The
pursuit of Japanese video games, translated and untranslated, is a part of
many anime fans' lives. They've gone to extremes to get the four Sakura Taisen
games created by Keisaku Okumura of Red Company. When Okumura appeared at
an Anime Central panel, he told fans that he'd like to see those games released
in English in the U.S. - and he mentioned that he was working on a fifth
Sakura Taisen game. That game and its combination of animation and role playing
demonstrates how the Japanese gaming industry has progressed - but it all
had to start somewhere. When he spoke at a Sunday panel, Okumura took Anime
Central fans back to a day before the elaborate animated sequences that fans
now expect from their games.
"We
wanted to mix animation into the gaming world and then we wanted to start
something new," Okumura said. "Nowadays, we can ask animation companies to
make the animation and we can read it into the game, but that was not available
then." The companies hired animators to work on the game, thinking they could
scan finished cels into the game, but that didn't work. "What happened was
that there were people who drew the lines only, others who scanned them into
the machine and colored them. It took us two extra years to complete this
project. It was very fortunate that the client said `That's okay." Had it
not been for the understanding of the client, it would have never come out."
Japanese
game companies were inspired by American games, and Okumura had a marketing
story from Japan that sounded like one of the legends of American marketing.
A quarter-century ago when the first Star Wars movie was new, the popularity
of the film made Star Wars toys hot. However, the toy company with the rights
for toys from the movie couldn't get the toys made in time for Christmas,
so they sold certificates for the toys instead. Red Company's first big game,
whose Japanese name translates to "The Far East of Eden," was even later
- almost two years behind schedule. To convince fans to buy the game, the
company came up with a gimmick marketing plan. They ran ads showing a table,
an uncompleted script, and a note that the writer had run away. From month
to month, the ads kept dropping clues of where the writer might have gone.
The mystery guessing game ads stirred up so much attention that the game
was a hit when it finally was released, Okumura said.
The
pursuit of Japanese video games, translated and untranslated, is a part of
many anime fans' lives. They've gone to extremes to get the four Sakura Taisen
games created by Keisaku Okumura of Red Company. When Okumura appeared at
an Anime Central panel, he told fans that he'd like to see those games released
in English in the U.S. - and he mentioned that he was working on a fifth
Sakura Taisen game. That game and its combination of animation and role playing
demonstrates how the Japanese gaming industry has progressed - but it all
had to start somewhere. When he spoke at a Sunday panel, Okumura took Anime
Central fans back to a day before the elaborate animated sequences that fans
now expect from their games.
"We
wanted to mix animation into the gaming world and then we wanted to start
something new," Okumura said. "Nowadays, we can ask animation companies to
make the animation and we can read it into the game, but that was not available
then." The companies hired animators to work on the game, thinking they could
scan finished cels into the game, but that didn't work. "What happened was
that there were people who drew the lines only, others who scanned them into
the machine and colored them. It took us two extra years to complete this
project. It was very fortunate that the client said `That's okay." Had it
not been for the understanding of the client, it would have never come out."
Japanese
game companies were inspired by American games, and Okumura had a marketing
story from Japan that sounded like one of the legends of American marketing.
A quarter-century ago when the first Star Wars movie was new, the popularity
of the film made Star Wars toys hot. However, the toy company with the rights
for toys from the movie couldn't get the toys made in time for Christmas,
so they sold certificates for the toys instead. Red Company's first big game,
whose Japanese name translates to "The Far East of Eden," was even later
- almost two years behind schedule. To convince fans to buy the game, the
company came up with a gimmick marketing plan. They ran ads showing a table,
an uncompleted script, and a note that the writer had run away. From month
to month, the ads kept dropping clues of where the writer might have gone.
The mystery guessing game ads stirred up so much attention that the game
was a hit when it finally was released, Okumura said.
