(referred to as Otani from this point on)I'm Akira Otani from Nintendo. I've been involved in the Mario & Luigi series since the second game, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, and have been working as the producer since the third one, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. This is the seventh game in the series I've been involved in, and my role for this one was to supervise the overall project, but of course, I was doing all kinds of things, such as coming up with and putting together game content with the other team members.

(referred to as Fukushima from this point on)I'm Tomoki Fukushima from Nintendo. Prior to this game, I was in charge of coordinating with outside developing companies for games such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (1) for Nintendo Switch. For this game, I joined development as the Associate Producer. Working with the game development company Acquire, I was involved in a broad range of tasks from prototyping until completion, such as coordinating the schedule and putting the overall game content together.

(referred to as Ohashi from this point on)I'm Haruyuki Ohashi from Acquire (2). As the director, I was in charge of planning and overseeing the development on site. This was my first time working with Nintendo, and I'm relieved that we were able to complete the project successfully.

(referred to as Furuta from this point on)I'm Hitomi Furuta from Acquire. I worked as the Art Director for this game. My role was to direct the overall art style, and I was also in charge of designing some of the main characters. I've been playing Mario games since I was a child, but it was the development of this game that got me playing the Mario & Luigi series.

The first game in the Mario & Luigi series was released in 2003 for Game Boy Advance. The Mario & Luigi games are Action RPGs characterized by having Mario and Luigi work together to progress in the game, and we like to call this genre "Brother Action RPG." I think the series is well balanced and neatly packages just the right amount of action and puzzles, as well as a fun story and character reactions that are unique to the Mario series. This is the first new title in the series in nine years, since Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3) in 2015.

The game is set in Concordia, a different world from the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi adventure through islands drifting in its ocean. Your base of operations is the drifting Shipshape Island, and you sail around looking for other islands, where all kinds of puzzles and battles await you. As the threat of the antagonist Zokket draws nearer, Mario and Luigi meet all kinds of people and get their support to help stand up against them.

People were more surprised than I expected, both in Japan and elsewhere. I think the biggest part of the surprise was that people didn't expect any more of these games to be released, and now the series has been brought back.

That’s true. Of course, for a long time, we'd been having a number of internal discussions about a new installment in the series following Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. We needed to aim for something new that would keep up with hardware advancements while maintaining the appeal of the classic Mario & Luigi games. It wasn't easy to achieve both at the same time... We kept trying various things, but there was a time when we thought it might not be possible to make any more games in the series and considered giving up. There were a lot of discussions, and eventually we decided to reach out to Acquire. After speaking a number of times with Ohashi-san, I felt that Acquire might be able to realize our dream of making Mario & Luigi in 3D, so we agreed to start joint development. Of course, it was also important to keep that "Mario & Luigi-like" feeling, so we also had some former AlphaDream (4) staff members who were involved in the development of previous titles in the series join the project.

First, they have advanced 3D technology, and they created OCTOPATH TRAVELER (5), so they have experience in RPG development. Additionally, they have experience developing action games, such as Tenchu (6). I saw them as a company that could develop both action and RPG games. Their excellent track record and technical skills made me feel compelled to reach out to them.

Well, I personally was interested in working with Nintendo. Also, for Acquire as a whole, we felt that working with Nintendo would give us the chance to learn all kinds of things, from technical aspects to game creation. So, we talked about how we'd love the opportunity to work together.

Yes, this was the first time we were properly doing game development work together. Up until this title, Acquire had developed many games for other platforms, and the idea of co-developing something with Nintendo hadn't really occurred to us. But when we were presented with the idea and realized that such a future was possible, we became really interested and thought that it was bound to be a fascinating experience.

That’s right. Generally, until now, we've almost always drawn up the plan or proposal on Acquire's side and approached our partners about creating our idea together. We were coming into this game without having built up any prior experience on our side, so that was pretty challenging.

There was a point where I thought an HD-2D approach like OCTOPATH TRAVELER could be a possibility. However, previous Mario & Luigi games were pixel art, and the artwork on the packaging, et cetera, consisted of drawn illustrations.

For other Mario games, the in-game visual design and the main illustration match, but because they didn't for the previous Mario & Luigi games, I thought it might have been harder for customers to recognize what kind of game it was. I wanted to align the game and the artwork at some point. That's why my dream was to make the next one in 3D.

I was also thinking since the planning stage that 3D would be a good approach to take if we were going to make this game. There were also several reasons why I thought 2D would be difficult. I created games using pixel art characters in the No Heroes Allowed! (7) series, and from that experience with pixel art animation, I could see how great the pixel art animation was in past Mario & Luigi games, both from a technical and stylistic perspective. I didn't think it would be easy to make something on that level or even better. So, I thought, in that case, challenging ourselves to make Mario & Luigi in 3D would enable us to add lots of new and appealing elements into the game that weren't in previous ones.