The Sony Xperia XZ Collaboration [Famitsu Wednesday]

Realizing a collaboration with the new model Xperia XZ!

The smartphone in Kiryu’s possession in this game is the new model Xperia XZ, which is also scheduled to be released in the real world. Yes – a collaboration has been realised with Sony Mobile, resulting in the device being included in the game.

The look of the phone when you use it, its unique ringtones and photography using the camera have all been reproduced carefully.

Kiryu appears in the campaign too

Due to the aforementioned collaboration, Kiryu himself stars as the campaign character for the new Xperia in a variety of forms. One of these is as shown in the advertisement to the right. As the release date of the new Xperia approaches, you may see him more often in the wild. This is all that has been revealed at the current stage, but perhaps more is in the works? Look forward to a follow-up report!

Explaining in detail each function of the smartphone!

A given in Ryu ga Gotoku so far as been switching to the menu screen by pressing the Options (Start) button during the game. In RGG6, the same action will take you to the smartphone menu. Choosing one of the nine icons on the menu will take you to a more detailed section. Below, we will explain what happens when you select each icon.

Money/experience/stomach gauge

Just as you would expect, this is an indicator of your on-hand money and experience for each parameter, plus the stomach gauge (hungriness level) which is new in this game. We asked Hiroyuki Sakamoto for specifics on the stomach gauge, so check later!

To Do

A button which displays the substories you have currently active, trouble missions (as detailed later), and the things you must do in the main story. This is a very convenient function, much like an automatically kept to-do list like you might have in the real world. By checking this section, you can also see which area you need to head to next for each mission you have accepted. If you get stuck while progressing through the story, it would probably be a good idea to check your “To Do” first.

Inventory

In Ryu ga Gotoku, up until now you would open the pause menu in order to use items. In RGG6, however, you will be doing this from the smartphone’s “inventory” screen. Item boxes, a fixture of the series that could be accessed from phone booths, have been removed. Everything to do with use of items will now be conducted from here. It’s also a nice touch that you can see what effects they cause when you use them, unlike before!

Equipment/Ability Upgrades

Equipping items and spending experience points to level up is also conducted via the smartphone. You can easily view Kiryu’s abilities just by hovering your cursor over them, which looks like it will be useful when trying to decide which of Kiryu’s abilities to upgrade next. By the way, in RGG6 you can only equip up to two items at once.

Clan Creator

It would be fitting to call Clan Creator – in which you enjoy organisation vs organisation battles by directing the Kiryu Clan, a family formed by Kiryu – the biggest piece of content to look out for. This icon allows you to check the current status of the Kiryu Clan as controlled in Clan Creator. It also displays the progression of unique missions.

Mail

An icon which allows you to check messages sent to Kiryu. Just like in the Ryu ga Gotoku series up until now, messages will arrive for a variety of reasons. In this game, you are also able to reply to messages. By the way, you don’t have to go to the trouble of thinking up a response – you can communicate simply by indicating your feelings with a stamp!

SNS (trouble missions)

By accessing the SNS, you can attempt “trouble missions”, a different kind of mission from substories. As you would expect, these missions involve stopping all kinds of trouble that occur around town, from small incidents to terrible crimes. Read through posts made to the SNS and respond to anything that catches your eye. Your reply will cause the trouble mission to be accepted, leading to the triggering of a variety of events. You can accept these whenever you like, so you might want to check the SNS whenever you have a bit of free time. Of course, if you successfully complete the missions you will receive rewards and experience.

Album

By selecting the album icon, you can view photos you’ve taken during the game with your smartphone. You can takes pictures as long as you aren’t in battle or during an event scene. You can use the inner camera, and also apply filter effects. You could say that the experience of using it is just like that of a real smartphone. Photos you’ve taken can be uploaded to Facebook and Twitter in the real world using the PlayStation 4’s Share function.

Other photos you can take with the camera!?

If you take a photo that meets specified conditions, it seems like amazing things will show up in it! Sometimes, passers-by will spot Kiryu taking a photo and react to it. The possibilities for taking photos… are endless?

Accomplishments

As the name suggests, this is where you can view a list of accomplishments you achieve during the game. You will receive experience relative to the difficulty of the accomplishment, so try to clear as many as you can from this list. Of course, the higher the difficulty is the more experience you will get.

Game settings

A mode in which you can change a variety of settings, such as your viewpoint and all kinds of things displayed on the screen, as well as the degree of blood – basically, an options mode. RGG6’s camera has by far the fewest limitations in the series, meaning that you can switch to first person view almost anywhere.

A dream collaboration with the Xperia XZ, achieved! We asked director Sakamoto all about the smartphone in RGG6!

―A smartphone makes its debut in RGG6, but is featured as the pause menu rather than a simple means of communication as it has been in the past. What is the reason for this?

Sakamoto: During the planning stages for RGG6, we’d already decided that we wanted to put a smartphone into the game. Considering how we could use it led us to the conclusion that the most natural thing would be to have all of the elements of a pause menu focused in a communications device like a smartphone. This is just my own personal opinion, but I felt like having a pause menu displayed across the entire screen was just too game-y. By the way, you can have some of the smartphone’s menu screens displayed on-screen as you move around.

―Did the ability to move around with the smartphone menu up have anything to do with the increased machine power?

Sakamoto: The new Dragon Engine (the name of the new game engine being used in RGG6) influenced changes in the layout in ways like this. In the past, we had the adverse effect of it taking time until it was displayed. This is something we can only do because it’s on the PlayStation 4 with a new engine. We also focused on the viewability of things like the item selection screen, so there are things that do take up the screen, but we tried to avoid that where possible.

Extravagant uses of the hardware’s capabilities allowed the inclusion of a smartphone in RGG6

―In terms of preserving that sense of immersion, it might have been very effective to do a tie-up with the Xperia XZ for the smartphone.

Sakamoto: Right. When we thought about RGG6’s platform, we decided that it made sense to join up with Sony Mobile if it was going to be anyone. The Xperia allows remote play, too, so it feels like a good fit for the PlayStation.

―Very true. Considering that, might there be some kind of link between the real-life Xperia series and RGG6?

Sakamoto: At the current time we’re getting excited about the possibility of doing it, but no specifics are set in stone just yet. By the way, the ringtone of the smartphone in the game is the Xperia’s own ringtone.

Questioning Mr. Sakamoto about doubts we had regarding the smartphone menu!

―There’s one thing I was curious about on the smartphone menu – what’s the “stomach gauge”?

Sakamoto: This is an element added to RGG6 that’s related to the growth system. In this game, all of the foods you eat have an impact on the stomach gauge. As long as Kiryu isn’t full up, you’ll gain experience across the five parameters in response to what he eats.

―I see!

Sakamoto: You can eat when he’s full up, too, but all this will do is recover health – you don’t get any experience from it. As you take part in battles and run around town, the stomach gauge will decrease. Meals that grant you more experience will make the stomach gauge fill more quickly – things like that (laughs).

―Including the recently-announced collaboration with Rizap, it seems like you’ll have to put quite a bit of thought into what you eat.

Sakamoto: Yes. One of the lures of the Rizap challenge is that you can reset your stomach gauge to zero with it.

―It seems like I’m going to have quite a lot of trouble coming up with meal plans to effectively gain experience.

Sakamoto: There are bonuses you get for certain food combinations, too, so I hope people go looking for those. …Of course, experience, food and the stomach gauge are important pieces of information in RGG6, so you can just bring up your smartphone menu and take a look.

―I get it now! The next thing that interested me about the smartphone was the SNS (trouble missions). What is the difference between these and substories?

Sakamoto: Trouble missions are primarily made up of chains of mini stories. Just like the substories up until now, their stories progress on a set rotation, but you can accept them at your own discretion and proceed through them that way.

―It seems very fitting for something like RGG6, now that everything is seamless.

Sakamoto: They’re missions that are a fusion of real-time and seamlessness. They feel almost like a quest board that you can go through whenever, wherever.

―That’s easy to understand. You can now go into narrow alleys and buildings you might not think of, so it seems like it’ll be tricky getting to the designated place.

Sakamoto: I hope people enjoy exploring like this, too. At times, you might even come upon something unexpected.

―Something unexpected… Do you mean the ghost photos?

Sakamoto: The spirit photos are one aspect of this. You can find them by obtaining certain items or photographic specific places, but… I’ll let the players get excited about where you can take them (laughs).

―I’ll do my best to find them! Next up, messages – I was shocked by the fact that you can reply.

Sakamoto: We say “reply”, but it’s done simply using stamps. The other person’s reaction will changed based on your response, though, so you can enjoy all kinds of reactions.

―I look forward to it! By the way, can you use the stamps that Kiryu uses on a real Xperia, too, or…?

Sakamoto: We haven’t decided anything about that yet, but I hope we can do it. Look forward to more.

And one more thing

Just in case you missed it here’s the Xperia stream from TGS 2016 with Yokoyama-san.