Interview | Monolith & Nintendo Talk Disaster: Day of Crisis Wii

Cubed3.com's Adam Riley: Disaster was set to be one of the first releases for Wii. Can you please explain some of the issues during development that caused such a long delay? How large was the development team compared to a game like Baten Kaitos?

Tadashi Nomura, Producer, MONOLITH SOFTWARE INC.: The delay in development was not simply caused by any one reason alone, but by a complicated matrix of them! Some of the members of MONOLITH SOFTWARE took more time than expected to fully understand what Wii the hardware is all about and the potential of just what it can do. On top of this, because no genre other than that of RPGs was familiar to us, so development took longer to ensure the game's overall quality. As for the volume of the development team, it was actually slightly larger than that of "Baten Kaitos" games.

AR: Sales in Japan have been slow so far, but has the game still managed to meet expectations? And how is the game faring in Europe so far - do you feel that it is a game more suited to the Western market?

Hitoshi Yamagami, Producer, Nintendo Co., Ltd.: Unfortunately, the game's sales figure shows it is performing lower than expected. It could be said that 'DISASTER' is more suitable for Westerners (US, Europe, etc) since they like to watch more panic-action or 'disaster' movies and the game's atmosphere is more popular over there. But it is also a fascinating experience for Japanese people, as we also enjoy watching them! So regardless of the region, 'DISASTER' can be enjoyed by any consumer that loves 'disaster' style movies.

AR: Where did the inspiration for Disaster come from - any particular movies, or was it mainly based on the creativeness of the development team?

Keiichi Ono, Director, MONOLITH SOFTWARE INC.: There was no particular title from which we drew inspiration; instead the idea of the game is based on a variety disaster movies released so far! We started the project with the idea of bringing seriousness and tension into the videogame, whilst at the same time inserting an element of fun.

AR: Can you explain the reason for including so many different genre styles in Day of Crisis? Was there ever any temptation to simply stick to a standard Third-Person Adventure?

Ono-san: The differing approach was used because we intended to let gamers play with the various aspects of a disaster by using different actions and styles for specific situations. Also, the unique interface brought about by the Wii Remote contributed considerably. Of course Third-Person or standard adventure styles were among our main options, but our priority was to keep the pace high to mimic when real crises are coming in and out rapidly, just like in a disaster movie. As a result we adopted these styles, but there were so many wonderful options other than those. We would like to see the possibility for them to come into play if we have chance to develop the sequel…

Ono-san: There are plenty of extra elements included for when the story mode has been completed, such as additional costumes, difficulty settings and endings, which were added in for players to enjoy playing through the story again. Also, our decision was that multiplayer or Wi-Fi functionality would not be suitable for the theme of this title, so we decided to design it intensively for the single player experience.

AR: Monolith Soft primarily focuses on the RPG genre. Will the team be going back to doing games like Baten Kaitos now that Disaster has been completed?

Nomura-san: We are aiming to enhance our range of development in the future, as already seen in our first step, "DISASTER", which belongs to a genre other than RPG and has been rated by many as having a good enough quality. Of course I do not mean that MONOLITH SOFTWARE will abandon RPGs altogether, so worry not!

AR: Considering Monolith Soft's experience on DS, with Soma Bringer and Infinite Frontier already released, do you think it would be possible to create a version of Disaster for the portable system, using the stylus control to replace the Wii Remote's motion system?

Ono-san: We certainly can consider that if we have many requests! Obviously, though, I feel the Wii is more suitable for "DISASTER" than the Nintendo DS, mainly as one of its main attractive features is how it depicts the natural phenomena on a large scale.

AR: Once the game is completed, it certainly seems like there is scope for a sequel. Will we see Raymond Bryce facing more terrorist threats and battling with Mother Nature again in the future?

Yamagami-san: Yes we have actually already got a concept for a sequel in place. However, it can never be realised unless the original achieves a good sales result and we receive many requests from as many customers as possible asking for a sequel. We are definitely looking forward to the requests for that, so please let us know!

AR: What would you say to people in order to convince them to buy Disaster: Day of Crisis?

Ono-san: It is an exceptionally unique blockbuster videogame for Wii. I think you can enjoy playing a game with such seriousness and various actions that you have never seen before. So please give Disaster a try!

AR: Finally, Hirohide Sugiura of Monolith Soft previously told Cubed3.com that the team was eager to do Baten Kaitos for DS, and had 'several' Wii games in development. Can you please provide our readers with an update on these points?

Nomura-san: We at MONOLITH SOFTWARE are still willing to start developing a new "Baten Kaitos" when the time is ripe…As for our new Wii games, they will be disclosed by Nintendo again when the company sees fit to do so. In the meantime, please hold on and remain patient...