Camelot is quickly becoming a developer to keep your eye on as each game they produce exceeds their previous efforts in terms of excellence. With the promising Golden Sun RPG in development for GBA and word of a GameCube RPG on the horizon, the duo behind Camelot, the Takahashi brothers speak up about working with the GBA.

Translated by Core Magazine this recent discussion with the Takahashi brothers reveals some insight into GBA development.

When asked to give their opinion on the GBA hardware itself, they responded,

"If I had to sum it up in one word, I'd say it's impactful. The Game Boy Advance hardware exemplifies the same leap in technology from the Super Famicom to the PlayStation in the console market. It also has its own identity, as a developer we don't feel as if we're just working on an upgraded Game Boy, the Game Boy Advance is entirely new."

When asked about any limitations they have encountered with the handheld they responded,

"There's still the problem of limited space using ROM cartridges. In the days of the Super Famicom we found ourselves using 32 MB or 64 MB cartridges depending upon the size of the game. In reality, the theoretical limit was 256 MB, but it wasn't cost effective to use ROMs that big. On the Game Boy Advance you need the skill of working on higher-end consoles such as the PlayStation, and the technical background of developing for ROM-based systems. It will be a long time before the Game Boy Advance hardware is fully exploited."

Finally when asked about the technical capabilities of the GBA, including 3D possibilities and sound limitations they replied,

"It's possible to do 3D on the Game Boy Advance, but you run into problems. There are no 3D libraries available like on the Nintendo 64, but if someone made them, it could be done. There are still memory and CPU limitations, but once those issues are worked out, 3D will become a reality on the Game Boy Advance in the future. Graphically the system looks very good, like all handheld machines though, it has its idiosyncrasies. Unless these issues are addressed, you can have problems such as the graphics looking too dark onscreen. The sound capabilities are good also, although you still have to work around the storage issue. It can playback digitized samples, but that takes up memory that could otherwise be used for graphics. In our first Game Boy Advance project 'Oukon no Taiyou,' graphics take precedence over sound, but we're looking for a delicate balance."

Special thanks to Core Magazine for their translation.