The Man who Made Guwange and ESPRade

Interview aus der "Continue" ausgabe 6 Uebersetzt von Gaijin Punch

-I was told by you to meet here, in front of the Statue of Liberty in Odaiba. Was this the setting of the last stage of ESPRade?

Inoue: No, no (laughs).

-Just recently, Dodonpachi Daioujou (DOJ) was released... a game which could be called an extremely evolved Toaplan style shooter (STG). I'd like to ask you some questions now to get a summary of the STG history from Toaplan to Cave. First, can you tell us how you came to enter the gaming industry?

Inoue: I'm originally from Kouchi. In my high school years I was going to the arcades out in the country side, but the idea of working with games never realistically occured to me. Around the time of my entrance exams, I learned there was a specialty school where you could study game production. I then came to Tokyo and entered that school. As I was commuting, I started to realize that such a career could happen, and started taking various company entrance exams. It was that time that I was picked up by Toaplan.

-Was Toaplan your first choice?

Inoue: I took tests at Sega and Konami, but failed them. Toaplan was a backup (laughs).

-You didn't particularly feel that you really liked any of Toaplan's games?

Inoue: I overall liked their games. I was briefly enthralled with Kyuukyoku Tiger and Hishouzame... I wasn't good at any of them though (laughs).

-At the time, Toaplan didn't have any pictures or animations in their games. I picture them as in the far distance for a person that can draw as well as you. When did you start noticing in Toaplan, something more than a "backup"?

Inoue: What was it...? First, when making games, they were concerned with many areas. That, and when I saw that in pursuing gameplay, they would make very fair rules between the players and enemies. I thought it was great for a company to go after such things.

-Once you entered Toaplan, what was the first game you started on?

Inoue: When I first started I was in a research group with other new-comers in which we made a demo of Dogyuun!!

-Aah, the one that started off with that gigantic robot blasting off and making that "Dogyuun" sound. That was pretty popular. That's when Toaplan's animations started getting a little deeper.

Inoue: I never heard anything about any of my senpai who were working on the project intentionally influencing the animation, but maybe we did for the part we oversaw. Going along with the times, games with animation and colorful characters were a hit. We started aiming for that with Batsugun. When I was drawing characters for that project, I was looked at like, "you're drawing things that have nothing to do with the game!" (laughs).

-Really? Those characters seem strong for making console ports. Like with Hellfire S. "Who's this sleeping in a towel on my bed?" (laughs).

Inoue: I think that came out on the PC-Engine. Another company ported that one, but Toaplan did the Megadrive version.

-That was close to it's original hard-line image. Did Toaplan only have people that liked STG's?

Inoue: No, it wasn't like that.

-I thought that was the training camp for STG masters (laughs). Was there any other genres you moved into?

Inoue: Plenty. I hated making STG's... really (laughs).

-You can say that now that you're out (laughs). Toaplan made Wardner no Mori, a famous action game, right?

Inoue: I liked those action games.

-Was their a tendancy for the company to focus on STG's because they were more profitable?

Inoue: That's right. STG's were more likely to become a hit when compared to other genres.

-You could make new STG's based on accumulated know-how of previous ones?

Inoue: Yes. We became the standard of vertical STGs.

-I thought Toaplan had broadened their horizons when I saw not just vertical, but some horizontal STGs being released as well. I guess the screen is really all that was broadened (laughs).

Inoue: (laughs). You could say that, but horizontal and vertical games are very different, so there were some problems with the horizontals.

-Speaking of action games from Toaplan, I remember the game Ghox. A block-kuzushi game where a naked person was carrying the racket you swung. It had a rotating paddle, an up and down lever, and now that I think about it, a bomb [button] as well.

Inoue: I've heard that that was originally planned to be a vertically scrolling game. Due to some type of hardware limitation the scrolling part became impossible, and they made it a single-screen game. It was visually a strange game as well.

-What was your impression of Toaplan after entering? Up until now you've told us about how you felt playing their games. What about after looking at them from the inside?

Inoue: I was scared about entering the real world after finishing school. When I eventually got in, I was like "what is this place?!" (laughs).

-Were there that many god-like developers?

Inoue: No... I was just surprised at all the energy they had in meetings.

-Was it really high tension?

Inoue: Ridiculously. Enough to obliterate an entire shop.

-Like a bomb you'd seen in a game.

Inoue: I think the bomb in the games would look a bit more sophisticated (laughs). Once when someone suggested something boring in a meeting he got a pie in the face and they even tried to spray him with a fire extinguisher. Luckily when he test-fired, the extinguisher ran out of stuff.

-Sounds more like a sports meet.

Inoue: A lot like one!

-So, the corporate policy really was something like "fight for what you make". How many employees were there in Toaplan at this time?

Inoue: But when working, everyone was quite normal. When I entered in 1992, there was 53 people, just like a deck of cards [I guess they're including the joker. FYI, cards in JPN = "trump"]. We had an internal newspaper called "Atolanp" [Japanese would pronounce this they same way they would pronounce "A Trump". Cheesy pun, as they've just shuffled the characters that spell Toaplan . Doesn't work so well in English].

-Where was the office?

Inoue: Ogikubo. Deco [Data East Corporation] was at the South exit and we were at the North.

-"Another side of Ogikubo!" Was there anyone in Cave that would complain about what you were making? Maybe whine saying, "this STG is no good for my glasses."

Inoue: They wouldn't come right up and say "this is how it should be" or anything, but they might've taken their thoughts over to the project head.

-After looking at the finished project, can you see the effects of those that might've said, "the hit box has to be like this" or "the bullets have to fan out like this"?

Inoue: I'd say so. According to whomever oversaw the programming, the game will be a little different. We had various types, like the "I think the small hit box is better" type, and the "you can't tell what's going on if it's not the same size as the ship" type.

-So you could say that there are some that would find the outrageously small, few-pixel hitbox in Dodonpachi or Batsugun as unforgiveable?

Inoue: Yes. There were some days we'd have meetings (fights?) all day long.

-Tiger Heli seems that it was would've fallen under that category. You think you're in a spot where you can't get hit and then "boom!".

Inoue: Around the time of Dogyuun, my generation really got involved in the particulars of the game, but after that there was a time when a lot of people above me quit. After that, the Batsugun team was made, which consisted of a group of people a year ahead of me, some new-comers, relatively speaking, and some members from my generation. Once again, they mixed together a bunch of people that were going to butt heads on similar issues (laughs).

-So were you forcefully seperated from your seniors?

Inoue: Yes. The tough ones really put us to work. But the Batsugun team consisted of IKD-san (Tsuneki Ikeda) and other relatively young "gamers who liked old Toaplan STG's" so relatively speaking we had a lot of freedoms.

-Not the original people who made Toa games, but the "2nd Generation of Toa".

Inoue: The people involved with making Tiger Heli and Kyuukyoku Tiger didn't work on Batsugun. They had all moved up.

-Dogyuun had various adventure elements to it.

Inoue: From the beginning we had the "maximum equipped" concept.

-There was the new idea of choosing between the speed up and the bomber and the capture beam that would grab the enemies. I was really surprised at the climax of the last scene. I thought to myself, "why's he transforming into a gigantic robot?"

Inoue: Well I was brand new so really couldn't help but say anything but "Wow!" (laughs).

-I was surprised time after time visually. I was expecting a lot from the gameplay as well.

Inoue: The visuals were so good because they were made by Toaplan's best developers at that time. Me being able to participate in the demo was a great honor.

-As a gamer, I was at a loss as how to face the gap between it's coolness and it's story. Next, I'd like to ask about your involvement in Knuckle Bash.

Inoue: Yes, I helped with the backgrounds on that one.

-It was rare to see a Toaplan beat 'em up, but it became a pretty rough action game.

Inoue: My seniors had good sense when it came to illustrations. I think they did a great job on that one.

-It was a game where you chose between Macho Man, Mask Man, and Presley, right?

Inoue: It was done by the same designer as FixEight - a senior of mine that was skilled at American-style photography.

-The same person that made those aura's in Fixeight? Until then all Toaplan games were just straight-forward pixel graphics. That left an impression on me, like a beautiful flower opening up.

Inoue: The guy that did the illustrations was with the company from before that. After quitting Toaplan he apparently went to draw illustrations in game books for companies like Famitsu.

Inoue: That was the first for me after the "helper" phase. We start planning, and I did a lot of trial and error.

-And thus you have 6 "loud" characters in the intensely title Batsugun?

Inoue: By trial and error I was some how able to pull it off, but there were many things I regretted.

-Any unsatisfying parts in the so-called "Final Masterpiece of Toaplan?"

Inoue: First, the schedule (laughs).

-Once you became a main developer, did you feel like you didn't have enough time?

Inoue: Thinking back on it now I had plenty of time, but I didn't have much experience as a professional, and didn't stop feeling like I was still a student. I felt like I gave the world an incomplete product. It was later that I realized this.

-The BGM was pretty soft and the difficulty was relatively low compared to other Toaplan games, which would be inviting to STG beginners. What would you say was inadequate?

Inoue: For example, I was late recognizing that the balance between the map design and difficulty level didn't match. While placing each enemy and cannon one by one, you have to check it against the game system. However, I just kept drawing one after another. That's an example of me being naive. We started Batsugun thinking that we'd be making something that was different from it's predecessors... like what we learned from Sonic Wings; a speedy feeling where one stage is about one minute, and with a refreshing feeling, where you feel that you accomplished something. Before that, you had Tatsujin-Ou where the first stage took 10 minutes to clear (laughs).

-It was like taking one step at a time through a violent snow storm, eh?

Inoue: The only thing I was satisfied with was that we succeeded in making a game that had a good flow. I didn't know how hard it would be to hand-pick what went in, so I thought maybe the consistency was a little thin.

-You proceed along and then all of a suddent "it's done!?"

Inoue: Yes. I thought maybe we could've had a better way to incorporate everything.

-Yeah, but I bet there were a lot of users that learned from it. If it's always something as dense as Tatsujin-Ou, nobody could ever enter "The Gates of Toaplan".

Inoue: That's right. But when I thought to myself that I had to make it in a way that it wouldn't become boring, I sometimes would think "this seems good this way, so I'll leave it". That wasn't always true, and I think is something I should apologize for. That's what I regretted.

-By that time STG's had already entered a tough period. I thought that this one game brought together the issues of bringing the difficulty down, making the characters stronger, and shortening playtime which would start Toaplan off in it's new direction.

Inoue: Being told that helps a little. The development team had succeeded with each member going about it on his own.

-Were you against each one going on his own?

Inoue: The whole idea of putting in selectable characters symbolized non-teamwork. At this time, there was still an atmosphere in Toaplan where characters in a shooter were not only unnecessary, but a pain.

-But in the end, as if unphased by such a feeling, the characters got a crushing victory. They've even got the lines "Here we go! Here we go! Here we goooooo!".

Inoue: I was told it was a little out of control (laughs).

-The color in stoic STG's had that explosive feeling. The character in Outzone was created as such, but was there any movement in Toaplan, to "make characters" before that?

Inoue: I don't know about before, but for me there was. Overdoing it in Batsugun I wound up making a story which used the characters.

-It was great when the serialized manga appeared in Game Hisshou Guide, wasn't it?

Inoue: At the time I had gotten close with the head of editing, Ryuichi Ri (Dragon Lee). When we met up after not seeing each other for a while, I told him about the Batsugun characters, and he asked if I wanted to draw it for his book.

-It unfortunately went out of publication but the Game Hisshou Guide was legendary. They had great sense with their content images of Street Fighter II and such. Were you good friends with Ri-san?

Inoue: By working with him I learned a lot about professionalism. I respect him even now, and we are still close (laughs).

-Well, you've still got running manga's in Arcadia. Seems like you're active in all directions (laughs). Was Batsugun your first experience in writing manga?

Inoue: I scribbled a few in high school.

-So were the Batsugun characters something you had been fostering since then?

Inoue: You could say that. I was able to use things that were left in my head from long ago in an unexpected place. In Guwange, I think I gave birth to things I gained from living in the country side.

-Did you like Japanese style things back then?

Inoue: No, not especially. I can only draw subject matter that I've seen. I've only lived in Japan, so can only draw Japanese scenery... I guess (laughs). Going off of that, since I grew up in the country, there's Guwange. Since I now live in Tokyo, there's ESPRade. Progear was a world I never lived in, so it was a lot of work (laughs).

-Was there any particularly difficult episode with the Batsugun manga?

Inoue: The daily schedule was tight. I was doing my normal job (game development) while writing it (laughs). I'd finish work, hurry home, and draw until morning. I don't know what I would've done if it was more than bi-monthly.

-Around that time, Toaplan was no longer here and you went to Gazelle?

Inoue: The manga was negotiated while I was moving between the two, so it was about the time I entered Gazelle. I was a "two-year graduate of Toaplan" (laughs). I was also a "two-year graduated of Gazelle" when I left there. After a couple of years at Cave, people were asking me "when are you going to quit?" (laughs).

-Asking like you jumped from job to job (laughs).

Inoue: Yes.

-Was there anything you were developing in Toaplan that didn't get released? I heard rumors about Genkai Chousen Distopia.

Inoue: We were making that. At that time, "first year Toaplan" members were making Otenki Paradise (Snow Brothers II). They just barely got it out. There were some other puzzle games too, like Sennou Teki Paki 2 (working title).

-There's a sequel to Teki Paki?

Inoue: Well, there was a "working" one (laughs).

-I really want to hear about this. What were the final days of Toaplan like?

Inoue: It got complicated because there were a lot of people that were still thinking, "will we really go bankrupt"?

-Did it feel like it just snuck up on you?

Inoue: Yes. There were still rumors saying we were doing okay. There were also people that packed up their belonging and left, saying "today's my last day". There were also people that told them "don't just up and quit!" (laughs).

-Like an ending with no tension.

Inoue: Then eventually one day I finished work and was followed by one of my bosses. They had my things near by and said "you guys, you're out of here". I was like, "Really?" (laughs). As I walked out of the building with both hands full of my belongings, men in black suits went in.

-You left all the in-development materials behind and said "Oh, well"?

Inoue: Yes. We escaped, leaving the company behind with it's data, PCBs, and equipment just lying on the ground. It wasn't like the captain going down with the ship. We got out of there (laughs).

-When Gazelle's Akuu Gallet came out, Cave was already being talked about as becoming the next Toaplan. Is Gazelle still around?

Inoue: Not anymore. The demise of Gazelle was... so bad that it'll have to stay off record.

-Were you the main designer for Akuu Gallet?

Inoue: Yes. I was aiming for something loud this time. A "real" STG. Once again, the schedule just didn't work out.

-You had time issues every time (laughs).

Inoue: We had plenty of time to make it in the alotted year, but making time adjustments is tough. The 2nd stage set in Tokyo I was drawing as time permitted. I was displeased with the small motif scenery, so decided for my next project I would draw big backgrounds which I threw into ESPRade.

-That was what you worked on once you started at Cave. How exactly did you come to work at Cave?

Inoue: Once I was told at Gazelle "you don't have to show up anymore" I was invited by Raizing.

-A lot of offers from STG developers!

Inoue: I had a lot of opportunities to go there so I was starting to lean that way. But, then I got a phone call from IKD-san at Cave asking me if I wanted to go there. Cave had the higher salary of the two, and they also had weekends off. There were a lot of good points (laughs).

-Your heart must've fluttered.

Inoue: Of course the terms of employement were good, but IKD-san's dedication to STG's is amazing. I thought to myself that I wanted to make games with him, and decided to go with Cave. I can't say that to him though (laughs).

-If he hadn't have called, you might've gone to Raizing and worked on Soukyuugurentai.

Inoue: It was already done by then. When I visited their offices they showed it to me. I probably would've been working on their next game, Batrider (laughs).

-I would've liked to have seen one of those "Let's go! Let's go! Let's gooooooo!" explosions in the [Batrider] landscape (laughs). Well, looking back now, it seems Cave was the longer lasting.

Inoue: Yes. Their air seemed to be blessed... I guess if I say that it would be a little dodgy (laughs).

-About how many people were in Cave at that time?

Inoue: Around 30 I'd say. Strangely, there's no sales department.

-Everyone's on the development staff?

Inoue: Yes, so they always had other companies like Atlus take care of publishing. They carefully thought out the risk involved in having a sales department of their own.

-So is Cave mostly made up of people originally from Toaplan?

Inoue: Part of it was. There were a lot of people that joined that I didn't know.

-For those people that joined then, I wonder if a lot of them went to Cave because they loved STGs and Cave seemed to succeed Toaplan.

Inoue: Not that many. Sure there were some Toaplan fans that joined, but I think they would've been caught in the interview (laughs).

-Hmmm, so not a lot of people getting into Cave just because they like STGs. Cave also did some trial and error with other genres of games, didn't they?

Inoue: Not just Cave, but the other developers [I worked for] all did some trial and error with other genres.

-Was there a free atmosphere where you were able to try things you liked, not only because STG's were losing popularity?

Inoue: Hmm.... it was already like that. The generation changed and we got older. Cave did in fact have an environment where you could do what you wanted. I'm not quite sure where it started, but that freedom was great.

-Your seniors from Toaplan were gone as well (laughs).

Inoue: Well, I got a lot of experience, so even if I wanted to over-do it again, they probably couldn't have done much about it (laughs).

-ESPRade was a game with great balance, where that "overdoing it" was put to use, and we were shown the possibility of a new style of STG.

Inoue: We had to use teamwork in order to get that balance... a balance that was born from us fighting, bumping heads, and pushing.

-That'd be a collision from you, the graphic artist, and IKD-san, the main programmer?

Inoue: Being fellow designers, we did a lot of pushing and pulling. They never turned into real fights, but IKD-san and I ran over each other on a few places. They were good fights, not bad ones.

-Were they about blending two different universes, "beatutiful" and a "difficult", into one?

Inoue: There are a lot of elements intertwined but it was basically attractiveness versus gameplay. If they told me the movements looked plain, I'd take it seriously and make new motions (laughs). If I pointed out that "this boss is too hard" he'd make it impossibly difficult. Once he even darkened the background on his own because he thought you couldn't see the bullets. I was also cursed in Guwange, as he said some of the obstacles were "in the way" so he'd do something like fill up a pond or completely pull out a torii [a big gate in front of a shrine].

-Fighting between a bullet-swarming programmer and a enemy designer (laughs). How many people in total worked on ESPRade.

Inoue: Ultimately there were 5 designers, 3 programmers, and one person for sound.

-What projects did IKD-san work on?

Inoue: V-V, Batsugun, Donpachi, Dodonpachi, ESPRade, Guwange, Progear no Arashi, and Dodonpachi Daioujou. He's only worked on STGs (laughs). There were other high level people above me during my time at Toaplan. One year above me, there was Yuusuke Naora. He went to Square after Toaplan, and is working on the latest installments of the Final Fantasy and Saga series'. I think Cave's STG team gets a lot of influence from him. IKD-san looks at my pictures and says, "nothing too interesting here...." or "hmmm... the same old picture..." (laughs).

-Pretty tough, but you wouldn't know how to fix them with just that.

Inoue: That we talk about until the end... what's not interesting about it.

-So you took care of those things one by one. Before ESPRade came out, STGs had a feeling of occlusion. It seems that you were able make refreshing changes, adding that psychic war feeling by making people destroy tanks, and bosses that can move in an instant.

Inoue: That's the first time I've heard that opinion. Was it that innovative? Genma Taisen was first.

-Nostalgic, and easy to remember (laughs). The founder of "beams from hands".

Inoue: Genma Taisen was animation, but I tried to take something like that and tweak it to make it seem real, like it was based on a movie or a drama. I knew when I talked to the director of Taito's Psychic Force, that he was referring to live action images of people with super powers and making them anime-ish. The fact that our thoughts were completely opposite, and that we were doing the opposite things for two completely opposite genres surprised me.

-The title has "ESP" in it...

Inoue: It was initially going to be entitled ESP Drive but there was already a trademark registered for ESP. If I wanted to use that in the title, it had to be a coined phrase. If we used the [Japanese] word for psychokinesis/ESP it'd probably be okay, but it didn't have the right ring.

-That's how the title ESPRade came to be?

Inoue: It came from taking the first two letters of each word of [the title of the track] Raging Decide (Those Who Conquer Gods)*. A truly coined phrase (laughs).

-ESPRade seems to have gone in a more visual direction.

Inoue: That was done intentionally.

-The ships are humans... idolesque as well. Why did you go with three of them?

Inoue: That's because programming variations for more than three is tough on the programmer. We originally planned on having six characters total, on both the 1P and 2P sides. By the time we had made Type-A, Yuusuke, and Type-B, J-B, we realized that as it was our first outting with 3D rendering, we didn't have enough time to make all six. We then abandoned the idea of the [different character on the] 2P side and combined two of the heroins to make Irori, Type-C. The remaining characters became enemies. It was eventually balanced out with a high school, junior high school, and elementary school student, as well as a male, a question mark, and a female.

-So is that the rumored "secret" of how Irori Mimasaka came to be? I thought that it had nothing to do with balance, but just that you liked [drawing] elementary school students (laughs).

Inoue: There's some truth to that too (laughs).

-Iriro's got a slight Kansai accent. Where's she from?

Inoue: Kyoto. The accent is a little softer than that of Osaka. I thought a character showing the gap between the sort of unpleasantness from the accent and an old for their age elementary student would be cute.

-She is quite popular.

-Were there any other manga or movies that influenced you when making ESPRade?

Inoue: Miman Toshi Bokura no Yuuki and the TV drama version of Psycho Metrer Eiji.

-The one starring Masahiro Matsuoka?

Inoue: I thought the eye-catch was really cool. I showed it to everyone and when I asked "what'd you think" they said, "it's a little cheesy" (laughs).

-Did you try to make them acknowledge that even though it was plain, it was cool?

Inoue: I took it as usual, and had them make everything down to the music.

-When I see ESPRade, the thing that leaves the biggest impression on me is the bullet swarms of hand shots by the enemy ESPers. I always wondered how you came up with that.

Inoue: We did a lot of trial and error with different types of bullets. I was asked to draw an easily visible bullet within a pattern. I tried the bullets from Dodonpachi, a rapidly rotating booger bullet, even a bullet shaped like the kanji for bullet. In the end, the hand-style bullets seemed fresh and were easy to see, so we went with them (laughs).

-I would loved to have seen that. The last boss, Miss Gara, is regarded as having one of those most magnificent bullet patterns in STG history... an infinite number of red and blue palms, covering the entire screen (laughs).

Inoue: The programmers also worked very hard for that. They found something they liked, so we adopted it in the end.

-Even the very realistic voices were loved. People in arcades would gather around on the screen before Miss Gara where all the Alice Clones pop out. Sounds like screams are coming from girls in the arcade (laughs).

Inoue: There was a lot of dedication put into the sound effects. It's something that won't die in the arcades, and might even have a long-term effect on them. For Alice Clone, we didn't have enough space to put a voice in. The sound programmer played it at an increased speed, and it gave an eerie sound you couldn't ignore. We decided on that immediately.

-The demo screens at the end are pretty absorbing as well.

Inoue: I wasn't allowed to draw those types of illustrations at work.

-Even after moving to Cave, you were in an environment where you couldn't draw these things?

Inoue: I somehow dragged that hard image from Toaplan so I drew those character images outside of work. It was around winter holidays, so I started off the new year drawing (laughs).

-So those were all drawn outside of the office?

Inoue: If it's not a pixel drawing, it's hard for the bosses to view it as work. They look at you with those "what are you doing?" eyes (laughs).

-You earn your bread and butter with pixel graphics then.

Inoue: Yes. You have to be facing your computer while doing work. For this project there was that feeling when drawing on a pen and paper. For Guwange, my drawings were a bit more orthodox.

-I wouldn't say it looked like you were held back though. Your next project, Guwnage, seemed to be full of your style.

Inoue: I wasn't originally on the Guwange team. When I peeked in on them one day, they were at the stage of thinking they should include things like tiled roofs and timber found in pre-existing Japanese style games. Since I said, "Japanese style isn't all about that," I of course then had to get involved. From there, to make something even more Japanese than games like Kiki Kaikai and Genpei Toumaden, I once again "over did it" (laughs). The Guwange team was made with the best possible members of Cave.

-Was the "grabbing" geography your idea?

Inoue: The idea of obstacles was already decided when I joined the team, but it was my idea to put them in their final form. We made a small mistake with the geography though. Seems that the usual gamers didn't really care about it too much.

-I thought in order to fully use the Shikigami, you put in the bullet swarms and the geography which would purposely make the players moveable area more narrow.

Inoue: Certainly there's some truth to that, but I was naive when thinking of the players.

-Being in charge of so many things, you can only put time into certain places.

Inoue: Yes. Everything. From gameplay planning to map design, music, sound effects, and voices.

-Don't you think the cat monster in stage 3 somehow looks like the cat bus in Tonari no Totoro? (laughs).

Inoue: Does it? I wanted to make a monster cat, but it's difficult making adjustments to a vertical boss in a vertical STG while maintaining an attractive look and the proper difficulty setting. Therefore, I went with the body of a spider, which I would've used if it were horizontal. It seems I've been heavily influenced by Mononoke Hime. I'm enthralled wth Hayao Miyazaki's use of biology and nature. I guess you could say I got this style from that.

-I was impressed with all your ideas though. I think you did a great job making a unified Japanese-style world, especially for someone that's only drawn mecha until that point.

Inoue: When I tried to draw a few old Japanese monsters, I even though to myself, "wow, I really can draw them". I'm no good at western monsters. I tried drawing a few, but everyone just laughed at me.

-Hahahaha.

Inoue: Everyone said, "Boy, you can't draw monsters!"

-You could really feel everyone's warmth, eh? How long did it take to complete Guwange?

Inoue: About 10 months, with a staff of about 10. From that time, we weren't able to put any money into STG's.

-When Guwange was finished, you then went to Progear no Arashi, right?

Inoue: That's right. When ESPRade was finished, I was making the initial plans for an adventure game, but since I joined the Guwange team, that went down the drain. I was able to put elements from that into Progear. Namely, the idea of all characters being children, and the Gunner Data [popularity] System.

-Seems that when one project becomes nothing, the next project gets better.

Inoue: I was also thinking about a versus STG. A game where both sides would shoot and dodge swarms, aiming at either the other player or his base.

-That's hot! Sounds a lot like Gobda!

Inoue: Even the programmers said, "yeah, we could easily make this" but the team was never formed.

-That's too bad. Was Progear taken on by all angles?

Inoue: All angles. We made it in just over 6 months. We were told at one point "we'll be shortening the development timeline" and rising to the challenge, made it in about half a year.

-Wow! That's fast! So you started it right after finishing　Guwange?

Inoue: It was part of the publisher, Capcom's, sales strategy to shift the schedule. Once Mars Matrix, Gigawing, and 1944 were released, it looked like we were next (laughs).

-Now that you mention it there was one STG after another.

Inoue: We were always told "hurry up and finish it" but when we finally got it done, we were like "What? It's not released until next year?" (laughs).

-That's rough. Even after they shortened the development timeframe.

Inoue: Release was exactly one year late. We even made the suggested price of the PCB cheaper and added those adventure elements to compete in the overpowered vertical STG market.

-Is the process of making a horizontal totally different from a vertical?

Inoue: People's eyes move left and right. Moving attacks on a vertical axis to a horizontal axis in vertical STGs is generally not the same as moving attacks on a horizontal axis to a vertical axis in horizontal STGs. Because of that, horizontal shooters until now had strong puzzle elements and didn't have a lot of parts that required sharp reflexes. For us, a company that's only made vertical STGs, to make a game of this genre, we decided early on that our only choice was to make a horizontal STG that felt like a vertical one. For that to happen, we made it with a non-touch background and made the ground-bound enemies from know-how gained in other games. In doing this, it was hard to come up with effective graphics. In vertical STGs, enemies on the ground are freely placed. You don't have to worry about them bumping into each other.

-In a horizontal STG, you have to worry about everything running into each other. You have to be able to easily go after and shoot the enemies on the ground like in a vertical STG.

Inoue: This is the result of IKD-setting up the screen and joystic like a vertical STG and playing it. Eventually, the idea for the Gunner System came from Battle Garrega's formation attacks, and the direction they took the game.

-It seems conversely that developing vertical STGs is fun, but much is appropriated from old programming.

Inoue: It seems there's a lot of modifying of old things and adding things here and there. Only partially, but they say parts of Outzone's code are still used.

-They really are doing that? There are games that have movements that look very similar, so people are saying "isn't that from the Toaplan STG school?"

Inoue: I can't say anything about much older games but for those being made up until recently, there's a lot of things infused from old code.

-Have you had a chance to play Daioujou now that you're not with Cave?

Inoue: Every now and then. I can't really go on as a player though (laughs).

-The DOJ character designer was your apprentice, wasn't he?

Inoue: Yes. I spoke to not just him, but almost all the designers as I quit, like I was their mother-in-law. I gave them advice like "make the next one sexier than before!" and "you have to emphasize the chest!" It's a "sexy" Dodonpachi, isn't it? (laughs).

-Something like Sexy Parodius (laughs). Thinking back on previous Toaplan and Cave STG's, I think all the names have a long lasting impact. Starting with Kyuukyoku Tiger, then on to Tatsujin, Dogyuun!, Dodonpachi, and Batsugun. There are a lot of manics in there, aren't there?

Inoue: Speaking of Kyuukyoku Tiger, I heard that one of the programmers, who was extremely frustrated since the original name was already registered, was reading an advertisement on a train one day called "Kyuukyoku Menu", and he took the idea from there (laughs). Also that Tatsujin came from Ryouri no Tatsujiin [The Iron Chef].

-I see. Where'd Dogyuun! get it's title from?

Inoue: That as well had trademark issues. When that was was over, one Toaplan member, kind of the "gang leader", said "Dogyuun! Let's go!" ["Dogyuun" is a sound... like a whoosh or kapow or something] and we got it from that (laughs).

-Did everyone's will to fight back evaporate?

Inoue: Well, there were some instances. Often when we made a majority decision people didn't take too much care when voting. Even though there were plenty of candidates, we ended up with "Batsugun" in the end (laughs).

-How careless (laughs).

Inoue: Having a majority vote amongst creators is dangerous. There are times when even though people rack their brains for you trying to decide, the full story isn't conveyed. Progear no Arashi was originally entitled Progear no Niwa (Garden of Progear).

-How calming. But why would there be a garden in an STG?

Inoue: We thought, "That'd be best left a mystery." (laughs). We used garden meaning "the world the Progear Engine was released in", but I was told that "it was too hard to associate that in an STG" which was absolutely right.

-I'm stepping back a little bit here, but you were working at Cave the year Progear was floating in space.

Inoue: Yes. I directed Yanya Kabajister which was published by Koei. I picked up from someone elses plan, but the only thing that was decided was that there would be a character on a skateboard on the screen. There was no set plan on what kind of game it would be. I had a dreadful experience. We got up to the release day, and the sales were not very rewarding.

-So you abandoned the game world?

Inoue: That's absolutely right. Ri-san said to me, "if you stay at Cave, you'll die as a writer". I decided that day to quit.

-You quit that quickly? Well, I guess you went with your feelings. Once you quit, what kind of action happened?

When I was designing Yanya, I got word from Comic Gum through a third party.

-Oh, a comic scout (laughs).

Inoue: I showed them some calendar images and illustrations. In secret I took some illustration work, but at one of our meetings one day I said, "Actually I want to draw a manga."

-Then the Otogi Matsuri debut became a reality. How do you feel now about becoming a manga artist?

Inoue: First, there's no stress. There is a feeling of that I've been cut off from a company, but I do feel satisfied in "this is really what I wanted to do". I like designing games as well, but I wanted to express something deeper.

-Now that you're a manga artist, what do you think looking back on your years as a game developer?

Inoue: I'd say... that I'm glad I was able to meet so many great people.

-Do you think you might want to make games again?

Inoue: Hmm... if I make some profit from manga, I might want to invest in Cave and make ESPRade 2. Don't know if that'll happen though.

-That's something that will make everyone want to go out and buy Otogi Matsuri. Before that I'd like to see the original ESPRade on a game console (laughs).

Inoue: It would be nice if we could see someone do that like Arika has done with Daioujou.

-Everyone took another look at Arika. That put them on the map.

-Can you tell us what your plans are from here? Will you only work on Otogi Matsuri?

Inoue: That's right. I've already thought out everything to the end.

-You're the type that thinks up the end and then draws it?

Inoue: Yes. My vacations are the same. I like setting a course thinking, "I'll start here, then go here, then end here." When I go there in person I can't always follow the itenerary though (laughs).

-Is that like the shifts that occur between development of a game and the results when it's finished?

Inoue: Sure. There's twice the fun when making a game. Proceeding along as planned, you'll always find something that wasn't planned.

-Finishing something in a different manner, but the differences being a game itself.

Inoue: Yes. I think this is something that all game developers experience.

-What's the one thing that's left the most impact on you in your 10 year experience as a game developer?

Inoue: IKD-san. He talks crazy. If you're eating something sweet, he'd say "even ants get cavities from something too sweet." Or something like "man, I can see great with these fog lights. I can see all the way to Mexico." (laughs).

-I think I want you to introduce me to him now (laughs).

Inoue: I actually asked him if he wanted to come here for his interview but he said "no thanks".

-That's too bad. Well, how about a final message for readers of Continue, and also readers of your manga?

Inoue: Hmm... when Otogi Matsuri is released in it's own publication, please buy it (laughs).

-Guwange's cat monster makes a cameo appearance as well (laughs).

Inoue: And, I will one day return to the game world.

-A strong "I shall return"? (in English)

Inoue: Right. "I shall return".

-We look forward to it.

Translated by Gaijin Punch

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