In Volume 2 of my book series, The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, I interviewed veteran game artist Satoshi Nakai. In fact, he created the robot themed PC ENGINE GOLEM cover for Volume 2! If you'd like to buy a copy of Volume 2, please visit this page.

Satoshi Nakai was the mastermind behind the designs on shmup Gynoug / Wings of Wor, planner and artist on Assault Suits Valken / Cybernator and also pseudo-sequel Front Mission: Gun Hazard, plus concept artist for the Culdcept series (below) and character designer on Resident Evil: Code Veronica and the prequel RE:0. That's just a sample of his work, and his full portfolio is most impressive.

Satoshi Nakai's Illustration Museum (wayback archive)

Recently I was contacted by Resident Evil researcher and book writer Joel Welsh, with a press release for InvaderGames announcing its collaboration with Satoshi Nakai. The Italian game development studio hinted at working with several other international game designers, as yet unannounced, and that Nakai would be involved with its new survival horror game being developed. More details are promised to surface in the coming days.

I find this exciting because two of Nakai's fields of expertise are giant mecha robots, and horror. Weird, creepy, disturbing, mind-curdling horror. Amazing body horror on a par with anything film director David Lynch has put out. Nakai knows horror. As InvaderGames stated: "We're sure that this collaboration will be essential for creating the desired world view which is inhabited by the most terrifying and realistic characters and enemies. Nakai-san's contribution to the Resident Evil series is defiantly unique, and we're sure he'll bring the same uniqueness to our title too."

What's interesting is that while InvaderGames is keenly aware of his Resident Evil work, it perhaps is not aware of Nakai's long lineage in horror, dating to the first game in his career, Last Armageddon. An unusual JRPG slightly reminiscent of Phantasy Star, where players control a party of demons, in a post-apocalyptic world where all humans have been wiped out, which are fighting alien robots. As Nakai stated during out interview: "This was my entry into the dark world of videogames. I was such a game virgin that I didn't even know what genres like 'RPG' meant. At this point I had already acquired my 'monster design factory' function."

Later horror themed titles include the unreleased Temple Master, Gynoug (featuring an infamous boss enemy), some concept art for Chou Aniki (not horror, but weird), Lord of Monsters, Culdcept (lots of monster characters), Contra Rebirth (gruesome bosses), an unreleased remake of something else, plus of course Resident Evil. Oh, and also covers for World of Warcraft magazine, featuring monstrous and otherworldly creatures! Many of these projects will be known, but not Nakai's involvement with them. As such, I am printing excerpts from my Nakai interview along with imagery. If you'd like to read a separate Resident Evil focused interview, with information on unreleased games, please visit Project Umbrella:

http://projectumbrella.net/articles/Satoshi-Nakai-Interview-Project-Umbrella

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仲井 覚
NAKAI, Satoshi
DOB: 24 February 1967
Birthplace: Hokkaido
Blood Type: O

Interview excerpt with Satoshi Nakai

JS: You mentioned having a part-time job as a waiter and also enjoying drawing, which is how you became involved with the industry?

SN: The first art assignment I did was for Brain Grey, for Last Armageddon. I designed many of the monsters or creatures. (above and below) It was a part-time job at their office. I drew many of the monsters, and also the event graphics used in cutscenes, such as the opening sequence. That was when I was 21 years old. Over a quarter century ago!

JS: Did you draw the pixel art on paper first?

SN: No, I entered it directly on the computer with a mouse. I think I used a mouse to draw up until Culdcept. Last Armageddon was my game debut. I did creature design.

JS: Afterwards you worked on the unreleased Temple Master at NCS / Masaya? (below)

SN: When I joined, the project was already underway. When I finished my work on Last Armageddon and joined NCS, they said, "Oh good, we were in need of a graphics person for this project."

JS: What genre was it?

SN: RPG. Just a normal RPG. Fantasy role-playing, but with a hint of science fiction. Now that I think about it, it's strange that the game was featured in magazines, even though very little of it was actually completed. Maybe NCS was trying to raise its stock prices. Since computer games came on floppy disks as opposed to ROM chips, the manufacturing and packaging took less time.

JS: Temple Master started in 1988, and magazines said the game would be released for the PC-9801 system in 1991. But that was not true...

SN: It wasn't true at all. I drew some monsters, but the project ended partway through. It was cancelled because the programming was not going well. I think some graphics like the monsters can be found on my old floppies, if we can restore them.

JS: Which computer did you use to create the graphics?

SN: The Sharp X68000. Ah yes, the character wearing the hood! That's about the only thing I remember. A character wearing a hooded cloak, similar to Assassin's Creed today.

JS: Let's discuss Gynoug on Mega Drive, your first major project. (above and below)

SN: I did all of the boss characters, and about half of the backgrounds in Gynoug.

JS: I wanted to ask about this. <shows picture> It's a bit suggestive, isn't it?

SN: Yes, it's a bit risqué.

JS: <laughs> How did you get this past the censors? Did you have to sneak it in?