Gradius Developer Interviews (I,II,III,IV,Gaiden)

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blackoak
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

Post by blackoak »

Well, its been awhile, but I finished another translation. Getting back into it after some work/life transition stuff. This time I added the first interview from the Gradius Portable Guidebook, which has interviews of the Gradius games I-IV and Gaiden. The first one is with Nakamura Kengo, one of the original designers for Gradius I, and he covers the development in great detail. All the bold headings are inherent to the text, btw... its broken up into discrete, conveniently organized sections about each stage/aspect of the game. I really liked this interview despite having read a lot about the original Gradius now.

The interview in the second post of this thread. Enjoy! Next I'm doing the Gradius III interview from the same book (same format). After that, probably Gradius IV, or some other backlogged things. Special and continuing thanks to Sly Cherry Chunks who provided the scans for me to work from!
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

Post by Sly Cherry Chunks »

Awesome! Thanks for this, looking forward to more!!
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

Post by Aquas »

Awesome!! I totally got nerd chills reading the portable guidebook Gradius I interview. I always felt like the box with lazers at the end of the base was weird. It would've been cool to dodge stuff in there. I think that idea of dodging stuff inside of a box was wholly realized in the rolling core boss at the end of the boss rush in Gradius V, though.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

Post by bcass »

Great work. Would love to see those early organic sprite designs.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

Post by Master O »

blackoak wrote:Well, its been awhile, but I finished another translation. Getting back into it after some work/life transition stuff. This time I added the first interview from the Gradius Portable Guidebook, which has interviews of the Gradius games I-IV and Gaiden. The first one is with Nakamura Kengo, one of the original designers for Gradius I, and he covers the development in great detail. All the bold headings are inherent to the text, btw... its broken up into discrete, conveniently organized sections about each stage/aspect of the game. I really liked this interview despite having read a lot about the original Gradius now.

The interview in the second post of this thread. Enjoy! Next I'm doing the Gradius III interview from the same book (same format). After that, probably Gradius IV, or some other backlogged things. Special and continuing thanks to Sly Cherry Chunks who provided the scans for me to work from!
The Gradius III interview is gonna be priceless. I can just sense it.

Also, who else wants a Gradius live action movie? :D
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

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Now I feel vindicated in dicking with people who were sure these games were named after a Roman sword. Any guesses what movie it was that Nakamura's friend was inspired by? A wild guess: Gorath.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

Post by DMC »

If you want to read Blackoak's gradius interviews in a pdf file, here it is:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|23p12 ... df|685|0|0

I think blackoak will upload it on his server later, but otherwise if you wanna host it, please do.
I added some pics and basic info too, so please let me know if anything is inaccurate.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

Post by Sly Cherry Chunks »

cute concept art I scanned today:

Image
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

Post by blackoak »

Thanks everyone! Today I finished the Gradius III interview and have added it to the second post of this thread, following the Gradius Portable Handbook interview I posted last week. The majority of this one is spent discussing the stage design. You get a feeling for why the game is so hard: no unified playtesting, a short schedule, and the desire to make the ostensibly final Gradius a fitting challenge. At the same time I got the distinct impression they were snickering a bit about how hard the game was...

Also, I uploaded the pdf DMC generously formatted and created here. It doesn't have this newest interview though, fyi. Next I'm going to work on the Gradius IV interview, then II.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

Post by Mortificator »

Thanks for translating another fascinating interview! The Japanese site you linked to for pictures of some enemies doesn't seem to allow hotlinking, however.

And damn, Chunks, the visuals for that spider stage look amazing. I wonder if the Gradius IV interview will touch on why it wasn't completed?
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

Post by DMC »

I can add the newer ones into the pdf once you feel that you're done with gradius interviews. :)
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

Post by EmperorIng »

Here's hoping that level shows up in Gradius VI!

The GIII interview was a lot of fun to read, though it sort of makes me wish there was a lot more time spent properly tuning the difficulty in the game - something they admit that they never really did. I suppose it was a different era and a different time, but I'd bet you'd be hard-pressed to make a shmup these days without a full test-run! I think the fact that people would walk away from the cab angry speaks volumes!

All in all, it was a great read seeing how they went about making such a 'legendary' (ha :lol: ) game. If the SNES version wasn't slow-down city, I'd be more interested in playing it through. At least they seemed proud of it. :mrgreen:
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

Post by ChainsawGuitarSP »

Wow, so Gradius III has a shaky reputation even at Konami offices eh? Wonder if that had anything to do with the continuation of the series.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

Post by hermit crab »

Interesting how they mention slowdown and safe spots were bugs and that it was pure luck when those things improved the game.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

Post by EmperorIng »

ChainsawGuitarSP wrote:Wow, so Gradius III has a shaky reputation even at Konami offices eh? Wonder if that had anything to do with the continuation of the series.
I wonder if the general consensus here is that they fixed the problems with GIII with Gradius IV: Fukkatsu and Gradius V.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

Post by Mortificator »

Numbering aside, Gradius IV isn't really a sequel to Gradius III, but an homage to Gradius II. I see virtually no direct influence from III in IV. I do think IV fixed the problems with II and ended up being one of the best Gradius games.

With Gradius V being developed by Treasure instead of Konami, it feels a lot different from the other numbered titles. Iuchi or someone must have been a III fan, though, since it lifts several game elements from there. Peculiar how V included the doubles exclusive to the arcade version of III and the missiles exclusive to the SNES port.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

Post by EmperorIng »

It reminds me how I still need to pick up the Saturn deluxe pack of Gradius and Gradius II, to continue my masochistic Konami beat-down.
Then again, it's not like I've actually ever beaten a damn Gradius game.

It'd be interesting to hear the thought processes behind developing Gradius IV. I mean, there was a 10+ year gap between the third and fourth installments! I wonder what made Konami say: "We need another arcade Gradius game!" GIV is a great game, at least from the three levels I can manage, ha ha. On an aside, I love its jazzy soundtrack.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

Post by Sly Cherry Chunks »

Mortificator wrote:I see virtually no direct influence from III in IV.
Bubbles were straight from GIII and the plant stage was kinda similar. I think Big Core MkIII was in the boss rush... It's been a while.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

Post by Master O »

blackoak wrote:Thanks everyone! Today I finished the Gradius III interview and have added it to the second post of this thread, following the Gradius Portable Handbook interview I posted last week. The majority of this one is spent discussing the stage design. You get a feeling for why the game is so hard: no unified playtesting, a short schedule, and the desire to make the ostensibly final Gradius a fitting challenge. At the same time I got the distinct impression they were snickering a bit about how hard the game was...
.
At least now I know I'm not the only one who feels that way about their not playtesting it very well.

Also, speaking of Gradius II, I know that outside of Japan, G2 was called Vulcan Venture. Does anyone here know whether or not Vulcan Venture was released only in European arcades? Was it ever released in North America?
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

Post by beatsgo »

Master O wrote: Also, speaking of Gradius II, I know that outside of Japan, G2 was called Vulcan Venture. Does anyone here know whether or not Vulcan Venture was released only in European arcades? Was it ever released in North America?
As far as I know, neither version of Gradius II were released in the US arcades.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I, II, Gaiden)

Post by Master O »

blackoak wrote:Well, its been awhile, but I finished another translation. Getting back into it after some work/life transition stuff. This time I added the first interview from the Gradius Portable Guidebook, which has interviews of the Gradius games I-IV and Gaiden. The first one is with Nakamura Kengo, one of the original designers for Gradius I, and he covers the development in great detail. All the bold headings are inherent to the text, btw... its broken up into discrete, conveniently organized sections about each stage/aspect of the game. I really liked this interview despite having read a lot about the original Gradius now.

The interview in the second post of this thread. Enjoy! Next I'm doing the Gradius III interview from the same book (same format). After that, probably Gradius IV, or some other backlogged things. Special and continuing thanks to Sly Cherry Chunks who provided the scans for me to work from!
Any Parodius interviews?
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

Post by Aquas »

I recall seeing a video that tviks posted of dodging the cubes at the end of the crystal stage (in GIII) (Gee, or maybe I'm thinking of his R-type1 video where he does equally crazy dodging, in any case, I saw A video.) That was really their intent, huh? It's no wonder the PS2 port includes a practice option for speed of cubes and speed of your ship. I simply never considered to earnestly practice such a feat. But... how many top players dodged the cubes, instead of piling them up? Surely piling them is less pain, but dodging them would be amazing to pull off.

It's fun to think about a different order to the stages, as they discussed. Yeah, the plant stage would have fit better in the early of the game. Always thought it was particularly pretty.

Thanks! Looking forward to G IV!
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

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Yeah, sorry about the GIV delay. I'm just a couple paragraphs away from completion, but got sidetracked by Thanksgiving festivities. Hopefully I can have it done in the next day or two.

@MasterO, I believe the GSL repository of interviews has one Parodius interview. Unfortunately, GSL usually removes the interviewer questions and posts only the replies, and for this particular interview it made it very hard to understand/translate (lots of silliness as you might expect). I'll try to look at it later though. I do, however, have the Parodius manga, which I'm intending to debind and scanlate once I finish the Mahou Daisakusen one.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

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blackoak wrote:Yeah, sorry about the GIV delay. I'm just a couple paragraphs away from completion, but got sidetracked by Thanksgiving festivities. Hopefully I can have it done in the next day or two.

@MasterO, I believe the GSL repository of interviews has one Parodius interview. Unfortunately, GSL usually removes the interviewer questions and posts only the replies, and for this particular interview it made it very hard to understand/translate (lots of silliness as you might expect). I'll try to look at it later though. I do, however, have the Parodius manga, which I'm intending to debind and scanlate once I finish the Mahou Daisakusen one.
Parodius has a manga? I imagine it's gotta be very short.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I/II/III, Gaiden)

Post by blackoak »

Alright, the Gradius IV interview is up! I appended it to the end of the second post, just after Gradius III. Now to work on the II interview, and finally Gaiden.

@MasterO, its this manga here, by Namie Iwao. Its actually the longest of the Gamest shmup comics I have...
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I,II,III,IV,Gaiden)

Post by Sly Cherry Chunks »

Great work again. I don't want to give you extra work but is there any info with that wierd spider web screenshot I posted? Also the wierd Sonic The Hedgehog level that's in there. Thanks.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I,II,III,IV,Gaiden)

Post by WarpZone »

Thanks again for translating these!
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I,II,III,IV,Gaiden)

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A water stage with waterfalls and such would have been lovely!!
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I,II,III,IV,Gaiden)

Post by blackoak »

Alright, the Gradius II interview is up! I love that game and am very familiar with it, so I was both motivated and able to finish it quickly. I added it in the order of those reviews, so it comes right after the first Gradius Portable Guidebook interview. Now all I need to do is Gradius Gaiden, and I'm done with that book. Massive thanks again to SCC for getting me these scans.

@SCC, both those images simply have small captions that say "early stage draft." They unfortunately don't identify which stage(s), though some of it can be surmised from the descriptions given in the interview.
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Re: Gradius Developer Interviews (I,II,III,IV,Gaiden)

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Aaaand the Gradius Gaiden interview from the Gradius Portable Guidebook interview is now up. Its at the very end of the second post. That concludes the series! I really liked this interview and felt it tied things together nicely, so I spent a lot of time annotating it with hotlinks to the various references in the series. Enjoy! I want to say a huge thanks to SCC again for getting these scans to me. That exhausts all my material for Gradius, but if anyone ever finds anything new (particularly focusing on Life Force/Salamander/Parodius) please let me know.
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