An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono - Kotaku Comments

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

SuperMekman — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:57:14 MST

I love the non-yaoi designs "either..." Hey look! That new Able character! Is he like the "Blue-Eyes-White-devil... erm "Dragon." I mean, or Super Saiyan (S.S. for short) Oh Capcom you kidder, we Love your slant...

SuperMekman

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Scott_L — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:04:19 MST

DO NOT mention killer instinct. Thank you.

Scott_L

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

thisbeatisbadass — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:12:55 MST

T.Hawk... brother of Chief Thunder from Killer instinct

thisbeatisbadass

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

silentbobfan — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:07:39 MST

@Pombar: I believe we are conformists. I know I play as Chun-Li because I have chunky thighs and she's the only character that can identify with my pain.

silentbobfan

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

SuperMekman — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:39:46 MST

@Siye:

Oh... well... alright then...

SuperMekman

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Siye — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:19:30 MST

@SuperMekman:
That's great but can I play as a Korean?

Dude... you just said it right there. If SFIV has a Korean charcater.. that's just.. well, I couldn't ask for anything more.

Siye

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

SuperMekman — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:09:24 MST

@Vydas:

Capcom's overall style has never been about subtlety... :P (check Strider and exploding Hitler heads and Captain Commando arcade games...)

SuperMekman

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Vydas — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:06:04 MST

Oh man, I forgot about T.Hawk. Truly the pinnacle of Capcom's 2-d characer design.

Has there ever been a greater fusion of subtle grace, tough guy aesthetics, ethnic sensitivity, and pure coolness?

I'm still dreaming of that epic T.Hawk action RPG. Who needs Resident Evil 5, when we can have T.Hawk dive bombing Mexicans in brightly colored ponchos and sombreros, leveling up his stats and skill points?

Vydas

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

transmorpher — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:25:05 MST

You may not believe me, but I am actually the translator pictured in the video and assistant producer on SFIV (Crecente can back me up on this if he chooses - my initials are D.C. and we had a conversation about the official blog and Kotaku posts regarding it).

Anyway, thanks to everyone who complimented my skillz! There are indeed edits here and there to make everything flow more smoothly, but the only "delays" that occured were from my waiting for Ono-san to finish talking before jumping in with the English (or, conversely, waiting for Crecente to finish his question before relaying that info to Ono-san in Japanese). The speed comes from both studying my ass off for over a decade and from working closely with Ono-san for a long time. He has always been good at giving interviews, which makes him a pleasure to translate for.

Thanks again!!!

transmorpher

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

lucasreis — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:01:51 MST

@Pombar:
I play as Blanka because I´m brazilian and I´m also a green monster with orange hairy chest! lol! :D

lucasreis

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

thisbeatisbadass — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:41:21 MST

@Recoil: I said the same thing at first, but after you start playing the game more and more, you start to appreciate them.

thisbeatisbadass

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Witzbold — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:28:41 MST

I so want to play this game more. D:

Abel = best character ever so far.

Witzbold

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Bando — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:22:12 MST

@zanzibarlegend:

SHOE ON HEAD! SHOE ON HEAD!

@UmeShoryu:

Sakura was moe O_o

She seemed a little to spunky, butch, and LOUD to be anything near moe.

Now scary, funny? Maybe... maybe...

@Brian Crecente:

I take it no T. Hawk this time around :(

Wait, WHA, Q MA BOII!!!!! WHERE Q? YOU DIDN'T ASK HIM BOUT Q!

Bando

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

SuperMekman — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:09:18 MST

@Pombar:

That's great but can I play as a Korean?

SuperMekman

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

huph — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:03:52 MST

@ Video 3:46

Like when SFA3 came out? I always thought that game was an outstanding love letter to the die hard fans. I believe it had every SF character that had been introduced at the time. Plus they added in a complex juggling system, and allowed different versions of each character beyond the regular "How the meter charges" differences.

And then you had the Dreamcast version with the two player dramatic battle mode. Good night!

huph

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

IconYu — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:58:29 MST

@Starplate:

Your English seems just fine. :P

IconYu

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Starplate — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:31:09 MST

So Crimson Viper's design was something tailored for the US audience? ugh.. i think they should've done their research on her aestetics. But with that said, I've seen her move sets and their slick. Very SNK style as well

That translator is awesome. I want to speak fluent like him :D

Starplate

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Wapanese — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:19:16 MST

Err, hasn't editing happened to take out the pauses that the interpreter might have done between phrases and stuff?
Either way, what I wouldn't give to be that interpreter...

Wapanese

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Jandlecack — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:57:43 MST

@Recoil: Me neither...

Jandlecack

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Video — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:46:10 MST

I hope some year they make a Street fighter Dream Match with all the Street Fighter Characters from all the Street Fighter games....

In total there will be 85 Characters including the two new ones Abel and Crimson Viper....

Anyways, I am waiting to try out this game!!!!

Video

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Moonchilde — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:09:21 MST

@Brian Crecente: As if both of them could fit into anything. Imagine sitting next to them on a Japanese subway train.

Moonchilde

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Recoil — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:32:03 MST

I think Abel really looks like an old school Street Fighter character. Simple, classic Capcom design. More of that, please! I never really cared for the freaks in SF3.

Recoil

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

zanzibarlegend — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:18:43 MST

@Brian Crecente: ama con-fused, u no likey abel?
{X_^}

zanzibarlegend

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Brian Crecente — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:02:54 MST

@Vydas: Yeah, he fits in... right next to T. Hawk. ;)

Brian Crecente

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Gladman — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:55:40 MST

Best...translator...EVER!!!!

Gladman

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Vydas — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:49:18 MST

Crecente: Abel doesn't fit in with the guys from Street Fighter2?

A big, muscular guy in a gi top with fingerless gloves and shin guards? He's fits in exactly with the style of Street Fighter 2, which predominantly featured martial artists fighting in their traditional attire.

Ken and Ryu for karate, Sagat for Muay Thai, Balrog for boxing, E.Honda for sumo, Zangief pro wrestling, and Abel for MMA, with a gi top to add some detail. Fits perfectly.

Vydas

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Moonchilde — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:44:25 MST

@StupidDufus: Yep! Except in this case, Ono's game really is SO awesome.

@Siye: I really never could get into playing as Chun-Li. Lots of high tier players love her, but shes just not my thing. I like Blanka, Honda, and the Shotos.

Moonchilde

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

StupidDufus — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:35:22 MST

@Recoil:
Some translators take notes as the speaker speaks and use those as reference points. Miyamoto's translator in America (I forget his name) does this sometimes.

@Moonchilde:
Could you be referencing this?

StupidDufus

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Siye — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:31:46 MST

Meh... Chun Li is alright.. but Blanka just bleeds awesome.

Siye

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Fallback — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:31:22 MST

Good job Crecente!

Fallback

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Recoil — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:23:36 MST

That translator is INSANE. How can he keep up with Ono so well? How does he DO it? If that was me I would have to wait 'til he finished his sentence before I gave my translation, but with my terrible memory I probably would've forgotten 70% of what he said :P

Recoil

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Moonchilde — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:17:07 MST

@Siye: Whats wrong with you? You ought to be using Chun-Li exclusive.

Joking aside, I like Blanka a lot. They're suping him up a bit for SSF2T:HD, which I think will over power him a bit.

Moonchilde

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

zanzibarlegend — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:13:46 MST

@UmeShoryu: C.Viper rules! i'll take her over sakura any day of the week. watching the vids have made me a fan. can't wait to bust ass and take names with her. :D

zanzibarlegend

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Shin-Kaiser — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:12:42 MST

That was excellent, Thanks Kotaku, You are most certainly the best(.^_-.)

It was good to hear his explanation on Chun Li and Crimson Viper. Though he didn't give any indication there would be more new characters, is the current bunch all we get?

Shin-Kaiser

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

zanzibarlegend — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:11:28 MST

@Siye hopefully you're not green and hairy, it would be hard to bring you home to mom! j/k {^_^}... ok ok im done!

zanzibarlegend

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

UmeShoryu — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:08:49 MST

Thank You Capcom USA for asking for a character like Viper and not for Moe, ie. Schoolgirls aka Sakura.

UmeShoryu

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Krondonian — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:07:36 MST

The way Ono uses gestures is just great, and gives me a lot of faith that he's really passionate about what he's doing. I don't have the probem of super nostalgia, Street Fighter II was before my time, so I'm really looking forward to IV. The graphics and depth look great so far. I dig that art style.

Krondonian

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

sonofnone — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:02:23 MST

@Shinamano: Yeah, and what about Ryu too?

Great interview. It's funny that Capcom US were the instigators of Crimson Viper's look - I wonder how they feel about the result since she seems pretty Japanese (albeit modern) looking to me.

sonofnone

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

jinpei05 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:56:51 MST

@Siye: A really cool Asian gurl who likes to play fighting games and someone I hope to pit my skillz against when this game arrives...

jinpei05

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Siye — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:51:49 MST

@Pombar: Uh no... as an Asian female my favourite character is Blanka. What does that make me?

Siye

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

zanzibarlegend — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:50:30 MST

Ono-San rules. i really feel like he gets the whole tradition of the franchise, adding extras without breaking a solid framework. this game beat SC4 as my most anticipated fighting game to play for 08.(provided it comes to consoles by 08 :)
although in the meantime SCIV will hold down my fighting game needs till then :D

zanzibarlegend

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Moonchilde — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:49:28 MST

@Moonchilde: Oh man, that should be Crecente asking the question, not Mark. Way to ruin it :(

Moonchilde

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Moonchilde — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:47:10 MST

@Mark Wilson: "(like, how awesome will SFIV be, kinda super awesome, or really super awesome?)."

I kind of imagine it playing out like this

Mark Wilson: Just how awesome is your game?
Yoshinori Ono: SO awesome.

Anyway, I can't wait for this. I'm highly anticipating this game and can't wait to play it. Hopefully, the online play is great. I loathe Kaillera and want to finally play some good matches with people.

Moonchilde

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

jinpei05 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:43:47 MST

@ExistentialEgg: Yeah, it's coming to home systems.

jinpei05

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

nxp3 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:43:01 MST

Look like Crecente did his homework and asked the questions that some of us were concern with...don't know if I like the answers though.

nxp3

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

nxp3 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:40:07 MST

Damn that translater is fast...very impressive.

nxp3

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

ExistentialEgg — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:40:03 MST

@skink & @Virgil Tibbs

i'm confused... I thought this was only coming out for japanese arcades... has it been confirmed for consoles? I've been thinking of buying a fighter recently. If this is coming to the 360 maybe I'll just wait a bit longer.

ExistentialEgg

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Jandlecack — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:39:42 MST

lol don't get me wrong this guy is awesome but the hand gestures he was making could have been the instructions on how to fold the perfect paper airplane :D

Jandlecack

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

jinpei05 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:26:41 MST

Christ, I still can't get over the fact that this game is coming this year. Along with KOF XII, Samurai Showdown Sen, Tekken 6, and VF5.1 for arcades, plus the Neo Geo Collections for PS2, this is the year of the fighting game, and I couldn't be happier.

It sure doesn't hurt I picked up a new Samsung HDTV and the X-Arcade stick either recently. ;)

jinpei05

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

skink — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:25:48 MST

@Virgil Tibbs: Definitely. Probably the only console game I'll buy as well.

skink

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

NotAZombie — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:23:56 MST

@Virgil Tibbs: But teh brawlz and the metal gearz!

That was a really good interview. I'm finally coming around to the art style which in motion is a lot better then just screen shots.

NotAZombie

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

ashjaw — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:23:05 MST

@Shinamano: I think it was on the recent issue of Edge magazine they were passing out at GDC.

as for SF4. I got to play a couple rounds at the regis, MOST satisfying day of my life

ashjaw

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Virgil Tibbs — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:19:19 MST

This is the only game I will buy this year.

Virgil Tibbs

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Shinamano — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:17:49 MST

Is there anywhere to see that Ken Artwork in the background?

Shinamano

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Pombar — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:15:38 MST

@Pombar: Uh, Indian plays as Dhalsim. Foiled by my brainfarts yet again.

Pombar

An Interview With Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono

Pombar — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:15:03 MST

My Indian friend plays as Zangief, my blonde friend plays as Ken, my fat friend plays as E. Honda, I (the one who always wins) play as Ryu. Are we conformists?

Pombar