[Source Gaming] Sakurai Discusses Fan Misconceptions

Masahiro Sakurai published his 505th Think About Video Games column in Famitsu today. He took a moment to discuss fans overreacting and even addressed some misconceptions within Smash. Source Gaming has the full column translated, but here are some select quotes.


Sakurai starts off the column by stating:

I suppose this cannot be helped, as people are only able to make judgments based on what they see and know for themselves. But on the internet, what people see can be rather limited, especially if they only look at things that interest them. I advise everyone not to get too heated up over every little thing they read.

After that warning he addresses the following misconceptions: Why are characters from his games seemingly overrepresented on the boxart, why certain characters are strong, why the Kirby series doesn't have post-Sakurai representation, and the number of Fire Emblem characters. Masahiro Sakurai revealed that there was a Kirby's Epic Yarn stage planned, but with the introduction of Wooly World, he decided to add The Great Cave Offensive as a stage instead.

Sakurai addressed these complaints with the following,

As you see, people have often suspected me of putting in extra effort in certain areas. Do recall, however, that I do not approach Smash as a fan. Regardless of who wins or loses, the outcome is the same as far as I’m concerned since I work on all of them. The opportunity to create all these characters is taxing yet extremely fortunate as well.

The rest of the column can be read here. Sakurai also discusses fan interactions, and reveals two stages that were considered. It's well worth the read!

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"Zelda is still trash even after play testing"
Bad. Not trash. She's great in doubles, at the least.

Also, if you don't hate the game, don't hate the creator.

 

It's really tells much of Sakurai's personal, if he thinks accusation of his bias extends mostly to the ****ing boxart.

Now Sakurai just needs to explain why:

Western centric franchises like DK and Metroid got the shaft

They didn't use a Return to Dreamland stage instead of the GCO, another Superstar stage, (who even liked it in Superstar) Also ignoring the fact that DK is more famous for having minecarts.

Zelda is still trash even after play testing

Dark Pit wasn't allowed to use the Three Sacred Treasures because of canon yet they removed Wario's shoulder barge and made Ridley a masochist because they didn't want to be tied down to canon

Sakurai thought that adding yet ANOTHER Sakurai created Kirby stage would not fuel the "Sakurai bias" claim.

He spoiled several game plots (Off the top of my head: Corrin's chainsaw sword, MUCH of Xenoblade's, Awakening barring Lucina) But still threw a fit when youtubers posted Subspace Emissary scenes from their rightfully owned copy of Brawl that they bought on/pass its release date.

Corrin wasn't his idea. He mentioned the FE people brought the idea to him in another translation. Blame them for the spoilers.

The stage controversies seem kind of overblown, how can you guys be that mad about it?

Zelda sucks but he balances the game in a weird way, items, FFA, all stages, so she probably does better in those areas (or he's just not good at balancing, who knows).

The Metroid and DK thing I can't really defend so I won't.

 

Once more, Sakurai says a thing and people in the comments line up for the chance to kiss his arse and pretend for a little while that they have no misgivings about him just to maintain a smug holier-than-thou attitude towards "haters".

 

Once more, Sakurai says a thing and people in the comments line up for the chance to kiss his arse and pretend for a little while that they have no misgivings about him just to maintain a smug sense of superiority.

It's both, people kissing his ass and people wanting to burn him at the stake. Honestly, I don't see why this time people even care, he hasn't even said anything really worthwhile imo.

 

About the Kirby thing-

I make games. Nothing commercial, just little things my friends can play. I'm working on a game right now that uses places me and my friends have been to as stages, and I can't make many stages because I'm not made of time so there's a lot of decisions to be made. Some things I consider: Is this place particularly significant or memorable, and if not, would it be a nice surprise? Does this lend itself well to gimmicks, either gameplay or visual? How distinctive will it be from the other stages in terms of; color pallet, logical size, patterns and designs on stage elements, general architecture, ect.? Am I representing different time periods and personal favorites of certain people? Can this even be recreated fairly accurately and still fit the game, or would I have to take a lot of liberties? Do those liberties compromise the effectiveness of the stage or do they fit? What kind of music do I want to make for the game that haven't already, and will it mesh well with this stage? What about SFX, is there a stage element here I can give a memorable sound effect?

That's just amateur hour stuff that I make with a dev team of one for a total audience of about 8. Sakurai is leading multiple teams of dozens of people working together under deadline with pressure from corporate Nintendo for a huge market and is drawing from tons of sources and the game itself is rather complicated and attempts for some semblance of balance. I can't even guess at how many variables go into choosing a stage. If you are in that position, and you're trying to chose between the Great Cave Offensive and the Lor Starcutter and you think "well it's simple, I'll go with Lor Starcutter because that'll make people slightly less inclined to think I'm biased" you should not be in that position. You shouldn't be able to direct a major game project. I'd dare say something as egocentric as "well this'll stop people from thinking less of me specifically" should not be part of your consideration at all in a professional setting unless it's going to have a serious tangible effect on the success of your product, which this really didn't. And making a decision purely to seem unbiased is every bit as stupid as making a decision purely because you are biased. To say nothing of how laughably futile it would be for Sakurai to try to not have a lot of fans who dislike him and jump to conclusion about him, given his position.

Now that's not to say you can't disagree with the choice of stages and if you run the decision by all the criteria I mentioned and more and you still think a RTD stage would've worked better and you want to tell people that more power to you. Just please don't try to boil it down to "Sakurai should've picked this stage so people wouldn't think he's biased".



Just me personally, I'm a big Kirby fan and I really liked RTD, but off the top of my head I don't think I would've picked anything from RTD over Great Cave Offensive, though I'd have to think about it a lot longer. I also happen to really like how the Great Cave Offensive turned out and I think it fits well within the overall stagelist.

 

I suppose this cannot be helped, as people are only able to make judgments based on what they see and know for themselves. But on the internet, what people see can be rather limited, especially if they only look at things that interest them. I advise everyone not to get too heated up over every little thing they read.

So basically Sakurai knows the problem there is him not giving much information and then proceeds to keep not giving much information.

We balance based on match results and play data we collect from our playtesting team.

I have to wonder how his playtesting team thought Bayonetta was balanced. lol

At the start of the project, we had planned a stage from Kirby’s Epic Yarn. However, those plans changed due to the announcement of Yoshi’s Woolly World, and we revamped the stage into the Great Cave Offensive from Kirby: Super Star Ultra.

So it's only natural to go for a different recent Kirby game, like Kirby Super Star for the SNES...

I agree there are a lot of Fire Emblem characters

As you should.

but the decision to include so many was strategic.

Basically, confirming what everyone already knew. Corrin is an ad that has to be paid for. Not to mention there were better choices that would have been more "strategic".

As you see, people have often suspected me of putting in extra effort in certain areas.

*looks at Mega Man, Ryu, Cloud, and Bayonetta

*looks at Ganondorf, Ness, and Wario

You don't say?

 

So basically Sakurai knows the problem there is him not giving much information and then proceeds to keep not giving much information.


I have to wonder how his playtesting team thought Bayonetta was balanced. lol


So it's only natural to go for a different recent Kirby game, like Kirby Super Star for the SNES...


As you should.


Basically, confirming what everyone already knew. Corrin is an ad that has to be paid for. Not to mention there were better choices that would have been more "strategic".


*looks at Mega Man, Ryu, Cloud, and Bayonetta

*looks at Ganondorf, Ness, and Wario

You don't say?

What better word choice would there have been then 'strategic'? Would you have preferred him to keep lying to us and say something like 'they all bring something unique and special to the table, and I can't imagine a better choice'? At least he's being honest about this, and not acting like these were the right choices or something; he's admitting the characters were put in for different reasons other then them 'deserving it' or 'being the right choice' or whatever. As someone that's been super critical of Sakurai in the past that's good enough for me.

 

Once more, Sakurai says a thing and people in the comments line up for the chance to kiss his arse and pretend for a little while that they have no misgivings about him just to maintain a smug holier-than-thou attitude towards "haters".

I only said what I said because I needed to confess that I was one of those people blasting Sakurai for Corrin being in the game and that my anger was misguided. There's still a lot of things I don't like such as the lack of Golden Sun/Advance Wars representation and the DK series not having another rep despite warranting one though i'm just saying that people need to take their aggression's out on Nintendo instead of Sakurai because what happens in Smash Bros is out of Sakurai's power.

 

So basically Sakurai knows the problem there is him not giving much information and then proceeds to keep not giving much information.


I have to wonder how his playtesting team thought Bayonetta was balanced. lol


So it's only natural to go for a different recent Kirby game, like Kirby Super Star for the SNES...

*looks at Mega Man, Ryu, Cloud, and Bayonetta

*looks at Ganondorf, Ness, and Wario

You don't say?

I don't think Nintendo's going to let him say anything, or at least I don't think he wants people to use what he says against him.

Because they care more about FFAs.

Super Star Ultra was the second most recent main Kirby game before RtDL at the time.

I don't see a problem with Ness and Wario at all, while Dorf I don't think was far off at the time of his creation and Sakurai wants to preserve the old playstyle. Before you say Wario wasn't gross before Wario Ware, remember Drunk Wario was a thing in Wario Land.

 

Sakurai writes an article about how people misinterpret things and blame him for things that he has little control over or are just circumstantial.

People do just that.

People are dumb sometimes.

I have my own qualms about the game and its fine to have complaints, but Sakurai tells us that he's tired of people misinterpreting events and blaming him... And for some reason we do exactly that.

Honestly, this is ridiculous.

 

Sakurai writes an article about how people misinterpret things and blame him for things that he has little control over or are just circumstantial.

People do just that.

People are dumb sometimes.

I have my own qualms about the game and its fine to have complaints, but Sakurai tells us that he's tired of people misinterpreting events and blaming him... And for some reason we do exactly that.

Honestly, this is ridiculous.

It's because he's not doing a good job. You work at a zoo, right? Imagine, Everyone loves to see the lions, but you don't lions anymore. It's because it's unsafe for them, so they were sent back in Africa. But some people COULD still be angry despite your reasoning, therefore, nobody gets told why the lions are gone, is that smart? And with the Kirby thing being brought up, Sakurai just gave the people who claim he's biased to classic Kirby more fuel by saying that Epic Yarn got replaced, and we got a Super Star stage despite Sakurai saying he wanted to focus on newer games

 

It's because he's not doing a good job. You work at a zoo, right? Imagine, Everyone loves to see the lions, but you don't lions anymore. It's because it's unsafe for them, so they were sent back in Africa. But some people COULD still be angry despite your reasoning, therefore, nobody gets told why the lions are gone, is that smart? And with the Kirby thing being brought up, Sakurai just gave the people who claim he's biased to classic Kirby more fuel by saying that Epic Yarn got replaced, and we got a Super Star stage despite Sakurai saying he wanted to focus on newer games

Look at the reason it was replaced.

Wooly World.

It was done for the sake of advertising.

As in, stuff out of his control.

As is, if they honestly believe that, they are in fact, misinterpreting things and blaming him.

Just like I said.

 

Once more, Sakurai says a thing and people in the comments line up for the chance to kiss his arse and pretend for a little while that they have no misgivings about him just to maintain a smug holier-than-thou attitude towards "haters".

To be fair, a lot of the people who I see here in the comments discussing the matter in favor seem to be drawing information from previous sources regarding the issue while most detractors here aren't doing themselves any favors by bringing gripes and conspiracy theories fueled by their grudges and selectively hearing/reading what they want know instead of doing their homework. Despite what was said, I'm afraid that people aren't going to look much into it as they should, rationale can be seen as an obstacle from getting outraged. So, care to bring an actual argument now that your ad hominem failed?

 

Look at the reason it was replaced.

Wooly World.

It was done for the sake of advertising.

As in, stuff out of his control.

As is, if they honestly believe that, they are in fact, misinterpreting things and blaming him.

Just like I said.

That's not what makes people agree with him, as both of the Kirby stages that are new to this game were from games Sakurai worked on, from 1992 and 1996. He's doing a poor job at proving he isn't biased. It comes across as "I WANTED a modern Kirby stage, but it got replaced, so I made classic Kirby stages instead"

 

That's not what makes people agree with him, as both of the Kirby stages that are new to this game were from games Sakurai worked on, from 1992 and 1996. He's doing a poor job at proving he isn't biased. It comes across as "I WANTED a modern Kirby stage, but it got replaced, so I made classic Kirby stages instead"

In actuality, this whole thing about Sakurai hating modern kirby games is merely a silly conspiracy theory. It's ok if as a fan you wanted to see more of it but acting as if the developer has it against them for whatever reason is ridiculous. Demanding that he has to prove otherwise is absurd as well, because you are basically setting a condition for a belief that you and some others decided to adhere to because of reasons. Life is made of little concessions, you cannot always get what you want but pointing fingers with unfounded claims is not justifiable.

 

Western centric franchises like DK and Metroid got the shaft

In Metroid's case, the only character that was considered as a newcomer was Ridley, who then got rejected.

 

What if Smash was taken over by the development teams for SSF2 and Crusade?

 

What if Smash was taken over by the development teams for SSF2 and Crusade?

Then the game would never get finished, lol.

 

Then the game would never get finished, lol.

Well, SSF2 and SSBC are currently in beta.

 

In actuality, this whole thing about Sakurai hating modern kirby games is merely a silly conspiracy theory. It's ok if as a fan you wanted to see more of it but acting as if the developer has it against them for whatever reason is ridiculous. Demanding that he has to prove otherwise is absurd as well, because you are basically setting a condition for a belief that you and some others decided to adhere to because of reasons. Life is made of little concessions, you cannot always get what you want but pointing fingers with unfounded claims is not justifiable.

Again, I'm not saying he IS biased, but he's doing a bad job at proving he isn't

 

Again, I'm not saying he IS biased, but he's doing a bad job at proving he isn't

Essentially Sakurai things...
Why is he director of the Smash series if he doesn't like Smash Bros?

 

Essentially Sakurai things...
Why is he director of the Smash series if he doesn't like Smash Bros?

When has he said he doesn't like it? Not to mention that isn't my argument

 

Again, I'm not saying he IS biased, but he's doing a bad job at proving he isn't

Only whiney people who were going to prosecute him anyway care, like Sakurai said.

You're clearly one of those people.

 

Because they care more about FFAs.

And? Tons of people play 1v1 too and Sakurai knows that. He added a whole online mode for exactly that. He may prioritize random RNG but that doesn't mean he shouldn't avoid making a character absolute cancer in a 1v1 setting.

Super Star Ultra was the second most recent main Kirby game before RtDL at the time.

A 2008 DS remake of a SNES game was more recent than an original 2011 Wii game? Return to Dreamland was fair game at the time since Smash 4 development began in 2012. Sakurai did nothing to convince me that he's not bias toward his own Kirby games.

I don't see a problem with Ness and Wario at all,

Well plenty of people do. Ness only has a single PSI power that's actually his in his moveset, despite having other PSI powers that could translate to a Smash moveset. Wario is nothing but quirky randomness and fart jokes repping a series where he made microgames.

while Dorf I don't think was far off at the time of his creation

Ocarina of Time alone could have filled out a moveset for Ganondorf. And yes, I know the whole deal with Ganondorf in Melee, but it's absolutely stupid to have not given him a real moveset in Brawl and Smash 4.

and Sakurai wants to preserve the old playstyle.

Just an assumption people throw around. Again, the whole "lack of communication" thing.

Before you say Wario wasn't gross before Wario Ware, remember Drunk Wario was a thing in Wario Land.

Um, ok? What about his moves from Wario Land that aren't a single power up that was changed in localizations?

 

And? Tons of people play 1v1 too and Sakurai knows that. He added a whole online mode for exactly that. He may prioritize random RNG but that doesn't mean he shouldn't avoid making a character absolute cancer in a 1v1 setting.

Some characters' concept work better on paper than in actual practice. The testing team doesn't have the same skill level as the advanced players who will make full use of the character's abilities thus demonstrating if their really OP or not. The competitive audience is also greatly outnumbered by casual players who are the majority of consumers who bought the game.

Well plenty of people do. Ness only has a single PSI power that's actually his in his moveset, despite having other PSI powers that could translate to a Smash moveset. Wario is nothing but quirky randomness and fart jokes repping a series where he made microgames.

A small minority I would say since Ness's moveset isn't an actual problem to begin with. Ness's PSI abilities in his game are mostly support moves while one could interpret his abilities as a representation of his whole party and game series. And the thing about PSI attacks in the Mother series, they aren't easy to translate since their animation and effects are very ambiguous; you see PK Rockin and all you see is a flash on your screen. That said the fact that he has moves from his series actually shows care rather than a lack for it.
Wario is fine as well despite the lack of Warioland references, he has always been quirky and gross so it is not unlike him. Why people like to pedestal Wario as if he was above that is beyond me.

Ocarina of Time alone could have filled out a moveset for Ganondorf. And yes, I know the whole deal with Ganondorf in Melee, but it's absolutely stupid to have not given him a real moveset in Brawl and Smash 4.

And how exactly?
In Ocarina, all he does is punches the ground and floats while shooting magic attacks in the same pattern. He has more to draw from now for sure, but just Ocarina? Too much of a stretch. At least the punch is there.

 

Wario is fine as well despite the lack of Warioland references, he has always been quirky and gross so it is not unlike him. Why people like to pedestal Wario as if he was above that is beyond me.

Wario using moves from both Ware and Land would be better than him only being based on the WW games. Some people are in favor of Wario using a completely WL-based moveset but I think there should be a balance between the 2 for his moveset.

And how exactly?
In Ocarina, all he does is punches the ground and floats while shooting magic attacks in the same pattern. He has more to draw from now for sure, but just Ocarina? Too much of a stretch. At least the punch is there

I actually came up with a moveset for Ganondorf that was predominately based on Ocarina of Time. It's not that hard to imagine really.

 

Some characters' concept work better on paper than in actual practice. The testing team doesn't have the same skill level as the advanced players who will make full use of the character's abilities thus demonstrating if their really OP or not. The competitive audience is also greatly outnumbered by casual players who are the majority of consumers who bought the game.

But Sakurai himself has bragged in the past about how his playtesters are on par with tournament players. If that were true, then I'd imagine somebody there would have noticed how overpowered Bayonetta is. Same case with pre-patch Diddy Kong with something as simple as a down throw followup. Trying to appeal to casuals is always a silly thing to do anyway since they won't care if a character is balanced. It pleases everyone to make the game as balanced as possible.

A small minority I would say since Ness's moveset isn't an actual problem to begin with. Ness's PSI abilities in his game are mostly support moves while one could interpret his abilities as a representation of his whole party and game series. And the thing about PSI attacks in the Mother series, they aren't easy to translate since their animation and effects are very ambiguous; you see PK Rockin and all you see is a flash on your screen. That said the fact that he has moves from his series actually shows care rather than a lack for it.
Wario is fine as well despite the lack of Warioland references, he has always been quirky and gross so it is not unlike him. Why people like to pedestal Wario as if he was above that is beyond me.

But it goes against Sakurai's quote of trying to stay true to source material. PSI Paralyze could work like ZZS' blaster and replace PSI Fire. PSI Teleport could replace PSI Thunder. Sakurai went out of his way to remove the one single Wario Land reference in his moveset in this game. Most people don't think of some farting clown in a biker outfit when they think of Wario. They think of a greedy jerk with super strength plowing through enemies.

And how exactly?
In Ocarina, all he does is punches the ground and floats while shooting magic attacks in the same pattern. He has more to draw from now for sure, but just Ocarina? Too much of a stretch. At least the punch is there.

The punch is not there at all. That ground slam move is perfect down-special material and it could pretty much work exactly as it did in OoT. Then there's the chargeable magic blast making a good neutral-special. Hovering/teleporting could be the up-special. Those purple waves of darkness he used could be a side-special, working as a close range paralyze move.

 

I don't think Sakurai gets stressed from working on the games,
he gets stressed because of the fanbase.

he has to make a comment about every single pixel or else he gets slaughtered by the fanbase

 

But it goes against Sakurai's quote of trying to stay true to source material. PSI Paralyze could work like ZZS' blaster and replace PSI Fire. PSI Teleport could replace PSI Thunder. Sakurai went out of his way to remove the one single Wario Land reference in his moveset in this game. Most people don't think of some farting clown in a biker outfit when they think of Wario. They think of a greedy jerk with super strength plowing through enemies.

I think three things whe I think in Wario:

Wario is greedy as heck
Wario is a funny comic relief, a butt monkey
Wario is... gross (even in the Wario Land games he has some dirty traits).

 

A 2008 DS remake of a SNES game was more recent than an original 2011 Wii game?

You could have brought Mass Attack up too btw as an Epic Yarn stage was considered

 

You could have brought Mass Attack up too btw as an Epic Yarn stage was considered

Or better yet, the remake of SS that has shaped the following three main games to be nearly identical to it.

 

I enjoy Wario in Smash. I think Pm's rendition of him was the best though. Referencing all his games, as well as his gross behavior. I'd like more characters implemented in that way.

Ness is kind of difficult. It's hard to transfer attacks from Earthbound into the game, so they did the best they could. Seeing as he's an original 12 character and his move set is pretty special, changing it would be silly now. I feel like his move set was more to represent Earthbound as a whole and he was the best choice to do it, not much more or less.

 

The punch is not there at all. That ground slam move is perfect down-special material and it could pretty much work exactly as it did in OoT. Then there's the chargeable magic blast making a good neutral-special. Hovering/teleporting could be the up-special. Those purple waves of darkness he used could be a side-special, working as a close range paralyze move.

It's pretty much there alright. Charges fist with magic, slams it into something. Sounds like something similar to the Warlock Punch to me.

I actually came up with a moveset for Ganondorf that was predominately based on Ocarina of Time. It's not that hard to imagine really.

Let's hear it then. I'm not sold on the idea of drawing exclusively from that source. Twilight Princess is a much better one.

 

SSB5 should have Epic Yarn and Mario Land stages.

Epic Yarn stage could be like Woolly World... and Mario Land could be like Dream Land (3DS). It would be nice to have a new yarn-like stage and a new Game Boy stage.

 

When has he said he doesn't like it? Not to mention that isn't my argument

That's what I've heard....

 

That's what I've heard....

Could I have a source? Or do you mean how he doesn't like making sequels for Smash

 

Could I have a source? Or do you mean how he doesn't like making sequels for Smash

How he doesn't like making sequels for SSB.

 

How he doesn't like making sequels for SSB.

He doesn't like making sequels because he wants to be like Miyamoto, fresh, innovative stuff. Explains the new mechanics constantly added

 

How he doesn't like making sequels for SSB.

I'm pretty sure that Sakurai has never gone on record with such a statement. He has talked about the stress in working as projects such as Smash but he has also added that he sees his work in this series as a high point in his career.
What he did say was that he is not fond on continuously making sequels and is tired of this constant practice, he could be referring to stuff such as yearly entries like what Assassin's Creed is doing. Otherwise, 6-7 which is the usual time that separates Smash games seems healthy enough.

 

Let's hear it then. I'm not sold on the idea of drawing exclusively from that source. Twilight Princess is a much better one.

Trying to remember it from the top of my head. Mind you I only thought of the specials when I made it. If you want me to think of normal attacks than I could probably do that as well.

Keep in mind that Ganondorf would also use the sword that he uses from the Spaceworld demo from 2000.

Spoiler

: The electric ball thingy (Yeah I don't know the name of the attack lol) that he can use either on the ground or whilst in the air.
: Sort of like the Side B he has in Melee only that he uses his sword to thrust his opponent in the air instead.
: Being able to levitate for a duration like his does in OoT.
: His charged up shot he has that shoots multiple blasts like he does in OoT. Can be done both on the ground and in the air