Japanese publication 4Gamer managed to catch up with Super Mario Odyssey producer Yoshiaki Koizumi. There were a number of things revealed in the interview including the fact that Mayor Pauline was originally going to be a princess and that the Tostarena area was based on Mexico.
“The team’s objective is to let people know about Mario through the games. Koizumi also mentioned that a lot of people have been introduced to Mario from the mobile title Super Mario Run, so he thought there ought to be more chances to create such introductions.
Odyssey has places based on real-life locations, such as how New Donk City is based on New York City, and Tostarena is based on Mexico. But they didn’t actually intend to base them on those areas. Instead, they first created stages with certain gameplay systems and gimmicks they wanted to implement. After this they would give a scenery theme to the stages.
When people think about desert stages, normally they would make it look Egyptian. However, director Kenta Motokura really likes Mexico, and his trips to the country left a strong impression on him, so he wanted to reflect that in the game. This resulted in Tostarena.
Koizumi also received warm responses from those in America who said New Donk City “looks like New York!” and from fans in Mexico who said, “Thanks for putting our country in the game! Please come to Mexico, you can enjoy Mexican cuisine!”
Odyssey has the biggest development staff in terms of pure numbers compared to past 3D Mario games, but it’s only slightly bigger than the previous biggest (3D World). The age range of the team was also very broad, which is perhaps why they could make the game be memorable for people of all ages.
Those who were testing the game were also able to make some unexpected uses of the capture system, such as creating shortcuts. Koizumi said that Mario himself has high physical abilities, so it’s easier for people to generate new solving methods other than the “correct ones” that had been assumed by game planners. If the dev team found a trick to be interesting, they might actually put it into the game’s specifications.
The reason why they put Pauline in New Donk City is because they had a chain of thought like, “In the past we used to have a game taking place in a city, and Mario also appeared in it…” which pointed towards Pauline. At first they wanted to make her the princess of New Donk City, but the world setting of that city doesn’t have princesses. That’s why she became the mayor instead.”
||No one thinks Tostarena is Egyptian at all unless they are primitive, irrelevant point to bring up…||
There’s still an Egyptian flair in the level though. The design is primarily Mexican themed but has bits and pieces of Egyptian architecture to spice up the level.
How so? Because of the pyramids? Have you heard of Chichen Itza or Teotihuacan?
Yes, but the designers still opted for an Egyptian style as it’s easily recognized among the masses. Odyssey as a whole introduces a large clash of different cultures in the artistic design to compliment the mechanics of each level.
||It has Sumerian as well if I’m not mistaken…||
Possibly. There’s a number of culture inspirations for Toasterena alone.
Egyptian pyramids have 4 sides, not 6
I may be wrong, but I always thought the inverted pyramid itself was supposed to resemble a diamond. You know, like a wedding ring.
But it says “When people think about desert stages, normally they would make it look Egyptian”.
It didn’t say anything about people thinking that this game’s desert stage is Egypt.
The previous desert stages in Mario games were more Egypt based so it makes sense
The Commander is correct in all things. Kneel. :p
Wait Pauline was going no to be a princess oh god why do I feel they were going to go with the beta Rosalina thing not girl in the Mario series needs to be a princess, just look at Toadette and Rosalina which at this point makes question why they gave Rosalina a crown since she’s just proctor of the cosmos and galaxy
Well, there is a fan theory that Rosalina is Princess Peach’s daughter from another reality. That would make her a princess.
Oh god not that horrible theory from game theory he didn’t even do research on the ealry interview see there was a beta Rosalina that look like peach but her hairstyle look like a bee hive, she was going to be related to peach but they scrap it because they wanted her to be different note why if you read her manual it says she’s the mystery girl of the Mario series that theory was dead since he came up with, the only characters in the series that have been canon to be related are Mario and Luigi=twin brothers, and peach and Daisy= cousins since mkwii and Mario party guide mention them as cousins a few times
The cycle of rebirth is a beautiful thing isn’t it. Not only on earth but beyond the cosmos as well.
I won’t confirm/deny anything but the clues are in the book.
There’s no way Rosalina is Peach’s daughter or even the other way around. If anything, Rosalina is one of Peach’s distant ancestors who is still young because of Einstein’s theory of relativity since she’s traveling around the universe at the speed of light all the time.
I’m not a princess…….
If you couldn’t tell that Tostarena was based on Mexico from the name alone and that its denizens are blatant Dia de los Muertos stereotypes, that’s your own fault. Coincidentally Dia de los Muertos is celebrated right around when Odyssey released (Nov. 1st through 3rd, if I recall correctly).
“…the Tostarena area was based on Mexico.”
https://whatshuang.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/You-Dont-Say-Meme.jpg
i feel so proud they decided to include a reference of my beloved Mexico.
So were the dancing, pancho wearing, maracca shaking dia de los muertos skeletons not enough or was that just over a lot of people’s heads?