Special Interview Project #3: The Most Powerful Duo who were also Rumored to be in Love: Daisuke Uchiyama x Hiroshi Matsuyama. (.hack//20th Anniversary Book TRANSLATION)
Please read this before you start reading: This is a medium-translation level, which is not a much higher standard level than how it was translated, especially how this translation uses translators and adds a few edits to match English viewers' understanding, but hoping this would help viewers to understand what contents and information based on it mean. If any translator is willing to help me with corrections I would be glad and appreciate their contribution and their help.
Disclaimer: The following article is a non-profit fan translation, all .hack title series are owned by CyberConnect 2 and Bandai Namco Entertainment, please buy .hack//20th Anniversary Book and support the official release!!!. You can buy it on Amazon or any online store.
.hack//20th Anniversary Book -Interview-
(P.132-135)
Special Interview Project #3
Listen to President Matsuyama
The most powerful duo, also rumored to be in love: ".hack" producers Uchiyama x Matsuyama
INTRODUCTION: ENCOUNTER
CHAPTER 1: Sudden Reunion with a [*BEEP*]Matsuyama: Tail Concerto, Silent Bomber, and .hack have all been on the market for about a year and a half, and in every title, there have been at least two changes in who's in charge at Namco Bandai Games. After one production, they finally get used to each other and say, "We'll do it better next time." And what's next? Like, "Oh, my God, next time I'm in charge!"
Uchiyama: You son of a... (Laughs)
Matsuyama: Nowadays, Uchiyama-san is the president of Bandai Namco Studio, but when he worked at the Higashi-Nakano building, he was a cocky-looking older brother with brown hair, a cap, T-shirt, and short pants.
Uchiyama: We were not allowed to enter the head office, so we had to go to Higashi-Nakano to do our own thing.
Matsuyama: By the way, there was a sign inside the company that said, "Don't wear such an outfit", but I was wearing exactly the same outfit!
Uchiyama: You know, I was young at the time (laughs). Unozawa-san also believed that the quality of the game would not be affected by one's clothes.
Matsuyama: That's how Treasure Hacker, the predecessor to .hack, got started. I would come to the office from Hakata (*in Fukuoka) every other week or so and explain to Uchiyama-san again, "I'm currently working on this project with my predecessor."
Uchiyama: Yeah, yeah (laughs).
Matsuyama: “Let's see. The title of the game is impossible. The fact that it is set in an online game is too complicated. I have no idea what we're trying to do. So, basically, we're going to have to redo the whole thing, so we're going to take a shot at it.“
Uchiyama: What? Did I say that? I said that!
Matsuyama: Yes! It's all you! I was surprised to hear the word [*BEEP*] come up in the meeting (laughs).
Uchiyama: Well, it was those days. But I think I said it a lot after that!
Matsuyama: I've been told that many times!
Both: Woo hoo hoo ~~~.
Matsuyama: In Tail Concerto and Silent Bomber, we had a Producer from an older project with a certain amount of experience, but this time, he was a dapper guy the first time we met, and the next time, he was in T-shirts and shorts for a meeting. He was cocky to look at, but I knew I could get into a proper fight with him.
Uchiyama: You thought so!
Matsuyama: Because we had opposite ideas, we were able to produce the game while discussing our opinions and building a mutual understanding. After the discussion, the unnecessary things were eliminated from .hack, and the sharp edges were sharp and balanced.
Uchiyama: Maybe so. The game also clearly shows the strange chemistry between the two. It was nice to be able to say whatever we wanted without worrying about the client/developer relationship.
Matsuyama: This was my first experience with CyberConnect2. Until then, I had always received compliments on everything I made, and now, on my third project, I'm getting this much praise! What?
Uchiyama: Oh, I see... (laughs).
CHAPTER 2: Naming DifficultiesMatsuyama: But now that I think about it, I'm really glad we didn't title it "Treasure Hacker."
Uchiyama: It was a close call. We really couldn't come up with a name for the title, so we decided to apply for trademark registration of "Treasure Hacker (tentative)" for the time being.
Matsuyama: Yes, that's right. So when we were thinking about the title .hack, we had a lot of ideas on the planning room whiteboard, and we finally decided to use a title that people would not know how to read. That way, when people see the title, they will be interested and ask, "How do you read this title?" This would allow us to start sales talks explaining the game to them. I'm not sure how they came up with the .hack title, but it was a good idea.
Uchiyama: Indeed.
Matsuyama: That wasn't the only problem with the .hack name. When we started expanding overseas, the .hack logo had a hexagonal dot in it, but English speakers did not recognize it as a dot. "The hexagon is a hexagon," he said. They asked me to put "DOT" inside the hexagon, and as a result, the logo was different from the Japanese version.
Uchiyama: Since this was an original work, we had to come up with the character names and titles from scratch, so we focused on the need to create a noisy name that would leave some kind of memory when it reaches the customer's hands. I remember we never had a title like "Something Crow".
CHAPTER 3: Weekly RelationshipMatsuyama: Ah, that's Moon Crow. It was an action game starring a thief dressed in a crow-like costume. However, there were only 18 employees at the time, so we did not have enough manpower to create an action game.
Uchiyama: Yes, CyberConnect2's office was amazing back then. We didn't have an OA floor (*1).
Matsuyama: Just like in the TV anime AKIRA, there were cords exposed all over the floor.
Uchiyama: I used to go to such places every week.
Matsuyama: The funny thing was that they would come in and say, "I'm coming for a meeting," but then they would try to leave on a day trip without even making a reservation at an inn. So they start the meeting by saying, "I can't go home until it is decided," and as expected, the meeting doesn't end even after half a day and they end up staying in Hakata.
Uchiyama: While looking at the timetable of the next day's flight, he said, "Oh, no... another delayed today." I still remember that we went back to the hotel in front of the station for 4,000 yen per room.
Matsuyama: Now that building has been reconstructed and is now an 8,000 yen per night hotel.
Uchiyama: No, I don't believe that. The place where that hotel used to be is not such a place. There were pink flyers posted all over the place by the guardrail.

Weekly Famitsu June 17, 2005 issue "Urgent news report on .hack//G.U." Here is an interview with the two of them when their love affair was discovered.
CHAPTER 4: And then, a Passionate love affair is discoveredMatsuyama: Do you remember when we were having a game planning meeting with Uchiyama-san and Kazunori Ito-san on-site at the time, and Unozawa-san suddenly came in and asked us, "What was the best-selling movie when the PlayStation 2 was released?" Do you remember this question?
Uchiyama: Oh, the Matrix movie?
Matsuyama: That's right. Do you remember Unozawa-san's suggestion that .hack should be a two-disc set of games and anime since many people have learned to watch movies and animation on game consoles?
Uchiyama: Suddenly, there was talk about doing .hack as a game and intertwining it with some kind of animation. He said, "Your Highness is disturbed." I was shouting in my mind, "Be with each other, you two!"
Matsuyama: So we were working on a two-disc set, game, and animation, when suddenly Mr. Unozawa came into the room one day and said, "In order to sell for a long time, I think you have to do promotions over a long period of time. You are currently working on an RPG that will take about 80 hours to play. "Let's sell it as four consecutive titles."
Uchiyama: "Lord is disturbed again."
Matsuyama: In the end, it became a four-part series. Of course, the OVA (.hack//Liminality) was also changed to a four-part series. I thought it was absurd at the time. So we were discussing and making adjustments with Mr. Ito who was producing the scenario, and then Unozawa-san came in again and said, "We have already decided on the TV Anime."
Uchiyama: (laughs).
Matsuyama: Of course, the animation studio would do the TV Anime, but we had to be in charge of generating stories, etc. We had a crazy schedule of working on the anime while making the game. The same was true for the manga and novels as well. Unozawa-san was involved, and we just did what we could do.
Uchiyama: Unozawa-san gave us a great opportunity at that time. So, in order to live up to the expectations, I worked with Hiroshi and Kazunori Ito, Michiko Yokote and Reiko Yorizumi, and although each piece was fun and complete on its own, in the end, it made me want to play games. That's why the idea that we were dating surfaced on the Internet boards at the time since we were always together so much.
Matsuyama: (laughs). Because we were always together.
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Weekly Famitsu June 17, 2005 issue "Urgent news report on .hack//G.U." Here is an interview with the two of them when their love affair was discovered. |
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