Please tell us about your work on MOTHER 3.

Kakuta: MOTHER 3 is being developed by a joint team between Creatures Inc. and HAL Research Institute, and I am the director of the whole project.

Mitsuhara: I’m the chief of the programming team, but I’m also in charge of weapons, characters, and backgrounds.

What kind of games have you been involved in so far?

Kakuta: I was the project manager for Kirby 2 on the Game Boy.

Mitsuhara: I was in charge of the general player movement in MOTHER 2. 

Kakuta: Mitsuhara completed the English version of MOTHER 2 shortly after the Japanese version was released (we were all impressed). 

First of all, when did the development team at HAL first start working on MOTHER 3?

Kakuta: A very long time ago (laughs). We were doing a lot of experiments in preparation for MOTHER 3. 

What kind of things, for example?

Kakuta: Yeah. For example, if we made a slope on a stage, we’d put the characters on it to see if they would slide down. We’d try out various experiments on our computers. It’s a very slow process.

What do you keep in mind as you work on MOTHER 3 each day?

Mitsuhara: MOTHER 3 is a departure from typical RPGs, so I’m always looking for ways to incorporate new technology. 

What’s been the best thing about working on MOTHER 3 so far?

Kakuta: There are a lot of people involved in making MOTHER 3, and meeting them inspires me. But, the best part is that I get to know the story of MOTHER 3 before anyone else does. But it’s not all good, there are so many things I want to figure out and try with the 64DD, because “there’s nothing the N64 can’t do.” 

Mitsuhara: I think the good thing is that because of the N64DD hardware, I can now do things I had to give up on before. But on the other hand, there are so many new things to learn that it makes it difficult. But, we’ll try and fit in as much as we can this time, because after all, we still got a lot left to do with MOTHER 3!

Any last messages?

Kakuta: I’m confident that people who aren’t fans of video-games are probably going to enjoy it. 

Mitsuhara: We’re working hard, so please wait a little longer!