Esta entrevista es bastante antigua, viene de ign.
Se le preguntaba a Itagaki cual de sus dos compedidores les gustaba más: TEKKEN o VIRTUA FIGHTER.
Well, it's certainly looking that way. On that note, I have to mention the competition - Tekken 4 and Virtua Fighter 4. I'm sure you've had a chance to see both titles in arcades, so what do you think of them and out of both titles, which one is the better one?
Itagaki: Well, Virtua Fighter 4 is the better game to me - I would pay money to actually buy Virtua Fighter 4. Tekken 4, even if someone paid me, I wouldn't play it! Let me explain my reasons why.
SEGA, of course, their infrastructure allows them to support hardware and software exceptionally. Virtua Fighter 4, as a fighting game, is a good game and my overall respect for it, in its detail and the overall gameplay, is high though I feel Virtua Fighter 4 plays a bit too identical to its previous versions. The hardcore gamers will realize that the card system [of VF4] idea originally came from Dead Or Alive 2: Hardcore's User Profile System. I really don't care about SEGA using my idea especially with a company that has a good infrastructure that allows them to provide this [the VF4 card system] for the gamer. I think it's a good thing - it's a game that the players out there need. Of course, I'm referring to the arcade version and I'm not sure if the US version or console version have the same things. I respect the overall content of the game from the outside though from the inside, the game isn't really up to par. The game was made very conservatively and it's kinda old. But again, I can excuse that because the game carries tradition. In terms of the actual gameplay, they failed with VF3 so they went back to VF2 and used that as guide for VF4. From that perspective, I'm a little bit disappointed in VF4.
The content for Tekken 4, the inside, is very incomplete and as everyone knows, Tekken is a 2D game. So the fact that everyone has been saying that, they're not really happy about that. For that reason, they've tried to change that feeling with Tekken 4 and truly make it 3D. But I can see that it's a failure. Would you like to hear why?
I'm sure all our devoted readers would love to hear.
Itagaki: (smiles) If Namco listens to what I'm about to say, they'll be able to make better games in the future. The attacks in Tekken 4 are made possible only because of the 2D nature of the game. Unless they change that basic motion, you'll never be able make a game that feels like you're in a 3D environment. I don't know, maybe it's by accident that we released the title around the same time on the same platform [DOA2: Hardcore and Tekken Tag Tournament on PS2], but I did my research on that game quite thoroughly. And I was quite surprised and shocked at the lack of motion in the title. For instance, the lack of distance of a certain move, or just movement in general, is very limited. The way they made the game look better was to keep the action moving forward and combinations of forward motions with flashy effects, they - in essence - cheated players in making the game look better than it actually was. So, I said to myself, if I were to make a sequel to Tekken, what would I do? First off, the game has to increase its motion capabilities to make the game more realistic.
In our game, we have huge environments yet there are a lot beautiful things packed in there, but if they were to maintain their style of forward movement and motion and make their environments as big and 3D as ours, their stages would be bland, plain, and flat. As a result, from an artistic point of view, the game is a bomb. So, for them to increase their level of artistic quality and the feel of realism, they basically reprogram the motion and everything from scratch. But I'm assuming they didn't have the ability to do that, so that's why they just switch the background. The small stages make the level of the game very low. So, I guess to compensate for that, they made an airport as a fighting stage. Do you think your reader's will feel that's an appropriate background for a fighting game in 2001, especially after seeing what we've done? Team Ninja wouldn't even use a stage like that for our games, even if it were for testing purposes! My main purpose is to create a fighting game so I don't want to focus too much on the backgrounds but it's also important to have a realistic motion and moves and to do that, they have to incorporate more realistic backgrounds. As one of the major developers that are trying to make the fighting genre grow in the industry, to see a game like Tekken 4 is a major disappointment; a game like Tekken 4 will "stunt the growth" of this genre as a whole. If Namco is serious about making a 3D game, they need to redo their game from scratch and if they're not willing to do that, they should go back to doing 2D games. Which reminds me (starts laughing), I guess they're bringing out Tekken on the GBA and it's looking pretty good on that system.