GR: Do you think the industry as a whole is creatively stifled?
KT: My personal opinion is that the environment makes it difficult to create new ideas. I also think that maybe it's the developers themselves that don't want to challenge new areas and create something new... I'm not sure that people are even looking for new ideas and concepts in videogames right now. Do you think that's the case?
GR: Well, if you look at what the majority of gamers are buying, certainly in the West, big sales are still generated by things like Halo 3. And that's a game that many would argue doesn't do anything particularly new in terms of gameplay. Is Halo 3 something you're interested in?
KT: I'm more interested in the technical capability of the game itself, like the replays for example. I'm also interested in the development studios behind games like Halo 3. Like how many people work on the title and what the budget was like.
GR: If someone approached you to work on, say, a first-person shooter, would you be interested? What ideas would you bring to such an established genre?
KT: Maybe. I feel that one of my strong points is bringing new ideas to an existing template. So if I were to ever work on an FPS I would definitely try and do something special that would add new value to the genre.
The charts are pretty much full of FPS, racing and sports games and I'm interested to know whether gamers are happy about these genres dominating all the charts at the moment.
GR: Surely gamers are only sticking with these genres because they're not being offered anything different?
KT: Personally, compared to two or three years ago, I don't hear voices from the gaming industry saying that new ideas are lacking. Maybe that's one reason why all the major genres are the only titles selling right now. Of course, Wii has also been introduced as a new gaming console, but I don't really feel that Wii actually provides new ideas to gaming. I'm slightly concerned that users aren't actually interested in seeing new ideas and new genres being developed.
Above: Takahashi likes to doodle. He drew us our very own Prince and Katamari pic as a souvenir
GR: Which of the new-gen consoles do you feel offers the best creative opportunities?
KT: I'm not actually that interested in seeing different consoles being available. I feel that one console would be enough for the entire market, so I don't really know.
GR: For you, then, in an ideal world there would be just one console - would it have to be as powerful as PS3 or Xbox 360?
KT: More than the specs, I think it's the price that's more important to open the market up. I simply prefer things being cheaper, so the cheaper the better. I think that the videogame market in general should be led by the software, rather than the hardware. Since the specs are so high with the next-gen consoles at the moment, maybe if a console just like the Famicom [Nintendo's NES], for example, appeared suddenly out of the blue it might be a challenge for everyone to make a fun game for it. It would be a fun idea to have something low-spec, rather than high spec.
GR: Would you make a game for today's next-gen consoles based on the specs of the Famicom, then?
KT: No. Not at this point. The main reason I mentioned the Famicom concept as an example is that I feel all the games at the moment are so reliant on graphics and not actually the idea of the game itself. Everyone talks about the graphics. I just feel that it might be an idea to actually limit the graphic capabilities to get everyone thinking about the game.
GR: So do you think that next-gen consoles have failed to deliver anything more than upgraded graphics?
KT: I don't mind the next-gen consoles being powerful in terms of graphics and I think the online capabilities have been enhanced really well. However, looking at the current next-gen consoles it seems that the programming area could be improved much more for all the games. It would be a good time for everyone to think about the programming itself, to make it much more entertaining, in a sense, make it more interesting.
