Hi, I'm Yoshio Sakamoto. I've been involved in the development of various software since the Game & Watch era. From Family Computer and Family Computer Disk System to Nintendo Switch, I've led the development on a variety of games, including the Famicom Detective Club (1) series and Metroid (2) series. On the other side of the spectrum, I've also worked on two titles from the Tomodachi Life (3) series.

I personally like to get hands-on, so I worked together with Miyachi-san on this title, on everything from creating the plot to scriptwriting, considering and selecting background music to support the composers, as well as cutscenes and direction. That said, I'm credited as the game's producer again for this title. (Laughs)

Hello, I'm Kaori Miyachi. I've been working mainly as a coordinator on games in a variety of genres, including the Donkey Kong Country Returns (4) game for Wii, Art Academy (5) for Nintendo DS, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (6) for Nintendo Switch. I also worked as a coordinator on various adjustments to the remakes of Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir and Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind on the Nintendo Switch system.

Then you met me and it all went downhill.

(Laughs)

That's not true! (Laughs)

For this title, I was involved as an assistant producer. My task was the same as Sakamoto-san's; I joined at the plot-development phase, eventually writing the script alongside him and coordinating the game's direction.

Famicom Detective Club is a text-based adventure game first released for the Family Computer Disk System. You play from the perspective of the main character, a detective working at the Utsugi Detective Agency. In this series, the main character encounters mysterious cases and works together with his boss, Shunsuke Utsugi, and his colleague, Ayumi, to solve them.

The series is known for always incorporating some slightly scary elements in its stories. Well, it's pretty much based on my own taste... Careful direction of the music, timing, and so forth was given to those scary elements.

After Nintendo released the Family Computer, (Hiroshi) Yamauchi-san, the president at the time, made various requests to (Gunpei) Yokoi-san (7) asking him to develop this and that. And one of the requests was to come up with a game titled "Famicom Shonen Tanteidan" (Famicom Boys Detective Team).

Yes, and back then it was still called "Shonen Tanteidan" (Boys Detective Team). Yokoi-san shared with us the proposal made by an external development company that R&D1 was working with at the time. But, somehow, it didn't quite feel like a game. And I thought this was no good.

Around the same time, an adventure game called Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Portopia Serial Murder Case) (8) was released on the Family Computer. And when I tried it, it was really fun. You'd check suspicious places to discover something or look for a phone number. It made me realize that even those kinds of actions could be turned into gameplay, and inspired me to create something like this. So I went to Yokoi-san and suggested, "Why don't we make a more solid adventure game?" Then Yokoi-san was like, "Fine, do whatever you want." (Laughs) And that's how I started working on it.

Believe it or not, I didn't. But as a child, I read a lot. It might be hard to imagine now, but I was prone to being sick. (Laughs) I often missed school, and reading was about all I could do during that time. Maybe I was exposed to a lot of stories back then. However, I didn't have any writing experience, so my debut was with Famicom Detective Club.

Well... I was really into movies back then. I particularly liked horror movies from an Italian film director named Dario Argento (9). I may have been influenced by him. However, the first game, Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir, was inspired by the concept of the Famicom Shonen Tanteidan (Famicom Boys Detective Team), and the idea of the protagonist having amnesia came from the external development team we were working with at the time. Because I wrote the plot based on those concepts, I never felt like it was the original story that I truly wanted to create. The end result was something that diverged slightly from my idea of "scary."

Still, I feel like I achieved what I set out to in terms of an adventure game that incorporates cinematic techniques. For example, asking myself, "How will it be if the music stops abruptly in this scene?" or "How about slowing down the pacing of the text during a tense scene?" As it turned out, lots of people enjoyed playing Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir, so I figured this type of game must have potential. That being so, I wanted to create my own world from scratch, which came out to be Famicom Detective Club PART II: The Girl Who Stands Behind.

Exactly. And since many of the ghost stories that I fell in love with then are set in schools, I wanted to incorporate this theme. That said, there was a period of time when I wasn't making any progress with writing. (Laughs) I took inspiration from various movies I watched and thought were cool, and incorporated them into the game's direction.

One of the things that I was especially passionate about was the music. I planned on using music such as progressive rock (10) or technopop (11) from the 1970s. I was able to realize all of my ideas, and I was happy that it met my own expectations. And ultimately it was embraced by fans.

In retrospect, the development of Famicom Detective Club PART II: The Girl Who Stands Behind cemented what I wanted to do, and that enabled me to take on the challenge of this new title.

Taking into account the Family Computer's capabilities, I think the end result was decent. But one thing that caught my attention was the large number of people asking to have something like it every week. I was like, "That's impossible." (Laughs) I can't churn out stories one after another, and while we discussed outsourcing it to an external writer, asking a novelist to write a story for the Famicom system is no easy request.

It's not just about writing a story, because you also have to figure out what kind of gameplay it's going to have. In the end, I was left to dwell on the fact that I couldn't release a new title and keep the series going.

Twenty-six years ago, I had a great opportunity to work on a remake of Famicom Detective Club PART II: The Girl Who Stands Behind for the Super Famicom.

Famicom was transitioning to Super Famicom at the time, providing more ways to express graphics and music, so I was excited to work on it. And I realized once again, "I really enjoy making Famicom Detective Club!"

But ultimately, no new story, no new game. On top of that, the opportunity for this remake came up by chance, and once I'd moved on to other games, it became difficult to think about Famicom Detective Club.

The two remakes for Nintendo Switch were made possible thanks to MAGES., a game company that has produced a lot of adventure games. An employee from MAGES. pitched the idea to Nintendo with incredible passion.

Even during a different meeting between our point person for external developers and MAGES., they brought up the subject by saying, "By the way, we've updated the remakes proposal we talked about the other day!" and "We've also updated the video materials. Here's what we want to create!" and so on.

I heard those suggestions continued for more than a year. Seeing how serious they were, our staff started pitching their proposal and reference materials to internal teams, and that's how it started.

It seems like there was a staff member who was a huge fan of Famicom Detective Club.

When I read the documents, I could feel MAGES.' enthusiasm, but I also wasn't sure how serious they were. Then I had a look at the graphics they created for the demo, and that's when I realized that they really were serious about it.

They actually recreated a scene from Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir and brought it along to show us how they were planning to remake it, didn't they?

Yes, the graphics featured animated characters from Famicom Detective Club, and the story was fully voiced. When we were working on the Family Computer version, those things obviously weren't possible, and this got me thinking, "Hey, this might be it – we could make a new Famicom Detective Club!"

No, never before I joined the company... Personally, I like RPG games where you level up bit by bit, but after I started working here, I thought to myself, "I'd better give it a go first before passing any judgment," so I played a whole bunch of games across a wide range of genres. Some of these were adventure games, and I was introduced to a world of gaming I'd never experienced before.

As for Famicom Detective Club, I'd heard of it but hadn't had the chance to play it. When I was assigned as the lead for the MAGES. remakes, my first task was to complete Famicom Detective Club PART II: The Girl Who Stands Behind on Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console. (Laughs) Once I'd actually played it, I was blown away. I honestly wondered, "Why haven't I played this before?!"

At first, I intended to join in a supervisory role. You know, just reviewing what MAGES. created. But MAGES. said to me "Sakamoto-san, let's work on this together!" So I was like, "Really? Can I join too?" (Laughs)

As much as I like to get hands-on, I wasn't sure how far I could stick my nose into the project or whether I could join in, since it was MAGES.' idea. Then Miyachi-san said to me, "Just join in!" (Laughs)

I'd say he was a bit reserved in the beginning. He'd say things like, "But I'm a supervisor, so I should just review it, right?" or "Is it okay if I share my opinion?" so I gave him a push and told him, "Just say what's on your mind!" (Laughs)

So I actually joined in and didn't hesitate to share my thoughts. By the end, I was so heavily involved that I wondered what had happened to my so-called "supervisor" role. I'm really grateful to MAGES. for accepting my opinions and giving them form.

I guess by working on the remakes, I could feel Famicom Detective Club's potential to become what I really wanted to portray, and that I could achieve it. Also, I felt like I'd found the people I'd definitely want to work together with again, if there ever were a "next time." Namely MAGES., to cooperate with development, and Miyachi-san! I already had them locked in. (Laughs)

For me, it was a great opportunity to get to know MAGES., but more than anything, being able to work side-by-side with Sakamoto-san, who's created a lot of things at Nintendo, was really huge. I learned a lot about Nintendo's unique way of creating products, its perspective and philosophy.