tansuikabutsu

Part 2 of my translation of Dengeki Game's recent interview with Katsura Hoshino, "Catherine"'s producer. Part one is here, and there's many more to come -- this is a long interview. 
 
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 - By the way, in the west there are a lot of games where the protagonist is an adult, but in Japan it's mostly teenagers or young boys. What are your thoughts on that?

Well, it's been a while since I had an account here, so maybe it's time to try that blog thing. I've had blogs in the past, all abandoned now, so we'll see how it goes. 
  
But we'll leave introductions for a later post. It's best to start with actual content! 
 
My favorite Japanese games magazine is currently Dengeki Games. It's a monthly, fairly thick, and seems to have more actual content than most of its competition. The latest issue, out last week, has a cover shot of Catherine, from the game with the same title that was recently covered here on GB, accompanied by a long interesting interview with Katsura Hashino, the game's producer. Most of the interview is about the concept of "games for adult players", which is not nearly as advanced in Japan as it is in the west (the interview touches on why that is quite a bit). Anyway, I decided it's good training material, so I'm translating it bit by bit and sharing the results. The first part is right here. 
Numbers in square brackets refer to footnotes from the original interview. You'll find them at the bottom. After that I'll add my own comments if there are any (there are for this part). 
 
Let me know what you think! 
 
 
 "Catherine" and Games for Adults
 There was a time when computer games were recognized as nothing more than "children games". But much like a society that shows a multitude of aspects as an era advances, games too continued to evolve in a multitude of ways, and today people of ages that can be called "adult" are playing computer games in many forms. Of course, many of them are people who were children in the "Famicom era", when the TV game revolution took place, and continued enjoying video games into their adulthood. 
In any case, today many people agree that video games are a form of entertainment that can captivate adults as well as children. That said, when we think about "games for adults" (and by that we don't mean games designated for adults because of sexual or violent scenes, but games designed for people with a certain amount of life experience), just how many come to mind, if at all? And what kind of games are they? One answer might include "Catherine", which arrives in stores this month. In this special report, we talk to Catherine's producer, Mr. Katsura Hashino, about the appeal of his current game as well as about the possibilities in "games for adults".
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- To start, can you tell us the motivation for creating a game that can be enjoyed best by people in their 30's and 40's?
Hashino: Up until now I was involved with the "Persona" series [1], which we designed so both high school students and people who attended high school a few years before could identify with. As we continued with that process, I suddenly found myself wondering if there are any games I, who just turned 30, could identify with just as easily. If we look at TV and movies, we find many works that depict adult life faithfully. But in video games, once you reach those bewildering 30's and 40's, you can't succeed by giving your characters a sword to wield any more, but must show the struggles of adult life in order to have your players identify with the characters. Those were my thoughts that motivated me to make the game.
I wasn't sure it was a good idea to have a 32 year old man as the protagonist, but since he was accompanied by two pretty women I looked forward to make an adult-oriented romantic adventure game. But as we were making the game, our two women turned out very different from those that are in your standard romantic game (laughs). You often hear the expression "my bride [2]" in regard to game and anime heroines, but thematically our two girls are intensely the exact opposite. In that way they can never become "my bride" (laughs).

 - When you play the game, the scene where they come across each other is too real -- in its own way it's even "horror", isn't it? (laughs)
Hashino: When you're drinking with friends it's fun to hear about someone's scene of carnage at home after his infidelity was exposed, isn't it? Because it happened to someone else (laughs). It's kind of a popular story. So we thought it would be quite fun, but when you actually play the scene it's scary (big laugh). That's why as opposed to Persona, where we didn't put any words into the protagonist's mouth in order to make him one with the player, we thought it would be harsh to do the same here, and we set it up so the player enjoys watching this man called Vincent from the side.  

 - What are your thoughts about making a game where the protagonist is an adult?
Hashino: I could insert references that only people of my generation can understand. Like "Golden Play Theater" [3] (laughs). I think people in their twenties will probably not even realize it is a parody, let alone actually know it, but that's actually what's great about it. Besides that, when you become an adult your time becomes limited and your actions are mostly influenced by whether they're advantageous to you or not. I want to create a game that makes you notice the unusual and hazy things in the world.

[1] "Persona" series - Starting with Persona 3, this is the series of games that Katsura Hashino is best known for producing and directing.
[2] "My bride" ("ore no yome") - A typical expression from men regarding their ideal female type characters. In most cases, it's used in regard to 2-dimensional anime characters.
[3] "Golden Play Theater" - As is apparent when looking at the top-left of Catherine's screen, the game is set up as a program of the "Golden Play Theater". The motif is the same as the actual old TV show, "Golden Western Theater". "When we were kids video players were not yet popular, and we often saw movies for the first time on television. There are probably many with intense memories of it." (Hashino)

 (My own note - Golden Western Theater was a Japanese TV show that aired in the '70s and '80s, showcasing mostly American movies. You can see its opening titles here, that are clearly the inspiration for Catherine's opening, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdOz9eKIkOk)     

 I am also adding new Japanese titles often enough to have an opinion on the matter, and I think having rules for this is excellent. 
 Normally I would also want to settle on a single transliteration system to use constantly, much like Wikipedia does (I'd say some sort of modified Hepburn, probably), but it's not as simple as it first seems. I like my long vowels as double english characters, but still transliterate Tokyo and not Toukyou. Katakana English words are also on a case by case basis - I just know what sounds good to me in a particular title, but can't put my finger on why that is.

In addition to the Steven Meretzky that contains a list of his credited games, there is an empty Steve Meretzky (with no N in the first name) page that should be deleted.