Highlight Interview Character
- Daisuke Uchiyama (Chief Producer) – Oversees .hack series project at Bandai Namco Inc.
- Hiroshi Matsuyama (Chief Director) – Director of .hack game series at CyberConnect2
- Kikuya Megane (Character Designer, Illustrator & Manga Artist) – Worked on .hack//XXXX and .hack//Link -Twilight Knights-.
- Hiroto Niizato (Planning Director) – Director of CyberConnect2 Studio development teams for this project.
PLANNING [企画]
How did .hack//Link come into production?
Hiroshi Matsuyama (Matsuyama): I worked on the game project of .hack//G.U. during the development of the first .hack game, and I also worked on the movie project of .hack//G.U. TRILOGY during the production of .hack//G.U. In fact, around the same time, we started working on a project for .hack//Link.
Daisuke Uchiyama (Uchiyama): *Looking at the Document* it was tentatively titled as .hack//The World R:X, wasn’t it?
Matsuyama: I’m surprised you pulled such an old document.
Uchiyama: It says that there are 167 members in total. Although there aren’t many people in this work (laughs). This is 2006.
Matsuyama: And while we’re working on .hack//G.U. TRILOGY throughout 2007, the game team started working on the action part (gameplay) for .hack//Link.
Why did you decide to release it on PSP (PlayStation Portable)?
Uchiyama: As for games, the first game is .hack and the second game is .hack//G.U. The series has been developed in various other media. People say that the obstacles are too high for the new users to play. In this case, I think that PSP action games will easily appeal to users of all ages and the obstacles themselves will be much lower.
Matsuyama: We have a choice between PSP and PS3 (PlayStation 3) hardware, but the main players of .hack are junior high and senior high, so they won’t be able to buy a PS3 right away. But if we used the same hardware forever like PS2, there would be no change… So we thought that developing a game on PSP would be the best way to keep people happy.
What’s behind the concept of this work?
Matsuyama: First of all, we had to think about what should we do for the next Third Season, because .hack and .hack//G.U. had a goal. With G.U. we wanted to make the character more popular and I think we succeeded in that, but the story became darker because we wanted to portray the inner lives of the characters in more depth. As you said, I feel that the hurdle is a little higher for the first-time viewers.
“This time I wanted to make sure that I felt a sense of involvement with my friends”.
Hiroto Niizato (Niizato): The dark tones in .hack//G.U. reflects Matsuyama’s and my tastes.
Matsuyama: I believe that works that start out as a hobby become well-loved works. That’s exactly what happened with the characters. Having achieved that goal, the next thing I thought I should was “Lighten it Up”. As the series continues, it become more and more difficult to approach a new customers, so I wanted to make this work bright and cheerful so that it would be easier for the new customers to come in, even from this third season.
SYSTEM [システム]
Where did the idea for the Unison Combo come from?
Niizato: In the past of .hack series, the main character and many others were the main characters, and the player only controlled the main character, while his friend (party) were fighting on their own. This time, however, I wanted the players to be able to feel a sense of involvement with their friends. That is Unison Combo. Instead of each player defeating the enemy individually, I wanted the players to be able to defeat the enemy while playing catch-ball with each other.
And what about Cross Rengeki?
Niizato: The Cross Rengeki is a co-op special move that can be used only when the gauge is full. So we wanted to create a Cross Rengeki that players can look forward to and wonder what kind of Cross Rengeki they will get when they work with this guy (for example, with Kite, BlackRose, or Tsukasa). There are many Xth form Cross Rengeki that are extreme, and it was difficult to create, but the people who job-extend UPCs to the Xth form are people who have a lot of love for the characters. We wanted to give them the Xth form with a new look, so we prepared to separate patterns for the 1st and Xth form.
How were the UPCs (Unison PCs) chosen to be partners in the Unison Battle?
Niizato: First of all, popular characters like Haseo, Kite, and other members that everyone would like to see. We also added Albeiro from .hack//AI Buster and Midori from .hack//CELL, because we thought that it would have been great to have characters that could be used for the first time in .hack//Link. I wanted to make it a selling point that the main characters from the novels could be used as companions.
Matsuyama: Albeiro from the novel was a big part of our consciousness. Since it was only developed as a novel, the voice character has not been decided yet, so I wanted to include Albeiro’s voice. So we decided on that from the beginning. Midori has already appeared in .hack//Roots, although this is her first time to be a playable character.
Niizato: Midori has a very large sword and is capable of good-looking actions, so we wanted to make her available. We had to narrow it down even further, and it was really difficult to coordinate the number of characters. There were some characters like Silver Knight (Ginkan), who was popular among the staff and was chosen in an instant, but Kaede was a little different. Kaede is rather an inconspicuous character in .hack//G.U. but the staff in charge of background worked on the model diligently in between their own work time. We decide that their love should be rewarded. The model is a fruit of love and is very well made, isn’t it?
PROCESS [プロセス]
I understand that Mr. Seiichiro Hosokawa (Character Designer) and Mrs. Kikuya were in charge for the character designer this time.
Matsuyama: When I was working with Mrs. Kikuya on .hack//XXXX, a manga adaptation of the first .hack games, we had many opportunities to talk about manga, anime, and games, and I was impressed by her high level of sensitivity, or rather, her discernment of what’s worth seeing…. that’s why I wanted to be involved in .hack//Link with Mrs. Kikuya from the very beginning of the production.
Niizato: Actually, we had meetings for both manga and game projects at the same time. Since it takes time for a manga to be published in book form, we wanted to get a head start on the manga. Therefore, we first created a story plot, which was then used as the basis for the manga to be serialized in advance. This was the way it was done, so when the manga started in development, there were still many things that had not been decided yet.
Matsuyama: In addition, since Hosokawa was in charge as a character designer alone, it was not productive for us. However, the manga was already in production and we wanted to complete the characters as soon as possible, so Hosokawa created the base character and asked Mrs. Kikuya to draw an illustration. When she drew the character, she asked me, “In real life, would this character be a junior high school student or a senior high school student? what kind an action does he take? what are his goals?” He would then suggest what I should do. Especially for Schicksal, we were even asked to think about the settings.
Mrs. Kikuya Megane (Kikuya): I guess I was responsible for the original drawings, so I asked the editor to confirm that the title “Character Design” was not on the brochure. I asked the editor to check, and he replied, “I heard that the character design is fine.” But then I was asked to do various tasks, and I got involved in parts that weren’t under my authority, so my work increased more than I had anticipated (laughs).
Uchiyama: The people who are involved in .hack are generally like that. I’ve been observing it for 10 years (laughs).
Niizato: At first, I didn’t know how far I could go. I remember that in the beginning, I used polite and mannered words, like “it’s getting colder these days” (laughs).
Kikuya: As they became busier and busier, they became more and more lighthearted. Like, “Uploaded to FTP. (File Transferring Protocol)” that’s all.
Niizato: As we exchanged more and more information, I realized that she was a person who thought about various things and worked on them on her own. When I looked at the finished name, I could see that it was highly finished and there were no problems at all. I decide to leave the rest of the work to her.
Kikuya: It’s just getting tedious…
Niizato: No, no, no, no (laughs).
Kikuya: Actually, when I submitted my name to you, you didn’t give me any instructions on how to revise it, so I got worried and asked you if you always read my name. —– did you read it?
Matsuyama: I read it! I always ask (laughs). I just don’t say anything because I have no complaints.
Kikuya: If I don’t hear anything, I feel uneasy. I wonder if they don’t read it or if they are not interested in it.
Everyone: (Laughs).
Niizato: We started to use messenger and chat directly with each other, but even then, when I saw the name, I thought, “Oh, yes, I like that one” (laughs).
Kikuya: I’d chat with them, but they’d say, “Excuse me, I’m in a meeting right now.”
Niizato: It’s was really a meeting!
Kikuya: I have no doubts about it (laughs).
Niizato: You’re a manga artist and story teller yourself, so you create your world very clearly. She not only cleans up the design, but she draws it only after she feels satisfied. So, if there is no difference between the basic background and the design, she will work on it right away, but if she feels that there’s a discrepancy, she will check it thoroughly. There’s a lot of back and forth like that.
Kikuya: This was especially true for the Comic Demo, we could not simply say, “We will proceed as per the order form.” We had to make sure that any specific scenes in the demo were corrected, and there were questions about how the comic demo would flow before and after the demo.
The Comic Demo was a visual novel presentation
Niizato: It was decided from the beginning that we would insert demos in between stages, but the common expression of simply having characters and text on the screen was boring, so we went through a trial-and-error process to find a better way. At the time, reading digital manga on cell phones was very popular, so I wondered if I could take advantage of the sensation of reading manga digitally. Many digital manga were just colored in, but I wanted to add more powerful movement, so I started to elaborate more and more (laughs).
Kikuya: There was a scene in the scenario that was designated as a comic demo, and I was in charge of turning that part into a name. The PSP screen is horizontal, and the dialogue is written horizontally, which is the opposite direction of Japanese Manga, I had to draw thin, even lines that were different from those in manga, so they would look good on the PSP screen.
The last part is very exciting.
Kikuya: I wanted the last scene to be the one that would make players say “aha!” it was longer than the first scenario I received, but I made my image into a name and made a proposal…
Niizato: It wasn’t a suggestion, but rather “I want to do it” (laughs). Basically, the frame just flaps the wings, but the final scene is quite animated.
Matsuyama: That wasn’t my plan at first, but as it turns out, I’m glad we did it.
Kikuya: If you say so, I’m glad that I proposed the idea.
What did you keep in mind when working on both games and manga?
Kikuya: I tried to keep the manga as digital and simple as possible so that there would be as little difference as possible between game and manga. I was very careful not to use a rough touch in the comic demo. The priority was to draw in a way that would be easy to understand for the person doing the coloring. For the game character illustrations, I was aiming for something that would be acceptable to everyone without any peculiarities, yet still have a bit of a moe elements to it…
CHARACTERS [キャラクター]
“I decide to make a relatable, the realistic middle schooler main character.”
Tokio is a new type of Protagonist.
Matsuyama: Kite and Haseo, who have been the main characters up until now, are not realistic in a sense. They are charismatic junior high school and senior high school students who attract people and play tricks on people, including adults. They were the kind of protagonists that you can admire, but even though they were theatrical and fun to watch, you can’t empathize with them. On the other hand, Tokio is a life-size junior high school student, a simple boy who likes video games and dislikes studying, just like any other boy. I wanted to make a realistic, relatable junior high school boy as the main character.
Niizato: Tokio is a lucky guy. Kite and Haseo are very unique and they have a strong presence among the existing fans. If we were to put out a bar saying, “This is a new character”, we would lose out in terms of presence. So, instead of playing games with him, I made him stand on his own feet and put him in a position where he could be criticized. He was different from the other main characters. The fact that the only one of them is dressed in a modern costume is a visual representation of this.
Matsuyama: In the beginning, the character is wearing a uniform, but towards the end, he/she changes into the Xth form. Since the characters are longing to become heroes, we made it possible for them to transform into fantastic and picturesque heroes, such as Paladin and Dragon Knights, which are typical heroic characters.
As for Saika, the heroine
Kikuya: In the beginning of the story, Saika may seem a bit harsh, but towards the end of the story, I drew her in hope that she would come to like Tokio and be seen as a cute girl. In fact, in the initial scenario, Tokio was much a colder character, and we talked about the fact that he was just a jerk… (laughs).
Uchiyama: Indeed, in the beginning, there’s only “Tsun” and no “Dere” on her at all. I was worried about how she would be evaluated (laugh).
Niizato: In the first scenario, the scene in which the Puchiguso (Grunty) child dies was supposed to end with the line, “It’s okay, it’s just the data.” But I was told that this was a bad idea and that I needed to follow up on it…
Matsuyama: For Saika, Puchiguso (Grunty) is just data, so without reading the situation, she says, “You should retrieve the Chrono Core while you still can.” Saika has to say these words, and the only way to affirm them is to deny them. Then Tokio says, “Let’s not do that now,” to which Saika responds, “Geez…”
Niizato: From the perspective of those who know her background, Saika is Saika, who is in a desperate situation to save her brother, and as such, is blinded by her surroundings. However, the players didn’t understand that. So we thought about that and followed up on the details.
I heard that Mrs. Kikuya designed Klarinette
Kikuya: Mr. Hosokawa is not very good at creating beautiful characters, or rather, female characters, and since the details of the character Klarinette had not yet been clearly defined, we decided to design the character from scratch.
Matsuyama: Hosokawa doesn’t have that kind of character (laughs).
Niizato: At first, the real-life settings of the Schicksal members were not nearly as solid. We only had a rough idea of what they looked like and what their personalities were like. At one point, Mrs. Kikuya told us that the story would have more depth if we worked on the realistic settings. We discussed this with her and made the final decision.
Kikuya: Actually, Schicksal is based on Rhymes.
Uchiyama: Yes, that’s right. However, in the New Epitaph Testament included on the Absolute Siege Pack, Orgel’s real name is Takeshi, but it should be “Takeru”, otherwise Orgel and Takeru do not rhyme. if I may take this opportunity to correct this, please contact me.
Who is your favorite character?
Kikuya: I think my favorite, or probably the easiest character to draw is Klarinette. I designed it, so it is easy to draw because there are few lines (laughs). Also, the character Posaune, which I drew a lot in the manga. I enjoy drawing this character because I can break his face as much as I want and draw it freely. At first, I was like, “I can’t accept this character physiologically!” I was thinking, “Why is Orca naked?” (laughs). But as I drew him, he became a character I thought was cool. Conversely, I’m not very good at drawing Haseo. I was afraid that I would be criticized if I strangely drew him because he is a popular character. Haseo can make funny or scary faces, but I have to draw him as a handsome man no matter what the situation is.
STORY [ストーリー]
When was the first volume of this work, such as “The Chup Chop Case,” made?
Matsuyama: Chup Chop Case is a part of .hack//G.U. story that we omitted. There was a story called Terminal Disc that depicted the transition from The World R:1 to The World R;2 which was told from CC Corp’s programmer, Bansyoya’s perspective. In this story, the specific story of Mia’s disappearance is not depicted in the end.
Niizato: Yes, we ended up just showing that they got rid of things as if they were cleaning up. If we had delved too deeply into the truth of the salvage, the story would no longer be the Bansyoya story, so we just laid out the facts.
Matsuyama: But in fact, when The World R:1 was lost, Mia was salvaged by the CC Corp, which led to Elk’s drama becoming Endrance. And there’s one more story there, the story of Piros 2nd to Piros 3rd. In fact, I also had the story of .hack//Roshi. Piros went from being “Piros” to a “2nd,” and I wrote the words “Puchop!” In the end of the second volume of Chup-Chop XXXX that I wrote to Mrs. Kikuya, “Next is Chup Chop,” which I used it as a secret word at the time to refer to all the gap stories that were not being told, which is what it really is. The true meaning of “ChupChop” is .hack//Link itself.
Niizato: I had already decided that Mia would salvaged, destroyed, and implanted inside Endrance since the beginning, but I didn’t know that Piros was involved in the story until I heard it from someone else (laughs). So, I searched for materials for the scenario of .hack//Link this time. I was surprised to hear that president was so convinced. I thought that since president was so sure about it, there had to be some material. I looked everywhere, but couldn’t find anything… there was no way. It was only in Matsuyama’s mind (laughs).
Matsuyama: So we had a meeting. We said, “This is what “The ChupChop Case” is all about!”
I wonder If there was an open beta or production version for Akashic Line?
Niizato: Akashic Line is a special kind of the game, even though it is an internet online game. Jyotaro Amagi, the creator of Akashic Line, was working for Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), which at the time was rather rigid organization, and they allowed selected children to play Akashic Line as an intelligent training software. Ostensibly, this was done as part of intelligence education. In reality, however, this was done for the Real Digitalization, so there was no need to have adults play the game, and there was no need to be open about it.
Matsuyama: So, as a result, it was never made into a public. The experiment was conducted in 2014, coincidentally at the time of the Twilight Bracelet Incident. It means that something like that was happening behind the scenes. The game graphics of Akashic Line appear in the reminisce scene, but if the staff of .hack//Link had been involved, the graphics would have been similar to the ones in .hack//Link. I asked him to do everything from the design to the final product by himself because it was completely independent, including the worldview.
Niizato: The entire world of The World is a 3D polygonal world, so I asked for a slightly low-tech 2D look.
Matsuyama: When I placed the order, I told them that I would put a filter on the top so that it would be almost invisible, but I didn’t think they would go that far (laughs).
Finally, please give us a few words for the players.
Uchiyama: Dear fans. If you recall, 2010 is the year in which Kite has first logged into The World. He’s in the second grade of Junior High School and I wonder where he is now… I have caught up with the setting. I have met so many people and experienced so many things through this series. I hope these relationships will take on a new form.
Niizato: .hack//Link is not just a sequel, but a compilation of the previous .hack games. In the past of .hack games, we have been gradually building bridges to other games, but now that we have brought them all together, I think you will be able to experience all of the connection in a real sense. The linkage, the “ring”, is exactly what I want you to enjoy. I hope you will enjoy the linkage. And the scenario is wonderful, so I hope you will enjoy it.
Matsuyama: .hack//Link is the final chapter of the series. I hope you will enjoy the conclusion of the series with us. The .hack incident is a major milestone in the third season, and the story of the game contains many elements that will lead to the future. The third season of the .hack series project will continue, so please keep your eyes on it and enjoy it until the end.
Archived Date: February 2010 at Bandai Namco Games Inc
Disclaimer:
- Image Interview Source by Erroneous
- Translated by Jikanet
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