Even when I went to the bank, I couldn't borrow money. They said, 'We…

“These games had their own worlds and stories. I felt a certain authorial quality in them.”

“It was 100% out of my pocket. No funding from anyone whatsoever. So we're independent.”

“There was a period, before my Father died, where I thought I'd become an artist, but my Father died very suddenly when I was 13. My family was full of artists, you see, and they hadn't been able to make a living off of it.”

“Some of those offers are ridiculously high prices, but it's not that I want money. I want to make what I want to make. That's why I created this studio. So as long as I'm alive, I don't think I will ever accept those offers.”

“So I went around to different game companies, and partly because I was living in Hyogo prefecture at the time, but I thought I'd check out Konami.”