Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi launched his new game, to a T, on May 28th. To celebrate the release, Takahashi held a conversation with another gaming industry legend—Fumito Ueda, director of Shadow of the Colossus and ICO.
In a three-way chat with Denfaminicogamer (via Automaton), the two creators shared their thoughts on the new game, with Ueda praising it for “not relying on unique gameplay mechanics.” Strange as this praise might sound, what Ueda is really saying is: “the era of creating new gameplay mechanics with each release has long since passed.”
to a T is an adventure puzzle game developed by Takahashi’s independent studio, Uvula, and tells the strange coming-of-age story of a boy stuck in a T-pose. When the trailer launched, Ueda reportedly reached out to Takahashi to ask: “How do you play this game?”. Takahashi recalls replying that the game had no special mechanics—to which Ueda responded: “that’s great.”
The Katamari Damacy creator joked that he thought, “Ah, those are the words of a pro,” when he first heard this comment. While Ueda’s response might not seem so serious at first glance, what he was trying to suggest is that current games could benefit if they focused on more than just gameplay mechanics.
“Though I’m not sure why I said ‘that’s great’ back then, I was probably thinking: ‘the era of gameplay mechanics has already passed. I think this isn’t the era to release new devices or offer new mechanics with each new game,” said Ueda. He explained that, in his view, mechanics don’t necessarily need to be “new” or “innovative,” because the game’s art and story are there to build the experience. “Even if there’s nothing new in the mechanics, you can take the game even further with a certain vibe or art. Putting aside personal preferences, what I’m saying is that I think it would be better to give more definition to existing gameplay mechanics.”
It’s for this same reason that Ueda considers to a T a great game: instead of offering features, the game is story-focused, with emphasis on visual presentation and aesthetics, plus a strong message about life with a disability. He said the “loose gameplay” felt innovative to him and was the right dose to make the game great overall. He even joked that this is the first game in a long time that captivated him enough to play it to the end.
to a T is currently available for PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X❘S.
