TWEWY Spain · @TWEWYSpain
3rd Mar 2022 from TwitLonger
English version of the interview
English version of the interview with Tatsuya Kando, Hiroyuki Ito and Tomohiko Hirano
Please credit RPG Spain and TWEWY Spain if you are going to use this intewview for any kind of article, new or video.
RPG: Spain
1) We needed (and still need) more The World Ends with You. Thanks for this gift to all their fans and new players. How did this new opportunity for the Reapers’ Game come to your mind?
Ever since the original Nintendo DS game came out, the team were very keen on making a sequel, and we were also aware of the comments from fans asking for one. However, working on a sequel in parallel to other titles proved to be rather challenging back then, partially because the gameplay in The World Ends with You is quite cutting edge… When we developed The World Ends with You: Final Remix, which was released in 2018, the team got back together, meaning that we could then transition into working on the sequel.
RPG: Spain
2) Thanks to the anime and TWEWY Final Remix, everyone can play NEO knowing the original story. For those who still haven't played, what would you say that TWEWY games contribute to the RPG genre?
There are three main factors that we include to differentiate the The World Ends with You series from other RPGs. These would be: the sense of exhilaration and the strategy involved with the gameplay during combat, a world and story where the everyday and the extraordinary coexist in its depiction of a fantasy world which mirrors the real Japan as closely as possible, and the large variety of background music – songs which you might hear as you walk around the city in real life. By incorporating these elements that were ahead of their time, we were able to provide players with a unique experience that they couldn’t find in other RPGs. It might sound slightly grandiose to start talking about its influence on the RPG genre as a whole, but if you look at the RPGs which came after The World Ends with You, there have been fewer games where only the story differs and the gameplay remains largely consistent, and more games that place importance on the concept of experiencing something new. If some of these games were influenced by The World Ends with You – even if just a little – I’d personally be delighted.
TWEWY Spain:
3) It is well known that “NEO: The World Ends With You'' features a new and stylish view of Shibuya, for this time, how was the way you took references for recreating once more this Tokyo district?
Fourteen years have passed since the previous game, so Shibuya’s atmosphere has also changed quite a bit. As we decided to make the whole game in 3D, we wanted to try and recreate the feel of Shibuya as it is today, whilst keeping the The World Ends with You flair. Everyone from the dev team went to scout out every corner of Shibuya, and we then implemented the characteristics of the places we saw after stylizing them.
TWEWY Spain:
4) In the original “The World Ends with You'' from 2007 some of the different places of the game were named differently compared to it’s real life counterparts (like “Tower Records” which it was called “TOWA Record” in the game).
In NEO: The World Ends with You, this doesn't seem to happen, and places like “PARCO'' have their original names.
Was it difficult to include the original names on NEO: The World Ends with You, or were the name changes of the first TWEWY an artistic decision?
We obtained official permission from companies in Shibuya that act as landmarks of a kind, meaning that we were able to incorporate them into the game. In the previous game we had not had this sort of exchange yet, so the in-game companies were only loosely based on real world counterparts, which we used as a kind of motif – but I feel like incorporating actual spots that exist in real life means that you can enjoy a more realistic depiction of Shibuya as the stage of the game. I think that also makes it more fun to go and compare the game to Shibuya in the real world if you come to Japan!
RPG Spain:
5) Rindo's time travel decision, very much in line with his personality and his difficulty in making decisions. It is very well integrated into the game. How did you come up with it?
The premise for the game is that each participant in the Reapers’ game has their own pysch, and it was Mr Nomura (Tetsuya Nomura, the Creative Producer) who decided that the protagonist should have a psych that rewinds time. Each character’s identity, storyline, and the flow of the game was based around this idea.
RPG Spain:
6)The new battles seem to us a success seeing the platforms for which the game was released, had you thought about leaving the same battle system as in the original game? Were there other proposals for the combat system?
At the beginning of development, we considered having it so that you could directly deal attacks to Noise on-screen, like the combat of the previous game which used the touchscreen. Specifically, you’d bring up a pointer on-screen and then move it using the gyro in the controller. This was a method for making it so that psychs could be used whenever you liked. This felt intuitive and good to play, but the problem was that it took too long to get used to the controls, so we didn’t end up adopting it.
TWEWY Spain:
7) Talking about this, back in January 2018 when “The World Ends with You - Final Remix” was announced in the Nintendo Direct Mini, there were a couple of seconds in the trailer that featured the classic Nintendo DS gameplay scheme, sadly that type of play-style was later deleted from the final version of the game.
If you have any information about this, could you explain to us how the DS Scheme used to work with the Nintendo Switch, or the reason for the cancellation of this game-mode
Back when we were working on the 2-player mode using the joycons for Final Remix, we were originally going with the same system seen in the Nintendo DS version, where the attacks of the second player (like Shiki etc.) were on the top screen. However, there was an issue with this, as the gameplay for the second player ended up feeling bland. As you mentioned, it was also included in the trailer and so we were a bit worried, but when we tried out attacking using the cursor, which the second player can also move with gyro, we felt that this was more intuitive and nicer to play, so we decided to change it. As a result, you can enjoy playing in more ways, with some people liking to use both joycons, so I feel like this was a good change.
RPG: Spain
8) Tin Pin Slammer has gone out of fashion because of new technologies and mobile games? It was really funny! We miss this mini-game! Why can't we play it in NEO?
Personally, I really liked Tin Pin Slammer, and I wanted to put in a similar minigame. However, we gave top priority to improving the implementation of the main parts of the game, such as the battle psychs and how the enemies behave etc., and we wanted to avoid making the pace of the overall story bad by putting a minigame in, so sadly we didn’t include the minigame.
TWEWY Spain:
9) In “NEO: The World Ends with You'' the game uses some techniques with the rendering of the camera to achieve the same effect of imposible angles that had the original game with the backgrounds, but now for 3D graphics.
Was it difficult to make this effect working with the game and the game engine?
By making the game 3D, it was hard to deform the background in terms of the production. Essentially, we put in a process which morphs the background whilst looking at the coordinates of where the character is. However, regarding how much it gets morphed, if it gets changed too much then you’ll get simulator sickness, so we made adjustments to ensure that it doesn’t look too unnatural by taking advantage of the features of each location, all whilst preserving the flare of the original game.
TWEWY Spain:
10) As far as we know, “The World Ends with You - Final Remix” and “NEO: The World Ends with You'' were developed with the Unity Engine, is there any particular reason to use Unity behind other commercial Engines for the TWEWY franchise?
Initially, we had a phase where we gave a lot of thought to which engine we would use, but our biggest factor in using Unity was that the development company, h.a.n.d., Inc., were well versed in it.
RPG Spain:
11) It seemed impossible but Ishimoto has surpassed himself again, NEO TWEWY has a magnificent soundtrack that now has even more styles than the previous one. How was the process of composing songs like "Breaking Free"? (it's one of my favourites)
Our request to Mr Ishimoto was to create music with even more impact than the music in the original game. He took that on board and ended up delivering a soundtrack which was extremely creative, with the rock tracks sounding all the more intense, and also some metal songs added in. I think that this was the result of the creative spark between Mr Ishimoto’s compositions and the artists who took part in them.
RPG Spain:
12) What about a world-wide tour with the brilliant music from TWEWY?
What a great suggestion! If we get a lot of people wishing for one, then perhaps one day we’ll be able to hold a worldwide tour!
RPG Spain:
13) Minamimoto plays a key role again and acts as the first link with the original game, he is a very beloved character and we love his particular way of speaking. How did the idea for this character come about and why was he chosen as a link to the first Reapers’ Game in the main cast of NEO starting characters?
Minamimoto was one of the characters where at the end of the previous game it was left unclear as to whether he was dead or alive. He was very popular with the fans, and we had a request from Mr Nomura to give him a surprise appearance as a character who was on the player’s side. By joining The Wicked Twisters, he plays the role of leading the indecisive Rindo and his allies, driving the beginning part of the story. But then, he is who he is, so from about midway through the game onwards he goes back to being the Minamimoto we all know in order to achieve his own goals.
RPG Spain:
14) The character designs are full of details that reveal their personalities and we love every one of them. One of our favourites is Shoka, was your idea clear from the beginning that she was going to be such an important character in the plot?
Rindo and Shoka were the first to be completed when we asked Mr Nomura to work on the character design. Shoka is the heroine of this game, and we had quite a few discussions internally regarding what her relation should be to Rindo, but by placing her with the Reapers we were able to depict Rindo’s indecisiveness more strongly.
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RPG Spain:
15) Some spoilers are coming! What do you want to say with Neku's cool new look? We love it!
Three years have passed in-game since the events of the last game, and Neku left Shibuya for a certain reason – but it would be a bit much for him to still be wearing the same outfit, so Mr Nomura came up with a new design. He has a sort of heroic atmosphere surrounding him, with a pragmatic silhouette, and I think that he has a very cool design.
RPG Spain:
16) What about Mr. Hanekoma? Is there at least one sketch in case you thought about him appearing in the game?
Sadly, Hanekoma doesn’t directly appear over the course of the game. We wanted to tell the story from Rindo’s perspective, which is why we didn’t want to have a high-ranking presence on the centre stage, just as with Joshua. However, he is the one who writes the Secret Report which you can obtain after the game ends. He records the events which occur in Shibuya from an objective point of view.
RPG Spain:
17) There are rumors of a game with Tsugumi as the main character, too many of us want to know exactly what happened in Shinjuku. Could this be the future for the franchise? We want more TWEWY!
Thank you so much! Personally, I’d love to have an opportunity to tell the story of exactly what happened in Shinjuku, and what Tsugumi saw. If we get lots of requests from fans, then perhaps we can make it a reality!
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TWEWY Spain:
18) Can you give a message for those who still haven’t played “NEO: The World Ends With You” and why they should give it a try?
NEO: The World Ends with You is a fictional story that recreates the youth of today as realistically as possible, is set in a place called Shibuya that really exists – in a country called Japan, which lies on the edge of Asia. The story, gameplay, and graphics are all intricately interconnected, making it a game like nothing you’ve seen before. Run around Shibuya in this game and get a feel for what modern Japan is like!
This game has the feel of a traditional JRPG but is packed with new gameplay experiences. An experience that is unique to this game is being able to play freely as six characters during combat, and I think it’s rare to have a game which depicts the psychology of such charming characters so precisely. I think that even those who don’t know much about the previous game and are starting with this one are bound to end up getting drawn in!
This is a slightly different angle to the other answers, but it’s the perfect game for those who are interested in Japan – even if you’re only just a little bit interested in it! These days it’s difficult to travel to other countries, so I hope playing the game might be an alternative to travelling to Japan!