#kirbys return to dream land spoilers | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

desultory-novice · 1 year

Text

Nintendo Dream May 2023

Return to Dream Land DX Interview w/ the Staff

[Note: This was 8 pages long. I bought it the moment I could and wrote down/quickly summarized everything I could find that was of interest while reading through it. I didn’t even edit it or spellcheck it ^^ It’s not a full translation, there could be some bits I misinterpreted, and there’s some technical stuff about the development and staff that I left untouched, but this should be all the good stuff!]

---

They spent a long time debating whether the game (in Japanese) should still be called "Kirby Wii" but decided that since it WAS "Kirby Wii" it should keep the name.

They originally thought of giving RtDL a title like the novel version had.

Giving the characters the outlines took a hefty amount of processing power.

Even among the staff, RtDL is considered the origin point of modern Kirby.

Kumazaki's keyword to the staff was "nostalgia filter" - to not just remake the game as is, but to add enough features that it was even better than how people remembered the original.

They didn't force themselves to release all three games (Forgotten Land, Dream Buffet, DX) for the 30th anniversary, but they considered being able to do so ideal. As such, they began working on it while FL was still in development.

As to the borders, they knew it was difficult to introduce a new visual element to a series midway through, but they regretted how easy it was to loose sight of the characters in Star Allies, which is why they added them in. That and the fact that it make the characters look more like they were artwork, as well as fitting in with RtDL's naturally more fantastic and cartoony look, which also helped visually distinguish it from SA that used a lot of similar looking locales to RtDL

As for Dedede's redesign, they mention that he's partly redesigned to best represent what he's used for in each game. In TDX, he was an enemy and an ally, so he was meant to look cool. In Star Allies, he was friendly and a bit goofy. In FL, he was designed to fit with the look of the Beast Pack. DX's Dedede is meant to kind of mix FL and Star Allies, partly because FL Dedede became so popular and had such recognition. (They also note that, regrettably, RtDL's original Dedede had to have his body made smaller because of bounding box issues.) They weren't able to make him the "large and in charge" powerful type they wanted before now.

All the voices were rerecorded for this game, including the masks.

In regards to the opening animation, they talk about how there was no specific situation in mind, but note that Waddle Dee looks like he was sent flying. The reason is because Waddle Dees were still considered generic enemies at that point, and so it made sense that something had sent this random Waddle Dee flying off, which is why it happened. (They also note that because of the timing, it looks like Meta Knight was the one responsible, but it's just a random enemy thing.)

"Helper Magolor" started out from the idea that Watanabe and Tanifuji both had young kids and they wanted a game that their children could play, without sacrificing the depth that veteran gamers enjoy. Kirby is made as an entry game for gamers of all levels, and they feel they opened it up to even more players with this. Really young kids, and people who aren't good at action games but want to enjoy the story. (They were a little surprised at how much the little kids struggled with FL's 3D action elements. While it's natural for us to use inhale and then swallow for a copy ability, little kids and gaming newcomers would forget about that, thus, the auto-copy feature.)

It made sense to make Magolor the helper because he was the key character in the story, and that it would seem he was giving you assistance for you helping him fix his ship.

They debated between some 60 different ideas for new copy abilities before settling on the two that they did. The deciding factor was abilities that seemed like they would belong in Kirby but also be fresh and new.

"Festival" is back not just because it's an anniversary game, but because it fit the feeling of a 4-player adventure. (And also, with Helper Magolor on, it gives a way to increase Magolor's presence in the game.)

They mention that Kumazaki rewrote all the ability descriptions and added all the pause screen lore. That they did like the figure-based methods of lore in FL but wanted to stick with the classic style for RtDL DX. (Also, Watanabe mentions that Kumazaki is a very fast writer. What Watanabe would've taken a day, Kumazaki finished in only an hour. Maybe even faster than than that, Watanabe adds!)

Originally, they only planned for about 40 dress-up masks. Then Kumazaki decided to ask for 86, mostly to please the fans. They choose things that would be easiest, such as characters who already had a 3D model, characters that would make fans the happiest to see, or characters who were simple to make. They chose masks instead of just making them playable because they didn't want to disrupt the setting of RtDL. (And also, because souvenirs like that are a staple of theme parks.)

One question is "Why did Magolor build Magoland in Dream Land?" (For those wondering if it was really in Dream Land or not. Kumazaki answers that you have to understand Magolor's character. He's someone that loves making things and also loves surprising people. When the idea of turning the sub-games to attractions came up, and which Kirby universe character would be responsible, it just had to be Magolor who made them. Magolor has become a character that's really easy to involve in the series. "If something is making something particularly entertaining in the Kirby series, it's Magolor's turn," says Kumazaki. "Magolor has both magic and technological abilities, which he uses to make things with."

As for the "when" and "where" of Magoland, Kumazaki notes you can kind of get the real picture if you play the game till the very end, but if you're not too concerned with the details, it's okay to just think "So, he made an amusement park at some point!" That said, he implies it supposed to be a bit of a mystery/a bit up in the air. Did he want to make something Kirby and the others would enjoy after all his experiences with them? It's up to the player's interpretation.

The possibility of putting Magolor on the original box art existed, but since he was "just a one game character in a series of games" they left him off to focus on the four person appeal of the original game. But Magolor appeared in more and more things and became popular enough that he finally earned his place on the box art.

Kumazaki mentions that every character starts out as an unknown. Even mega popular characters like Meta Knight were once just a lone boss in a "new" game. His becoming a major player thanks to "Revenge of Meta Knight" and being a character who fulfills an important role helped him to become more recognizable. Magolor has stopped being one of these "newcomer" characters and evolved into his own fully-fledged character with this game.

Kumazaki confirms that in general there's not a straight, forward-flowing timeline in Kirby as much as there is a series of loose connections. And that in-between events, the characters are generally imagined to be living peaceful, ordinary lives - just like in the opening movie. "There, Kirby has a cake and is being chased by Dedede. There were all sorts of fights before then. And maybe King Dedede was causing trouble again and Kirby had to stop him and that led to them running off with the cake...The details are left up to the imagination."

The interviewer mentions that competing over cake makes it seem like it's continuing off of Squeak Squad. Kumazaki notes that though Kirby and Dedede fight with each other, generally speaking, they get along well. As far as the relationships with the characters and how they interact, Kumazaki says, "there are times where, if the Halberd becomes necessary for a game, it's more natural to just make it the Halberd than to have a brand new unknown battleship appear out of nowhere."

"We don't have a story/timeline" he quotes himself, while noting that the truths that have spread among the players as well as the relationships between the characters and their quirks have to be preserved to a certain degree or it's like you're meeting a new cast each time. So they DO keep certain truths and relationships in mind as they make the series. Sometimes this means putting the role of the "bad guy" on King Dedede, but that doesn't change the fact that he and Kirby are "rivals." (But that he will occasionally be unfair too...) That's a fairly recent, "unchanging fact" of the Kirby world. They mention that even Bandanna Waddle Dee goes from being Dedede's vassal to a friend of the group. though recently he's been recognized more and more as "one of the group."

Meta Knight is the same as Dedede. He's someone who will fight Kirby if circumstances call for it. Like how here, in the opening, he's calmly reading a book in between his sword-training, but he pauses to see if Dedede is causing trouble, or if something threatens the peace of Dream Land.

Kumazaki says, noting the inclusion of Magolor's theme park in this game technically makes RtDL DX an alternate universe to the original RtDL. But the information you learn after 100%ing the game challenges the idea of a single flow of time. With the existence of "Another Dimension" that can cross over both space and time, players are free to see that the passage of time does not lead to one single result. That should also help explain why Kirby and the others are able to warp between Magoland, which exists in its own faraway universe, to the main game.

He adds that this is mostly for people who are concerned about the fact that main mode Magolor is depressed about his ship but Magoland Magolor is happily running his theme park.

There's also a note at the end that Landia was named "Landia" instead of something like "Dark Dragon" to make it seem more natural that they could become an ally. They were also designed to look like they could be friendly. (There's also a comment - not from the dev staff - in the "Games Magolor has been in" page that "Magolor uses the same sword as Kirby! Proof that they're friends?!)

Finally....

THE INTERVIEW WILL CONTINUE NEXT MONTH! (Where they'll discuss more about Merry Magoland and the Magolor Epilogue!! Also, Kumazaki will be looking back over the 30 years of Kirby!)

#Kirby #RtDL DX #Return to Dream Land #Kirby series #Magolor #RtDL DX spoilers #Meta Knight #King Dedede #Bandanna Waddle Dee #PS: going to be super busy for the next few days...#(though I've got a weeks' worth of queued posts)#...so I may not be able to respond to questions...#...about the interview immediately #(At least not for a while)#long post

330 notes · View notes