Creator Spotlight: Kiyoshi Sakai

            If ever there were a developer I never expected to spotlight here, it would have to be Kiyoshi Sakai...mostly because I didn't know the name of the developer I had such admiration for until...about a month ago, when I was doing research on a game I dearly love.  Why am I spotlighting Sakai?  Two words.  Umihara Kawase.

Kiyoshi Sakai has practically no pictures online, but Umihara Kawase is his child and his face in the gaming community.  So, ladies and gentleman, meet Umihara.

            Umihara Kawase is a small series of games based around young Umihara.  And yes, this was another Japanese only game introduced to me by the fantastic Justin Carmical, who showcased it in his second You Can Play This video.  I could go on and on about that, but we're here to talk about Kiyoshi Sakai.

            Sakai is the very definition of a niche/independent publisher.  Hardly well known, works typically in informal wear such as slacks or in apartments, and is rather shy in demeanor and very seldom makes appearances.  What I can say about Sakai, though, is that he is a damn fine programmer.  Sakai himself is quoted as saying, "I’m good at making complex game systems.  I designed the game myself, and I did it in a way where I could use my ability to come up with a complex game system. I built the game design around that skill."  Translation?  Sakai is able to program a system that is remarkably complex in it's execution, but very easy to use.  That being said, most of Sakai's games have an incredibly high skill ceiling, making experts on youtube seem akin to gaming gods.

It takes skill to get to the bosses of the game and a ton of skill to survive them.

            Unlike most of my previous spotlights, Sakai has actually been around for a long time.  He got interested in game design due to his father buying a PC for work and he fiddled around with it, learning to program from there.  Sakai wanted to create something with his knowledge and this led to his career in game design.  He got started in the early 90s and his first commercial title as published in 1994, when the first Umihara Kawase game was released by NHK for the Super Famicom.  The game sold modestly well, but NHK faded into the background while Sakai's child, Umihara Kawase, lived on and had several sequels and ports.  Sakai himself is only credited as working on five games.  Four Umihara Kawase titles and the original Ape Escape.  Umihara is Sakai's legacy, as he created one game for the Super Famicom, one for the Playstation, one for the Nintendo DS, and his latest title for the Nintendo 3DS.  The PSP port of Umihara Kawase was made by an outside team.

            Now, I love Umihara Kawase, but it is damned hard...and I have Sakai to thank for that.  The game features a cute girl named Umihara in a strange otherworld in habited by fish who walk on land and strange larger than life items, like vegetables or bicycles.  Her only defense is her ability to jump, run, climb and use her elastic fishing pole, which she can use to reel in fish, or latch onto objects.  This is where Sakai comes in.  While he designed all the game mechanics on his own, what is jaw dropping is the physics engine.  See, Umihara can use her fishing pole to swing from ceilings or walls to try and get to new places.  Some of these swings are insanely hard, requiring momentum, precise angles, and a combination of the jumping and climbing mechanics on par with rom hacks, swinging from ceiling to ceiling with nothing but an ocean or a bed of spikes underneath.  For 1994, this physics system was amazing and has never been replicated except by, ironically, Sakai himself.  Like Bionic Commando, it features swinging from roofs and walls, however there is so much more finesse at play with Umihara, that I'd say the only comparable physics engine is actually in Portal, which uses momentum in a similar way.

Takes some out of the box thinking to make the physics engine work for you in this game.  It takes skill.

            What is perhaps more shocking is that Sakai hasn't worked on more games.  In fact, his Umihara games have been made by different studios each time, with the only real constants being himself and the series illustrator Toshinobu Kondo.  So, I want to give Sakai a bit of a spotlight for this amazing game system.  It is a testament to his talent as a developer that, for the Super Famicom, he created a physics engine on par with, if not better than, most modern ones.  Sakai doesn't really see any problem with a lack of recognition for himself or his series, though.  In fact, the most recent game in the series, Sayonara Umihara Kawase, seems to be closing the door on the series, and he's satisfied with how far it has come.  It would seem that Sakai saw game design and programming as a challenge and something that he enjoyed doing just for the hell of it, rather than getting rich off a franchise.  By his own admission, he built a prototype on his own and showed it to a friend who was working with NHK and asked if they could work together to make a video game out of it.  Despite this somewhat laid back appearance, Sakai has led the charge with all the Umihara games, being the visionary who has kept the series going.

Yes, that's a giant radish and a huge tadpole.  No, I don't know why.

            If I had to give a complaint about Sakai, it's his lack of story focus and at times his informal demeanor.  In truth, Sakai himself admits that Umihara Kawase came to be because of a happy accident.  The games feature almost no story, despite Toshinobu Kondo's illustrations of Umihara and the world around her seemingly begging for a Miyazaki-esque fairy tale to provide context to the weird world of giant fish, oceans, and rivers.  It features some unusual imagery that does actually make players wonder...like in the original game, bicycles, vegetables, and certain other things that in Japan might be related to childhood or how in the sequel there are hints at a more grown up perspective, with pencils and school supplies dotting the landscape.  All the while, the background focuses on rivers and oceans, hinting at recreation and the imagery of another life that might be an obstacle for Umihara's enjoyment.  Even Umihara having fishing as a hobby was just because Sakai thought it would be cool for her to do that in order to make his mechanics work.  He didn't set out to make a fishing game at all.  Ostensibly there is no story and even the game's title, Sakai admits to creating just on a lark.  Umihara Kawase refers to the choice cuts of meat on fish, Ocean Stomach, River Back.  Kondo's illustrations beg for more context to this world...

Sakai, I wanted to know more about Umihara.  Please, tell me more.

            Umihara Kawase has never seen an English release, but in 2014, English speakers are going to get their first taste of it through Yumi's Odd Odyssey on the 3DS.  Honestly, I'm super excited, but I also hope it's not the end.  The game seems to have a story of sorts attached to it and it will be our first taste of some translated Umihara goodness.  For many, it will also be their introduction to the hardcore, but oddly satisfying mechanics that has become Sakai's hallmark.  I would like for more people to know about Umihara Kawase and Kiyoshi Sakai, because they're just fantastic, all over.

Sayonara Umihara Kawase on the 3DS, known in the States as Yumi's Odd Odyssey.  Check it out to witness Sakai's mastery in action.

            Kiyoshi Sakai has little information floating around the web about him, lacking even a proper wikipedia page, but there was an interview with him on USgamer and he is credited on Giant Bomb.  Umihara has little information about it, but to see it's madness and it's beauty, this youtube channel is the best way to go.  And please, support Umihara Kawase by buying Yumi's Odd Odyssey on the 3DS.  It's a digital download from the eshop and is well worth the price.  Give it a look!