Cyberconnect2's Matsuyama on Naruto Plans

Gamasutra is running an interview with Cyberconnect2's Matsuyama on the studio's plans for their Naruto franchise. "over the last few years it has also been the prolific developer of the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series, a PlayStation-exclusive line of games now spanning as many as seven entries. Currently, CyberConnect2 is working on Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, the series' first entry on PlayStation 3. It makes a significant graphical leap beyond its predecessors, focusing on perfecting the cel-shading techniques that imitate hand-drawn animation."

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[gstoddart]

That's interesting. I thought the whole point of a tattoo was to draw attention. I never understood the whole concept of getting the tattoos places where they can be hidden. I guess this harks back to days when having a tattoo only meant you were a criminal or a sailor?

People get tattoos for all sorts of reasons. To some people, they have more personal meaning than anything you'd want to be permanently visible -- generally, most people get ones they can cover up if they need to. To some people, it's all about others seeing it -- depends entirely on the person and why they get tattooed in the first place.

Too many hassles if they're too, er, in your face. As I said, many tattoo artists will turn you away from getting one on your hands, face, or neck -- it's sort of a fairly permanent decision and you will be judged for it on a daily basis. The reason most artists won't do it is because a) it's not something to decide lightly, and b) it tends to play into stereotypes, and c) it reflects badly on them with the old stereo type of artists who would let you do any stupid thing you wanted to do -- unless you're already pretty hard-core tattooed, you might not be have thought it through enough.

I can hide all of mine with work clothes, if I'm in shorts and a sleeveless shirt, you can only see about half of them. The rest aren't really ever on display. I know more people whose tattoos are primarily hidden when they're in "normal" society than those whose ink is always on display. (Young girls with the obligatory tattoo in the small of their back, notwithstanding -- they just get them because everyone else has them. ;-)

As for the Naruto games, are they actually any good or just made to bilk the fans of money like most game versions of tv/movies?

Can't speak to these games, since I'm generally not a gamer. But, let's face it, video game tie-ins are almost always made to separate the fans from their money.

Cheers