Development Staff
"Staff" redirects here. For the item wielded by Corobo, see Scepter. For the item type wielded by Alpokians, see Weapon
The Staff that worked on Little King's Story, as well as related information. Little King's Story's credits feature over 150 names. Thank you for your work.
Blogs
Yasuhiro Wada
Has also worked on:
- Magical Pop'n
- Chulip
- Various games in the Story of Seasons series (formerly known as Harvest Moon)
Yasuhiro Wada was one of the first developers involved in the creation of Little King's Story. He put forward the initial idea of a city building game to Yoshiro Kimura, although he had a less involved role as the game's development progressed. The two had previously worked together on Chulip. In the credits, he is listed under the role of executive producer.
Wada wished to distance himself from the then-named Harvest Moon series, and Little King's Story was one of the first games with which he branched out in an aim to create something different. Despite this, there are many similarities between the two series, and even a few references such as the Moon Harvest property. Furthermore, the first trailer appears to reference this by saying (in Japanese) "a story which isn't about a farm", since the Japanese name for the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons series is Farm Story. Little King's Story's Japanese name, King Story, may also be a direct parallel to this. Wada is a fan of the Pikmin series, and believes that those games may have indirectly influenced gameplay decisions during the development of Little King's Story. Additionally, Wada took inspiration from other Shigeru Miyamoto series for Little King's Story's gameplay, namely The Legend of Zelda.
Interviews
Video Interview before release
NGamer interview, May 2009
NGamer interview, May 2009
Note: some of the developer details provided by NGamer are inaccurate.
Yoshiro Kimura
Has also worked on:
- Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
- Chulip
- Rule of Rose
- No More Heroes and its sequel No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
- Various series from Onion Games (Million Onion Hotel, Black Bird, Dandy Dungeon, Mon Amour)
Yoshiro Kimura was one of the first developers involved in the creation of Little King's Story, and arguably the most involved by the end of the game's development. Yasuhiro Wada approached Kimura with an idea for a city building game, and Kimura suggested contextualizing it as part of a wider adventure. The main, broad ideas for the plot seem to have been of Kimura's conception. Originally, he allowed the project to go underway with less supervision, before deciding to have a more active role in its development when it wasn't going in the direction he had hoped. This led to him becoming the director for the game, as listed in the credits. Kimura specifically wished for the game to have a distinctly European feel, inspired by the variety of cultures he had seen while touring around countries like Switzerland. This led to the Russian oil-painting art style and use of classical music.
Yoshiro Kimura was a member of the former video game company Love-de-Lic, which has a lasting legacy for its ideas and style of making games. Certain tropes of Love-de-Lic games can be seen in Little King's Story, such as a day-night cycle which affects quests, Henteko Speech, and story themes relating to "love", which Kimura describes as a common thread between his games (the "Kimuraverse").
Furthermore, there are several connections and possible references between certain other works of Kimura's. The Flying Machine quest plays out almost identically to Dr. Hager's Rocket quest in Moon, and even share some machine parts. Moon also has two areas named "Castle Town" and "Mushroom Forest", although this could be a coincidence due to its late localization. The translatable language of New Island spoken by the Craftians and Jumbo Champloon has striking similarities with the Kakunte tribe's language in Moon and the Alien's language from Chulip. Both the New Island and Alien languages also have the word olympic(s). The overall designs of the UFOs between both games are also comparable. Charcoal's Henteko Speech from Chulip sounds noticeably similar to Bouquet's own Henteko speech. The pots around Ginger's hut (which also appear in the Onii King's introduction cutscene) bear a resemblance to the soup pots in Million Onion Hotel (which are also used as the power-up pots in Black Bird). Million Onion Hotel's ending involves World War III, just like TV Dinnah's boss battle; during this scene, Doctor Peace says the words "I oppose those who oppose those who oppose war" which mirrors TV Dinnah's line "I am against being against war!". Jumbo Champloon's second form, the chicken head, looks a lot like both the Bird Imp from Rule of Rose and the second boss in Black Bird. Black Bird's first boss also shares a likeness with Shishkebaboo.
Interviews
English
Sketchpads and Stopmotion with Yoshiro Kimura
Q&A: Kimura talks Chulip, "King's Story"
Reader-Submitted Questions Interview
Postmortem: the Creation of Little King's Story
Yoshiro Kimura's Strange Journeys
Japanese
Inside Games Nearing Release Interview
Inside Games Release Interview
(At least some other known interviews appear to have been removed by their authors)
Gallery
Design documents from 2008 for Duvroc's battle (among others) posted on Kimura's Twitter
A doodle of Little King's Story characters by Kimura
A scan of the previous doodle
A doodle by Kimura of various characters from his games, including King Corobo
A comic drawn by Kimura posted to his Twitter, which depicts Corobo in one frame
Yoichi Kawaguchi
Has also worked on:
- Dark Cloud 2
- Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
- Rogue Galaxy
Yoichi Kawaguchi was originally the director of Little King's Story, and his name and previous role can still be seen in some trailers for the game. Yoshiro Kimura had trusted him with directing the game, but later felt unhappy with the direction the game was going in and replaced Kawaguchi in the role of director. Kawaguchi is listed under Special Thanks in the credits.
Tom Ikeda
Has also worked on:
- Rule of Rose
- Shadows of the Damned
- Black Bird
- Lollipop Chainsaw
Tomo Ikeda, sometimes referred to as Tom, was the lead planner and scenario in Little King's Story. He had previously worked on Yoshiro Kimura's Rule of Rose and would go on to have a major part in the creation of Kimura's Black Bird as well.
Kazuyuki Kurashima
Has also worked on:
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
- Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
- UFO: A Day in the Life
- Endonesia
- Freshly Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland and its sequel Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love
- Black Knight Sword
- Various series from Onion Games (Million Onion Hotel, Black Bird, Dandy Dungeon)
- Provided the voice of Tingle in Freshly Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland and Hyrule Warriors and the voice of Yamada in Dandy Dungeon
Kazuyuki Kurashima is a character artist. As a former Love-de-Lic alumnus, he was a long-time friend of Yoshiro Kimura's when Little King's Story started development, and would go on to join the main staff of Kimura's indie studio Onion Games. In Little King's Story, Kurashima and Hideo Minaba worked together on character design, with Kurashima focusing more on monster characters and Minaba focusing more on human characters. The two also both worked on Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars together with the same respective roles.
Gallery
A postcard illustrated by Kurashima to celebrate Little King's Story's crossover with the band Bittersweet for its Swimmingpoo1 cameo
Hideo Minaba
Has also worked on:
- Chester Field: Ankoku Shin e no Chōsen
- Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy XII and various spinoffs in the Final Fantasy series
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
- Lord of Arcana
- Crimson Shroud
- Bravely Default and Bravely Second: End Layer
- Terra Battle
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (guest designer of Herald)
- Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
- Fantasy Life
Hideo Minaba is a character artist. He is credited as the character designer for Little King's Story, as opposed to Kazuyuki Kurashima who worked as a monster designer. Minaba and Kurashima worked together on character design, with Kurashima focusing more on monster characters and Minaba focusing more on human characters. The two also both worked on Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars together with the same respective roles.
Yoko Shimomura
Has also worked on:
- Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
- The Kingdom Hearts series
- Final Fantasy XV
- Xenoblade Chronicles (& Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition)
- Various arrangements for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Streets of Rage 4
Yoko Shimomura is considered by many to be one of the most respected video game composers from Japan. She was asked to produce an arrangement of Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" for the first Little King's Story trailer, which was used for the opening and credits sequences in the final game. Yoshiro Kimura had the idea to make Little King's Story's entire soundtrack from remixes of classical music, and Shimomura spearheaded the style of arrangement that the game would use with this one track.
Yutaka Minobe
Has also worked on:
- Panzer Dragoon Saga
- Skies of Arcadia and Skies of Arcadia: Legends
- Sonic Heroes
- Rule of Rose
- Yoshi's Island DS
- Various games in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series
- NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl (supervisor for arrangements from other games)
- Nier
- Arrangements for Sonic Forces and Sonic Lost World
Yutaka Minobe is a composer, musician and sound effects designer, with a lot of experience in arrangement. He was asked to create the rest of the Little King's Story soundtrack by Yoshiro Kimura. They had previously both worked on Rule of Rose. Minobe was aware that Kimura distinctly wanted the soundtrack to be comprised of arrangements of classical music, in order to accentuate the European aesthetic of the game. Minobe used Yoko Shimomura's "Bolero" arrangement as a guideline for Little King's Story's musical feel, and composed the rest of the soundtrack in accordance with it.
Little King's Story's final soundtrack contains over 60 classical arrangements and remixes, which all but one are of Minobe's devising. He had hoped that the soundtrack would be released officially, but sadly this never came to fruition.
Minobe has stated that his favorite pieces from the game were the "Rhapsody in Blue" remixes for the Primetime Kingdom and TV Dinnah. Ironically, this music was public domain in Japan at the time of the game's release, it would not enter the public domain until January 1st, 2020 in the United States due to a copyright complication involving Disney, meaning its inclusion in the North American release is technically illegal. "Bolero" was in a similar situation, since it would not become public domain in the US until 2016. It is likely that this was a simple misunderstanding, and the Little King's Story series has not seen any legal ramifications due to this. The remixes were included in the PC rerelease too.