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Former Nintendo Designer Takaya Imamura Talks Star Fox, F-Zero, and Star Fox Adventures

EAD Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
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Oct 27, 2017
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Excellent translated interview from Shmuplations with Takaya Imamura Talks Star Fox Adventures [and more].

Highlights
* Imamura worked on F-Zero immediately when joining the company. Worked on everything from course design, machine design, to character design.
* Created over half the bosses of A Link To The Past
* Nintendo almost named Star Fox "Starcraft" (before Blizzard's game)
* Imamura was initially designing cool pilots like F-Zero for Star fox, before Miyamoto told him to use animals instead.
* Star Fox Adventures concept originated in Kyoto with EAD. Was going to feature Fox on-foot using his blaster (possibly incorporate tanks and other vehicles from the 64 version).
* Miyamoto asked Imamura to merge both concepts (Star Fox Adventures with Rare's Dinosaur Planet on move to GameCube)
* Imamura worked on the Star Fox comic to bridge the story between 64 and SFA
* Imamura had no idea how developing this project with RARE in England was going to work.

Much more in the interview. Must read for old school Nintendo or Star Fox fans.
 
Kamek

Kamek

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Oct 27, 2017
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This site, as well as your own Kyoto Report, have been a wonderful repository of history and knowledge for Nintendo. Thanks for all you do, and also to the guys at shmupulations.
 
TheDinoman

TheDinoman

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Oct 25, 2017
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If anyone wonders why Krystal looks like the way she does in Adventures as opposed to Dinosaur Planet, well...

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Deleted member 81119

User-requested account closure
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Imamura: Miyamoto and I were both aiming to add a little sex appeal, I guess? I think Miyamoto's always wanted to add that flavor.

—Really?! (laughs)
Imamura: I think somewhere in his mind, Miyamoto's always pictured Star Fox as somewhat mature, and he's been saying things like "wouldn't it be good to add a slightly sexy character?" since the beginning.
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Miyamoto confirmed furry.
 
Archduke Kong

Archduke Kong

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Feb 2, 2019
2,309
I think the interesting thing to me was that Star Fox Adventures was a separate project from Dinosaur Planet at one point. I always thought they had just slapped Fox on to Rare's last project, not merged two together. Would love to have seen what that original concept would have been like
 
King Dodongo

King Dodongo

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Oct 27, 2017
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I would have preferred the female characters from Star Fox 2 to make it to other games instead of Krystal tbh.
 
Cantaim

Cantaim

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Oct 25, 2017
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The Stussining
Archduke Kong said:
I think the interesting thing to me was that Star Fox Adventures was a separate project from Dinosaur Planet at one point. I always thought they had just slapped Fox on to Rare's last project, not merged two together. Would love to have seen what that original concept would have been like
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Yea same that took me back when reading this. Really makes me curious how the other project was going if it was just decided to merge them.
 
GreenMamba

GreenMamba

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Oct 25, 2017
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Star Fox Adventures being a separate thing before merging with Dinosaur Planet is definitely new. Interesting twist.
 
TreIII

TreIII

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Oct 25, 2017
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King Dodongo said:
I would have preferred the female characters from Star Fox 2 to make it to other games instead of Krystal tbh.
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Ideally, it shouldn't have had to be either-or. The galaxy should've been big enough for Faye, Miyu, Katt and Krystal, whether they were gonna be members of Fox's team, or not.

GreenMamba said:
Star Fox Adventures being a separate thing before merging with Dinosaur Planet is definitely new. Interesting twist.
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Agreed. Now, I really wonder what could've been if Adventures never left the EAD nest, on top of whatever may have become of Rare's own game.
 
Gartooth

Gartooth

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Oct 25, 2017
8,440
Wow, did not know that Nintendo themselves were thinking of an on-foot Star Fox game before merging their ideas with Dinosaur Planet.

I do wonder if some of those concepts may have resurfaced later in Assault.

Also that stuff about Krystal is really eye opening. lol
 
Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

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Oct 27, 2017
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King Dodongo said:
I would have preferred the female characters from Star Fox 2 to make it to other games instead of Krystal tbh.
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No need to pit them against one another

Had Star Fox 2 beeen allowed to release when it was finished, and if Krystal wasn't locked away for the whole of SFA, then they all could've been part of the series.
 
Archduke Kong

Archduke Kong

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Cantaim said:
Yea same that took me back when reading this. Really makes me curious how the other project was going if it was just decided to merge them.
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My guess is not very far ("possibly incorporate tanks" sounds like they were in the early stages of developing it). If the less than ideal blaster combat from Assault is anything to go off of, maybe they were having trouble coming up with third-person shooter combat and figured it was easier to scrap any of the ideas they had while the project switch happened.

It does put those Arwing sections into a new context, I'm guessing that was their prototype for the Star Fox project.
 
Stopdoor

Stopdoor

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Oct 25, 2017
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You know, Star Fox Assault has some pretty serious, dark undertones with people bring pretty horrifically absorbed into the hive mind, I guess Miyamoto may have had a hand.
 
MrSaturn99

MrSaturn99

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Having the unfortunate experience of revisiting Star Fox Adventures last fall, it's still a wonder anyone at Nintendo thought Star Fox Adventures was a good idea. Imamura's original vision at least channeled the series' trademark shooting and echoes what Assault attempted to accomplish -- with the product we got, you had a clumsy mish-mash of Rare's design ethos and a sci-fi universe ill-suited for Dinosaur Planet's brand of swords and sorcery. Not that Rare's concepts didn't involve sci-fi either, but between everything from the bite-sized Arwing segments to the absurd, half-baked finale, it's difficult to argue Star Fox's presence reaped any positive boons whatsoever.

People had their issues with future Star Fox games, but I can at least respect what they were trying to do in the vein of the classic 90's games; with Adventures, it's never not felt completely alien to the Star Fox universe, and it's this pervasive sense of wrongness that renders it the most egregious entry in my eyes. (Not the least in kick-starting Nintendo's internal pressure of experimentation so as to navigate around the aging shmup genre, but that's a whole other subject.)

Fun interview, regardless; who'd have thought Miyamoto was responsible for Krystal's, ahem, "appeal"?
 
PucePikmin

PucePikmin

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Apr 26, 2018
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People may complain about the series, but Star Fox really is one of the most fascinating Nintendo franchises in terms of development.

Obviously, Miyamoto was/is a master when it comes to gameplay mechanics, but it seems like Star Fox is the one franchise where he really cares about the story, characters, and universe, and the results have been...kinda strange sometimes! Kinda makes me wonder how that Super Mario movie he's working on will work out.
 
mael

mael

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Nov 3, 2017
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It's starting to make sense.
Star Fox Adventure (the EAD project) ended up in Star Fox Adventure (the Rare Gamecube game) and Star Fox Assault (another collaboration).
They really need to revisit the whole multi vehicle levels aspect of Assault, that was the part that conceptually was one of the more interesting thing they did with Star Fox.
 
NeonZ

NeonZ

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Oct 28, 2017
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I wonder why they didn't at least allow Fox to keep his blaster. You unlock energy blasts from the staff pretty early in Adventures. They might as well have made the energy blasts come from his gun rather than the staff.
 
MrSaturn99

MrSaturn99

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NeonZ said:
I wonder why they didn't at least allow Fox to keep his blaster. You unlock energy blasts from the staff pretty early in Adventures. They might as well have made the energy blasts come from his gun rather than the staff.
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This was always an interesting plot point to me in that, up until then, his blaster was entirely a Smash Bros. invention. (Unless you count that bazooka thing from SF64's Versus Mode, I guess.)
 
mael

mael

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Nov 3, 2017
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OMG, Falco is a phesant!
That's quite the demotion from prideful predator to hunter's prey.
NeonZ said:
I wonder why they didn't at least allow Fox to keep his blaster. You unlock energy blasts from the staff pretty early in Adventures. They might as well have made the energy blasts come from his gun rather than the staff.
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It would probably kill most of the game design.
The game has a very indepth battle system akin to Zelda.
Bringing a gun to that kind of game is trivializing the whole experience.
If they going to do this, they would have turned the game into another Jet Force Gemini.
I would have loved that, JFG is my fav Rare game but probably not what they had in mind when making Dinosaur Planet.
 
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