Though Sands of Destruction has been out in Japan since late 2008, developer imageepoch was present at Tokyo Game Show conducting interviews for the DS RPG in order to promote the January 2010 Western release. We spoke with representatives from both imageepoch and Sega about the unconventional 2D game, learning a bit about what's been changed for the US version, talking about how cute the character Taupy (right) is and finding out what the deal is with the title change in the most unexpectedly awkward way possible.
Joystiq: The thing that stands out the most for me is the concept of destroying the world instead of saving it. Could you tell us a bit about the concept and the inspiration?
Yoichi Shimosato, section manager, Sega CS R&D 3: Originally, Mikage-san from imageepoch, Katou-san, the scenario writer, Mitsuda-san, the composer, and I got together for a casual dinner and they talked about how they wanted to work on an RPG together. At that initial meeting, they discussed how they wanted this RPG that they create together to be something nontraditional, something different from the typical standard RPG. They asked Katou-san to come back with an idea, and the only request was that it be nontraditional. The second time that they met together, Katou-san came back with the idea of the World Annihilation Front, and that's how it all started.
"We thought using voice would be interesting -- to equip voice as you would weapons and armor." |
Takashi Kuroki, Digital Contents Department General Manager and Planning Division Manager, imageepoch: Yes, exactly. In typical RPGs you have weapons and armor that you can use. For this game we wanted something different, and we thought using voice would be interesting -- to equip voice as you would weapons and armor. And you'll find in this game that there are less weapons and armor than other RPGs, and that's because we have the quip system instead.
Do you consider it a funny game?
Ryoei Mikage, president, imageepoch: Rather than it just being funny, it's more black humor. When you actually look at the storyline, the basic concept is actually pretty frightening. But utilizing humor, we tried to make it more accessible for the casual gamers.
Is it a DS game in the interest of attracting casual gamers, or is the DS just an ideal platform for RPGs?
Mikage: The first step was, when we were initially creating the concept for this game, there were no new IP RPGs on the DS yet in Japan, so we wanted to challenge into the new genre, and that's how we chose DS when we first started the concept.
And now there seem to be a lot of RPGs on the DS. There are even a lot of RPGs on the DS from Sega. Now that the game's coming out here in the midst of a lot more RPGs, do you still feel the game is unique among all of them?
Mikage: Even in this more competitive market now, we feel that Sands of Destruction is specifically unique in the graphics. For the newer RPGs and other games coming out on the DS, even though the technical capabilities of the DS are pretty limiting, developers try to make the most of it by creating 3D graphics that are more advanced, but instead of doing that, we had originally looked at the DS and said, well, what about the more nostalgic 2D, making the best of the nostalgic 2D graphics that the DS is made for. And we feel that we've done that well, because the characters move very fluidly in this game, and we've made the best of the 2D graphics, and we feel that that still stands out amongst all the other RPGs.
Given that it's 2D, was the anime always part of the idea?
Shimosato: When the game was about 50% finished, where the scenario and overall plot was already cemented down, we felt that because this is a DS game, because this is 2D, in order to communicate the depth of the characters and the world, and the atmosphere of the game, we felt we needed to do something more than just regular marketing and promotions, and that's where the anime idea came into play.
"We've made the best of the 2D graphics, and we feel that that still stands out amongst all the other RPGs." |
Shimosato: We're not sure about the Western market yet -- the anime is set to release at the same time as the game in the West. But in terms of the Japanese marketing, we actually had a manga series as well on top of the anime series.
What do you think about the Western title? It seems, maybe, less direct, than World Destruction.
(everyone starts laughing)
Mitsue Nakagaki, Product Marketing Manager, Sega (and translator for this interview): I'm marketing for the West, and it's actually a Western decision.
World Destruction is too direct, and it could lean towards being a little generic when it's in English. And also we had some legal issues as well, trademark issues. It was a better option to look for something that was more -- integrating the whole mood of the game, rather than -- the whole objective of the game is to destroy the world, therefore it's World Destruction. For the Western market, we felt that the sea of sand was something that was very compelling and very different and unique in terms of the world atmosphere of the game, and therefore we chose Sands of Destruction for the West.
The Taupy character seems very unique -- he has a very tough voice, and seemed to be the strongest character we've seen. Is Taupy one of the main characters? What's the idea behind Taupy?
Mikage: Taupy is actually the hidden main character of the game. The reason for that is that all the development staff, the voiceover staff, everyone, their favorite character hands-down was Taupy. Even though Morte and Kyrie are actually the main characters of the story, Taupy was such an impactful character that in terms of the cutscene and movies in the game, Taupy's appearance is the most frequent.
Kuroki: Also, if you see, during the battles, when Taupy punches someone, he winks. That's something that you can barely see in the game, but that's the level of devotion that the staff had towards that character.
Kuroki: Nothing that's retail merchandise, but we had promotional merchandise like cell phone straps with Taupy on it. And if you look at any of the previous events and promotions that we did in Japan, there was a huge Taupy costume.
Will we be seeing preorder Taupies here?
Nakagaki: (laughs) TBD. But we're very aware that in the US, as well, he's the favorite character of the community and the fans. So we definitely do want to do something with Taupy.
"We definitely do want to do something [pre-order related] with Taupy." |
Mikage: Because we have that time, one of the things that we revised in the Western version is the encounter rate. That's actually something that post-release of the Japanese game, we've seen a lot in user reviews and user comments that the encounter rate was too frequent, so we balanced that out. There were some very, very minor bugs in the Japanese version that we fixed for the Western version. In terms of the overall game balance, the Western one will be, actually, much better tuned than the Japanese version.
Is imageepoch working on a sequel, or is Sands of Destruction a one-game series?
Mikage: Secret. It all depends on how the game is received globally, and if the fans want to see more of, for example, Taupy.
Not just in terms of sales, but how was the reception in Japan?
Mikage: In terms of users reviews and feedback from the actual people who played the game, some feedback was expected, some was surprising and new for us, but one thing that is definitely true is that based on the reviews and the feedback from the gamers, we've implemented that in the western version of Sands of Destruction. And not just with that IP, we've also implemented that into 7th Dragon, which is another title that imageepoch and Sega worked on together, released after Sands of Destruction. There might be other titles that Sega and imageepoch work on together, and that will definitely reflect in those games, as well as titles that imageepoch and Sega work on independently as well. We feel that it was a really good collaborative project, Sands of Destruction, and we've gotten really good feedback from the fans, and we want to implement that to make future titles better.
Are we going to see 7th Dragon in North America or Europe?
Nakagaki: That is ... no comment.
