Igarashi focusing on console/handheld for new project, explains Dawn of Sorrow's anime style
A portion of a USGamer interview with Koji Igarashi...
USG: So your next project will be skipping mobile and social platforms in favor of a console and handheld focus?
IGA: Being 100% honest, we'll be focusing on those fans who primarily are on the console and are looking for console experiences or your traditional handhelds. Those are the people that we're going to focus on first and foremost. If I get to a position where I absolutely have to do mobile like the rest of everyone else due to funding issues, then I'll do what I have to to survive.
USG: I noticed you did seem to focus on appealing to Japanese gamers in some ways. The anime art style of Dawn of Sorrow, for instance...
IGA: This is actually a common misconception that occurs. And that is the anime style chosen in Dawn of Sorrow - it wasn't to make it appeal more to the Japanese market, it was to make it appeal more to the DS market...
USG: Ahh, I see...
IGA: ...and the rationale there was that people who were gaming on the DS continue to get younger and younger versus previous handhelds. And if you, with the franchise, don't continue to try and get new fans and new customers, then you just end up with older and older gamers that sometimes stop gaming or peter off. So that was pretty much us trying to appeal to new, younger users, to try to get them interested in that series. Though it didn't really work.
And any time I've made a game – even Symphony of the Night, with an art style and a world that really appealed to me... I feels, as a creator, if you don't make what you want to make and you try and make it for other reasons like what the market says or what the higher-ups say, then ultimately you're not going to be hitting your best strengths. So in the future, the game I'm going to make is going to be something that I want to make, and as such that will hopefully end up being what the fans want to play.
USG: So your next project will be skipping mobile and social platforms in favor of a console and handheld focus?
IGA: Being 100% honest, we'll be focusing on those fans who primarily are on the console and are looking for console experiences or your traditional handhelds. Those are the people that we're going to focus on first and foremost. If I get to a position where I absolutely have to do mobile like the rest of everyone else due to funding issues, then I'll do what I have to to survive.
USG: I noticed you did seem to focus on appealing to Japanese gamers in some ways. The anime art style of Dawn of Sorrow, for instance...
IGA: This is actually a common misconception that occurs. And that is the anime style chosen in Dawn of Sorrow - it wasn't to make it appeal more to the Japanese market, it was to make it appeal more to the DS market...
USG: Ahh, I see...
IGA: ...and the rationale there was that people who were gaming on the DS continue to get younger and younger versus previous handhelds. And if you, with the franchise, don't continue to try and get new fans and new customers, then you just end up with older and older gamers that sometimes stop gaming or peter off. So that was pretty much us trying to appeal to new, younger users, to try to get them interested in that series. Though it didn't really work.
And any time I've made a game – even Symphony of the Night, with an art style and a world that really appealed to me... I feels, as a creator, if you don't make what you want to make and you try and make it for other reasons like what the market says or what the higher-ups say, then ultimately you're not going to be hitting your best strengths. So in the future, the game I'm going to make is going to be something that I want to make, and as such that will hopefully end up being what the fans want to play.
