Reblog: KHHsubs: Dengeki Online Interview with producer Yokoyama Masa on RGG Ishin.
This game goes from a modern day setting to a historical setting, taking place during the Bakumatsu period. Tell us why you decided on that period.
– At first, both myself and Nagoshi weren’t keen on the idea of setting it in the Bakumatsu. When deciding on a new Ryu ga Gotoku game, the things we value most are “impact” and “quality”. Things like the market when producing the game, the various circumstances of both the creators and the recipients, and our mid to long term plans for the series are all aspects we endlessly consider. We, the developers, always wanted to depict this world, and it was my personal desire to try it out. However, as per usual, there was the talk of whether we could get to the point where we could consider a project plan by having both product impact and quality firmly in place. As for this “impact” and “quality” in the new game, we wondered if we could make a fascinating game beyond anything we’ve done so far by developing a game with characters from previous games in the series as the core component, and then that lead to a design plan.
Until now, the story, setting and world itself have always been the most important aspects when planning a Ryu ga Gotoku game. But for the first time we are making the characters the central part of the game, and we aimed to make a game in which those characters could flourish and shine the most effectively. The result of that was deciding on the character of “Sakamoto Ryoma”, but it also tied together with the setting of the Bakumatsu. We didn’t expect to end up with this idea. This may not be obvious to the players, but this was actually a whole new challenge for the team.
So first you decided on a character. Then as it turns out that character, as luck would have it, happened to be around in that era?
– That’s pretty much it. We just happened to end up with the idea of Kiryu Kazuma appearing as Sakamoto Ryoma, but if it had turned out that having Kiryu appearing as Napoleon would be wonderful both as a game and a product then I think we would have gone with that. Because of this, we are always full of ideas when we make plans. In fact, in the initial planning stages, that was one of our ideas (lol).You mentioned making Kiryu Kazuma appear as Sakamoto Ryoma was a challenge for the team
– After development of Kenzan, there was a lot of talk between staff about how Kiryu would be suited to being Sakamoto Ryoma. In fact, there were a lot of fans who have said the same thing. But when we consider the image in our minds, Sakamoto Ryoma is an extremely difficult character to handle. Sakamoto Ryoma is a Japanese hero. There have been many different “types” of Sakamoto Ryoma appearing in things like novels, TV dramas and films. When seeing Ryoma portrayed in a drama by actor Uchino Seiyou, I really had this feeling of “This is it!”. Nevertheless, months and years passed before I had digested the character of Ryoma in my own way and completed the image of him. I thought “if Kiryu had lived during the Bakumatsu as Ryoma, I think he’d have lived like this”. At the same time, both the ideas and the needs fortunately came together at the same time and so we could take on this challenge.
In works that focus on the character of Sakamoto Ryoma, whether that be novels or TV dramas, there are many different approaches used when it comes to how he influenced the era. What kind of Sakamoto Ryoma are we going to see in Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin?
– I dare say I believe you’ll see a Sakamoto Ryoma you’ve never seen before. He feels like he is broadminded, and he doesn’t speak the Tosa dialect (lol). But I believe people who have played even just one game in the Ryu ga Gotoku series will be understanding of the unusual nature, or get the feeling of “Ah, this may be the kind of man Ryoma was”. In addition, we’ve done a lot of thinking about how to match the personality and appeal of the Kiryu Kazuma chartacter with the character of Sakamoto Ryoma.So the character appearing in the game is different to the real, historical Sakamoto Ryoma?
– We haven’t got in everything he did in history, but we have depicted him sufficiently. After all, he was killed at the Omiya Inn (lol). But we have created an original framework and our approach to this historical outcome is different, and the process is different. Having said that, even if we were to talk of things that really happened in history, I myself have absolutely no idea. To be honest, I did a lot researching using various sources, but in the end it’s all as clear as mud to me.
He is an intriguing man, surrounded in mystery, isn’t he?
– That’s right. He seems like a man who, while being unhappy over the state of the era, had some modern ideas – a man who protested against the way things were. That’s the rough image I have of him, but I can’t get a precise image of him. So I did some more research with a wide range of sources. However, it turns out I still have no idea exactly what he did. It was then when I went back to my original intention of “Kiryu Kazuma = Sakamoto Ryoma”. So rather than focus on the big issue of him changing the era, we felt that it would be more like Kiryu to have a motive more like what his character would have. For example, the issues of him losing his father, losing the people he cares about. So, he leaves the issue of changing the era to others while he goes along with all his effort for his own reasons, creating what we feel is a Kiryu-style Sakamoto Ryoma.
Source: http://dengekionline.com/elem/000/000/707/707570/
