Hisashi Koinuma

Hisashi Koinuma (鯉沼 久史, Koinuma Hisashi; born on October 2, 1971) is a video game programmer, producer, and director. He is the department manager of the software division in Koei, senior manager of the software second department, and is one of the leading figures of Omega Force. He is the developer often seen making public appearances or interviews for the Warriors titles. His personal interests include the Gundam franchise, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Never Ending Story, and many other titles.

He started to love video games when they were introduced to him by his older brother, who is three years older than him. When he was younger, he grew attached to Koei's early simulation titles for the PC and liked the first Romance of the Three Kingdoms title. As he visited the local game centers and expanded his video game library, he decided early in his life to someday be a game creator. To avoid angering his mother from playing too often, he regularly went to school and kept a part-time job to support his interests. During this time, he took an interest in programming to support his future goal. Koinuma played various titles and genre through his youth, but he mainly likes the role-playing or action adventure genre.

After he graduated from Tokyo Denki University with a science degree, he surprised and upset his family by boldly stating his dream to create video games. His parents thought he was aiming to be a financial advisor like his grandfather, who incidentally worked with Koei from time to time. When his father decided to approve his son's choice, Koinuma was given access to his relatives' connections to other companies. There were several candidates he could have chosen, but the final decision was his long admiration for Koei's simulation games. He joined the company in 1994 as a programmer, his first work being Kessen. He remembers the experience as a test to his skills as the company was still working out the kinks of their new hardware systems. Koinuma recalls several all-nighters and last minute changes, remarking that the movies in Kessen were barely able to be burned onto the game disc.

His early preferences and experiences would help shape his goal for the Warriors series: to make an appealing "Action RPG" genre and something not done before by Koei. He is happy to have made at least one Gundam title in his lifetime. While he enjoyed tinkering around with the Nintendo 3DS, he did wish there was a bit more machine power available for Samurai Warriors Chronicles. He feels there is still a lot of potential to found within the Samurai Warriors series and hopes to see it grow further.

Koinuma himself isn't a history buff and hasn't studied much history since he is more about creating games. Other people who work for Koei may be the same way or may be historical fans. A handful of employees have vacationed to China to see Red Cliffs in person.

Regarding his thoughts on the video game industry, he finds that developing methods found in Japan and those found overseas have their respective merits; he doesn't see either one of them as being particularly flawed or dominate over the other. He remarked that video games should stay to the basics (simple to learn and play) for lasting appeal, yet encourages developers to continually expand their horizons with different consoles, products, and levels of gameplay difficulty. He is looking forward to a future of lots of experimental titles filled with quality ideas. According to his commentary at Xbox360 Storategy 2012's stage event, Koinuma would like to someday create a title made to challenge the Western audience on the Microsoft console. If possible he would also like to create a game for Kinetic (which he notes is amusing but difficult to work with) or the Wii U.

Works

 * Kessen series - main programmer
 * Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends - director
 * Samurai Warriors series (all titles except pachislots and pachinko) - producer, director
 * Crimson Sea (both titles) - producer
 * Dynasty Warriors: Gundam series - producer (for Koei side)
 * Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage - producer
 * One Piece Kaizoku Musou - producer (for Koei side)
 * Pokemon + Nobunaga no Yabou - producer (for Koei side)