The season finale of documentary series toco toco focuses on the life and work of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, game designer and former head of both Q-Entertainment, developers of Lumines and Child of Eden, as well as Sega’s United Game Artists division, the team responsible for iconic titles such as Space Channel 5 and Rez – the latter of which was re-released by Mizuguchi’s new company, Enhance Games, as Rez: Infinite in 2016 with fully featured VR functionality.
In the video, Mizuguchi is quick to set out his forward-thinking visions for the future of technology, games and even society. As someone fascinated with exploring the concepts of synaesthesia and stimulation of the senses in his work, Mizuguchi discusses how the introduction of mass market Virtual Reality presented him with a unique opportunity to change the way players can experience Rez to further immerse them and provoke an emotional response. He also explains the background of the special synaesthesia suit, a one-off body suit designed to expand on Rez‘s multi-sensory concepts.
Mizuguchi is also someone who derives pleasure from the elements of our day-to-day lives that remain disconnected from our fast-moving, online society. He introduces Restaurant Bohemian, an eatery with no internet presence and a location spread only through word of mouth.
For anyone who has played or enjoyed Rez, this video is essential viewing – for a glimpse of the thoughts and emotions behind its surrealist design, as well as the hopes and aspirations of its creator for where manipulating the senses will take gaming in the future.
It should be noted that those who have yet to experience Rez: Infinite‘s ‘Area X’ may wish to save watching this until after they have done so – the new area introduced in the remake, which is featured prominently throughout the video, is something that I strongly believe is best experienced with no prior knowledge of its structure or ideas. Witness it for yourself and come back to this video later to learn about what went into its creation.
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