Feature Friday #1

CAMPAIGN UPDATES

SOCIAL MEDIA GAME

We are nearly at the end of the week and both games have achieved all their community goals. Still though, so long as there’s no counterattack over the weekend then it looks like you’re in the clear for the community game this week. Congratulations!
The higher-ups at the B.O.I. shocked to see someone figure out the cypher for red-letter code. How anyone figured out that each section’s red letters were scrambled and that by unscrambling them you’d reveal the key words: VIRGINIA, IO, RIGHT, ARMPIT, ESCAPEE that would then point to the first designated target of the B.O.I. William N. Bishop is beyond us. But the password BISHOP doesn’t seem to be safe anymore.
That’s right, the Penny Blood red band trailers (for adults only) are out so feel free to check them out. Not for the faint of heart!

STRETCH GOALS

We’ve had a lot of questions asking about the reasoning behind our stretch goal amounts. They’re important and we have a bunch of great ones planned, but they can easily become the death of many campaigns—promising too many versions or modes when you don’t have the budget to back it up. We’ve analyzed the costs of these goals and placed them at intervals we consider to be responsible, with the first individual stretch goals for Armed Fantasia or Penny Blood starting at $750,000 each.
We’re close to hitting the first of those for each game but we’re not there yet. Both Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood have their own development teams and budgets, making $750,000 a realistic number to really begin really fleshing out a game of this scale. We’ll have to see how the funding progresses and may need to re-arrange certain goals to fit with the overall pacing, but while you are here, why don’t you tell us what goals you would find interesting to see?

CONTENT UPDATES

Games are made by people, and oftentimes you’re only able to catch a glimpse of those people through brief interviews and media spots. But we’re not about that, and have AMAs and appearances on our Discord channels planned in the future to help our backers connect with our creators.
In the meantime, we hope you’ll enjoy our first batch of interviews:

Overall Game Designer and Scenario Writer
Akifumi Kaneko

――Give us a quick self-introduction, please.

My name is Akifumi Kaneko, and I work for ARIA Entertainment as the head of the general headquarters of their cross-media department. We’re a music company, but we cross the lines between media types and develop new IPs. That’s what I do.
Thanks for having me today.

――For Armed Fantasia your title is Overall Game Designer and Scenario Writer. What exactly does “Overall Game Designer” entail?

My first job as Concept Leader is to organize the overall policies and make sure that all other leaders understand what I have in mind and how I want the game to be so that they can do their jobs.
I also do many other things. You could say I do odd jobs.

――What sort of things do you mean?

Off the top of my head, I write NPC dialogue, design title logos, order all the different types of designs, order music, and assign edits to different frames of the music. I do all sorts of things. I’m also the discussion-starter for the battle system and field systems.
On older projects I wrote advertising copy, did martial-arts instruction for motion capture, and pretended to be the Sound Director. However, on this project you never know what I might wind up doing.
Oh, the stories behind the Anomalies are things I wrote up. All the other things I mentioned before can be handled by someone else, but I plan on handling the Anomalies all on my own because they’re very important.
On the other hand, since I get to do the Anomalies all by myself, I might find myself with other jobs being pushed on me in exchange.

――What games have you previously worked on?

I started off working as an Assistant Planner on a TurboGrafx-16/Super CD-ROM² dev team. I suppose now that it’s been so long I can say it, but… I think it was about six months after I joined the company? The second title I worked on didn’t wind up doing so well, but I thought of it as a good opportunity. So I put myself up on the chopping block and asked the top brass at the company to make me Team Leader (read: I was tired of the low salary I was getting). That might’ve been the true beginning of my career.
From the third title, I was officially made Main Planner. But the games the company released at the time were made under such laughable conditions. Like imagine having to complete a game in three months.
That’s how I started getting career experience. That’s how I established my current style. First I start with the development period and budget, then plan out which staff members are suitable for what tasks. In between that, I figure out what it is that I want to do.
That’s precisely how Wild ARMs, one of the games I’m most known for, was handled. I’m not used to doing things the way we’re doing them for the Kickstarter – starting first with what I want to do. Honestly, it’s the first time I’ve gotten to do things this way, so I’m very excited.

――Why did you decide to get into the game industry?

Because I needed money to eat. I’m not exceptionally smart, and I don’t have a lot of stamina. I couldn’t hack a job at a reliable company like my father did. And it’s not like I have what it takes to become an entertainer, either.
In order to survive in this big city, I might’ve had to give up on the straight and narrow and turn to a life of crime. But one day, I coincidentally found a book at a bookstore. It was called “RPG Creation Notebook – The Making of Madara”. Because of that, I wrote a proposal for a game (which later became Wild ARMs 3), and here I am today.
I left a lot of the middle of the story out, and exaggerated a bit, but that’s the gist of it.
I’d loved video games since I was a kid and always wanted to work in the entertainment industry. I never thought that dream would actually come true.

――What have you been doing over the past 15 years?

I’ve been making competitive action games and helping acquaintances with their own games while hiding my own name in the process. Other than that, my main work hasn’t been for games, but rather anime production.
Originally, I had only planned on helping out a bit with the the anime job. But the next thing I knew, I was creating my own original work, writing scripts, and helping with structure and all. Thanks to everyone supporting my work, it’s become a long series with five whole seasons.
Because of that… Some people might only know my name from anime now.
Before the Kickstarter started, I was involved in starting up several anime projects and writing scripts for them. However, that work has calmed down and all the prep work is finished. This will be the first time in a while for me where I’m actually working on developing the game rather than being a supervisor or guest writer.
Personally, I don’t see strong differences between games and anime. I approach both of them as entertainment jobs, so I don’t think my career has particularly changed much in the last 15 years.
Looking back on it now, it’s just been 15 years of being chased by deadlines.

――You’ve had a rich career in anime. Do you have a preference for making games or anime?

In short, I like them both. Love them both. I’d say the only problem is the time it takes to make them.
Of course I have times where I have trouble sleeping, where I have deadlines creeping up on me, or when I’m tired, just like everyone else. But the fun always makes up for those rough patches.
Honestly, I prefer creating games and anime to watching them.
When I was making anime, I spent my days off writing up proposals for games that I had no plan on creating. That’s how fun it is.
In fact, I found myself using some of those ideas while planning out Armed Fantasia. So deep down inside, I may have actually had the desire to force those ideas into a game someday.

――What are some of your personal favorite games?

I’m not a true otaku, so when I’m asked questions like this I can’t really think of anything. However, within hand’s reach are a fighting game and a Metroidvania game. Additionally, I always keep a vertical scrolling shooter on my person. I’ve also got plenty of board games in my work room to play with friends.
I enjoy most genres, both in electronic games and non-electronic games. I think the kind I’m least fond of is Monopoly-style party games. I like them, and they’re fun and all, but I might be an unforgiving player. So in most cases, friends who play those kinds of games with me wind up in a bad mood. Maybe because I’m so unyielding.
That reminds me. When it comes to party games, I really like Among Us. In games like Werewolf the bad parts of a person’s personality directly affect the fun in a positive way, which I think is really smart. That way, mean, inconsiderate and selfish people won’t end up being hated by their other friends, and that includes me. I can enjoy them without any worries.

――What is your favorite anime?

When I was a kid, I loved robot anime. I liked spaceships and supercar mecha, of course, but I loved humanoid robots the most. I really had a strong inclination toward big, heroic robots that people could pilot. And if they could combine or transform, I’d like them even more.
This love for robot anime hasn’t left me in my adult years. But now I can enjoy cartoons from overseas more than I could when I was a kid.
As for my favorite… this might be getting off track, but I still have a copy of The Spectacular Spider-Man season 3. I’m still upset that they stopped that show mid-way. Someone please make season 4. If they put it on Kickstarter, I’ll definitely back it!
And Japanese companies. I’d like you to localize more foreign cartoons and release them in Japan. If you do it on Kickstarter, I’ll back it! (2nd time)

――Why have you come to Kickstarter?

“I made a new acquaintance” and “it came up during conversation” is the actual beginning of the story.
But actually, the reason I decided to do development via Kickstarter is because I was charmed by the idea of having the freedom to make whatever I wanted.
I’m extremely happy that I was able to take the things I loved as a child – games and anime – and make them into my job. But when I think about what I want to do next, I want to be able to work on something with no paths imposed on me, something where I have the freedom to do what I want. That sounds really fun.
Of course, at this age, I know that having no paths imposed on me means that the world could become a very merciless and dangerous place. I get that. But I’ve always been a curious soul, and I’ve never been able to shake that trait. Perhaps deep inside I get some sort of excitement from the thrill of danger. For example, I love horror movies.
Oh, and I was told that I could do the project without showing my face on Kickstarter. That was a big plus for me, personally.

――So, why aren’t you showing your face during the campaign?

My sincerest apologies for that, but it’s nothing personal. I’ve just done my best to make sure that none of my private information made it into the public for years. I’ve done my best to keep things like how I look, but also my sex, birthday, or even my blood type secret since the start of my career. Though, there was a really big interview I did a while back where I think I might’ve given a few things away that could allow you to imagine some things about me…
With this Kickstarter project, I made sure that all of my personal information would be hidden before we began. The reasoning? I’ve always personally thought my existence and personal data would only get in the way of my work.
But here’s an example… In the current world, it isn’t rare for even the most mild-mannered of people to become petty and aggressive on the internet. I think this is evidence of the fact that people transform into other people when they become anonymous. For me, keeping my personal information secret allows me to become both positive main characters brimming with vitality and inhuman villains so that I can write my dialog and stories.
I’ll be hiding myself in this interview as well, but that’ll allow me to go on writing about these positive main characters and inhuman villains to my heart’s content.

――What do you consider the top 3 unique points of this game?

Wow, that’s a quick brain-teaser like those from long ago. I’m genuinely surprised.
As far as I know, there’s only one “big selling point”, so you’ll have to forgive me if I only talk about that.
Our big selling point is that our game is a story-driven JRPG that uses the latest in 3D graphics, with a huge world map.
Players will use vehicles on land, sea, and air. The classic feeling of adventure that comes from explorable areas slowly opening up is different from the popular games of today that emphasize realism, but that makes our game unique, I feel.

――Overall, will this installment be harder, or easier than the previous games in the series?

Before I talk about the game’s difficulty, it’s worth mentioning that the game isn’t complete at all. So it’s incredibly difficult to answer this question.
Everyone has varying opinions on what “difficult” is. So many varying opinions. To me, I like to emphasize things like “Well, this is the climax of the story, so I want the player to be able to move ahead at a decent pace”. But that’s the scenario writer in me. The game designer in me goes “No, since it’s the climax the level design has to be amazing”. Both of those desires exist inside of me, so it’s hard to be consistent.
The leaders of each department and myself are always struggling with what to do with difficulty until the very last moment.
But despite that, I want to establish again that Armed Fantasia is and will always be a JRPG.
If the Kickstarter goes well, we’ll able to add a lot of content to the world and the story. We’re not going to be including a lot of action game elements where you’ll need fast reflexes or fancy hand techniques to beat the game. Balancing the difficulty so that it’s easy to play as an RPG is best, I think.
Going slightly off topic, that whole “JRPGs should be easy to play” thing only applies to the main story.
Off the beaten path, I’m pretty sure we’re going to have some powerful Anomalies that are stronger than the last boss. …Maybe.
(Wait… Based on what we’ve come up so far, the last boss might be stronger?!)

――The story of Armed Fantasia takes place in the wilderness. Is there anything about the world’s atmosphere that’s different from other games you’ve worked on?

I’ve worked on some games set in the wilderness before. But none of them were ever set in the same world. This is also a completely different game set in a completely different world.
Comparatively, though… I think that the wilderness, or the Western flavor in particular might come out a bit more in this one.
The weapons we’ve released for the characters have a sci-fi design to them, but those are weapons we imagine you getting at about halfway through the game. In the beginning, they’ll have more retro, Western-style weapon designs.
The game is set in a sandy, Western-style world. The ARMs have sci-fi elements to them, and the Order of the Sacred key has fantasy elements to it. They’re all mixed together in the world for this game. Why these largely different elements exist all at once is at the core of the story this time around.

――Have you approached writing the story in the same manner you’ve always done,or did you feel the need to change your approach due to how much time has passed since the last installment in the series?

I’m not particularly aware of anything different I’m doing. If the person writing the story hasn’t changed much, wouldn’t their approach to writing mostly stay the same?
Whenever I’ve written for games or anime, I’ve never kept the latest trends or anything in mind. In fact, since most of our customers have grown to have a very discerning eye, if I were to suddenly put in something with zero conviction behind it, I feel like it would come off wrong.
I’m not writing a textbook or a “For Dummies” book. It’s entertainment. So there’s a lot of things in it that you won’t learn at school.
I have made no attempts at bettering or worsening my process. All I’ve ever wanted to do was write something to share the things I love with other people.

――Will any fan-favorite characters like Siegfried appear in this game?

First off, I want to say that as his creator, I never knew that Siegfried was so popular that he would appear in this interview. (This is definitely something that would never appear in an interview with a Japanese media company!)
On one hand, Siegfried is one of my favorites. He sees things from a similar manner that the main characters do, he works very hard…but he’s a villain.
However, since he is a character that appeared in the Wild ARMs series (1, 3, Alter Code F), he can’t appear in Armed Fantasia.
One of the ways you can define the Wild ARMs series is that it starts with Tony and ends with Ragu O Ragula. But neither of those characters will show up in Armed Fantasia. Why? Because this isn’t WILD ARMs.
If there are any fans out there that were expecting something like that, let me start off by apologizing. There will be no characters from other titles or past titles. You have my deepest apologies.
There also won’t be the nine Mothers from a parallel world. The secrets to the three ark drive weapons Smasher, Impulse, and Nova won’t be revealed. There’s a lot of content left in the world of Wild ARMs, but we can’t put any of it in Armed Fantasia because it’s a completely different title.
That said, we’re aiming for Armed Fantasia to be a title that can be enjoyed by anyone. Including people who haven’t played or seen any of my previous works.

――Will the game be fully-voiced?

We’re working under the assumption of having it be voiced.
However, to be able to answer this question, we’d have to know how much of a development budget we’ll have for the game and the voices. Right now, it’s difficult to give a precise answer to this question. My apologies.
That said, obviously having voice actors would certainly add color to the characters. So we’d like to do whatever we can.

――Will you be able to change the voiced language?

If we’re able to have the game be voiced, we’d like you to be able to switch between Japanese and English voices.

――In the past, you’ve personally picked all of the music yourself for games where you’ve written the story. Is there anything in particular that you’re going for in Armed Fantasia’s soundtrack?

Whether I’m working on games or anime, the music is always very important for me.
Something I find myself often saying is “All the songs should be treated as songs, not background music”. But I’m actually not that extreme. That phrase is just a part of my personal philosophy, you could say. But since that represents how I position the music in my work, it was the first thing I said to the composers on the project. And just as expected, it bewildered them.
Of course, the more powerful the song, the harder it is to use it as background music, but figuring out where to use it best is a part of my job.
It isn’t just “get a good composer, have them write some good songs, and that’s it.” I always take the utmost care to avoid that on my projects.

――How do you think JRPGs have changed over the past two decades?

It takes money to make a JRPG. And it seems to me that lately this is a genre where it’s hard to make your money back. I think that’s why lately JRPGs have had to cut things like the number of special moves or world maps. That’s why they’ve got these narrow frameworks now.
On the other hand, perhaps because of that narrow framework, I think the staff making JRPGs now are much more skilled and sophisticated than they were during the Playstation 2 days. I feel like they don’t worry about the restrictions. They’ve got great ideas, unique direction, they’re sharp, and they’ve evolved. At least, that’s my own personal impression of things. The reality of things is that the games are fun and well-made.
For a period of time, JRPG was seen as a bad word, particularly overseas. But at some point, the genre established itself and became well-known. Gaining global recognition isn’t an easy thing to do.
There’s no doubt in my mind that JRPGs have changed a lot over the years. But just like the good old days, it’s still one of the best game genres out there.

――Out of your previous games, what system/gameplay element do you feel did not work well in hindsight?

Of course there are some parts of my work that didn’t go well. Not just in the battle systems, either. Everywhere. Heck, I make all sorts of mistakes in real life all the time.
And of course, I reflect on those mistakes everyday. But I also feel just as thankful every day. After all, now I get to embark on a new challenge!
Thank you so much. I’ll be putting my all into this one!
With Armed Fantasia, I’ll have a new staff to help me as I challenge myself to put new elements into the game. Right now, those new elements are simply wild ideas in my head. But I’d like to make them real and show them to everyone as soon as I can!

――Are there any fan complaints that you feel warrant addressing in this title?

Every day, I live my life as a human who has a lot to be ashamed of – submerged in a vast pool of self-reflection. Yes, I think there are things that warrant addressing as well as things that I’ve already begun to fix.
But this is all just a part of my personal philosophy.
But I can’t say that I’ll be able to go through every mistake, every unpopular decision I’ve made, fix them, and turn everything into a new charming element that everyone will love.

However, during our staff meetings, you’ll often hear things like…
“I included (X) system in the past, but I didn’t put enough thought into it and people were really mad about it.”
“Because of time constraints, we had to do (X), but it ended up being even more unpopular than we expected.”
I share my past mistakes and blunders instead of hiding from them. And rather than just trying to fix past mistakes, we’re putting a lot of weight on deciding on the proper policies for the new game.

――Will there be any live stream features for content creators?

Getting excited with streamers as they play new games is a new way to enjoy games, and a new part of gaming culture.
We’re actively trying to find some element that we can add to the game that will allow people to share their experiences.

――Will there be a content creator friendly setting? (censor nudity/sex scenes/gore scenes/copywritten music)

Well, the script isn’t finished yet, so I can’t say if any of that will be in there. But in most of my works, when anything extreme like that showed up, it was in words only and not on the screen. This game likely won’t have anything like that, and if it does it’ll be expressed in a restrained way.
So I don’t think there will be any setting to turn that sort of thing off, since it won’t likely be necessary. As far as copyrighted music, we’re currently not thinking about using any at this stage.
Though, in the past when I was making an anime with cute girls singing, jumping and sparkling, I did borrow from Jackie Chan singing the theme song from “Police Story”. I do love that sort of music direction…
It’s hard to start making scenes with the idea that they’ll have famous songs in them. I think in order to do that you’d have to have the musical sense of a director like Quentin Tarantino. So until I’m finished writing the scenario for the game, I won’t know. If I can think of a way to do it that works for me, I might use some. But if I do, I’ll add a setting to turn it off.

――You’re collaborating with Machida-san. Is there any concern that fans may support that game and not yours?

I’m not concerned at all. Freely choosing what you like is very healthy. Plus, that’s the real thrill of doing a Double Kickstarter.
Of course I’ll be happy if someone decides to support Armed Fantasia. But I’ll be even happier if they decide to support it together with Penny Blood.
Allow me to derail from the question for a bit…
A while back, we had a meeting with the Penny Blood development team. Where we synced up our project plans.
I’ve always loved world history and the occult. I’ve longed to make something with those themes in it. The gore-filled world of Penny Blood and its characters are really wonderful. Even though we were in a meeting, I couldn’t resist telling Mr. Machida on the spot that I would back his game. That’s how much I love it.
I’m already a big fan of the work myself, so Penny Blood gaining more fans would make me happy as well.
Man, that Emilia sure is great, isn’t she? (Sudden advertisement for Mr. Machida’s game.)

――What kind of input or feedback would you like to get from your fans during the KS campaign?

This is my first time doing any of this. My first Kickstarter campaign. So I honestly don’t know.
I’d just like for everyone to not hold back and give me any opinions they have.
Whether or not something will get included is a matter of time and budget, of course. But thinking about those sorts of things is my job. So while I might not be able to include everyone’s ideas, please, by all means, share your thoughts with me.
And of course, simple support, fan art and the like are welcome as well. Our staff (especially me) will be thrilled and get even more fired-up than they already are.

――If there is one thing you could tell your fans about the game, what would it be?

I can’t think of just one thing I’d like to tell people. But we’re trying to make this game the one-stop shop for everything they’ve been wanting.
But if I had to say just one thing, I’d say that this time around, I’m not just looking to be the mild-mannered head of the staff sitting in the director’s chair. This time around, each and every part of the game will be overflowing with the type of content that I’m known for.

――Do you have any fears about the game being unsuccessful on crowdfunding?

Of course I do! If you can succeed in something, you have to be aware of the fact that you could fail as well.
That’s why we’re in the middle of racking our brains to try to figure out what to do in this campaign. And thus, I’d like to ask everyone reading this interview to support our campaign!
Despite the fear, I remain optimistic. That’s the truth of things.
I have many doubts about my own abilities, but my allies have always remained by my side to reassure me. And this time is no different.
I am also aware of the fact that I am blessed to have so many fans out there of my work in games and anime.
It’s because of those fans that I’ve been able to do all the work that I’ve done and see sights I’d never dreamed of.
This might sound arrogant, but I’m the rare type of person who can enjoy my work alongside my fans. This time around, I’m looking forward to experiencing the joy of creating something with all my fans.
So whether we succeed or fail, let’s enjoy this party to the fullest!

Chief Director
Hiroki Ishii