Interview between Miura and Persona's developers (Part 4)

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3


Hashino: At around what age did it happen?

Miura:  Around my early twenties. I think it was just around the time when the Super Famicom came out. I bought a new one, as well as a Mega Drive that had come out before it.

Mori Kouji-kun, a fellow mangaka, came to play at my house, for which I bought action games for two people that I could play with him. "Mario Kart" for example. And on the Mega Drive: "Streets of Rage", "Alien Storm" and "Forgotten Worlds"…

Hashino: "Golden Axe"…

Miura:  Right. These kinds of action games the two of us could play together caused me to play games little by little. As for a game that I could play alone calmly, it's "Zelda" on the Super Famicom. With this, I got to think "games are great" for the first time (in my life).

──  "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past", I see. When you played this game, around what part did you get to think it's "great"?

Miura: There are puzzle elements and riddles to be solved in addition (to the rest). It's made so we're able to get out of them just when we get to think "I can't handle it anymore!". I found the balance of those parts to be really awesome. It was because games from the dawn (of the  medium), that had come out until then, were too difficult… like "Ghosts 'n Goblins". *laughs*

I had an assistant who could run through "Ghosts 'n Goblins" two or three times (in a row). I just watched him play, sitting at his side. In short, I'm just an ordinary person so I can't play as marvelously as those who devoted their youth to games.

I think I was absorbed in (Zelda) because ordinary people can clear these parts at just the right moment so that they can feel good while under stress. Maybe it's what we call "Game Balance", but I don't know about that well.