3. Ears Also Have “The Wall of Presumptions”

Iwata - This may be a little technical, but including all of the characters in addition to Noise-kun, what kind of things can you do to create sound that’s missing information, and why is it that humans are able to hear and comprehend it? Would you mind speaking about this from a specialist point of view?

(Oto Designers) Sakamoto - Sure. The most typical example of discerning sound is “Tamori Club’s” (※9) “Sora Mimi Hour” (※10). Even though the songs are sung in foreign languages, by suggesting that the lyrics are specific Japanese words, you tend to hear it that way.

※9 “Tamori Club”＝ Late night variety show emceed by Tamori-san, broadcasted since 1982 on Television Asahi channels.

※10 Sora Mimi Hour＝One of the staple corners of “Tamori Club,” where viewers send in suggestions for songs sung in foreign languages, but sound like Japanese, shown with custom video accompanying them.

Iwata - It’s fascinating that it continues to sound like that even after you’ve heard it several times.

(Oto Designers) Sakamoto - Sound itself contains a mix of various sized frequencies. Humans use their ears and brains to analyze the change in the sound’s frequency components, and hear the words that are being represented. On the other hand, for instance for the sound “Konnnichiwa,” there’s variation in volume, or power in other words, but that component isn’t really used in actually discerning the word. Normal people may think that volume is vital to discerning words, but in actuality that’s information the brain throws away.

Iwata - Right.

(Oto Designers) Sakamoto - To put it another way, the change in frequency is what’s most important to discerning what’s being said. The characters that appear in the game modify the change in frequency on purpose. In the instance of Noise-kun, by switching in parts that almost have no change in frequency at all, the brain becomes unable to tell what’s being said. But once the answer is displayed, a human’s brain uses the information that it had been throwing away, like the variation in sound strength to forcibly try and recognize it as that answer.

Iwata - And that’s why the logic is the same as “Sora Mimi Hour.”

(Oto Designers) Sakamoto - Exactly. In that sense, you can say that the human brain is extremely docile. Just as when Satō-san heard “bloody,” the brain forcibly tries to make a connection, even if it’s incorrect.

Iwata - In one sense, it’s implied.

(Oto Designers) Sakamoto - But the really interesting thing about “Kikitrick,” different from “Sora Mimi Hour,” is that if you continue doing it you’ll learn to guess the correct answer 80-90% of the time. So it’s effective training.

Iwata - Do you mean to say that you train that portion of your brain?

(Oto Designers) Sakamoto - Yes, that’s the thought.

Iwata - Having stuck with it the whole time, have you learned to hear properly, Satō-San?

Satō - I can hear everything now.

(Oto Designers) Sakamoto - It’s possible he can hear better than I.

Satō - I did continue for three years (laughs). I actually feel it’s peculiar for those that can’t hear it. That’s why if I difficulty balance the game, I make it too hard and no one can answer correctly, so difficulty tuning was really hard.

Iwata - You came up against the problem where the director was no help for difficulty tuning, eh? (Laughs).

Satō - Right (laughs). Having anyone outside the dev team test play the game, inevitably problems that they couldn’t hear and clear would pop up. Once someone would say, “It’s so hard that you’re not actually supposed to hear it, right?”, and then everyone around that person would agree and all of a sudden not be able to hear. But once I’d clear the stage and show them everybody would suddenly be able to hear it. This is the “ear’s wall of presumptions.” This game is actually made so that, by using special tricks with your ears, all of a sudden you can advance to the next stage. So I consulted with Sakamoto-San of Oto Designers, and made a unique standard in the game called the “Daily Ear Wall,” and set that as the line for clearing the level.

(Oto Designers) Sakamoto - In scientific terms, because it varies per person, it’s hard to set a clear line, but motivation make the game fun.

Iwata - It’s the same that “Brain Age” (※11) offered a player’s brain age as one way to motivate them.

※11 “Brain Age”＝ The “Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?” series. Brain activity software. The first title in the series was released in May 2005 for the Nintendo DS, and the second title was released in December of 2005.

(Oto Designers) Sakamoto - Right. Another interesting thing about hearing is that it’s not guaranteed that your hearing will gradually get better with training. Often one day, out of the blue, you’re suddenly able to hear things, as language learners often indicate. I think we’ve brought that out quite well in “Kikitrick.”

Satō - You’d be surprised how the better a person thinks they can hear, the worse their hearing actually is. Reversely, people that say they may not be able to hear often hear everything.

Iwata - Wow, that’s interesting.

Satō - There are eight different listening exercises in “Ear Pro,” and I think you’ll find that there’s a split between types you’re better at and those that you’re worse at. For instance in “Kindergarten” you have to point out the mistakes of a nursery school child. Anyone can point out “corm” or “evelator” on their own, but if the words are quickly strung together you wouldn’t notice that “corm” was mispronounced among the other words.

Iwata - It all started with degraded noise, but there really are a plethora of different types. (Yoshio) Sakamoto-san, what did you find interesting looking at this software from a slight distance?

(Nintendo) Sakamoto - I love “Sora Mimi Hour,” really (laughs). I thought it was interesting that even if you don’t hear it at first, having text and illustrations accompany the sound makes you think that’s what you’re hearing. The conversations between “one who can hear” and “one who can’t hear,” and “someone who thinks they can hear” are also interesting. That’s real local communication, someone who is completely sure of themselves but mistaken, or when everyone else heard correctly but just you didn’t, I became most interested in the idea that this would become a new style of game.

Iwata - I like the “Electronics Store,” where you have to figure out which video the sound is coming from (laughs).

Satō - Everyone enjoys that one. We have a plethora of different video from animation to photo-real for that. That comes from how Sakamoto-san’s team does things, and became a really fun part of the game.

Iwata - There’s no way to describe it, with just how randomly mixed things are. It makes sense, given it’s made from the same lineage as “Made in Wario” (※12) and “Rhythm Heaven.”

※12 “Made in Wario”＝ Action game series, first released for the Gameboy Advance in March 2003.

(Nintendo) Sakamoto - I also love the video in the “Electronics Store,” so I asked Satō-san to give the player an opportunity to watch any of those videos whenever they want. That way you can study what you saw at your leisure.

Iwata - As you play it’s clear that the people that made the game also had a great time making it (laughs). Even separate from the fact that it’s a game, the absurdity of it is even fun (laughs).

Everyone - (Laughs)