The DioField Chronicle Interview – Builders Focus on Actual-Time Gameplay, Artwork Model, Inspirations, & Extra

Sq. Enix will quickly launch The DioField Chronicle, a somewhat fascinating tackle the technique JRPG style.

Some of the intriguing options is the truth that the gameplay flows in real-time, however (as you possibly can read in my hands-on preview or learn by playing the demo yourself) the tempo and gameplay mechanics make it fairly pleasant to gamers who get pleasure from turn-based technique JRPGs.

To be taught extra concerning the sport, we talked with producer Shigeyuki Hirata and sport director and artwork director Takahiro Kumagai.

Giuseppe: Once I first noticed the sport, it wasn’t instantly clear to me that it was a real-time technique sport. I believed it’d be a non secular successor to Ultimate Fantasy Ways, however then I noticed that it was real-time so it was a bit completely different. How did you give you this concept?

Shigeyuki Hirata: So the reason being actually easy: it’s simply the very fact that previously there have been many turn-based and grid-based SRPGs on the market and we did count on extra to return sooner or later, so it was actually an effort to face out and differentiate among the many pack.

Additionally, one of many Inspirations for the sport was the previous Ogre Battle titles in addition to different titles. We wished to problem our builders to create a very new expertise, the place they’re implementing real-time elements however making it functionally work as an SRPG title.

Giuseppe: Talking of inspiration, is there any Valkyria Chronicles fan in your staff? I can see many factors in frequent, particularly within the story.

Shigeyuki Hirata: Evidently nobody within the improvement staff labored on Valkyria Chronicles and personally I haven’t performed it. That being stated, I’m not personally absolutely conscious of what sort of sport it’s, and I don’t suppose it was a direct inspiration for our sport.

Giuseppe: In the event you take a look at Sq. Enix’s fall lineup, it’s mainly raining JRPGs. On prime of your sport, we’ve got Star Ocean: The Divine Force, Valkyrie Elysium, Harvestella, Tactics Ogre: Reborn, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. Are you not anxious that they’re going to be sort of evaluating towards one another just a little bit?

Shigeyuki Hirata: It’s not a lot of a priority as a result of in case you consider the gaming trade as a complete, this livens it up total, so I feel it’s one thing that ought to be welcomed.

However on the subject of all these kind-of competing titles, so to talk, we’re getting into an period the place gamers are actually in a position to choose and select what they honestly like or I really love, and what they’re eager on taking part in.

So clearly, not restricted to the following a number of months, or subsequent yr and the next yr, there are going to be many many titles which can be launched on the whole.

I really feel like we’re in a state the place gamers are in a position to actually choose and select the titles that they most love. And so, I don’t suppose this it’s a nasty factor for the sport trade on the whole.

Amongst that, in fact, we do must create a title that may attraction to as many gamers as doable, and we’re assured that we’ve been in a position to present one thing to our audiences that’s not like others.

Giuseppe: In the event you take a look at the character design of DioField Chronicles, which I completely love, by the best way, it’s very painterly. Was it difficult to translate it into 3D Graphics? Typically builders have a tendency to make use of pixel artwork or 2D artwork to translate that sort of fashion on a console’s display screen, however you went in numerous route.

Takahiro Kumagai: Translating the character design into 3D wasn’t as tough as you assume. Principally, whenever you’re wanting on the sport’s fashion, most of it’s from a top-down view and it’s designed like a diorama, the place characters turn out to be just like items that you simply’re shifting on the battlefield.

Talking from a management side as effectively, it was comparatively simple to include this as full 3d. Particularly talking concerning the painterly artwork fashion and Designs, these are expressed by the panels that artist Kamikokuryo-san drew to show the historic background and the setting of the sport.

As for as the sport not utilizing a pixel artwork fashion, I feel the impression that builders are inclined to resort to that’s as a result of Sq. Enix hasn’t developed many latest SRPGs and there haven’t been very many latest titles inside that style, however whenever you take a look at another corporations that develop video games inside that SRPG sphere, you’ll discover that they’ve gone 3D, or they’ve taken on a extra anime-like fashion or other forms of various paintings.

And so, on the subject of a number of the more moderen titles, some have taken on like full 3d, and Ultimate Fantasy XII involves thoughts. However regardless, it could be that we haven’t launched many new titles throughout the SRPG style, which can result in the impression that folks might typically fall again to a pixel artwork fashion.

However once more, translating the artwork fashion into 3D wasn’t such a tough course of.

Giuseppe: Kamikuryo-sensei is one in every of my favourite artists that ever labored at Sq. Enix. I completely love his artwork fashion and I used to be questioning if his participation was a part of the preliminary pitch of the sport, or was he maybe chosen afterward?

Takahiro Kumagai: The explanation why we wished to achieve out to Kamikikuryo-san for the paintings goes again to the second during which he partnered with a standard temple in Kyoto the place he drew traditional Japanese panel art.

It merges that Ultimate Fantasy-like world with historical past, and so that basically has served because the preliminary inspiration which led to us requesting Kamikokuryuo-san to attract the artwork.

Giuseppe: One of many characters that basically impressed me is Waltaquin. In the event you take a look at her character design with out having performed the sport, she might appear to be the everyday ethereal noble princess, type and compassionate, often in a healer or help function. Then, taking part in the sport, I’ve seen that she was nothing like her design made me think about. She’s proud, assured, strong-minded, witty, typically even smug, and she or he goes round throwing meteors, and I actually love her. Is this type of distinction between her look and her conduct one thing you meant to attain? How did you give you her?

Shigeyuki Hirata: That distinction was undoubtedly intentional from the get-go. We did wish to design her in order that there’s this hole between her appears and her persona.

In actual fact, there’s a well-known historic Japanese determine that served as a mannequin for her character. However once more, it was fairly intentional to make her persona completely different from the best way folks might understand her on the surface.

As you proceed to play by the sport, this distinction will turn out to be much more obvious. There could also be sure people who might take consolation in that or there could also be sure people who might probably, dislike that. However once more, we wished to make sure that this character would depart an enduring impression.

Giuseppe: Any likelihood you may inform me who that historic character that impressed Waltaquin is?

Shigeyuki Hirata: Yeah. He may very well sound a bit obscure as a historic determine. In Japan’s Bakumatsu Interval (the ultimate years of the Tokugawa Shogunate between 1853 and 1867), there was a gaggle known as Shinsengumi and amongst them, there was a person named Kamo Serizawa.

And sure, he’s a male, however he served because the preliminary take-off level for growing Waltaquin by way of her power and her assertive perspective. In fact, as we developed the character additional, there have been different inspirations that molded that character from there.

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The DioField Chronicle releases on Sept. 22, 2022, for PS5, PS4, Xbox Collection X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Swap.