Yoshi and the Mysterious Book originally started life on the Nintendo Switch before transferring over to the more powerful Nintendo Switch 2 console. The game’s senior producer Etsunobu Ebisu, director Masahiro Yamamoto, and producer Hisashi Nogami, spoke to Nintendo Dream about the benefits of developing the game with all the bells and whistles that the Nintendo Switch 2 brings to the table ensuring their initial vision was fully realised on the more powerful hardware.
During development, the game was changed to release on the Nintendo Switch 2. Were there any changes to the way that the creatures were made?
Yamamoto: No, I don’t think our way of thinking changed that much. But it was helpful to be able to realize the things we wanted to do due to the increase in performance.
Nogami: For creatures that continually increase in numbers like the Scatterpuffs, I wondered if the Switch was going to be okay… but for the Switch 2 they could increase over and over again (laughs).
So overall you believe you made it ‘feel good’?
Yamamoto: Yeah. We were able to do things such as make graphics that feel more inline with the style of an encyclopedia, and being able to largely remove the limit on the numbers of individual creatures. Therefore more than when we were making it for the Switch it was easier to realize the game in line with our concept.
Nogami: We really worked hard on the graphics, and as such I feel the world of the encyclopedia really came across. I think that was one of the blessings of the Switch 2. And then… Good Feel jokingly said that it was a specialty of theirs to make big things appear.
Yamamoto: We often have that said to us. We have requests that people want to be surprised more.
Ebisu: Yeah, if we’re ever unsure, let’s just create something big. (laughs)
That’s what I call impact! (laughs)
Yamamoto: Of course, it’s not just as simple as making it look big. Thudd is a big creature and therefore can do things like swallow Yoshi and inhale water, and the Switch 2 made it easier to demonstrate the kind of surprise only possible with sheer size.