@connrrr Wow, Steve Jobs wore jeans to the funeral of his own OS. For the sake of solemnity, I would at least expect him to come out wearing appropriate garb that he could tear off to reveal his turtleneck and jeans, stripper-style.
As video game nerds, we tend to learn the names of Japanese game developers with some frequency. Rieko Kodama, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii, Shigesato Itoi, and many others. So this very short post is devoted to someone else whose work we have likely encountered but I see mentioned less often: Hidenori Shibao (Lennus [Paladin’s Quest], Lennus II, and Legend of Legaia).
First, did you know that Paladin’s Quest and Legend of Legaia share that connection? I didn’t, until I started reading up on this guy. They are both ambitious, sometimes dark, and (meant as a compliment) weird games.
Second, the game development is just the tip of the iceberg for Shibao. Just like Itoi did a few games while doing a lot of other writing, Shibao has a lot going on, based on this archived version of his site. He first goes into a detailed history of his educational experience going back to elementary school. Then he describes dropping out of university. Then he lists his writing experience, mostly for game guides or magazines, including Mario, The Goonies, and Ultima. He also lists game work on a more extensive list of titles, including text work on the PS1 edition of Civilization, work on a couple of Momotaro Dentetsu titles, work on the PS2 Enix FMV game The Fear, and translating the SNES platformer Lester the Unlikely. He is also a huge film fan; he owns over 3000 laser discs. Not listed there - he also did early fan translations of Avalon Hill games.
Third, this Reddit thread contains the most comprehensive links and interviews I’ve seen. But just to name a few quick tidbits:
Shibao lost a fight with Prokion on two specific points of Legend of Legaia:
- Listing “INN” on a sign, which to him broke immersion in the game world, something he connects to his interest in sekaikan
- Voiced combat. He describes muting the characters when debugging combat because he hated it so much
Shibao knew that fans did a translation of Lennus II and he liked it, saying they fixed some issues in the original. He just didn’t have the power to officially recognize it.
Shibao worked on an unreleased Dreamcast RPG called Metal Max: Wild Eyes. He was friends with the designer of the original Metal Max, Hiroshi Miyaoka, via the Waseda Mystery Club.
Shibao died in 2018.
