Spectrobes: Kentaro Hisai Disney Interview

As Disney looks towards Japan to change its fortunes, we sit down with the former Jupiter Corp man producing the colossal new IP that is Spectrobes - starting with a DS game - for his most detailed interview yet published.

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Kikizo: In terms of making the audience aware of Spectrobes, clearly there will be a large marketing budget, but how difficult do you think it will be to deliver the message to the audience to convince them that this is something that's better than Pokémon - as that's what many of them will be familiar with.

Hisai: One thing we have in common with Pokemon is the premise of collecting creatures and we are not trying to hide this, but there are so many other kinds of features that Spectrobes has. Collecting things is universal, and this is the major message that it's more than just a game, collecting something for your life is a big theme. So we are going to focus on that.

Kikizo: In terms of the art style of the game, have you drawn inspiration from any of the other popular Japanese animation franchises to finalise the look of Spectrobes?

Hisai: There is no single source of reference as such, we didn't refer to a single thing. But as a Japanese person you are just exposed to much to Japanese animation style from a very young age of life, so that it's like subliminal inspiration!

Kikizo: Did you always like Japanese animation from a young age?

Hisai: Yes, Manga is one of my favourite things, but not only this, many other entertainment interests me, like films and American dramas, and so on.

Kikizo: I noted that you have patented this card idea on DS, can you tell us more about how you came up with the idea for this system, that you obviously positioning as the main unique selling point here?

Hisai: Collecting something interesting has always been part of human nature. To collect something, to make this cards is an obvious choice, but when we incorporate the use of the card inside the game, in that you place the card on the screen and position the holes which you then poke with the stylus to unlock things, this is a great dynamic result of your collection.

Rallen and Jeena are the two new characters you may be seeing a lot of.

Kikizo: Can you help us out a bit here, we want to know the size of the Disney investment into the Spectrobes property, I don't know how much you comment but maybe you can give us some sort of indication, all we know is it's in the millions which is a given to begin with. So what's the number?

Hisai: I don't think I am allowed to give you that figure!

Kikizo: Do you know the figure though?

Hisai: Yeah! I'll tell you something, I'll tell you what I thought when I was told the figure. "You must be joking." Haha!

Kikizo: OK, so it's big. So the second part of this question is, does this put you and the team under a lot of pressure? You mentioned earlier that your 'only option' is for the project to succeed, but this must create a lot of pressure?

Hisai: Yes, it's a major investment. But while I was working on it I was always to busy concentrating on the project and I never thought about the sheer scale of what we were working on, and the pressure, but now that the product is finished and I am holding press conferences and things, I finally realise that I must have been under a lot of pressure! And now I can talk about it all and see what happens next.

Kikizo: Let's think about gamers of our age too. What would you say to gamers of our age, about this game, that will maybe get them interested in addition to the younger audience?

Hisai: Let me put it this way, it's suitable for kids, but not exclusively so. It's full of elements that you could not have envisaged so much when you were little, archaeology, planetary and scientific aspects, it is the sort of thing I would but and be interested in. So I am fairly confident about delivering the message about how much there is that you can enjoy the game regardless of your age group. It would almost be a waste, if this were exclusive to kids only!

Kikizo: Thanks again for your time!

Hisai: Thank you very much.

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Our thanks Kentaro Hisai and the fine people at Disney's stunningly difficult-to-access headquarters, as well as BVG and Lunch staff, and last but not least Ichimura Kei our lovely freelance translator for the day.

Click here for Kikizo's interview archive.