At his recent tour of Europe I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Tetsuya Mizuguchi. He's a very nice person and told me a lot about his games and his plans with his recently-completed first music video. 

Thomas Nickel: I think you have a tendency to always do what people don't expect from you - can you tell us how you come up with concepts?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Hmm, I never care about the genre of a game. Every time I start something new, a new project, my mind tries to reset itself and start from scratch. Personal inspiration is a very important thing for me. One of these sources is hardware, the platform or the technology itself. I’m strongly influenced by new technology.

Let´s take Sega Rally, for example. Back then, we had this new technology - real time textures. We could put textures on flat polygons. Before that, racing games were very flat and very grey. Asphalt, roads, you know? No textures. I knew we could use these textures to make a much more colourful and natural environment and more realistic cars. We also didn't want fake cars, we wanted real ones. So I went to Toyota and Fiat and asked if I could use real cars.

We were among the first to use real, existing cars in the gaming industry. So we had an alliance with a real car company which was a really new thing back then. We also shot many pictures in forests, in the desert or in towns. So the way of game production changed tremendously at the time. Everything was new.

For Rez, I had the concept of graphics becoming the music – synaesthesia. I even added vibration. I had this concept in my head for quite some time, but I had to wait a few years to get it on the right platform – Dreamcast and later still PlayStation 2. You see, the concept alone was not enough, we had to use new technology. Synthesizers and such. But when I first had the idea, it was impossible to realise.

Then there was Lumines. I heard about the PSP and thought “oh, this is like an interactive Walkman”. So I thought about what kind of game people want to play on such a system. Not a long and deep game I thought. People don't want to play an RPG or an action adventure on such a system. So this was our main inspiration to make a very simple, easy and casual game with gorgeous music and visuals.

Then there is Ninety Nine Nights with all the high tech – there's the high resolution and the widescreen picture. The visuals were an important factor.

Thomas Nickel: Nintey Nine Nights was quite a surprise for me – not exactly the kind of game one would expect from you…

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Yes, but that´s actually part of my background. I learned about medieval arts in university which I brought into making the scenario. So I had the vision that I wanted to make this kind of entertainment because finally, we had high-res graphics. So I asked “How can we use this kind of power for the game?”. Not only in game design and level-design. The game is actually very simple.

Thomas Nickel: I just started playing it a couple of days ago on my video projector. The scope of the game is really impressive.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Yes… There are so many soldiers in the field and it's really fun to wipe out huge masses of soldiers using your magical powers. But the main idea was actually that we wanted to create a chemistry between this kind of gameplay and actual drama. We tried to make not one side the good side. Most movies or games use simple good-evil conflicts. I thought, we should make a story that´s not that one-sided. You see, first you play as a human soldier and you fight against goblins. Then suddenly, you play as a goblin soldier. So what's going to happen? Did you see the opening movie? There, the human soldiers attack the goblin village. Did you already play the goblin?

Thomas Nickel: Not yet, I just got started – the game's only been out for a couple of days here.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Okay. Well, that´s our story concept. It's a kind of a mirror when you switch. What is evil? What is good? I don't care about that. This side looks evil for someone and that side also looks evil to someone else. I wanted to show the different points of view.

Thomas Nickel: So are you just asking the question or are you offering a solution for the problem?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Well, the message is like this: every war is the same. What you think is good is evil for other people. So what can we do? I don't offer any big answer. But the game is a medium of experience so we don't really need to give a big message. If you play, you feel something.
I don't want to go too much into details, but I think the game has the power to remove a bit of prejudice. Everyone – female, male, old people, young kids… everyone playing a fun game looks the same. Ahhhh… like that (makes a very concentrated face). I think this is part of the power of the game. Everyone can connect to the game in the same way. In the future of gaming, maybe we stop using the word “game” but talk more about interactive experience. That's what I believe. Of course I don't know my future. At the moment I'm quite happy to be able to try and break this barrier. So my next project will not be only a game, but a music video. I wrote the lyrics and I put that music into Lumines 2. I tried to write some kind of universal music. At the moment, I´m really nervous. Do you want to see it?

Thomas Nickel: Yes, of course!

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Okay. So this is a sort of try. A game is a universal language, and it's the same with music. Everybody loves music. So I made a happy song… a happy, happy song… Maybe the people will listen to it and like it.
So, here's the video. (plays Heavenly Star)

Thomas Nickel: It reminds me a bit on the video for 'Take on Me'…

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Yes, the old A-ha video… When I was a young kid in junior highschool, when I first saw the 'Take on Me' video on MTV I was so surprised. It's a new kind of art and I wanted to do something like that myself. And I wanted synesthesia like in Rez – that the sound and the music correspond to colors and movement. So I tried to use very bright colors and sounds.

If you look at the beats and the colors, you can see it has again a bit of the synesthesia concept.

Thomas Nickel: That looks pretty good!

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  There's no actual artist, it´s a sort of a hybrid. This girl isn't the only singer, it's a mixture of female voices. There's not one singer or artist. I wrote the lyrics and made the video.

Thomas Nickel: So this video is in Lumines 2? And can you watch it without playing?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Yes, it's in the game and it can be watched on its own.

The concept goes like this… The girl, she's about 17 years old. She's from the first generation born in outer space. She grew up in space and has never been on the planet. She always watched the humans on the planet. But she's never come in contact with them. So she's always dreaming about the wind, the rainbows…

Thomas Nickel: So that's your kind of music? Happy, upbeat music?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Yeah. Just like Space Channel 5. Listen to Mexican Flyer. It's an older song with a lot of energy. We tried to put this happy energy into the game.

Thomas Nickel: Do you still have any influence on the whole [i]Space Channel 5 franchise? Or on what Sega is doing with the character Ulala?[/i]

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  They completely belong to Sega. Just like Rez. They´re both owned by Sega.

Thomas Nickel: So how´s your relationship with Sega today?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Oh, it's not bad.

Thomas Nickel: So if Sega came to you and said “hey, we want a new [i]Space Channel 5, would you do it for us”, you'd do it.[/i]

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  I'm already thinking about new plans at the moment. So if I wanted to make a sequel to Rez or Space Channel 5, that would be possible.

Thomas Nickel: You own the rights to your current works, don't you?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Yes. Lumines is the property of Q! Entertainment, so we can do with it what we want. Meteos also belongs to us. But 99Nights for example was a first party title, so it belongs to Microsoft.

Thomas Nickel: How did this come about? Did Microsoft send you a huge bag full of money and say “please create a game for us – do whatever you feel like”?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Yes, it was something like that. What I was interested in was the size of the production. I wanted to produce it and work with another studio. We collaborated with the South Korean developer Phantagram. Well, they're in a different country and speak a different language, so it was all quite exciting. In Korea they especially love PC games, online games. But there are very few console developers. One of them is Phantagram.

Thomas Nickel: Is there a game you made that´s especially important to you?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  Hmm… That's a very difficult question. Well, I love each of my games. But Rez… I put so much passion, soul and time into the game so I'll never forget about it. That was quite a journey for me.

Thomas Nickel: So where are you headed now? What are you up to next?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi:  I think I changed quite a bit. I'm not a craftsman anymore. I do much more producing, I work on the chemistry and overall impression of a game. I also have to work with many different talents and direct them. That's about were I'm going in the future.

Thomas Nickel: Thank you very much for the interview!

Text Copyright 2006 Thomas Nickel
Screenshots Copyright Sega / Microsoft / Q Entertainment