someone has spiked my coffee....)

oh, and the red lines are following the highways.... interesting....
 

Ill Saint

Member
jkooXL said:
Jun Kobayashi is no longer with Mizuguchi-san's company. He is at Square-Enix these days.
You worked on Rez, right? You're not with Mizuguchi's new team are you? Got any tidbits on this game? :D
 

jkooXL

Member
I went and saw Mizuguchi-san and the remaining members of the old team two weeks ago but they were in mad crunch mode to get ready for TGS. At least we got out a couple of times for beers and dinner with the old gang. Can't say a word about the game.
 
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