Sealed With a Kiss
Punchline bow to no one in their eccentricity, producing some of the most unique games ever made. We get Chulip director Yoshirou Kimura to kiss and tell.

You've never heard of Yoshirou Kimura, and for good reason: not a single one of the games he's worked on has ever come to the US, due to their overwhelmingly bizarre nature--until now. Previous games he worked on include Moon on PSone, which put you in the role of an invisible boy trapped in a fantasy world, fixing things up in the wake of the "hero"'s wreckage, while Lack of Love centered around colonization of another planet by an advance robot.

His current project is Chulip, which Natsume has picked up for American release. It's the story of a town whose citizens are slowly withdrawing into themselves, and the boy who must bring them out of their depression by kissing them. And that's not even the weirdest thing about Kimura.

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1UP: How large a company is Punchline?

Yoshirou Kimura: We have 3 full-time employees, and others are hired on a project basis. For Chulip, we had a total of 14 people working on it. On our new project in Shimotakaido, Tokyo, we started with 6 people, and eventually it will take about 18 to 20 people to complete it. Another project we have in Kichijoji, Tokyo has 5 people working on it so far.

1UP: How long did original development on Chulip take?

Yoshirou Kimura: It took 2 years and 6 months from the initial planning. The actual programming took 1 year and 3 months.

1UP: Punchline is, so far as we understand, one of the spinoff companies formed from Lovedelic. What happened to break up Lovedelic into the smaller companies, and what are the relationships between them today?

Yoshirou Kimura: I must say it was meant to be. I'm kind of a drifter… I felt at home in Lovedelic, but I decided to leave and go my own way. After that, I took quite a long break until I actually started planning to form a game team. There are 3 companies including mine that became independent from Lovedelic, and all of them are my friends. Especially Mr. Kurashima, he and I are pretty close. We often go out to drink together.

1UP: What did the Punchline staffers contribute to Moon and Lack of Love?

Yoshirou Kimura: Mr. Taniguchi who is in charge of music and I worked on Moon. I personally worked a lot on the scenario part. Oh, I also made clay monsters. I like making creatures with clay. My current hobby is puppet animation. It takes 5 hours to shoot a 10-second movie, so I can only do it on my days off. My hobby is as hard as my work. Sorry, I got carried away.

Yoshirou Kimura: I helped in Lack of Love when the project was at its busiest time. It was when we were initiating the Chulip project, so I thought I'd help Mr. Suzuki and Mr. Nishi. It was challenging and very interesting.

1UP: What was it like to work on your first PS2 project?

Yoshirou Kimura: Chulip was my first PS2 project. When we were developing it, we didn't have a good library for the PS2, so it was challenging just to display a picture on the screen. We wondered when we can actually start programming a game!

1UP: What sort of things did you have to do differently from the PS1 days?

Yoshirou Kimura: I wasn't really trying to do anything different. No matter which platform a game is for, I just want to make a fun game, that's all. For Chulip particularly, I valued team members' opinions and gleams of ideas. It was challenging and interesting at the same time to program a game for a new console. We were definitely eager to see what we could do with it.

1UP: Games like Moon (not to be confused with Harvest Moon) and Chulip have been striking nonviolent titles, something fairly rare in video games. Are you consciously trying to resist this kind of gameplay in your titles?

Yoshirou Kimura: Yes, absolutely!

I'm not criticizing fighting games. I myself love to play fighting games, so. But when I see so many violent games out there, I can't help reveling against them. The world should consist of different kinds of people, don't you think? So do the games.

1UP: How did the idea for Chulip come about?

Yoshirou Kimura: I was having a party with my friends at my place in Tokyo. We were talking about videogames, and someone said something about "Chu" (kissing). We were pretty drunk, so everyone started saying, "Chu-shite." (Kiss me.), and it was so funny. After that, I met Mr. Wada of Marvelous, and we started talking about adding a flare of Moon and Japan a little while ago (say about 40 years ago), which is my favorite era.

1UP: Who designed the bizarre characters that the young boy meets? What was his (or her) inspiration?

Yoshirou Kimura: The illustration was done by Mr. Ryuji Nouguchi. The inspiration was basically from my "my zone note", which is my scrap book with collections of interesting things. Mr. Nouguchi took some ideas and made them funny, and I also did the same.

1UP: Many of the inhabitants of Chulip's city live underground and only rarely come to the surface. What caused this general depression in the city?

Yoshirou Kimura: The story is the students at Local Jr. High stopped going to school, some people went on strike, and that sort of things... it is about the problems of our hearts.

Underworld Residents in this game withdraw into their own world. In reality, there is a problem in Japan that students stop going to school and stay in their rooms. And schools, the society and the whole environment are not making it easy for them to come out. I used this problem as sort of a metaphor in this game. You can stay wherever you want to stay, but relax, and don't worry. That's my message. The game might seem just funky, but I'd be happy if players could see that part of the game.

1UP: What are your favorite games? What sorts of games have you drawn from in your own work?

Yoshirou Kimura: I personally don't use any games as reference of making new games. I learn from other forms of culture. Movies, comic books and novels mainly. However, I don't get inspirations from the finished products. I come up with many ideas from my own life including conversations with people, my past experience, and so on. Of course we learn a lot about programming from other games, and I think it is important.

1UP: All of Lovedelic's games, and so far all of the games by the splinter companies, were passed over for release in the U.S. due to their strangeness and apparent lack of commercial appeal. Are you worried about Chulip's reception in the U.S.?

Yoshirou Kimura: To tell you the truth, when we were making the plans for this game, I was already thinking about showing it to American, European or people from other cultures. I always thought it's funny for Japanese people to make games staged in a European castle and try to appeal to the world. By making Chulip, I want the world to know some Japanese culture other than Ninja and Samurai.

Last month, there was an art exhibition in Switzerland. We brought Chulip and showed a video. It drew loud applause from the audience! It must have been surprising to see Japanese people kissing in Japanese scenery that they had never seen before. It's not a shooting, fighting or horror game, you know? I think Swiss might like this game very much. I hope everyone to be open-minded to enjoy the game as it is.

1UP: Some fans have been concerned that the more risqué elements will be toned down or outright censored for the U.S. version. Are you making any changes to the game to reflect the cultural differences between Japan and America?

Yoshirou Kimura: No, absolutely not.

1UP: What would you like to do after the US version of Chulip is complete?

Yoshirou Kimura: We are planning a scary game right now, and this one is staged in a foreign country, so please look forward to it.

1UP: If you weren't making videogames, what do you think your career might be?

Yoshirou Kimura: House keeper, traditional Japanese wash drawing artist or used record shop owner.

1UP: If you could cure one person's woes by kissing them, who would it be? Why?

Yoshirou Kimura: I'd kiss my neighbors. We know less and less about our neighbors especially in big cities. I think we are afraid of them and don't want to be bothered, but that is not good. Kiss your neighbors. Better love than hate.