Matsuno and Monolithsoft Wii project.

[Analogous]

Hey guys, thought I'd drop the "news" bomb on Matsuno's current status in the gaming industry (recieved this from the FFOnline peeps):

In the latest issue of NGamer (A UK Nintendo Magazine) they have a feature titled: "Nintendo makes it's OWN Fantasy?".

The article reads:

"Yasumi Matsuno is a legendary developer in Japan. His games Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII have both got 40/40 scores from Famitsu. He has left Square Enix but after leaving nobody knew where he was.

He was later seen on a Wii promotion video at a Pre-Release Press event in Japan.

Well we have just heard from a trusted source where he is right now and what he's been up to since leaving Square Enix. First of all know that he is DEFINITELY working on Wii but he is much closer to Nintendo then you think.

You see since Satoru Iwata became President he has wanted Nintendo to excel more in the RPG field. He has pushed a lot of money into Fire Emblem since becoming President but he also always wanted to create a new First Party RPG owned by Nintendo that is as popular as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are in Japan.

Both Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto know Matsuno is the Director of two 40/40 scoring RPGs. Once word he left Square Enix reached Nintendo, Satoru Iwata contacted him and asked him to join Nintendo. He accepted and was allocated to Nintendo EAD Tokyo as it was closest to his current location.

At EAD Tokyo Matsuno got to play Super Mario Galaxy a lot and also got in-depth knowledge of the Wii hardware and controls from the developers there. Iwata wanted him to start planning on a new First Party RPG for Wii and allocated him a group of 4 developers to work with and get his vision presentable in some form. This process took around 8 months.

So Matsuno was at EAD Tokyo for 8 months. He joined around April 2006 and it was near the end of his stay there that his face was shown on the Wii promotion video at a Pre-Release Press event in Japan.

Here is what he said on the video:

"The Wii controller makes total sense when you think about FPS-like games, but my question was, will the controls fit other existing games? However, when I first tried Mario Galaxy, I realized that the controller fit the game almost scarily well. It allows you to intuitively feel the game and its atmosphere."
'Graphics (these days) have evolved, and there are many games claiming that this generates a more realistic atmosphere. However, there are very few games that have a control interface that lives up to this atmosphere. With the Wii controller you can actually feel like you're touching or living in this atmosphere."

Notice how he has played Super Mario Galaxy and has magically got the Nintendo mentality of Gameplay over Graphics even though Vagrant Story and FFXII pushed their respective consoles to the limits? Someone has been employed.

Matsuno showed his RPG for Wii and naturally it was impressive. Iwata wanted it to be fully realised in a game but they had no team to make it. Therefore Iwata started to look outside Nintendo for help.

They needed a development team that had experience with RPGs, and could produce graphics on par with the best in the genre such as Square Enix. Iwata then recalled Monolith working on Wii and that most of the Xenogears and Chrono Cross team were at that studio.

This is where Matsuno would make their First Party RPG. Matsuno returned to EAD Tokyo continuing the planning of the RPG while preparing for a development team to come available.

Iwata then eventually bought Monolith from Namco Bandai and Matsuno has already settled in the studio and has his own development team currently in the early stages of making our First Party Final Fantasy killer.

He has united with people that have made classics like Chrono Cross and Xenogears. Monolith is focusing on Disaster: Day of Crisis, a Survival game on Wii, but once complete Matsuno's RPG will take over completely and hopefully become a big RPG series in Japan.

Monolith to Nintendo now are what Square were to Nintendo back in the SNES era.

All I can say is, I'm extremely excited. I'm a huge Matsuno fan and nothing is more relieving than to hear SOMETHING of his where abouts and what he's been doing all this time (quite alot it seems). Great news indeed.

[Eusis]

Ok, I'm hyped up. But realistically, will they really succeed? Monolith only recently seems to have figured out how to make FUN games, and Matsuno's two 40/40 titles have had mixed player reception, and I don't think Golden Sun took off quite like they wanted, but I have no sales figures or anything to prove that. I do have more confidence that Nintendo will market this well and make it popular though than Microsoft and Mistwalker's stuff.

Edit: Oh, and assuming it's true. It seems logical enough anyway.

[Leo]

I'm hyped as well. I'm curious what it will be like. Hopefully we can get a confirmation on this soon, as well as this RPG. Also, had no idea Nintendo bought Monolith Soft. Interesting.

[Eusis]

Yeah, posted about it a few months back.

Looking on Neogaf, this hasn't been debunked yet but it is doubted. I'm curious to see whether this is for real or what.

[Shiguma]

I just skimmed the Wikipedia article on Mr. Matsuno and was surprised at the sheer number of Queen references in his games.

[Analogous]

Hopefully we'll see something at this year's TGS show. I also have some doubts, seeing as this seems almost too good to be true, but we'll see I guess....

[macirex]

now that´s sad.... i need to get a wii for those upcommings rpg....

[Hidoshi]

Dude, do you complain about everything? I swear I've yet to see you not react like "omg sad" or "omg yay" about something. :P

Relevant Post: Matsuno on the Wii is relevant to my interests.

[Prime Mover]

Hmmm... I've played 3 out of 4 of the games in question: Xenogears, ChronoCross, and FF12. And my reactions range from "TERRIBLE" (in the case of CC) to, "decent" (in the case of FF12). So forgive me if I'm not exactly jumping up and down with anticipation, here.

HOWEVER, every different group of people who work together tend to mix their talents and styles differently. There's no question that all of the above works have SOME fantastic aspects about them (I'll admit to liking some of CCs graphics, for instance), so this team obviously has some great potential. Let's see if they can bring out the best in each other. And, under Nintedo's watchful eye, I'm pretty optimistic.

[Eusis]

Matsuno (FFXII) would basically account for 2/3rds of how the game would turn out and Monolith 1/3rd I'd think, since I'd assume he'd be in charge and essentially the mastermind. As such, you should keep Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, and Vagrant Story in mind.

And like I said in the PS3 thread, don't get the console for games you HOPE to exist. Wait until what you want actually materializes, we have no idea how legitimate this really is without a more reliable source or visual evidence ala Vanillaware's new game.

[ChevalierEagle]

Sorry to revive this, but i was curious if anyone knew anything new about this? I have been looking over the net for new info but nothing so far.

Sucks that i'm going to spend money on a console just for a single game, considering this is going to be a Nintendo exclusive, never have done it before. Just another reason to dislike SE even more these days, for allowing Matsuno to go. Then again, i bet he had some serious creative differences with someone over at SE and he prefered to go.

[Pugz]

Dunno if it was necessarily Sqex letting him go as opposed to him just throwing a shit-fit and leaving. The latter sounds more plausible if only because there seems to be a certain prejudice towards key members in the company itself which led to the demise of Matsuno's directorial position for FFXII.

In response to the current situation of Matsuno's where abouts and what he might be doing, it seems pretty damn unclear at this stage. Hitoshi Sakimoto has said that he's working with Matsuno on a project currently in development. Info is pretty scarce though. I got a gut feeling that the project might be revealed at this E3, we'll see I guess.

[CDFN]

This could be really big. And with the company so willing to support this new franchise they have everything they need to create a killer title. Lots of talent combined with huge resources.

[Blace]

There better be some info on this sometime this year or I am going to start getting skeptical. FFXII and CC are two of my absolute favorite games ever, so I'm hyped for whatever it is they come up with.

[calintz]

could it have been silently scrapped?