Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
Hideki Kamiya believes Wonderful 101 is one of his more ambitious and creative projects, but he also knows it didn’t do great during its initial launch and a lot of people missed out on seeing what it offered. Kamiya is hoping to fix this with Wonderful 101 Remastered, which he believes will be an important second chance for the game and a rewarding experience for both new and returning players.
PlatinumGames dropped an interview on its YouTube with Hideki Kamiya regarding Wonderful 101 on March 6, 2020. In the interview, Kamiya talks about what led up to Wonderful 101’s initial creation, the admitted lack of sales on the initial launch of the game, and what he and the time have wanted to do for its upcoming relaunch in Wonderful 101 Remastered.
“There were certain things the dev team never got to add to the game,” Kamiya admitted. “We missed chances to make the game more user-friendly due to how busy we were. After the game was released, the dev team, including myself, made a list of things that we noticed and wanted to add… whether or not that chance would actually come.”
With the successful Kickstarter of Wonderful 101 having given Hideki Kamiya and PlatinumGames the resources they need for the game, it’s clearly an exciting opportunity for Kamiya and his team to pursue opportunities they had to leave by the wayside for seven years. More than that, Kamiya seems excited to build an experience that familiar players will enjoy as much as new players.
“We definitely want people who played the original to play [Wonderful 101 Remastered] as well,” Kamiya explained. “We can’t say the original release was a success business-wise, and not many people got to play it… I certainly hope everyone gets to play it now.”
PlatinumGames is at a turning point in the studio’s history in which Wonderful 101 Remastered will play a large part. With further plans to launch another Kamiya-directed action game with Project G.G., and the opening of PlatinumGames Tokyo with a focus on developing a games-as-a-service project, the studio has a lot on its plate in the immediate future.
It will be interesting to see if Wonderful 101 Remastered ends up getting the big second chance Hideki Kamiya believes it deserves.