MAGfest was a couple weekends ago, and it was a hell of a time. While there, I got to briefly speak to the Associate Producer and International Affairs Coordinator of Inti Creates, Matt Papa. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Inti Creates, they are responsible for games like Mega Man 9 and 10 as well as the entire Zero and ZX series along with other franchises such as Azure Striker Gunvolt, Gal Gun and now Bloodstained. During their panel at the convention, they showed off a trailer for Azure Striker Gunvolt 2. This interview took place on the following day:
Has it been exciting having a hand in some Kickstarters lately? Or are you more comfortable with working with more “inhouse projects”?
For me, I am most certainly not a designer. I do not have that talent. With stuff like Mighty Number 9 or Bloodstained…Mighty No. 9, that Kickstarter was completed well before I even joined Inti Creates. I backed that as a fan. So I didn’t have too much of a hand in Mighty No. 9. I helped out little bits here and there but nothing that would have been like: “Yea I did the thing”. BloodStained I had the honor of being part of Inti Creates from the get-go. So far there is still a lot to go, but I’m helping out in as many ways as they really need me to at this point in time. Especially when we did the Kickstarter and we did the kickoff live stream. I was there helping out with that kind of stuff. Like the final four hour Kickstarter kickoff live stream that we did from Inti HQ, I helped out with that. That was a lot of fun. Let me tell you, when we did the kickoff within the first couple hours we broke the initial goal in what? Three hours. Not a single person in that room thought we would make it that quickly. Everyone was just bowled over like “WOOOOW, like holy crap”. The lowest expectations were from Iga himself. He was like “Well you know if it got there that would be really cool” kind of.. super modest, very very modest expectations. And we all know how it turned out. So for stuff like Bloodstained, we still have a lot of work to do to see how it all comes together.
So were you surprised by the positive reactions to Azure Striker Gunvolt or better yet, the reactions yesterday when you showed off the new trailer for Gunvolt 2?
I want to say “No” because it’s freaking awesome, and you should be excited about it. To tell you the truth, when we showed the trailer, that was actually the first time I saw it too. My boss, he’s been working on it for the longest time so he’s all” Oh THAT’S what you put in there!? Okay COOL, let’s roll with that”. The team has been working super hard on it and its nice to show off everything they have been working on for so many months now. It was awesome, I was just as hyped as everyone else. Especially for Gunvolt being 100% Inti Creates. We publish it, we developed it. It’s all us. So when people get really excited about Gunvolt, it has that little extra special meaning for us, so that’s always super, super cool to see.
Having worked on some Mega Man games in the past, do you think Inti Creates would consider making more and continue the timeline if Capcom was to ask them to?
I mean, I can’t speak for my boss, but I would imagine we would certainly listen to that conversation should they ever make that phone call.
So how excited are you to be working on Bloodstained. Better yet, if Bloodstained is very successful would you ever consider making your own Metroidvania-style game just by Inti Creates?
That would certainly be cool. Knowing the talented people we have at Inti Creates, I’m sure they can make something really awesome. But I think for now, we are so focused on Bloodstained. It’s like hitting that full stride. I can’t even imagine them entertaining the idea of another Bloodstained right now because of how deep they are into the project. But honestly, I would trust that anything that our team works on would be completely kick-ass.
Gal Gun Double Peace is coming out very soon. What made you decide to localize the sequel as opposed to the prequel?
There are a couple reasons for that. Being that the prequel came out in 2011 on 360 and 2012 on PS3 so the game is 4 or 5 years old at this point. And PS3 and 360 aren’t current gen systems anymore. So with Gal Gun, there are some tie-ins with the original but not to the point where you couldn’t play the second game, and you don’t need to play the first game to play the second game. And considering that it’s on the current gen systems, we thought it would be much better to start with that and then if it’s a “rip-roaring” success, bringing out the original in some way, shape or form could be a conversation we would have at that point. I am so excited for this project. This is my pet project: getting Gal Gun localized. This is all my fault! For better or for worse. This is literally all my fault. Take that for what you will, but I am really excited for it.
Were there any concerns or are there still any concerns with the translations and localization of Gal Gun?
NO. Straight up no! Between myself and the guys at PQube who are working on publishing the game in North America and Europe, I have literally no worries. It’s going to be awesome!
Do you think the PlayStation 4 hardware and controller offer any significant improvements over the previous one?
That’s a good question. The only major difference that I can really think of off the top of my head is the addition of the touch pad and then for the Vita version, the touch screen. There are certain parts in the game like when Shinobu is stuck in the window that we actually had on our live stream. She’s stuck in the window and you have to try and get her out. So you have to push and pull to get her out the window. So you flick up and down on the touch-pad with your thumbs, so we couldn’t do that with the PS3 controller. So that’s a new feature of the PS4 controller we are able to utilize. That creates some very fun parts of the game.
Is the game receiving a dub? Or are we going to keep it with the original voices and add subtitles?
Absolutely original voices. No English dubs for Gal Gun. We entertained the idea, but we just came to a completely unanimous decision that it would be absolutely better to keep the voices as they are in Japanese. It’s a very Japanese game, and I think to keep the atmosphere of the game true to itself, it would be best to have the original Japanese voices in there.
Very nice. Gal Gun is definitely a game we are looking forward to playing!
Thank you very much! We definitely appreciate that.
Going back to Bloodstained for a little bit, if you are allowed to say this, can we expect to see nods to old Castlevania bosses, like maybe a successor to Legion?
As cool as that would be, that is not something that I could either A) Talk about or B) Actually know about. I think only Mr. Iga himself could probably answer that one.
Fair enough, it was worth a shot! And I have two more things to ask about Gunvolt. So what was the reasoning behind his redesign for the second game?
Well, I don’t have all the details on that one.
How about this, is it really related to the story? Is it one of those thing that will have a major influence on where the story is going to go?
You know, I want to give you a tidbit. I’m just not sure if I have a tidbit to give you. We’re still working on it. It’s still in development. Give it a little bit more time. We definitely have a lot of cool stuff in the pipeline to show off for the game. I think I would rather keep it a surprise for when the time is right.
To conclude: I am a humongous fan of the Mega Man series, and it’s one of those games that ever since I was a little kid has always inspired me and really been something that can capture my imagination. Now, do you think that Gunvolt is going to have that same kind of magic for a whole new generation of players?
If it did, I would be the happiest person alive. I am with you. I’ve been a Mega Man fan since I was 4 or 5 years old. I am 30 now so that’s 25 years of loving Mega Man. If Gunvolt can capture the imaginations and passions of a new generation of people like Mega Man did for us, I would be over-the-moon excited about that. That is like ‘Please whatever powers make things happen’ make that happen. That would be a true honor if that could happen.
Thank you very much for your time! It’s been a pleasure.
Absolutely! It’s nice meeting you!
Many, many thanks to Matt Papa for his time! Also thanks to Josh Speer for contributing a couple questions.
