Monolith Soft is a company adored by fans of high quality Japanese RPGS. The company recently posted a lengthy interview on their site with Monolith Soft co-founder executive producer Hirohide Sugiura to talk about the transition of working at Namco and then joining Nintendo. You can read more about with challenges and opportunities he faced in the interview here. For now here’s some choice extracts from Mr. Sugiura.
After the establishment that was funded by Namco (now Bandai Namco Games), Monolith Soft had become a subsidiary of Nintendo following a stock transfer in 2007. Please share more details from the time.
Hirohide Sugiura, Executive Producer: “When Monolith Soft was established, it was actually Namco founder Masaya Nakamura who took great care of us. Nakamura-san’s thoughts on creation was very relatable, he treated us well, and talked to us about all kinds of things. After his retirement, there was a new atmosphere—which is a given, but I felt there was a change from Nakamura-san’s grand ideas.”
Do you feel any kind of “change” since becoming a Nintendo subsidiary?
Sugiura: “That would be a ‘change in consciousness.’ If the content isn’t good enough then Nintendo won’t green-light the commercialization, and that’s a hurdle we naturally raised on our own. Everyone had the level of consciousness that asked ‘is the quality good enough like that?’ and I believe it was quite a change from the time Monolith Soft first started. And this change in the level of consciousness was made possible thanks to the environment provided from being a subsidiary of Nintendo. Looking at it in an administrative point of view, the most important thing is finding the right balance.”
Namco mediocrity, Nintendo excellence.
It’s nice that they’re now with a company that will let them make the games they want.
Namco screwed the pooch with their constant corporate meddling that ruined Xenosaga.
Who owns Baten Kaitos? Nintendo needs to bloody buy it from Bandai Namco if they kept the series when they sold Monolith Soft to Nintendo. I want HD remasters of the two games!