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RB: One of the major ideas
of the game is breaking the fourth wall with the professor
speaking
directly to the player.
Why did you choose this way of telling the story? |
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TO: Firstly, we wanted the player to feel a real
difference between the two screens and though the professor is
always there and his
role is to help the main character, he doesn't do much which
makes him even more mysterious. You think he will help you but
sometimes he won't which makes the play style really different
and a new way of story telling. |
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RB: When in the process of designing
the game did you choose to radically separate both DS screens
with those
different graphic
styles? Was it an initial idea for the game? |
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TO: In the beginning, Contact was originally planned for GBA,
then when we heard about the DS from Nintendo, we realised that
by using both screens of the DS we could deliver a new kind of
game experience. |
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RB: The graphic design of the alien professor
reminds me a lot to Earthbound (Mother 2 in Japan I think) and
there are also some
allusions to the C64. What's up with that guy? Where does
he really come from? The 80's? |
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TO: The 80's! Why not.? In Japan, when the information
about Contact had been released, people also said that the design
was really close to Mother but we didn't do
it on purpose actually. We wanted to make the professor a pixelised
character to make him friendlier. That was the idea. The professor
is the key character of Contact. I would like to tell you more
about him but it might spoil the game concept. |
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RB: In our first minutes with the game,
the combat system seemed to be rather simple. Will it gain
more depth over
time? |
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TO: Though in the beginning of the game we made it easy for those
users who might be playing a videogame for the first time, we tried
to find the right balance also for the videogame fans. Which means,
the more you play, the deeper the game system is. |
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RB: In Contact ”you break some
rules of role playing games. As an example, sleeping really
does take
some time. Are
there more such unexpected elements? |
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TO: The title in itself is a good example of those unexpected
elements I think. Here, the main character of the game living in
the game world and the player living in the real world are two
distinct characters which I think is a completely new concept.
Other unexpected elements are for example, in the game world, if
you mess around, the inhabitants of this world will start to attack
you. |
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RB: What can you tell us about the multiplayer-mode of the game?
Will there be any cooperative or competitive gameplay? |
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TO: Unfortunately, there is no cooperative mode. But you can
leave comments on the message board. Your friends can become the
NPCs and make an appearance during your party. By doing this, it
will also unlock secret bosses |
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RB: How many playable characters will
be in the game and how many NPCs? |
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TO: There is only one playable character. As
for the number of NPCs, I haven't counted them all! |
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RB: What about Quests? Will there be
only the main adventure or also an amount of optional side-quests? |
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TO: Though there is only one main adventure,
there are so many sub-missions that I can't count them
all. |
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RB: Can you give me just one sentence outlining why people should
buy Contact? |
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TO: If you want to experience something new, you definitely have
to try Contact. There are a lot of new ideas and many challenges.
This unique new world is waiting for you to explore it. |
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