Interview with Tetsuya Takahashi ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Profile Tetsuya Takahashi: Born in 1966. Supervising vice president of Monolith Software. (*) In charge of the script and direction. A genius that has the epic plot in his head. Created Xenosaga, a product whose full scope can't be seen as it's partway in development, with much difficulty along with founding of Monolith Software. In many ways you can think of it as an incomplete work. Has a strong interest in the areas of ideology, philosophy, religion, and indirectly cuts deep via entertainment aimed at problems facing individuals and society. As for forms of expression other than games, he desires to write novels. (*) http://www.monolithsoft.co.jp -------: There are countless things in Episode I that have a Christian motif. Was that intentional? Takahashi: As a child, in the middle of a meeting with the chief priest of a Buddhist temple near my home, I began having vague doubts myself on, "What is religion?" That's when I started having an interest in religion and I did research by reading various books. With religion there are many different denominations with many adherents. These people carry an ideological bias. The status quo is to ignore this bias, but ever since I was a student, I couldn't be satisfied with that response. I wanted to incorporate all those matters in this game. For this story I chose a large-scale motif of Christianity, the most ubiquitous religion. I thought that by choosing a Christian motif it would have historical weight and we would be able to mix in and blend anything associated with Christianity. -------: So with religion as a motif, that means the actual path of how religion came about is also a motif. Takahashi: I digested thoughts about those sorts of things and felt that I wanted to present those doubts I had as a child. I think there must be some young people who have the same kind of doubts, and this would be a part that they could respond to. -------: What do you think about the theme of life and death that flows through the foundation of Episode I? Takahashi: I think living in a certain way is a painful thing. First of all, establishing a compromise between the ego and alter ego is difficult. Accordingly, if there are people that are living, then there are people that choose death. Again, in contrast to a death that is vague...that is something you can only take at face value as a child, death gradually becomes something more familiar as you gain experience throughout life. Then the problem arises of how are you supposed to face that? I thought about it to myself, and wondered how others felt. I'm what you could call not very insistent regarding life, in that there's a part of me that doesn't care if I die. Especially when I was still single. Now, because I was able to start a family and have children, I can't just die anytime. Feelings about death can vary because of things like positions in society, individual ideologies, or your own surroundings. I thought it would be nice to give each character that part of "life and death" that exists in every person. -------: You're saying that each character is filled with one of your ideas about life and death. Takahashi: If there are people that are insistent about living, then starting from me, there are also people that will give up. I think there are different kinds of people, but I thought I should personify the characters with this. -------: Does that mean that the overall theme is how people compromise even while accepting death? Takahashi: It's certainly flowing through the game's foundation. -------: It can be said that if you understand reality then religion is a parody or a metaphor, but in the game if people who are familiar with movies and anime watch, they'll see it's laced with parodies. Was this an experiment under your direction? Takahashi: I, myself, put in religious parodies and metaphors that are difficult to see, and the parodies that you can see and understand I left to the staff. -------: I thought that you put in those visible parodies to let the player know that there are many metaphors in the game. Takahashi: No, if you do that too much, I think you'll actually get the opposite effect. There might be a message you want to get across, and I want to avoid having it hidden inside surface gameplay. That's something that my staff also understood about this project. -------: With this game, did you feel that there are any parts where your feelings come across to the player directly? Takahashi: On one hand, you can't always tell someone something just by saying it. You have to think about how the other person is feeling or else it won't come across. The many messages in the game are also reflections of my own life. Having said that, I am a selfish human being and when I'm creating I only say what I want to say. There's a part of me that detachedly watches myself and thinks, "Why do I always act like that?." With those thoughts of self-admonition in mind, I wrote the dialogue for the characters. Every day was a continuous succession of regrets. -------: In the game, there's a scene where Nephilim forces Shion to "look at herself," but in your actual life how do you look at yourself? Takahashi: The frankest way is to look back on your actions each and every day. Then you reflect on them. My daily emotional life is pretty intense. If you look at it a certain way it's a burden to be going to the office, working, and meeting with a lot people. There's a part of me I have to suppress. I will remember what happened today and confirm how I was supressing myself. Then, based on that, I'll think of how I'm going to handle it tomorrow. When you're doing this you're looking at yourself. -------: Do you write that stuff down and sort it out? Takahashi: No, it's all inside my head. I figure out what emotions I'm suppressing by looking at myself and coming to a conclusion. But usually, it's something you can't do in actual society. Even if it's something you can't do, you can always instead incorporate it into the story and the game. -------: Are there any characters that you think have an ideal compromise towards death? Takahashi: It depends on further story developments, but if I had to choose I think it would probably be Shion and Albedo. Albedo has thoughts about how to solve death and where one goes after death. They're emotions everyone has at one point. I hope people will have those thoughts again. I would be especially happy if younger players got that message. -------: What about Shion? Takahashi: With Shion, not everything has been revealed yet, but there is a part of her that tries too much. Perhaps later on, with the way she is, some sort of conclusion regarding her overdoing things will come about. Then the questions will be, how do the people around her react? Will she accept this conclusion? This is what I want to portray in the following games. -------: Will there be dramatic changes to the situations she's caught up in? Takahashi: At first glance, currently Shion's reasons for acting seem positive. But, they actually come from a very negative place. There's a reckless part of her that just continues on so that she can look away from reality and truth. I want to portray her looking back at herself doing this and wondering how she should live her life. -------: Seems like a lot of people will be able to relate. Takahashi: It's the same with me. I have this ideal of how carefree it would be to just ignore social matters and live like a child who doesn't think too deeply about things. I'm going to go off topic, but my family was always full of intense competitiveness. That's why I start to run away before I can realize it myself. Personally, I'm tired of running, but I'm always running before I know it. When I looked back at that, I realized there must be others thinking the same thing. So I wanted to put that into the game. I know that in real life, if Tetsuya Takahashi spoke directly to a bunch of young people they would never accept the message. So I use the story and the characters I've created to act as my spokespeople. -------: Do you think games are a good media to get those kinds of messages across? Takahashi: Being a sci-fi product exerts some influence, but there are things that even if you try to plan for you'll never be able to express. With games as a form of media, no matter where you set it you have to make towns and all the little accessories. With movies, for example, if it's based in present times you can just shoot on location. You end up doing annoying work with games. That's why I don't think it's a good medium for telling stories. I think it's better to call it a media for telling narrative things. Without a doubt, there are things you can't get across in a game. -------: What's the difference between a "story" and "narrative thing?" Takahashi: Take for instance, a novel. Even if there are 1500 pages of text, normally you will read it. However, if a game shows you 1500 pages of text, first of all, you wouldn't play it. With movies or visual mediums the audience is in a totally passive posture, right? A game is bidirectional so it's difficult to just show everything passively like a movie. So even as you're telling the story, there's a bare minimum of approaching it from the player's perspective. If you think about it like that, of course you have to call it a "narrative thing." {second half is in progress...} =============================================================================== Translated by quartet4. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. These translations, however, are owned by the individual translators. Please ask permission from the author before copying these translations for any purpose, other than your own private use.