Remembering Vagrant Story and the mutual admiration of Matsuno and Kojima

On February 10, 2000, Vagrant Story was released in Japan. It remains one of our personal favourites from that era, and a game that received high praise from Hideo Kojima himself.

To mark the anniversary, we revisited a 1999 conversation between its director, producer and designer Yasumi Matsuno and Kojima, available in English through shmuplations.

Kojima praised Matsuno’s direction, his team’s visual craft and the freely controlled camera in Vagrant Story. Both directors discussed how cinema shaped their work and how a team’s shared influences can give a game a coherent identity.

We also shared Matsuno’s recollection of the impact Metal Gear Solid had during development. Its presentation and gameplay pushed his team to reconsider the challenge ahead, including the facial expressions they used to communicate their characters’ emotions.

It is a wonderful glimpse of two creators recognising each other’s strengths, and a good reason to return to a remarkable PlayStation RPG.

Sources

shmuplations — Yasumi Matsuno × Hideo Kojima, 1999 developer interview translation

Our original post and interview excerpts