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IGN’s recently released Game Developers Conference interview with Kirby director Shinya Kumazaki wasn’t just focused on the topic of Kirby’s future. You see, there was also some discussion about Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s impact on the series as a whole.
IGN asked Kumazaki if they felt that Kirby and the Forgotten Land had been transformative for the series. Kamazaki replied, saying that “if we’re talking about what Breath of the Wild perhaps did for the Zelda series in that it was a revolution, revolutionized the series, I think Kirby [and the] Forgotten Land was kind of at a turning point. And I think you can consider it as the first step in our kind of ongoing moving forward challenge of now also creating 3D Kirby games”.
Kamazaki did also advise caution. HAL Laboratory may have made this 3D Kirby game, but that doesn’t mean the entire franchise’s future will follow it. He said that “really, it’s about the kind of gameplay experience that we can provide to the players, and how best to optimally bring that gameplay experience that really dictates how we kind of express that in the game,” he says. “It’s just that now we have this new genre of 3D as another method, another way, another form of providing that optimal gameplay experience through an optimal Kirby gameplay experience”.
Kamazaki clarified on this later on, explaining that, while HAL Laboratory has only been comfortable enough to do 3D gameplay again in the past decade, the gameplay experience and what the core gameplay idea is are always the team’s first concern. Once that has been established, they make the decision on whether the best expression of it can be done in 2D or 3D.
As for when HAL Laboratory finally got comfortable with 3D Kirby gameplay, Kamazaki revealed that it was Kirby’s Blowout Blast, which released on the 3DS eShop in 2016. He explained that “with titles like Air Ride, we had the environment to create a 3D [game]…but it’s the creative skill and experience that we didn’t have as much. And we wanted to really be able to experiment and see if that’s something we can bring to the mainline series…We understood the hurdle for creating a 3D Kirby game was going to be high. And really with Kirby’s Blowout [Blast] is when I looked into some of the previous challenges that the series have had, and really tapped into the experience that people have gained, the teams have gained while we’re developing for that. And we got to a point where we felt like we had the skills, we had the experience. And when we tested out, it started to kind of come together, and that’s why we felt like we’re able to provide a 3D Kirby experience that’s going to be approachable for many people”.
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