Cygames Show What They Can Really Do
with Hit Anime RPG "Princess Connect! Re:Dive"

Q. And now Akira... Tell us about your impression of Cygames and why you accepted the offer to work on this title.

Akira :
Principled, just, and charismatic. Through and through, Cygames has a unique appeal. This may sound odd, but I think the company’s like a hero. 
I'm usually just like a lowly soldier in some evil organization, or to put it more kindly, some oddball writer, so I never even dreamed we would become buddies and produce something together.  I am deeply honored.

I originally joined the team working on this title when another writer referred me and said they "just need a little help," so honestly I didn't think I'd get so heavily involved. There wasn't a dramatic encounter. One day we were just doing our thing as usual, when they asked me to "finally join our family," and we got hitched!


Q. One aspect of this game is the massive scenario. What was tough about making it?

Akira:
I'm good at writing long pieces, so there was nothing difficult about it being "massive." What was challenging was that whenever I dealt with the content of the scenario, I always had to think hard about what to do. What I mean is that it's a very particular kind of title, so I had to think about whether what I was writing fit in with the content of the first game. Another example is when an animation enters the story at a key point. The characters can't just stand there like a tree and talk, so I have to think carefully about their movements.

I labor to keep everything that was good about the previous game, while somehow making it even better.

Most of the characters appear in the first game, and the people who wrote their parts then edit my work, so I take care just to not randomly change things up. But when I do alter something, I have a justifiable reason for doing so.

Kimura:
Akira is amazing because he can write up a huge, high-quality scenario in a short time. I don't think anyone but him can pull that off.


Q. Akira, what is your impression of Mr. Kimura?

Akira:
When I'm sitting at a meeting or something, other people will be bewildered when I go off on some rambling, incoherent tangent, but he'll say, "Oh, so you mean this, right?" Only he gets me and can translate what I say in those situations.


Q. Is there any particularly memorable episode from your exchanges so far?

Akira:
I just go about my work like normal, so there aren't any notable episodes, but somebody like me can't fathom why, the talented people working at Cygames, from Mr. Kimura on down, every day they act like silly high school boys, doing things that have absolutely nothing to do with work, like immersing themselves in building a plastic model. I am intrigued to observe them, and I wonder whether they'll end up being some great person like you read about in a textbook.

Q. Lastly, tell us about new things coming up.

Kimura:
Most recently, we're waiting on features that weren't available during the release, such as the Clan Battle (where you work with clan members to take on a powerful monster) and cooperative battles, but we're going to provide services so players can have more fun playing. Plus, this might be a bit early to say, but we really want to develop things like real-time battles and collaborations with other intellectual property, so keep an eye out for that.


Afterword
The "anime RPG" all the production staff, including Mr. Kimura and Akira are so completely obsessed with is something whose awesomeness you can't feel until you try it out. 
Take a look for yourself at what Cygames can do when they really set themselves to it.

Q. Around how many people are involved in this title?

Kimura:
If you include staff likes those who produced the illustrations, we have over 100 people working on it at present. When you include outside companies, then there are lots of folks involved with this game.


Q. How do you maintain a consistent level of quality with so many people involved?

Kimura:
We do it with communication and a uniform vision. When new members join the team, we clearly convey to them that we want them to take this project seriously. We take the time to keep the level of quality consistent by providing detailed feedback and using trial-and-error approaches over and over again.


Q. And yet your production team has an impressive lineup.

Kimura:
Indeed, especially Akira, whom I've always been a big fan of. He was the only person I wanted to ask to join us in his role, because I imagined he would make the title's scale and the world's breadth big. I contacted him, figuring I had nothing to lose, and he ended up coming on board.