Translator: Hansuke
Editor: Lanju
At the Taipei Game Show 2024, Clouded Leopard Entertainment invited Nihon Falcom President Toshihiro Kondo to come to the show and announced a lot of game news during the stage event, including the Steam version of "Ys X -Nordics-" will be released on March 14, the 20th anniversary title of the Kiseki series, "The Legend of Heroes Kai No Kiseki -Farewell, O Zemuria-" which it will be released in Chinese/Korean languages for the Asia version and is scheduled to launched in 2024, etc., and also revealed the brand new information and screenshots of "Kai No Kiseki".
At the Taipei Game Show, A9VG and several media outlets interviewed Mr. Toshihiro Kondo and Ms. Rei Watanabe/Yuen-Yuen Chen , the President of Clouded Leopard Entertainment , mainly discussing about the content of Kai No Kiseki as well as the Kiseki series and Ys series.
About Kai No Kiseki and the Kiseki series:
-- In Kai No Kiseki, what level of technology has the continent of Zemuria managed to reached?
This information so far looks as if the story aspect is trying to make progress within the Kiseki universe.
President Toshihiro Kondo(Here after Kondo): In fact, in the Republic Arc, the level of technology has been quietly developing behind the scenes, and there are organizations outside of the Republic that are making technological breakthroughs. In this game, they will have an opportunity to showcase that technology.
--In the newly released images from the stage event, we seem to see the back of Rufus, will there be any more storylines related to him in "Kai No Kiseki" this time around?
Kondo: All of the characters just announced will appear in Kai No Kiseki, so stay tuned for those. There will be more organizations and more characters involved in this game than in Kuro No Kiseki, so the ones that we've released are just a small portion of the story. These will be revealed later on in the future.
Will Kai No Kiseki unique position will be Kuro No Kiseki III or act like a set up game like Hajimari No Kiseki?
Kondo: Although the postion feels like a mixture of Haijmari No Kiseki and Kuro No Kiseki, the game setting will be in the Republic which continues where it left off from Kuro No Kiseki, as to why we didn't called this new game Hajimari No Kiseki II or Kuro No Kiseki III is because Kai No Kiseki is the culmination and the beginning of heading towards the climax of covering of the entire series. Although there will be plenty of returning characters in this game, it will be different than Hajimari No Kiseki since this game will be setting up towards that climax. In addition to past characters making their appearance, there will also be brand new characters that will be making their debut in Kai No Kiseki along with past characters that made their appearance in past games but not described in full detail will be in Kai No Kiseki along with different organizations and such.
Do you know how much Kai No Kiseki will advance the story for the Kiseki series? Will Kai No Kiseki will be the final chapter of the Republic Arc?
Kondo: I’ve said before we probably reached about 70% by the end of Kuro No Kiseki II, at this particular point we probably culminate about 90% of the entire Kiseki series by the end of Kai No Kiseki, which will solve a lot of the mysteries surrounding the continent of Zemuria. Kai No Kiseki will also bring the end of the Republic Arc.
--Is Mr. Katsumi Enami still the illustrator for "Kai No Kiseki"?
Kondo: Yes, Mr. Katsumi Enami is still in charge of the illustrations for "Kai No Kiseki".
-Is the new female character that was initially revealed in "Kai No Kiseki" the same courier lady that had appeared before?
Kondo: Oh, I can't just answer that.:)
-The Kiseki series have become a huge overarching story, so is there any recommendation for newer players of which game to play first if they are getting into the series, or is it okay to start with Kai No Kiseki?
Kondo: It's hard to answer that question, we didn't say specifically which game of the Kiseki series would be the best to start with, you don't have to start with the first one, and there's a different approach to start the series halfway through. The Kiseki series has been going on for 20 years, and we are aware of this issue regarding newer players. In fact, we have already been preparing a new work that can be used as an introduction to the Kiseki series, but it cannot be revealed as of yet, and we hope to disclose it during the 20th anniversary of the Kiseki series, so we ask that players to please wait for a little while longer.
--Is this unannounced work, which cannot be publicly revealed yet, a remake of an old game?
Kondo: There may be some people who feel that it should be that specific work, it's not possible to give a definite answer to that question at this point in time, maybe it is, maybe it isn't, we've been eager to respond to the anticipation of the fans of the Kiseki series, so please look forward to a future reveal and being officially published.
-Will the story of Kai No Kiseki be intertwined in two different place this time, or will a group of people will embarked on a long journey?
Kondo: In this game, Van will make his appearance, and many other characters will appear one after another, so it's probably feel like a another group reunion in a way, and respectfully it's similar to how Hajimari No Kiseki does it that we're going to have various events gradually advance the story, and it's going to feel like we are going to be moving from place to another place. The setting of this game is mainly focused in the Republic, and there will be a variety of organizations that will make their appearance. Some of the names of these areas that were revealed in the live event just today will be specifically featured in Kai No Kiseki, so I hope you'll take note of them!
Will the graphics and the in-game character models get a upgrade in Kai No Kiseki?
Kondo: Some of the character models will be improved on, but overall it's basically improved and expand using Kuro No Kiseki as the standard template. The development team is improving the shader aspect of the game, however I can't say at this current time how final version of the game will be at.
- Kuro No Kiseki received a large update patch to fix some problems after launch, maybe some players have beat the game before the update patch comes out, will Kai No Kiseki avoid such a situation this time?
Kondo: Of course, I would like to avoid that if possible. Falcom started as a PC game developer company, so patches are a very familiar way for us, and in fact, we have developed a lot of patches for PC games in the past, but at that time, the president of the company was very strict, and wanted to make sure that the Version 1.00 was within expectations of perfect, and then there were cases where patches were made, but the president wouldn't allow them to be released. Of course now, we would liked to have had the game perfected by Version 1.00, but there were times when we couldn't finish it until the release date and needed to release a patch, or when we finished it and the development team wanted to add new elements to make it even smoother, which it leads of creating the major update. We're working hard to get the game in perfect form, and we hope that players will be satisfied.
About the Ys series:
-Ys X has a different combat/movement system than previous installments, will this Steam release include a more liberal button configuration scheme?
Kondo: The Steam version is being ported and developed by Clouded Leopard Entertainment. When Ys X was initially released in Japan many players reported that it was a bit difficult to maneuver, but after beating way through the game many people reported that this unique way of combat is also fun.
Yuen-Yuen Chen: The Steam version of this game has been tweaked and adjusted so that players can more freely adjust the button settings the way they like.
-- What adjustments have been made to "Ys X" on the Steam Deck besides the resolution, and is it different from the past when Falcom made the Steam version of the game?
Yuen-Yuen Chen: We started the development of the Steam version of "Ys X" after the development of "Kuro No Kiseki II" was finished, and it will be more comfortable on Steam Deck than "Kuro No Kiseki II"did, in addition to the display ratio, we also improved the UI aspect, and more details will be disclosed one after another in the future.
Others/Remarks:
--What are President Kondo's personal feelings about the Taipei Game Show this time?
Kondo: Ten years ago when about 90% of Falcom's staff were developers, very few people thought about how to sell our games, in fact, it's pretty much the same now, and at that time, we thought that as long as the game was done well and could sell well in Japan, that's all that mattered. Twenty years ago, we launched PC versions of Falcom games in Asia, but after visiting the region, we couldn't find any places selling our games, which made us feel confused. It made me very happy to come to the Taipei Game Show about ten years ago and see how enthusiastic the fans were. This time, "Ys X" was simultaneously released on the Switch, and in fact, the Asian region sold more than the Japanese region, which made me actually feel the success of our works in the Asian region, and I realized the importance of the Asian region and even the European and American regions, so I can't focus on the Japanese region as I did in the past.
For Nihon Falcom, which was founded more than 40 years ago, we have actually changed a lot in the last ten years. More than half of the employees who have entered Falcom in the past few years are Chinese employees, and no matter whether it's Kuro No Kiseki or Kai No Kiseki that will be on sale later this year, a lot of them have the enthusiasm within the Asian region, and I hope that players in Asia can enjoy our games.
Coming to the Taipei Game Show ten years ago made me determined to make moves into the Asian region, and it's a place where I have a lot of these different complex feelings. Personally I haven't had the chance to come to Taipei Game Show in the past few years until when I was invited here by Clouded Leopard Entertainment.
Yesterday we went to visit some of the stores and I was touched by the enthusiasm of the gamers when they buy multitude of games. I haven't been to the Taipei Game Show for seven years, but the players here are still so enthusiastic, which makes me very touched, and the Japanese market doesn't seem to have much "vibrant", and seeing this place so vibrant gives me a very fulfilling feeling, and makes me feel more energized and happy after being frustrated on myself in my current development work, and I will continue to work hard in the future. Falcom was preparing for the simultaneous launch of Sen No Kiseki on PsVita and PS3 platforms back then, which was our first attempt at a multi-platform simultaneous launch, and Sony Japan gave us a lot of help at that time, such as inviting us to participate in a lot of events, etc. At that time, I was most touched by the Taipei Game Show, which gave me a lot of motivation to continue our development.
When I met Ms. Chen ten years ago, she said that she not only wanted to release the Chinese version of Sen No Kiseki II in Asia, but also to get a simultaneous release with the Japanese version, which surprised me a lot because it was a very difficult thing to do, and at the time Chairman Kato has always been a very strict person, but that time he said to me calmly that I didn't have to force myself to get a simultaneous release if I felt I couldn't do it. Falcom's development team used to be in-house, and it was the first time that we chose to use an outsourcing company, which made us feel more comfortable with outsourcing, and all of these opportunities came from the Taipei Game Show.