Okamoto on the Challenges of Genji PS3

We chat to Game Republic founder Yoshiki Okamoto about the difficult process of getting Genji: Days of the Blade out in time for the PS3 launch.

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More concessions were demanded when Sony dropped rumble from the Sixaxis.

"Obviously you lose something without the rumble," Okamoto said. The team was already working on the game when the tilt-sensing features of the Sixaxis were revealed, which is why they were given only a nod in Genji.

"The game design was not thought out with the Sixaxis in mind," Okamoto said. "Yes we did lose something but we probably gained a lot more."

Gamers in Europe and other PAL regions have been waiting on Genji for some time now. Few changes have been made to the game as the team was insistent that it did not want to make it a different experience from that already given to Americans and Japanese.

The biggest changes people who play both versions will notice are the increased number of languages (11 in total, now) and the reduced numbers of bugs, ruthlessly stomped out during the extra quality control period.

A necessary peculiarity for games that launch alongside hardware is that success is less explicit, meaning different goals need to be met. For Okamoto, simply getting Genji out in time for launch made the game a success. Another of his goals was to show off the power of the console, which Okamoto is confident his team has managed. But that's not the end of the story.

"If this is what we can do at launch, think about what is possible in the following years," he said.

Which begs the question: Genji 3, anyone?

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