Q: I heard you were also involved with development on Biohazard 2?
A: I was involved with the prototype of Biohazard 2 (Resident Evil 2, which never was never released. It’s known inside Capcom as Biohazard 1.5. At the time, we were working on the plans of Dino Crisis, but because the development of Biohazard 2 was in trouble, our team was temporarily disbanded, and I joined the other team for three months. They just needed more people. I am not sure how much I helped though. After that, they stopped development on Biohazard 2 for a while anyway. They remade it right from the start and it became a big hit. Unfortunately, the part we worked on wasn’t preserved. Doesn’t really matter though (laugh).
Q: And after that, you were put in charge of the Dino Crisis series.
A: Right. They made me director of Dino Crisis (1), but now I look back, I don’t think I even knew what it meant to be a “director”. Because of that, I put the team in confusion, and was fired as the director…… (laugh). They made me a planner and I was responsible for the stages in the first half. I felt frustrated at that, of course. But looking back at it now, I think it was something necessary. They then decided to make Dino Crisis 2 and for some reason, they made me director again. I have no idea whether the producer was extremely kind, or just forgetful (laugh). Anyway, I reflected deeply on what myself during the development of 1, and changed my way of working and thinking. I was also helped by the fact it was a sequel and somehow completed the task. Even now I still quite like 2 as a game, and I won’t ever forget the second chance they gave me. Also, the script was handled by Flagship, a Capcom subsidiary, but I learned a lot about scenario creation, like 'simply' ordering a scenario, and that really came in handy when I made the scenario for Ace Attorney later.
Q: I see. All these experiences came together when you create Ace Attorney. So after Dino Crisis 2, you finally came up with your plans for Ace Attorney.
A: “We’ll give you half a year to go make whatever you want,” I was told. Like I explained, when I first started on Dino Crisis, I knew absolutely nothing about dinosaurs--I couldn’t even see the difference between a tyrannosaurus and a velociraptor—but I guess this was a little bonus for me having done my best on the Dino Crisis series for three years. At the time, there were several of these projects, meant as training grounds for the young staff, to create new games with small teams and budgets. One of them was Ace Attorney. We didn’t make it in six months and finally finished it in ten. But even so, I think that’s a great record.
