6. The Year of Luigi

Okay, final question. I’d like each of you involved with Luigi’s Mansion 2 to deliver a message to the players.

As a fan of the previous game and a developer of Luigi’s Mansion 2, I’m very proud of this project accomplished in collaboration with Nintendo. To the fans who have waited patiently for so long, now it’s your turn to enjoy it. We’re looking forward to enjoying multiplayer mode together with people all over the world.

I would encourage people to enjoy playing with Luigi. Of course, I think a lot of people would say it’s fun to play as a hero like Mario, but Luigi is a character much closer to me.

That’s right. People are more like Luigi. (laughs)

That’s why I think he’s easier to identify with. Luigi’s fear becomes your own fear. That’s a mysterious experience you can only have with Luigi’s Mansion 2, so I hope people will be sure to enjoy that.

Miyamoto-san always asked us if we were enjoying development. The development scene actually had a great atmosphere, so we were able to have a great time as we developed this game. I’m certain that atmosphere is packed into the final product, so I hope people will experience that.And I hope people will be as surprised at the various finer aspects we put into the game as they were when Miyamoto-san appeared in the February edition of Nintendo Direct shouldering the Poltergust 5000¹². (laughs) ^12. In a Luigi’s Mansion 2 Interview with Mr. Miyamoto, which was originally a part of the Nintendo 3DS Direct, Miyamoto-san appeared wearing a vacuum cleaner, which is the Poltergust 5000.

Ikebata-san?

We spent a long time on development, but for that reason, it has a high density of content. So I hope people will enjoy that density.

The Dark-Light Device also contributed to the high concentration of ideas.

That’s right. The Dark-Light Device was their suggestion.

Is that so? How did the Dark-Light Device idea come about?

The original concept was having the real world and an alternate world. In other words, it began with the idea of something like a spirit world existing in the same room. For example, there are common areas between the worlds of light and darkness in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes¹³ and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past^14.13. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: A first-person shooting game released for the Nintendo GameCube console in November 2004. Players progress with the story of the game by switching back and forth between worlds of light and darkness.^14. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: An action-adventure game released for the Super NES system in September 1992. Link goes on an adventure spanning a world of light and shadow in search of the Triforce.

Oh, I see.

However, that kind of system, with two different worlds, is nothing new any longer, so we thought of the

This game has a quest system, so it’s made with a lot of specific individual missions. You use the same map to play different quests, so we thought it would be boring if you went to the same places over and over but there were never any changes.

The Dark-Light Device introduced changes.

Right. Thanks to that idea, we were able to bulk up the quests. I’m incredibly thankful to them.

If wasn’t the method of passing between two worlds that we had thought of at first, but in the end, I think we were able to put forth a great idea.

Something else we haven’t discussed much so far is how you can

That is represented on the package design .

Yes. We purposely designed the package with Luigi in a pose as if fearfully peeking in on something.

And lastly, Miyamoto-san.

The title this time in Japanese is Luigi’s Mansion 2, so it may look like your typical sequel, but even though we used assets from the previous game – such as a haunted mansion, the Poltergust and Professor E. Gadd – the game content has quite drastically…

(Editor’s note: The game is known as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon in North America, and Luigi’s Mansion 2 in Europe and Japan.)

You changed it.

Right. Now you can fully enjoy puzzle-solving, and we paid attention to giving a sense of actually being in a haunted mansion, so I think you can enjoy simply looking at all the ghosts. And, as mentioned earlier, the staff had a great time making it, so it turned out to be more fun the more you play it.

You repeatedly asked the staff at Next Level Games if they were enjoying development, because in order to make the mechanisms interesting, if – above all – the developers aren’t having fun making them, the players wouldn’t have fun either.

That’s right. As a result of having fun in development, the content gets richer the further you progress through the stages. Once you pass the middle, it gets even more fun – so much so that you think, “This kind of game is rare.” So there are places that may seem a little difficult, but I hope people will stick with it to the end and fully experience the world of Luigi’s Mansion.

Without straying off-course, you raced along having a good time for over three years, and packed all that into it, resulting in output that is rich in content.

I’d like to say one last thing. We released Luigi’s Mansion 12 years ago, and lots of people around the world said, “Make another one!” and “Let’s make another one together!” Thanks to them, we’re finally able to bring a new Luigi’s Mansion to the world.

What’s more, this is “The Year of Luigi,” with celebrations and everything, so on Luigi’s behalf, I’d like to express my appreciation. (bows deeply)

(laughs)

I fully expect that the Year of Luigi will get off to a magnificent starting dash!

That’s why we brought these hats! (All three put on their hats again and pump their fists.)

(laughs) I can sense even through the monitor how much fun you had making this. Thank you for today.

Thank you very much!