2012 Really Seen Ghosts
Title: Really Seen Ghosts¶
Folklore Type: memorate¶
Contents:¶
"Shibata: The most frightening thing is when you aren’t sure what’s out there. When you know the true nature of something, the kind of fear you feel is different.
Iwata: It’s the way that Alien 6 is a much more frightening film before the alien actually appears.
Shibata: Yes, precisely. I feel that the kind of fear that appeals to the imagination is more profound, and stays with you for longer. It was the desire to successfully create this kind of fear in a video game that led to the development of the Project Zero series. And, well, there is another thing... I’ve seen ghosts.
Iwata: ...What!? You’ve really seen ghosts?
Shibata: That’s right. And I think that after that, I wanted to be able to recreate that experience in a game. I’m talking about things like the feeling before the ghost appears, and the strange sounds you hear when you see them. I wanted people who’d actually seen ghosts to play the game and say, “Yes, that’s it! That’s what it’s like!”
Iwata: So actually having experiences like that led to you becoming deeply involved in the world of horror.
Shibata: I used to see quite a lot of ghosts when I was a kid. That’s why I couldn’t bring myself to watch horror films - they were just too frightening. Then after I’d stopped seeing ghosts, I started watching horror films, and they made me feel curiously nostalgic.
Iwata: Really? So you didn’t feel afraid, you felt nostalgic?
Shibata: “Ah, that reminds me of the way it felt!” (laughs) I mean, I found these experiences very frightening when I was a child, but now I have the ability to also enjoy a horror film as a work of art. I’ve developed horror games with the desire to utilise my experiences."
Context:¶
In this interview excerpt, Shibata discusses having seen ghosts in his youth, and how horror now makes him feel nostalgic for those encounters with the supernatural.
This interview was conducted by Satoru Iwata, former Nintendo President. This interview occurred ahead of the release of Project Zero 2: Wii Edition which is a 2012 remaster of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. The game was updated to use the Wii controllers, bringing a different experience to the gameplay itself. This edition has never been officially released to in North America.
Source Information¶
Original Source Citation: Kikuchi, Keisuke and Makoto Shibata. "Iwata Asks: Project Zero 2: Wii Edition." By Iwata. Nintendo UK. April 4, 2012. https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Iwata-Asks/Iwata-Asks-Project-Zero-2-Wii-Edition/Iwata-Asks-Project-Zero-2-Wii-Edition/1-The-Worst-Happy-Ending-Imaginable/1-The-Worst-Happy-Ending-Imaginable-218277.html
| Source Type: | interview |
| Source URL: | https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Iwata-Asks/Iwata-Asks-Project-Zero-2-Wii-Edition/Iwata-Asks-Project-Zero-2-Wii-Edition/2-I-ve-Seen-Ghosts-/2-I-ve-Seen-Ghosts--218325.html |
| Date Published: | 2012-04-04 |
| Date Collected: | 2023-07-31 |
| Associated File Name: | Kikuchi_Shibata-2012-Iwata Asks_Project Zero 2 Wii Edition_Part 2.pdf |