A newly translated interview (originally posted in Japanese by Den Fami Nico Gamer) about Fighting EX Layer has been released on #JPFGC, featuring Nishitana and Harada. This interview is massive, including going back to talk about Nishitana’s design decisions on Street Fighter 2 and plenty more about the fighting game genre. If you have a love for the fighting game genre and a decent chunk of free time, this interview is full of interesting bits and is well worth a read.
One of the more interesting subjects in the lengthy article involves Tekken producer Katshuhiro Harada’s involvement in Fighting EX Layer. For example, it may only have been Harada’s comment that got Skullomania into the upcoming fighting title in the first place: Nishitani: […] Even though Harada was telling us how popular Skullomania was, we always thought of him as a sort of ?joke character? who played a minor role.
But when we went overseas and set up the playable demo without Skullomania in it, person after person who came to the booth would ask, ?Is Skullomania going to be in this"? and I realized how popular he really was.
Harada: They also don?t see him as a serious character, you know" But he has a heroic sense to him. The interesting thing about the reaction at EVO was that usually an audience?s excitement will peak about 20 to 30 seconds after the trailer starts, but once Skullomania appeared on screen everyone?s excitement levels suddenly went to MAX. ...