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Why did you select Murata for the job? "The three people I just mentioned, I thought they were all gifted. However, the planning department didn’t do any actual development, so even if they came up with a plan, there was no one around to make the game. It was a section in name only, and became sort of a support department that spent about a year just doing things like bug checking for everyone else. "Later on I ran into Murashu again, and he was working for Konami Music, though how he ended up there I don’t know. So I said to him, “Hey, long time no see. What are you up to these days?” and he said he was making radio plays, both writing and performing in them. He later served as director for the MGS radio play we did, and at that time I asked him if he’d consider coming to work for me. He said he’d like to, as he wanted to make games. That was why he joined Konami in the first place, after all – he just took a bit of a detour. There are a lot of planners nowadays, though I’d have to say he’s probably the most like me. For instance, he made a bunch of really top-notch independent films in college (laughs). Furthermore, you have to know how to write books in order to make movies, and naturally, you also need to be able to express yourself. He’s not so good with music, but he’s a pretty good artist. "I consider a game designer to be someone who can come up with ideas, create a game system around them, devise the most appropriate maps, world and story, then lay out the most appropriate mode of expressing everything together as a finished product. He’s about the only one who fits all of those. I’d decided to have him do it after he came to me with a story for a sequel. The main character wasn’t Dingo or Leo, but someone completely different who’s suffering from metatron addiction. It would be about piloting Jehuty or some other frame while high on metatron. I thought it was really good. I guess that was when I thought he could this sort of thing. He had the closest type of discipline, or background, to me, so I wanted to see if he could pull it off. It’s been...I guess about 7 years since he joined Konami. You know he’ll never find any peace in the next life, so this was his chance to show everyone what he can do in this one (laughs)." Can you tell us about the new staff members who worked on the sequel? "Well, to begin with, it’s a complex story as to why we brought [Tsubasa] Masao into the project. He’d only ever worked on music games before, and he asked the head of the music games department if he’d show me some of his artwork. I normally wouldn’t have asked him to work with us, and I didn’t really know him that well. However, I like the kind of person who approaches you out of personal interest. You don’t get many people like that in the business world. I didn’t find his artwork particularly appealing, but it had a real “smell” to it that conveyed his ideas, his sense, if you like. So it was outstanding in that respect. I also liked how parts of his artwork are mismatched from today’s generation, and I thought it might be interesting to add that taste to the game, so we had him draw the character art for us. I knew I’d get used to his style simply through the sheer volume of artwork he’d be doing, but that leaves a problem. I’m not quite sure where to go from here. Once people start drawing, they don’t really want to stop (laughs). You know, they get their artwork on the cover of the game and everything. It’s not an easy decision, and I think [Yoji] Shinkawa understands that. But in any case, Shinkawa’s ideas are his real strength. He handled the mech designs again for the sequel, though I wanted to see a slightly different look to them. They’ve become more human-like in appearance this time. "I’m very particular when it comes to things like how well developed the game world is, since I come from the so-called sci-fi generation. I didn’t intend on making the game exactly like an anime, but in order to give the sci-fi aspect the attention it deserves, I’d wanted to have someone from outside work on the game with us. One time I went to a monjayaki [a pancake with various fillings] restaurant for a drink with someone I know, and [Kazuma] Kaneko-san was one of the friends the acquaintance had brought along. We met again several times after that to talk about doing something together. Following that, Shinkawa and Kaneko-san met up, and we thought we could do something really good with him, so we asked him to participate in the project. He definitely surprised me when he started drawing for us. Nobody works as hard as him. He’s a great guy. He must work about 50 times as hard as Shinkawa (laughs). I liked the ideas he’d brought up, and I couldn’t wait to see what he’d draw for us. When we brought him onto the project, I told everyone we’d use whatever he came up with regardless. I’d never thought he’d produce what he did, though (laughs). I blurted out, “Wow!”" —————————————————
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