Producer Takeshita talks about Zack and Wiki (Treasure Island Z)

Interview with Zack and Wiki Producer Takeshita - Image 1

Don’t go looking for Treasure Island Z anymore. You won’t be able to find it because Capcom just renamed it to Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure. And IGN’s recent interview with producer Hironobu Takeshita reveals a lot of things about the title itself and why it’s shaping up to be a sure buy for all puzzle lovers.

Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure takes place in a fictional world almost similar to ours. One of the main differences is that it abounds with pirates searching for a hidden treasure in unexplored lands and ancient ruins. Zack, now, is the main protagonist and is the youngest member of a band of pirates.

What happened was Zack found the skull of Barbaros himself and it promised him to help recover the treasure if they will reclaim the rest of his body first. Despite this rather gruesome plot, Takeshita explains that the game is aimed at a younger audience and female gamers. This very much because of the title’s point-and-click-style control scheme,

The game doesn’t involve a lot of complicated controls and focuses more on the pure puzzle solving aspect, which I think a lot of female gamers will excel at and do better at than even hardcore gamers. The Wii Remote goes very well with that style of gaming and that also helped influence the decision to go with the point-and-click control scheme.


Read the rest of the interview after the jump!

Interview with Zack and Wiki Producer Takeshita - Image 1

Don’t go looking for Treasure Island Z anymore. You won’t be able to find it because Capcom just renamed it to Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure. IGN’s recent interview with producer Hironobu Takeshita reveals a lot of things about the title itself and why it’s shaping up to be a sure buy for all puzzle lovers.

Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure takes place in a fictional world almost similar to ours. One of the main differences is that it abounds with pirates searching for a hidden treasure in unexplored lands and ancient ruins. Zack, the youngest member of a band of pirates, is the main protagonist.

What happened was Zack found the skull of Barbaros himself. It promised him to help recover the treasure if they will reclaim the rest of his body first. Despite this rather gruesome plot, Takeshita explains that the game is aimed at a younger audience as well as female gamers. This because of the title’s point-and-click-style control scheme.

The game doesn’t involve a lot of complicated controls and focuses more on the pure puzzle solving aspect, which I think a lot of female gamers will excel at and do better at than even hardcore gamers. The Wii Remote goes very well with that style of gaming and that also helped influence the decision to go with the point-and-click control scheme.

Speaking of which, the official mentioned that they are thinking of at least 80 different ways to use the Wiimote in-game. This will include holding it like one would a lever and pulling it or holding it sideways like a flute and playing it among others. The earlier levels are quite easy to help players get accustomed to its style.

I hope there will be some areas that will leave players scratching their heads wondering how to solve the puzzle for a few days. The control scheme is simple and the game relies more on challenging player creativity, which we hope they find a stimulating challenge.

Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure is still under development and the producer mentioned that a help system will be implemented as well as other things that will make it more user-friendly. In terms of graphics, it sports a cel-shaded design making it possible for characters to have a rich range of facial expressions.

“I imagine some of the more difficult puzzles will have friends passing the controller around, with each person trying to solve them when others in the group are stumped. I really hope that people do play the game together. The game is still in the final stages of development, but we’re doing our best to make it a game that everyone can enjoy,” Takeshita added.

Via IGN

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