Tetsuya Mizuguchi interview

[07.10.01] » UGA's director talks about Rez and rhythm.

   Until a few years ago, Tetsuya Mizuguchi was largely known for his work on Sega Rally. But with the release of Space Channel 5 under his belt and the eye-catching Rez on the horizon, United Game Artists' director is quickly becoming synonymous with stylish and accessible rhythm games. Mizuguchi recently sat down with Dengenki Online to talk about the upcoming rhythm-shooter, and the always vigilant Video-Senki has translated the full interview.

   Perhaps the most interesting revelation from Mizuguchi is the evolution of the ideas behind Rez. The game started a desire to make shooters once more accessible to casual game players. Around the same time, the designer visited a music festival where 400,000 people were moving as one to an incredible combination of music and light. Mizuguchi "thought it'd be great if I could control all this music and light by myself."

   The move from basic concept to the game, which is currently 70% complete, took several years, however, and the long development cycle is partly responsible for Rez's unique look. "It was trial and error for a while," Says Mizuguchi. "I refused to put any graphics or music in because we were trying to see how much pure fun we could make the game before all of that." The austere, stripped-down graphics grew out of the game's early simplicity, but are partly meant as homage to the classic games that have inspired Mizuguchi. The end result is far more ambitious, however; Mizuguchi sees Rez as "a whole new way to play with images and sounds."

   For more on the evolution of Rez, and Mizuguchi's hopes for the final product, check out the full interview over at Video-Senki.