If you're a fan of Solid Snake, or perhaps more specifically, Solid Snake's backside, then your heartfelt thanks should go to one particular Metal Gear Solid leader, according to an interview with two industry veterans.
In a 2003 interview originally featured in Hyper PlayStation 2 magazine and now available on Shmuplations, Metal Gear Solid art director Yoji Shinkawa and veteran Square Enix designer Tetsuya Nomura discussed their design processes. Shinkawa, in particular, talked about how having spent his career working primarily on action games led him to particularly focus on his characters' butts.
“I've made more action games than anyone else in my time,” Shinkawa begins, as he asks Nomura what the difference is between designing characters for an RPG and an action game. “So I spend a lot of time worrying about the details of characters' butts, since that's the side the player sees the most in the game. Especially the butts,” he laughs.
In response, Nomura, who was working on Kingdom Hearts at the time, responds that it's important for character designs to work while they're in motion, something that's not as worrying in an RPG. “There are no real design limits for RPGs, but in action games you need to make sure it looks good in motion. In RPGs, characters perform a wider variety of movements and actions, so “More than the movement itself, I focus on making their designs fit the world and atmosphere of the game.”
Beyond Snake's Ass, Shinkawa has been responsible for some of the most engaging games of the last few decades, working as an art director on the entire Metal Gear Solid series, Death Stranding, and currently, Death Stranding 2, in which Everyone We will expect more stellar work from the maestro himself.
Be sure to check out our hands-on preview of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Serpent Eater to see what we have done so far.