Jupiter President Comments On CoM Collab

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Published on November 13, 2011 @ 05:50 pm

Written by Cecily

Hello everyone! It's been a while since we've got some news, hasn't it? We've discovered a short interview with the President of Jupiter, Makoto Nakayama from Inside-Games. If you weren't already aware, Jupiter collaborated with Square Enix on both the original Kingdom Hearts:Chain of Memories on the GBA as well as The World Ends With You.

Although this is probably not what you were expecting, it's still fairly interesting to learn about. You can the translations below:

Thanks to forum administrator Shamdeo for the news!

Drop by for a spell to read the rest of the translated summary and discuss with us here in our forums!

Visiting the history of the three important titles made by Jupiter, such as the handheld "Kingdom Hearts" on the GBA, and the direction of the company.

Remembering the "Picross" series, there were a great number of pinball games that were developed. Jupiter has done games such as Pocket Pikachu and Poke'mon Mini, but in recent years, they worked on large titles such as TWEWY. So recently, they've been marketing "Picross" for the 3DS.
(T/N: However, "Picross 3D" is made by HAL.) 

This time, Inside is inquiring Jupiter, in Kyoto, for a story from President Nakayama and the development staff. 

We want to hear the stories about the three titles that were made for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. 

--------- When did the development for "Kingdom Hearts", for the GBA, begin?

Nakayama: It was right around this time, the exposed RPG genre period was said to be big in the business. 

Somehow, I believe there existed an accumulation of know-hows within the company, as we were able to meet with Square-Enix's Hashimoto-sama and work on "Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories". 

(Shinji Hashimoto: Square-Enix Holdings' senior executive managing director/officer, Also, Square-Enix's 1st work division Corporate Executive)

---------- What kind of beginning was it? 

Nakayama: Before "Kingdom Hearts", there was the game, "Disney Sports: Motor Cross" (released by: Konami). In those days, Square and Disney were in the same building. We received the story from Disney, who was in charge of the direction: "Since 'Kingdom Hearts' is being put onto the GBA, why don't we see the outcome in the planning competition?" 

I think because "new things were being challenged", the proposal that came through here is "Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories". 


---------- The insertion of Hikaru Utada's theme song into the CG movie, within the GBA, became a surprising type of game. 

Nakayama: The ROM became awesome in capacity, right? (laughs) 

Square and Disney were friendly with each other in this kind of flow. Jupiter is use to working like this with Nintendo as they're known for the TV game genre. It became clear that it was a placed position in opportunities working with portable games.