We posted earlier this week about TriCEVEN's experience at Fan Expo and getting to meet Street Fighter IV's Yoshinori Ono, but oviously, not everyone could make it out to Toronto. Thanks to Capcom Unity member Toshin and the fine folks at Udon, we can now direct you towards video of the panel that was recorded by a dedicated fan. The entire panel is 5 videos long (all linked on Udon's site) so be sure to watch all of it for the complete Ono-san experience.
A short summary of the more interesting parts:
pkt- His reason for joining Capcom? To get all the chicks, of course!
- They were working on SF Alpha, and the management figured that it'd need to be released on CPS1 instead of the previously planned CPS2. They had two months for the transition. Super happy crunch time ensues, they didn't even get to go home for that two months. "What sort of dream team is this?!", he wondered.
- Later he go to work on SF3, a game which was intended to be the ultimate SF game - in terms of graphics, sound, balance. The game comes out, fans love it, so Capcom figures they really did make the ultimate Street Fighter. Which is also why they saw a sequel as pointless, because you can't improve on perfection.
- More fan support for SF4 would be nice, because 66% of Capcom is still against the idea of continuing with the series.
- What does a lead producer do? Ensure the game makes money. He considers himself more of a game creator, though, so his approach is to create games people love and will want to play for a long time. If you think that changed and he's purely in it for the money, send your hatemail to Capcom USA, as he's sure that it'll be the evil managers there that'll convert him to the dark side.
Q&A follows:
Q: Are SF4 balance patches planned, now that even XBLA/PSN can do stuff like that?
A: They released the Championship Mode patch in Spring, and that was basically the extent of their development budget. So, it'll become a possibility if/when they'll get some more money. The requests for patches have reached Capcom USA, though, and he's confident that they'll open their vault.
Q: Is there going to be another Onimusha?
A: [Ono asks whether Onimusha is still a viable product in North America. Mixed reaction from the crowd. He then asks whether he should be working on a new SF instead. Applause. Consider the question answered.]
Q: Why didn't they use the superior GGPO as their netcode?
A: Capcom folks looked at it, considered it too [translator looks puzzled at this part] process intensive, decided not to use it.
Q: How come DeeJay and T.Hawk got kicked out?
A: He says that's a question that's very difficult to answer... at this point in time. Basically, SF4 was supposed to be like a big get-together, and their invitation letters got lost in the mail.
Q: How do they come up with original moves for the characters?
A: They take the lowest ranking staff members and beat them to a pulp. Whatever hurts the most, goes in the game.
Q: What'd he like to do in the next iteration of SF4?
A: He'd like to bring back some SF3 chars. But before that, he'll need some funding, so if anyone happens to be an elite safecracker, let him know. [note: how confident is he about Capcom USA opening their vault, exactly?]
Q: Was there a time he doubted that they could surpass SF3?
A: They weren't explicitly trying to do that, they simply intended to bring back the old SF2/A players.
Q: Favourite Street Fighter game/character?
A: SF2 Dash/Championship Edition. Because it turned out you could actually beat Bison (Dictator) with Honda. Most played character is Ryu, favourite is Dhalsim.
05:11 PM CST