By Toshihiro Nagoshi, the creator of the long-running “Yakuza”/”Like a Dragon” franchise, says he feels that the era of games trying to sell themselves on bigger and bigger worlds is coming to an end.
Speaking with Famitsu (via VGC), Nagoshi says his new studio’s debut game will be an action-adventure title and thinks game size is just not as important a factor as it used to be.
Talking about his goal with the new game, he says: “I want to make a game that is fun to play, but isn’t too much of a hassle.” He then says the number of console games in the lives of ordinary game fans “may be a little excessive”.
He then goes on to discuss the end of large maps as his new game is finalising the size of its in-game world:
“There are still many titles being released, but I feel that the era of games where the volume is the selling point is coming to an end. We should be entering the mass production phase for the assets soon, so it’s about time to decide on the final volume estimate.
I’m still thinking about whether it’s really good enough. Of course we have the map, but the current version is so large that it’s almost too large. This time, while researching existing games, we started by making a fairly large map with roads and highways. Now we are gradually shrinking it down and exploring the best balance for the game.”
When the interviewer suggests density of content within the world is more important than the size of the map, Nagoshi says:
“That’s the point. You could fill it in with some element to create a sense of density, but it’s not modern to have similar experiences repeated over and over again.”
An argument that has plagued gaming circles has been centered around the belief game length equates to game quality – ie. longer is better.
That thinking has turned every action-adventure title into part-RPGs with huge albeit mostly empty worlds that are often filled with repetitive tasks to draw out their runtime. Long gone is “Bioshock,” “Mass Effect,” “Uncharted” era of a tightly plotted 12-24 hour main story – replaced by many AAA titles trying to be the next “Witcher 3” or “Skyrim” but without their rich storytelling or varied worlds.
But there has been an increasing push back against games that are needlessly long, arguing in favor of shorter games of better value.
There’s also the question as to whether the race to build these giant worlds may have contributed to the increased length of game development in recent years.
No further details are available on Toshihiro Nagoshi’s next game beyond a staff of 80 working on the title.
The post “Yakuza” Creator On Game World Size appeared first on Dark Horizons.
