What do you leaving the soul intact specifically refer to?

Well I wanted a different approach from IREM’s R-Type Final, where they decided to change everything. I preferred to go back to the roots. I want to deliver a Thunder Force for players who enjoyed it on the Megadrive: I think that 3D altered, if not killed entirely, the fun of an arcade shooter by including these dynamic camera angles. And more and more shooters based themselves on character designs. What I wanted was that basic arcade shooting experience. So I’m making one! Most of the shooters you find today on the Xbox 360 or the PS2 are titles you don’t really feel excited to play at home. You really need to concentrate and focus on your play in order to get into the action. Back in the time I was enjoying arcade shooters at home, I would feel very excited to buy it: then, when I get back home after work, I would open a can of beer and it would be instantly fun. Today, the games are too complicated, they need too much focus. When making Thunder Force VI I wanted that excitement back: no need to wonder about anything, just shoot, defeat the enemy waves and bosses and get the reward of achieving victory! No weird character designs or sophisticated systems. Just pure shooting fun.
 
What has been the most difficult aspect of this development so far?

Well, I don’t want to talk too much about that but… well... money! There’s no way I can get much funding for developing an arcade shooter today. It reminds me of SGGG. I had to be very careful with the budget we had and try to be very creative in the way we worked during that year of development. But the other difficult aspect of this project is quality. When you have a series like Thunder Force which has not been developed for more than 10 years, it reaches the status of legend. People reminisce about it, talking about all those great moments, sequences, bosses… Thunder Force VI offers all this but it is hard to get the approval of fans who always recall those features in a different ways. This is a PS2. It is no Xbox 360. So compared to a title like Omega 5, it won’t look prettier. But we are talking about the Xbox 360 in Japan. The console is not selling much here and this is not the platform people would think of developing their arcade shooter on.