Kojima Boktai Interview

[Johnny Nighttrain]

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo, we talked briefly with Hideo Kojima, famed designer of the Metal Gear Solid series and the upcoming action adventure, Boktai for the Game Boy Advance. Boktai is the first game to harness the power of the sun, utilizing a special, in-cartridge sensor. Mr. Kojima was kind enough to answer some of our questions on the project.
IGNpocket: Where did the idea for Boktai come from? Did you see the light sensor technology first and say "Wow, this would make a great game!" Or did the game idea come first?

Hideo Kojima: It wasn't technology first. I wanted to create a game that involved sunlight, and with the Game Boy Advance you can carry it outside, and there are no other games that involve sunlight. And I love the theme of Dracula and vampires, I've always wanted to come up with a game that players can fight vampires. It was a lot of different ideas that came together, and I thought, why don't I create a game that involves fighting vampires with sunlight? But I didn't know if it was technically possible, and I didn't know how much it would be if I could do this because it might be too expensive with the GBA ROM and having a specialized cartridge. There's a division within Konami that makes specialized toys that have odor sensors and humidity sensors, and they're pretty cheap. And when I was creating Metal Gear Solid 2, I asked them if it was possible to come up with a solar sensor. And when I knew that it was possible, that's when I said "We're going to do this."

IGNpocket: Is the sensor analog or does it just sense sunlight regardless of how much is actually around?

Kojima: It's not an on-off sensor, it can sense just a little sunlight or a lot. It doesn't sense artificial light.

IGNpocket: That covers my next question. Have testers tried to "trick" the sensor with light other than from the sun?

Kojima: No, we never tried it because we know that it won't work. Nintendo actually asked us, "why don't you have the sensor detect any light?" and that pretty much defeats the concept. With artificial light we have total control...we can turn it on and off whenever we want. The great thing about this concept is that we have no control over sunlight. It might be raining, or it's cloudy, or it's night time...you always think about the sun in this game. It's this thing that you have no control over that gives the game its depth.

IGNpocket: Have any other companies approached you to use the sunlight sensor idea in other Game Boy Advance projects?

Kojima: Actually, no. I'd love to see games like a solar Pokemon game or a solar Mega Man, though.

IGNpocket: Thanks for your time, Mr. Kojima.

i wonder what his idea's for a solar Mega Man are.

[Johnny Undaunted]

Hmmm! Will there be any Belmonts involved in this game?

[Andy]

This game looks quite good, I just hope you're not forced to go out looking for sunlight to actually advance in the game, or are only able to do good when it's sunny or whatever. That'd suck.

[Green]

I wonder what the US name of this game will be. What does Boktai translate to, anyways?

[Yamcha]

Huh, I thought you could just hold it under a lamp or something if you're too lazy too go outside or if you're playing at night. Interesting. It'll be odd to be sitting in my backyard playing this game.

Boktai = short for Boku no Taiyou = My Sun

Edit: Oops, as pointed out further down, it's "bokura", meaning "our".

[sggg]

Originally posted by Green
I wonder what the US name of this game will be. What does Boktai translate to, anyways?

I think that Boktai will be the title in NA (all regions). This title screen includes "Boktai" as well as the subtitle in English.. so that's my thinking anyway:

[Diff-chan]

I wonder what the US name of this game will be. What does Boktai translate to, anyways?

Well... there's no "k" in the Japanese language that stands alone like that... so my guess is that the word is meaningless gibberish. Seriously. Bokutai, yes, but not boktai.

[Radd Spencer]

Yamcha,
so did I. At the Konami booth last week, a GBA SP with Boktai cart was in a glass display case and illuminated by some light bulbs. However, I did not investigate to see if the solar meter on the screen was full or empty (or even if the game was in-play...). Maybe if you just use regular (hot) light bulbs you can trick it to an extent.

Andy,
according to the demonstration, you need the sun in order to beat the bosses. Being a vampire hunter, you foes are vampires. The demo also shows the hero dragging a vampire coffin through the vampire's castle to the outside (actually looked pretty cool). Once outside, you need to place the coffin in a prearranged spot, and then let the sun pound on the sensor. Four large mirrors appear around the coffin each bouncing solor rays directly at the enemy. The vampire tries to fight it off by deflecting the mirror angles, but if you can keep the four concentrated on him long enough, you'll win. I do believe you can fight the boss inside the castle, with the vampire teleporting around the room, etc.. It just might end up being frustratingly hard. One funny thing I noticed was that if you let the coffin sit outside it'll start to slowly inch it's way back to the front door.

The game, and demonstration were cool, but kind of left me with a bit of shamefulness at the same time. Comments during the demo such as "why not go outside?", or "outside-- this is different" almost sounded like the demo was making fun of all gamers everywhere to some degree. Pretty nice idea and execution from what I gathered.

[Yoshi]

Has anyone actually seen the cartridge this will use? Where is the light sensor?

Also, the fact that this game will lose out on features on the GB Player makes it much, much less attractive to me. Video games do not set my schedule. They just fill in the gaps.

[Johnny Undaunted]

Originally posted by diffusionx
Well... there's no "k" in the Japanese language that stands alone like that... so my guess is that the word is meaningless gibberish. Seriously. Bokutai, yes, but not boktai.

Actually, Boktai is derived from Bokutai, which is the abbreviated title in Japan (kinda like Suto, Dabudora and Dorakue). The full Japanese title as mentioned above is Bokura no Taiyou (Our Sun). I have no idea why they're pulling a Pokemon and are using the Japanese nickname for the US title.

Originally posted by Yoshi
Has anyone actually seen the cartridge this will use? Where is the light sensor?

It's on the topside of the cart. It's very small actually and barely covers the cart.

From an old GamePro article: