“Dragon Among Us 8”, a new game in the “Dragon Among Us” series that has received a lot of praise, has been released for nearly a month, and many players have been deeply impressed by this visit to Hawaii. A while after its launch, media from Taiwan and Hong Kong visited Dragon Among Us studio representative/production chief Masayoshi Yokoyama, chief producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto, and chief producer Ryosuke Horii, asking them to answer some post-playing questions. .
Masayoshi Yokoyama Hiroyuki Sakamoto Ryosuke Horii
Q: This time “Human Dragon 8” has been well received by players at home and abroad in terms of gameplay and content. Can you please share your current mood with us?
Hengshan: Very happy.
Sakamoto: The results made make players feel satisfied, and as a producer, I feel very happy.
Horii: I have heard from players who have spent more than 100 hours, and some players who feel lonely after completing the level. It is also very happy to hear these reactions.
Q: The time and space background when the “Dragon Among Us” series came out is very different from what it is now. For example, the traditional Japanese underworld organization at the origin of the story has gradually declined. This time in “Dragon Among Us 8” This situation is also reflected. Today’s new generation of players have a different understanding of “underworld” than they did back then. Do you feel that the challenges are increasing day by day as you continue the underworld story? How will the future story of the “Dragon Among Us” series develop?
Hengshan: At the beginning, I didn’t plan to make a series of games with the theme of the yakuza. It was because the stage was designed to be in Japan and reflected the joys and sorrows of the world in Japan, so it was associated with the yakuza, police, public relations shops, etc.
Rather than focusing on the yakuza, I want the story to focus on the character of Kazuma Kiryu and Kasuga Ichiban who takes over, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be a yakuza.
But it is true that the plot and ideas produced will make some changes due to the current social trends.
In previous works of “Dragon Among Us”, characters performed by real people often only appeared once in the participating works, and rarely continued to appear or play important roles in sequels. This time “Dragon Among Us 8” once again invited Yasuda Ken (Namba Yu), Tsutsumi Shinichi (Sawajo Jo) and other artists to participate in the performance. There are also many scenes in the plot. Can you share the reasons for using them again and the cooperation process? ?
Hengshan: They are allowed to appear again because of the needs of the story.
Q: I just asked about the fact that characters played by real people often only appear once in the works they participate in. They rarely continue to appear or play important roles in sequels. However, a large part of this work is a review of Kiryu’s life. So, is that also the case? Are there some characters who have not appeared because of this?
Yokoyama: In fact, there is no intention to not include a character who has appeared in the past, nor is there a character who was originally going to appear but did not appear in the end.
Q: There is a special side story “Death Note” for Kiryu in this game. Is there any content in it that the production team specifically recommends, or has special intentions when writing it? Can you talk about your feelings when making Kiryu’s Death Note?
Horii:The dying note is for Kiryu to review his life story so far. In fact, this method is also used, but it is applied in the game.
Kiryu has always felt that his own life has no special value. He examines his life and his past through his deathbed notes, and learns that he has influenced many people in his life and received a lot of love, so his life is not What is small and meaningless actually brings value and meaning to others.
“Dragon Among Us” has always been a story centered on Kiryu, and players have walked with him all the way. Through the final content, everyone can move towards the end of the game with Kiryu without leaving any regrets. This is also the biggest intention. one. This is the last adventure between players and Kiryu, and I hope that through this content, some players’ regrets can be relieved.
In addition, it is recommended that everyone pay attention to the character of Railcar Warrior. The reason is that most of the characters in the series already know Kiryu’s identity as a “legendary yakuza” and have some prerequisite impressions and understandings of him, but Railcar Warrior is just There’s something special about spending fun times together as just a playmate.
Q: This game “New Dynamic Command RPG Combat” has been greatly evolved based on the 7th generation turn-based system, making it more enjoyable to play. Can you share with us the opportunity for you to decide to evolve the combat method and the difficulties you encountered during development?
Sakamoto:After the dynamic command RPG battle was produced in the 7th generation, we also knew that there were some shortcomings in the system, so we made some improvements and evolutions this time.
“Dragon Among Us 7” is a command game that has been transformed from action to RPG. There are too many random elements in the battle. Therefore, this time the 8th generation allows players to choose the movement direction and attack position, as well as the range of the area attack.
On the one hand, players can choose to move freely, but on the other hand, enemies will also run around. For example, after selecting the enemy, the enemy will run away, which will actually reduce the fun of the player. Our initial design was that the player only needs to face the enemy. I would run away, but I found that it would be endless, so it took a lot of effort to balance it.
There is also a behind-the-back attack in “Dragon Among Men 8”. Under normal circumstances, he will find you and turn around, but adjustments will be made for the fun of the player.
Q: Which career among the three of you is your favorite? Why?
Horii:My favorite is Ocean Master. When I think of Hawaii, I think of surfing, but if I only have surfing, I can’t do much, so I named it Ocean Master. I also thought about the interaction with marine life, such as attacking together with marine life. There will be many interesting performances.
Sakamoto:If I had to choose one, it would be the Western sharpshooter. This is actually a very typical character, but it has not appeared in previous works. I am satisfied that it can be well depicted this time.
Q: This time, some partners appeared at a very late stage. How did you decide the timing of the character’s appearance?
Hengshan:In fact, there was no particular timing decision, it was simply based on the needs of the story. There is no worry about which character must appear at what time.
Q: After playing “Dragon Among Us 8”, one would like to ask, is the development team already thinking about the next “Dragon Among Us” game?
Hengshan:There is no comment yet on whether there will be a new game. We will always consider the next game, but it will not be limited to “Dragon Among Us”. Therefore, we are always involved in the production of new works.
For example, we have previously produced “Taste the Taste Now!” Super Monkey Ball 1&2 Remastered Edition”. We are also currently working on the just-released Super Monkey Ball Banana Clash.
Q: Will the Hawaii map be reused in “Dragon Among Us 8”? Will there be any plots set in Hawaii in the future?
Hengshan:I don’t know~
Q: The dispatched helpers in “Dragon Among Us 8” can make many old characters appear in the series. Will you consider adding retired characters (or spin-off characters) to the dispatched helpers in the future?
Hengshan:It is difficult to say whether the dispatched helpers will appear in the new game. It is not certain what kind of system the subsequent games will be. It is not certain whether Kasuga Ichiban will be the protagonist of the next game, so whether some characters will be added to it. Of course, expatriate helpers are not sure, so I hope you don’t have to look forward to this too much.
Q: For foreigners in Hawaii, did the production team specifically look for foreigners to scan their faces?
Hengshan: No, it is created from the database.
Before “Dragon Among Us 7”, the skin color of foreigners was adjusted based on Japanese physiques, but “Dragon Among Us 8” was completely remade with facial features and skeletons of foreigners, so The size and bones of the face are different from those of Japanese people, so many things had to be made from scratch. For example, the modules for glasses in the past were not in line with the current ones, so a lot of effort was spent on this aspect.
In addition, there are also costumes worn by pedestrians. These materials that are not available in Japan are all made from scratch.
Q: There are some levels in the game that require recommended levels and weapons. Why is there this setting? Aren’t you afraid of affecting the progress of the game?
Sakamoto: In fact, there is no specific design of certain levels or weapons. It is just because some levels are difficult, so there are recommended levels and weapons. It is easier to pass in this way.
Q: Finally, please give a message to the players.
Horii: Thank you to the players for their continued support and love. We have received all the support for the team. Thank you very much. We can also be proud to say that we have produced the most interesting game content for Renlong 8 this time, and we are very happy to be able to convey it to the players. Even after completing the level, there are still many elements to play, and we hope that players can have a good experience with this game. game.
Sakamoto: There have been many players from Taiwan and Hong Kong playing this game for a long time. We are very grateful and happy for this. In the future, we hope to focus more on the Asian part in terms of localization, voice and other aspects. Not only the dragon among the world, but also the future Everyone can support the work, and we will also improve the localization part.
Hengshan: The market popularity in Asia has exceeded our expectations. This is something we did not expect at the beginning. We actually also want to know why. We hope that everyone can reflect their feelings on the social networking site, although it may not reflect every demand. , but the more people express their opinions, the easier it will be for us to hear them, and we will have a clearer understanding of what to do in the future.