another year, another 20+ translated Japanese game developer interviews published by @shmuplations.bsky.social at shmuplations.com —the final updates for the year just went up, so allow me to run down what's been translated over the course of 2025, from most to least recent: (thread)

I think a lot about Hitoshi Akamatsu describing Castlevania (NES) as "cinematic", a word that kind of gets overused when talking about modern games, but it's true here. shmuplations.com/castlevania/

Some years ago I colored the Darius comic by Junji Yarita (and translated by @shmuplations.bsky.social ) download it here cherryshare.at/f/V8EuIr

Prophetic exchange between Shinya Tsukamoto and Hideo Kojima back in 1999. Death Stranding 2 in particular has plenty of scenes that are exactly what Tsukamoto is describing. shmuplations.com/kojimatsukam...

shmuplations.com/ghostinthesh... earliest historically attested "git gud"

obviously the Ninja Gaiden interview shmuplations translated is super interesting but I also feel compelled to point out they dropped this absolute banger at the same time shmuplations.com/namcomusic/

Holy shit. @shmuplations.bsky.social translated a massive thread of old tweets from Hideo Yoshizawa that goes deep into the NES Ninja Gaiden's development, including finally confirming the Castlevania influence shmuplations.com/ninjagaiden/

If you've never read these translated Breath of Fire III dev interviews by @shmuplations.bsky.social, you really owe it to yourself! shmuplations.com/breathoffire...

a long form researched article WITH COMMISSIONED ART in collaboration with shmuplations??? inject it directly into my veins

For the Shadow of the Colossus story, we interviewed 14 people including project leads Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido, hired Gravity Rush concept artist Takeshi Oga to illustrate the cover, and put together a 10,000-word story with help from @milkman.bsky.social @shmuplations.bsky.social and others.

Jumping Flash! fans rejoice! Another interview has appeared! Taken from Game Maestro Vol. 4, there's a lot of cool info from Mr. Morikawa's early career that really hasn't been discussed much around the English web. shmuplations.com/yukihitomori...

Oh, and I almost forgot, but we also added an extra message from producer Takahiro Kaneko to the Legend of Legaia interview from last month! shmuplations.com/legaia/

Finally, we have a nice Final Fantasy III DS interview from the FFIII Official Complete Guidebook. The team discusses the revamped character designs, job system, and difficulty level, while also touching on aspects of the original Famicom development. shmuplations.com/ff3ds/

Next up, a long-running patron request, we have a Ghost in the Shell roundtable interview from 1997 with the Exact and SCE teams. This one focuses on the gameplay and origins of the project, which was actually initiated by Masamune Shirow himself! shmuplations.com/ghostinthesh...

We have some great new translations this month! First up, an interview with MuuMuu director Yukihito Morikawa from 2000, in which he talks about his background as a CG artist and the making of his pioneering AI game for the PS1, Ganbare Morikawa-kun (Pet in TV). shmuplations.com/yukihitomori...

Interesting to note that GnG's director, Tokuro Fujiwara, has said that he came up with Red Arremer before Arthur when conceptualizing the series: shmuplations.com/makaimura/ So it would make sense to return to Firebrand, in a "full circle" kind of way!

Hideo Kojima and Shinya Tsukamoto discussing their feelings on Tokyo are vibes, man. shmuplations.com/kojimatsukam... Brilliant translation by @shmuplations.bsky.social

59 Game Developers in 1985 were asked 20 Questions in a questionnaire for Beep! magazine. The responses are cracking me up, you should check it out: shmuplations.com/20questions1...

the thing about having a 1.5yo daughter is you can't call in sick to play Silksong all day 😒

And for more of our recent translations (from May to July), check out this excellent summary thread by our editor/translator GSK!

And finally, we have another update to our pinball interview series, this time with Data East Pinball employee Masaya Horiguchi. It's a nice glimpse into Japan's pinball scene and the challenges faced by Sega and Data East as video games overtook the market. shmuplations.com/pinball/

Next up is a very special interview between Hideo Kojima and director Shinya Tsukamoto. I don't want to spoil the content but as a huge Tetsuo fan this was one of my favorites. If only that "Flying Tetsuo" collab Kojima jokes about had really come to pass... shmuplations.com/kojimatsukam...

First off we have a neat Legend of Legaia interview from 1998, covering the story/world design, the "fighting game" battle system, and the music. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only developer interview available for Legaia. shmuplations.com/legaia/

greetings all! been a bit remiss in the monthly updates lately (toddler life), but we've got a fresh crop of great translations to share today!

Holy shit this Shmupulations interview between Hideo Kojima and SHINYA TSUKAMOTO??? I'm blown away at them talking frankly about Bullet Ballet and MGS and The Matrix and gun violence and Alien 6, this is incredible stuff shmuplations.com/kojimatsukam...

If you’ve been enjoying my Shining Force III blog posts then Shmupulations has a real treat for you… A lengthy 1998 interview now translated into English! shmuplations.com/shiningforce...

shmuplations.com/archive/ every once in a while I stumble back onto shmuplations - it has such an awesome archive of interviews, if you're into retro gaming at all I really recommend going thru and seeing if there's any interviews about games you like

An interview about Ikaruga, one of my favourite games ever. It covers the early prototyping stages, design influences, and more. shmuplations.com/ikaruga/ Make sure to support @shmuplations.bsky.social, they do incredible work. #gamedev #retro #shmup

(those "issues" being shipping virtually nothing in the last 2+yrs) Mecha Ritz is one of my fav doujin STG of the last decade—icymi, dev HEY was interviewed by IGN Japan about the most recent revision, and you can read a translation here shmuplations.com/mecharitz/

catching up on @shmuplations.bsky.social updates from the last month or two… this interview with Sega's Akinori Nishiyama saw them answering user-submitted questions about Sonic Rush, covering their utilization of Nintendo DS hardware, the conception of Blaze & more shmuplations.com/sonicrush/

Reading Mario sunshine interviews. This one is funny - Yeah it feels like going on a vacation...to HELL!!! Sunshine's interesting bc you feel the creators confronting a lot of what Mario means to them and player, the result being messy but quite interesting at times shmuplations.com/mariosunshine/

Born January 27th, 1956 in Shizuoka, Japan, Ohnogi Nobuyuki composed the music for many early Namco titles, starting with Rally-X's high score music, before moving onto bigger titles like Galaga and Mappy, the latter of which he actually designed the bonus stages of!

Omg, what a relief. I was praying something like this might happen. The forced switch to monthly billing was really going to screw us (especially now that I'm juggling translation work and full-time childcare)

Been reading lots of old translated japanese game developer interviews on shmuplations (shmuplations.com/archive/), they have interviews with shmup developers but also with a lot of people who worked on stuff like kirby and ace attorney and the original armored core. Worth a read!

And finally, we translated a short Seiken Densetsu interview with Koichi Ishii, conducted in 2005 to celebrate its 15th anniversary. Seiken fans will love this one as he touches on the themes of melancholy and sadness which defined the series from the very start. shmuplations.com/seikendenset...

We also did a couple short pieces to round things out: here is a small Ape Escape 2 interview with director Naoto Ohta and designer Toshiyuki Yonekura. It's a quick read that mainly contrasts and explains the differences with the first game. shmuplations.com/apeescape/

Next up, and my personal favorite of the month, is this series of "relay essays" from eight Sega developers in 1991. Featuring several Phantasy Star alums like Rieko Kodama, Toru Yoshida, and Toyonaka Ozaki, it's a very fun read with interesting tidbits throughout. shmuplations.com/segarelay/

Just uploaded our translations for April! First off, we have an in-depth interview with Yuji Naka from 2000, in which he discusses his otaku origins and the making of Girl's Garden, Phantasy Star, and Sonic. shmuplations.com/yujinaka/

One of our more impressive and complete collections, all thanks to the patronage of @aresarcadia.bsky.social btw!

there is 0 chance they would ever say this about mario even 5 years later, a fascinating insight

Square Enix, Sega, Taito and Capcom commit to "archiving past (game) development materials". "These materials are important for accurately documenting the history of Japanese games" www.gamesindustry.biz/square-enix-...

1997 Bushido Blade interview, motion capture suits! Idea began with "one hit win" "run freely into background", inspirations include surprises like "Knightly (western) code of chivalry" "Streets of Fire sledgehammer duel!" shmuplations.com/bushidoblade/

Finally, we have a vintage Street Fighter interview from 1987! The conversation includes comments on the character design, their inspirations, and the challenges of creating the unique pneumatic-button cabinet. shmuplations.com/streetfighter/

Next, we have the second half of the long Mario Kart: Double Dash interview we published last month. This part focuses on the item and character design, with some enthused comments about the LAN features at the end. shmuplations.com/doubledash/

This week we have three new translations to share! First up, a Metal Slug 2 interview from 1998 with planners Akio Oyabu and Meeher. They discuss the differences between MS2 and the first game, as well as various aspects of the character and stage design. shmuplations.com/metalslug2/

Thank you for the heads up @zeether.bsky.social and thanks to @shmuplations.bsky.social for translating it! This is so funny. The creators of Gradius were inspired by the Lensman anime, but NOT its story... the way they drew plasma and lasers!

Losing my mind learning about "After Burner Panic," an event held by Sega's sound team before the SST Band was formed that was apparently so terrible that Katsuhiro Hayashi started dancing to serve as entertainment The final song wouldn't even start correctly so they played Christmas music instead

Gentle reminder: My work on VGDensetsu, the database, the articles, all the research I do and everything I post here is the equivalent of a full-time job in terms of working hours. You can support me via Patreon or Ko-fi or simply by sharing my work. www.patreon.com/c/vgdensetsu ko-fi.com/vgdensetsu

The Takenobu Mitsuyoshi interview is now online! A sincere thank you to Mitsuyoshi-san for agreeing to speak with me, to SamIAm for facilitating the conversation and translating the interview, to Korimaru for connecting me with SEGA, and Burntends for connecting me with Kori. youtu.be/fQoZG4DgJSM