Root Double (from the director of the Infinity series)

[GundamAce]

Asami Imai's Interview:

――First, tell us your recording impressions.

　Once you get a firm grasp on the story, it’s very easy to read. There’s a very large amount of volume to it, but you can finish it in no time because of how it is.

――Describe your feelings when you got the role.

　The staff gave me a very careful explanation of the story, so I felt very good. Because I got the role of “Mashiro”, I accepted I, though I hope I wasn’t presumptuous about it.

――Please tell us your impressions concerning Mashiro Toba.

　She’s very energetic, so much that I thought I was sweating when I was playing her. Oh wait, that actually happened (laughs). I thought her, her hobbies, and her abilities were fascinating.

――If you were in the character's shoes, what would you do?

　I-I’d want to run away (laughs).

――If you had BC (Beyond Communication), how would you use it?

　Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. If I had it, I think I’d definitely use it, but if possible, I wouldn’t want to have it… After all, there are things you could learn that you wouldn’t want to learn. I don’t want to get hurt! (laughs)

――Please tell us your impressions of the work.

　I thought it was a story that gave a feeling of “scampering”. It definitely has a lot of fascinating, interesting characters.

――Out of all the characters, which one are you most interested in and which is your favorite?

　I’m interested in Kazami.

――Finally, a message for the fans and readers, if you would.

　Because of the earthquake disaster that happened in the middle of development, there was talk of discontinuing the work. But thanks to all the support we received, we were able to continue the work and recording, so I’d like you all to do whatever you can to support this great work, and I hope you enjoy “Root Double”!

[GundamAce]

Finally, Toru Ookawa's Interview:

――First, tell us your recording impressions.

　My first impression really wasn’t one to write home about, but I figured I’d enjoy myself while doing it.

――Describe your feelings when you got the role.

　I couldn’t figure out what kind of role a man like Ukita would have, so I was a little uneasy.

――Please tell us your impressions concerning Keiji Ukita.

　He’s a man who has a large gap between the expressions between what he looks like on the outside and what he’s like on the inside.

――If you were in the character's shoes, what would you do?

　I do not believe I could be calm in that situation. I’d surely fall into a panic.

――If you had BC (Beyond Communication), how would you use it?

　I think I’d immediately do bad things with it, since I’m a weak person… (sweats)

――Please tell us your impressions of the work.

　I was surprised at how much more complicated the story was than it appeared to be. To think it’d turn out the way it did…!!

――Out of all the characters, which one are you most interested in and which is your favorite?

　I always like my role the best!!

――Finally, a message for the fans and readers, if you would.

　I myself am I looking forward to the release. I know you all want to play it quickly, so I hope you enjoy it.

[VDZ]

Originally Posted by Toru Ookawa

I was surprised at how much more complicated the story was than it appeared to be. To think it’d turn out the way it did…!!

Who'd have thought!

[GundamAce]

The first half of Nakazawa's interview is up. The second half will be released at a later date. However, the first half alone is a REALLY long interview already, so it'll take some time before it's up fully. Since it's three separate pages long and are divided into sections, I'll be uploading my translations one page at a time.

Also, there's two pictures of Nakazawa himself in the interview.

[GundamAce]

Nakazawa Interview Part 1:

Spoiler for Nakazawa Interview:

――First, please tell us the details concerning the inception of "Root Double".

　Concerning the inception, I think it was probably around the time I suggested Mutsumi Sasaki do "Myself;Yourself"(*1). Before I made "Myself;Yourself", I had an idea for a romance story and a suspense/mystery/etc work similar to "Ever17: Out of Infinity" (*2), so I thought Sasaki-san could do one or the other. When I pitched it to Sasaki-san, he said "I think my designs would be better suited for a romance story", and so it was decided that I make "Myself;Yourself" at the time.

*1: A school-romance Visual Novel released in 2007 that gained popularity. It was Yeti's first original work, with the producer being Takumi Nakazawa, and the character designer being Mutsumi Sakaki. The same year, an anime adaptation was released, and in 2009, a spin-off work named "Myself;Yourself: Sorezore no finale" was released.

(TN: Nakazawa had previously worked with Sasaki on Memories Off 2nd, which Nakazawa directed.)

*2: A Visual Novel released in 2002 by KID. It was the second game in Takumi Nakazawa's "Infinity" series. The story of seven men and women who are trapped in an underwater theme park and try to escape, by reading through the two protagonists viewpoints, the truth gradually starts to be revealed. There is a great amount of catharsis in the second half due to all the foreshadowing being revealed, and has been widely praised amongst Visual Novel fans.

――So as time went on, that "Ever17: Out of Infinity"-like work that you were talking about became "Root Double"?

　That's right. At that time when I let it go for the time being, I kept thinking about how much I would like to work on a mystery/suspense story. And when I finished "Myself;Yourself", I started work on "Secret Game- KILLER QUEEN" (*3) next.

　Before working on it, I played the original doujin version, "Killer Queen", and thought it was incredibly interesting and very motivating. I then got the itch to make it, and started thinking "I really do want to make a suspense story" and "I'll definitely make it!", and decided to make it once I felt I was free to do so.

*3: The consumer remake of a 2006 VN released by the doujin circle FLAT (which is now a PC game brand). In this version, the entire scenario and graphics have been changed, a new system has been introduced, a new opening theme has been added, and several additions/revisions have been made. It's the suspence/adventure story of 13 men and women who have been kidnapped and trapped in an abandoned building, and have 72 hours to survive by playing a life-or-death game.

――What was your reason for selecting Mikeou as the character designer?

　Mikeou had always been receiving calls from Yeti saying "One day, we'd like to work with you," and so it was this time that she finally did. To Mikeou, this was her first "home use original work", so it seemed like she was nervous.

　After it was decided that Mikeou would work with us, I made the proposal as to what I wanted to do. After having done "Myself；Yourself" and "Secret Game- KILLER QUEEN", I asked if I could make my first original suspence game for them, and that's how production came to be.


――Regarding your first draft/proposal of the work, had you already come up with the world and setting of "Root Double"?

　The first draft was something completely different, but the fact that the genre was suspense and that there were several men and women trapped were elements that had been decided from the beginning. While Mikeou had been in charge of mainly bishoujo and love comedy works, the truth was that she liked Chunsoft's sound novels. It seems we had found a kindred spirit in each other, as when we directly met, when said "I like these kinds of games and want to make a game like them!", she said "I also love them!" (laughs). I thought that with this, things would go great.

――What was your decision for appointing Souki Tsukishima to the story?

　Naturally, we hadn't decided on a scenario writer at the beginning. Then whe we were thinking about who should write it, we of course wanted "Root Double" to be a very interesting work, so we figured it couldn't just be any writer. So we gathered several scenario writers and had them compete.

――How did you gather those several scenario writers?

　We had the writers bring their scenarios to our company. We constantly looked over their scenarios, and left those people in stock. In our current stock is several people's names and the sample mini-scenarios they wrote and sent us. In that stock, Tsukishima's story had managed to condense the volume of the story immensely, yet it still interesting. Also, the scenario he had brought in the past was also interesting, so I thought that Tsukishima could definitely do it, and that's how he got the job.

――By chance, I also read Tsukishima's debut work, "Emeth: Puppeteer's Island"(*4), and thought it was incredibly interesting.

　Aside from "Emeth", he had also done original Flash animes and a lot of cellphone stories, so he had many ideas, and an interesting writing style to go along with them. I also had found a kindred spirit in him, as when I asked him, he also loved "Ever17: Out of Infinity" and "Remember11: The Age of Infinity" (laughs). He also seemed to easily head in the same kind of directions I did, so once we got our consensus, he was hired.

　The truth is, Tsukishima himself has said "Root Double" is a long work in spite of it being his first game. Also, up until now, he has done a wide variety of things from historical dramas and modern works to mysteries, but as this was the first true SF suspence he had done, it was a challenge for him.

*4: A novel that won the 3rd Square Enix Best Novel Award. A fantasy story about a self-moving puppet/golem manufacturer that takes place mainly on an island. The story is about a boy name Cliff who wants to be a "Golem Creator", and is udner the supervision of a mysterious appearing girl name Ravel, and Ravel's childhood friend, Heath, who goes to the same school as she does, and the story is told from both of their point of views. It is a grand story depicted with Ravel's red cube.

*5: A Visual Novel released in 2004 by KID. It was the third game in Takumi Nakazawa's "Infinity" series. The story is about Kokoro Fuyukawa, a woman who is stuck in a cabin in a snowy mountain range after having survived a plane crash, and a man named Satoru Yukidoh, who is on a lone island as his life is constantly targeted, and how they sometimes switch "minds" as the story progresses. It is noted for portraying its harsh situations and feelings of tension more than "Ever17" did.

Note that the * notes were from the interview themself.

[GundamAce]

Okay, this isn't part of the interview, but I wanted to share this. About three weeks ago, I posted a short comment on Nakazawa's blog telling him how much I enjoyed his games and wished him good luck on Root Double, telling him that he had fans around the world greatly anticipating it. Today, he wrote a response to my comment. Here it is (note that there are some specific responses to what I said):

I apologize for my late reply.

Thank you for your support from overseas. It makes me very happy.
To cross the barriers between cultures and hear that those overseas also enjoy these works has become extremely encouraging.

Thank you very much for you anticipation towards Root Double.
I will make a good game for everyone looking forward to it.
It will still take some time until it's released, but please wait.
And please continue to support the game as you have.

Hope I don't seem too pretentious or anything by posting this.

[MidoriHiME]

wow, that's awesome that he actually responded to you! And seriously, thanks for translating everything. I'm so pumped for this game because of all the info you've given us. I really hope this game gets a pc port and some sort of translation within a few years because I'm dying to play it.

[GundamAce]

Nakazawa Interview Part 2:

Spoiler for Nakazawa Interview:

――Incidentally, what kind of work was the story that Tsukishima submitted for the competition?

　The work was a romantic fiction. It was the story of high school students who got involved in a mystery case that was created by a ghost who tricked them. At the beginning, it was a minor mystery-like case, but it steadily expanded until it became a major incident that extended to the whole town. As their friends got picked off one by one, the protagonist and the heroines had to wrack their brains in the desperate struggle to survive.

　At the competition, I didn't specify what genre it had to be and how long "short" meant, but I did give two points: "The protagonists must be driven into a hopeless situation. Then they must take action against it." and "There must be an sudden turn of events that bring it to an unexpected conclusion." In Tsukishima's story, the truth was, everyone was dying! That was the "hopeless" requirement. And the ending was indeed very surprising and was set up very carefully. For something done in two weeks, it entertained me greatly until the end. I thought if it was him, then he could definitely handle any kinds of cruel themes and create tall hurdles to overcome.

――After you decided to make Tsukishima the scenario writer and gave it to him, did you have requests such as "I want the scenario like this, I want to be careful here,"?

　First of all, I told Tsukishima that I wanted a story with a "good tempo". From the start of the game I wanted the player to immediately feel that it was interesting, and also to make a "A quick speed and tempo that will make them not want to stop playing" kind of feeling. Especially since there was an escape group and a rescue group this time, what I really wanted there to be feelings of "strain and the need to escape quickly". That's what I asked of Tsukishima.

　To get this tempo just right, we had to repeat writing it countless times through trial and error. Because it's a large story on a very grand scale, we needed to make sure we kept in the sense of panic along with the mysteries and hidden truth. While putting in foreshadowing, we also made sure to explain enough, but not too much, in the first half. However, we felt that because we focused too much on the beginning, the story's tempo became incredibly bad, so we had to change that. We also felt like we were showing off too much in preparation for the second half's developments. So we cut down on the text, and rewrote the foreshadowing countless times to make sure it didn't feel abrupt.

――We've already read and are well informed on the details of Route A's(*6) plot, but there certainly is an amazing tempo and a sense of running around. Events keep occuring one after another with so many climaxes that it really feels like you have no time to take a breath.

　We incorporated various things into Route A. However, I can say with confidence that the plot has a great tempo and an exciting scenario with incredible hardships.

　But as we tried to make the plot too exciting, the tempo became bad again. It was like "This happens in this scene, this information is revealed here, the characters move like this and have this conversation"... and so it grew excessively large. There continued to be too many scenes that were nothing but conversations and explanations, so it was hard. Especially since Route A was based around the amnesia of the protagonist, Watase Kasasagi.

*6: In this work, Route A (After) depicts the viewpoint of rescue team member Watase Kasasagi, three hours after the incident. Route B (Before) depicts the student Natsuhiko Tenkawa, who for some reason got caught up in the incident, and shows his memories of the six days before the incident.


――Having the protagonist have amnesia and not knowing anything puts them in the same position as the player starting the game, huh?

　Yes. The amnesia itself is also an important part of the story, but by giving the protagonist amnesia, it puts them in a situation very close to the player at the beginning of the game. The things that the protagonist doesn't know are also the things the player doesn't know. So when the character is having one thing after another being explained to him, both the protagonist and the player are understanding it. I wanted to create a work that utilized this.

　Because of this, Watase knows nothing, and his situation is very unique. He's trapped in the special facility known as LABO, with his time limit until death approaching the end moment by moment... This is merely the tip of the iceberg of the great, serious things that are explained to him. There's also a lot of technical terms involved.

　From the beginning, his balance is troubled, as he must think about his timing and how much he must learn. But the path to the truth is bogged down by the feelings of tensions, speed, and the urge to escape mix amongst the explosions that break out, giving a "Right now, I don't have much to go by!", feeling dragging you down.

[GundamAce]

Nakazawa Interview Part 3:

Spoiler for Nakazawa Interview:

――Amongst all these events occuring, there are also Bad Endings, are there not?

　That's right. The Bad Endings were elements being constantly modified. No matter what critical situations the character falls into, the player will think before even reading that "Oh, they'll definitely be saved", and so they'll let their guard down. In short, by thinking that "The characters are in danger but I myself am safe", it opens up a distance between the characters and the player.

――Certainly, the goal of making a game like this is to be able to make the reader immersed by making them feel a sense of impeding crisis.

　To the player, making moment by moment decisions on what movememnts will be right or wrong forces the reader to personally experience the feeling of making a hard choice like the characters, so the gameplay grants the player some of that tension. Because of this, we made a lot of Bad Endings.

　From the start, the player will want to know if there's any Bad Endings that have been placed that will lead to a sudden, instant death. But you can't escape from LABO just by reading. Because of this, you need to put choices early in the game, even ones that will lead right to a Bad Ending (laughs).

――About how many Bad Endings will there be?

　In Route A alone, I think there's no more than about 20. The one barometer within me regarding that is "Remember11". When I asked the opinion of those who had played it about the Bad Endings I had prepared, they said "It preserved a feeling of tension and kept me on my toes until the very end." Because of this, I equally spaced the Bad Endings from the beginning until the end, and made sure there were a wide diversity of critical situations all over.

　Each time it happens and if the contents are the same, the player just goes "Oh, another Bad Ending," and gradually gets used to it. So this time around, I tried to create a wide diversity of Bad Endings that will make the player feel like "It's this kind of Bad Ending this time" and "Whoa!? How should I try avoiding this?". Because of this, I created a pattern of both actions and thoughts that can lead to "the worst conclusion" (laughs).

――There are those who like Bad Endings and the fun of hunting them down (laughs).

　That's right. Honestly, I myself am like this, but I'm sure there's a lot of other people who also desire to find the Bad Endings and get full completion (laughs). On the other hand, by seeing the Bad Endings, you're also completing the story.

　The whole concept of Bad Endings is "taking different actions off the normal route." When that happens, what will you see?　That's called "seeing the other side". If the protagonist acts differently, the the other character's actions change. Because of that, you see unexpected sides of characters, their backgrounds, and make trifiling discoveries. Of course, until you see the final True Ending, you'll can seen the story's outline. But as for the smaller parts, the urge to see the the Bad Endings so you can see things clearly will increase. On the other hand, if you don't see the True End and continue to look at Bad Endings, you may gradually see something... I think that's fun as well.

――So are there Event CGs that you can only see in Bad Endings?

　There is some that is in "particularly important Bad Endings". There's also many prepared points. However, it's generally not my policy to put Event CGs in Bad Endings. The reason why is because a Bad Ending is a Game Over. In other words, without CGs, there's no real reason for an average player to seek out the Bad Endings. Because of this, even though I didn't really want to, I had two reasons for putting in an event CG in "some Bad Endings".

――What are those two reasons?

　#1 is that we want to create a strong sense of regret at the time you see the Bad Ending that makes you think "I must repeat this again." For that reason, we tried to reinforce the feeling by putting in a CG. The other reason is the feeling of "Because this is a Bad Ending one, I have to see it."

　This time, I don't know whether it'd be all right to call them Bad Endings so much as so called "Normal Endings". There are a few endings with "You were able to escape, but weren't able to avoid tragedy"-like feelings. Please choose the aforementioned "particularly important Bad Endings". I think those endings are certainly worth seeing.

　In other words, they are endings with conclusions that leave you with great regret, as if feeling "Even though you made it to the end, you werent' able to achieve any of your goals". Those parts are why those CGs are there, to strenghten that feel. And... there will probably be a lot of players who will reach those endings from the beginning. If I had to say it, it'd be like the endings in "Kamaitachi no Yoru", where everyone dies (laughs). When you see them, I think it'll give you a feeling of wanting to clear everything and see everyone escape safely.

(TN: "Kamaitachi no Yoru", or "Night of the Sickle Weasels" is a Sound Novel released by Chunsoft for the Super Famicon in 1994, and was later remade for the PS1, GBA, and Wii Ware, but has never been released in English. It's the story of a man and his girlfriend who are caught into a murder mystery in the ski lodge they're staying at for vacation as they then try to solve the mystery. The game is notoriously difficult, with the true ending being hard to find due to the many misleading clues and branches in the game.)

――There might be some people who can't take so many sad bad endings.
　Yes. But I there's also some bad endings that are so stupid that will make you go "What the hell!?" (laughs). That's so at that time, the players who made a wrong choice understand what they did wrong. Indeed, during voice recording, everyone was surprised by them.

That's it for now. More will come when the second part of the interview is released.

[GundamAce]

The next part of the interview will be up around this time tomorrow.

Also, I misread Nakazawa's Twitter posts: the interview is being divided into three parts, not two. So all I've translated is the first third. According to his posts, the second part is about as long as the first part, while the final part might be the longest.

[Jaden]

Interesting. Wonder when the interviewer touches on the subject of Remember11 being poorly crafted and received compared to Ever17.

[GundamAce]

Originally Posted by Jaden

Interesting. Wonder when the interviewer touches on the subject of Remember11 being poorly crafted and received compared to Ever17.

Probably not. Remember11 isn't even related to Root Double. It'll probably be strictly Root Double questions. Besides, Nakazawa's already talked about that before.

[VDZ]

Originally Posted by GundamAce

Probably not. Remember11 isn't even related to Root Double. It'll probably be strictly Root Double questions. Besides, Nakazawa's already talked about that before.

What did he say about it?

[GundamAce]

Originally Posted by VDZ

What did he say about it?

Haven't translated that interview yet. It's from the R11 PSP Limited Edition Pamplet, where he spends 10 pages talking about R11, but I haven't translated it yet, and I won't be able to for about a week, since I'm currently home for Thanksgiving break, and so I left it in my dorm.

[GundamAce]

Nakazawa Interview Part 4:

Spoiler for Nakazawa Interview:

――Please tell us the concept of "Root Double"

　The concept that I came up with before I made the general framework planning and before I decided the story and other details was the concept of it being "A story that's a good fusion of suspense and mystery." Suspense is a catchy and easy entry into the story, because it requires little explanation for the gamer to be able to get immersed in the story, which is part of the reason I like the genre. Key suspense components in foreign drama shows are generally put into the opening, a story that's speedy like a roller coaster that wants to get the user drawn in quickly.

　And more point is that the other side of the suspense, the mystery, progesses at the same time, and the mystery side gently starts to cross-fade... The concept I made after the general framework was "I want a story whose first half is suspense while its second half is mystery."

(TN: Cross-fading is an audio-mixing technique where you fade out one source while fading in another source. What Nakazawa means is that the story slowly starts to move away from the suspense and start to focus on the mystery.)

――You say that it starts to cross-fade from suspense to mysterious, but you've got to keep both aspects appealing, don't you?

　That's right. In order to begin the process of rising to that level of planning, we decide "Let's try using two protagonists", with one protagonist's story generally being heavy with suspense, a story that is full of tension and a feeling of rushing from start to finish. And the other side is a mysterious story that touches on the truth of the occuring incidents in the first route.

　In order to make that kind of division, Route A focuses on the story of the rescue team, which starts off unexpected and unusual, and from start to finish is thrilling, with tense events continuing to develop and progress. And compared to that, Route B, which depicts the "flashbacks" of the events before the incident occurred through a trapped high-school boy, starts off with a world of peaceful days, which fade away bit by bit, and ends with the days becoming unbelievable and unexpected.

――This story depicts an extreme situation, so because of that, do you think harsh descriptions are necessary?

　The truth is, Tsukishima's forte is not in harsh descriptions. Tsukishima's works up until now have not really depicted things like that, so he himself does not like such things, or maybe it'd be better to say he's a person who doesn't want to depict such detail.

　Excessively putting in harsh descriptions is a problem, however, I think it's absolutely necessary, since it's a necessary part to depict because "It gives the gamer even more motivation to want to clear the whole story." Because of this, Tsukishima did his best with the harsh descriptions, which were very grand, sad, and strong depictions where he tried to create a strong sense of repentance, leaving the feeling of "Why couldn't I save them!?" behind.

――Because of that, will the CERO rating be high
(TN: The CERO is Japan's equivalent of the ESRB in the USA, or the PEGI if you're from Europe)
The CERO... after this, we'll have to adjust it (laughs).
――... That's tough (laughs).

　But "Root Double" was made to be played at home, so to a certain extent, there was some consideration in advance. From past experience, I've learned you have to worry about whether "Is this okay or not", and you especially have to be careful about the dialogue, since it has to voiced. Because of this, it's very necessary to get a sense of what you can and can't get away with while discussing it with the CERO.

――Was the reason for picking the Xbox 360 because of how big you wanted to express these segments?

　In order to achieve freedom of expression, I wanted to make what we had big. We didn't want a scenario and CGs that were restricted by size. I was thinking that I wanted to make the final product to seem as complete as possible. I think that it'll be thanks to the Xbox 360 that we can release Root Double in its complete form.

――By the way, are there any plans to port Root Double?

　Currently, because my head is full of things regarding the Xbox 360 development, I haven't thought of it. Unless we put everything we've got into this, you can't call this a finished title, after all... But I've heard a lot of people say "port it to this system", which has made me happy.

――Visual Novel fans have made up quite a good number of those people, wouldn't you say?

　We've received a great amount of demand. Particularly from Mikeou's fans who don't have the console: a lot of them have been saying "definitely bring it to the Windows!" ... But no matter what happens, I can't give them an 18+ version (laughs).

　In short, to be honest, there are currently no plans for it to be ported, but including media-mix, whether or not we'll be able to do multiple platform developments will depend soley on whether or not this title rouses anyone. When this comes out and if you choose to get it, definitely tell others about it. And that after you clear it, I hope people will talk about it together... those kinds of things are what I'm hoping for.

[VDZ]

Originally Posted by Nakazawa Interview

... But no matter what happens, I can't give them an 18+ version (laughs).

Come to think of it, has Nakazawa ever worked on an 18+ game? Even though it's not unusual for PC ports, he seems against the idea...is it just a case of 'we can't make porn' or is it 'I don't want porn in my games'?

(Personally, I definitely wouldn't want porn in Nakazawa games, but I'm still curious.)

[GundamAce]

Originally Posted by VDZ

Come to think of it, has Nakazawa ever worked on an 18+ game? Even though it's not unusual for PC ports, he seems against the idea...is it just a case of 'we can't make porn' or is it 'I don't want porn in my games'?

(Personally, I definitely wouldn't want porn in Nakazawa games, but I'm still curious.)

He's definitely read 18+ game (he mentioned last time he read Killer Queen so he could do the remake), but no, he's never made an 18+ game. I guess he thinks that it's just not needed to tell a good story (that is, a good VN story). Personally, that's part of why I like/respect him, since I share a similar view. I mean, he COULD have put porn in his PC ports, but he never did.

One of Uchikoshi's games got an 18+ version, but he had nothing to do with that version.

[GundamAce]

Nakazawa Interview Part 5:

Spoiler for Nakazawa Interview:

――When you said that "the platform has a 3 in it"“, were you still undecided about the platform?
(TN: Nakazawa made a Twitter on January 21st that said "Root Double's platform has a '3' in it.")

　I got a lot of messages from gamers saying "Even though you've already decided it, why are you being stingy?", but I really hadn't decided yet. Really... I hadn't! (laughs)

――Whoa, sounds serious.

　So when we had decided the platform, the closed official website was reopened. When the earthquake disaster happened, in that season where we weren't sure what we should do, one of the problems we had thought over at that time was "what should we do about the system?" Of course, we weren't sure if we could worry about that when our greatest issue was whether or not we could release the game.

――Then if you had to put it restrictions, a great amount of the feeling of tension would have been lost.

　If we had rewritten or taken out parts, then this work would have lost a lot of it's meaning for release. "Then maybe it would have been better to never do this work," is how it would have turned out if that were the case.

――While I played "Secret Game- Killer Queen" (which will be called "Secret Game" from hereon out), I soon noticed that there had been some great restrictions placed as well.

　That's right. But at that time, SCE's (Sony Computer Entertainment) supervisor was considerably understanding towards the work. Of course, there were some sections that had to be rewritten. In the process of remaking "Killer Queen" into "Secret Game", the scenario had to be competely rewritten while more and more tweaks had to be made, but we were very grateful that it was released in that condition.

　From my personal experience, I found the details of that work made it difficult to release. After all, it was a game about killing each other. It was pretty much expected that there'd be restrictions on it. If there was a person who read "Secret Game" and thought that it meant "It's okay to kill people in order to survive", then we'd definitely would feel unpleasant. To avoid that retribution, the protagonist's efforts faced a completely different vector, meaning it depicts his strength through all of this.
　When we continued to receive complaints about this, the SCE member reading the work was understanding, saying "If it's this, then this work's release has meaning to it."
(TN: May not be sure about the translation of the passage, as I have not played Killer Queen and therefore am not sure of the events that occur. If there's anything wrong about it, please tell me).
――Root Double's Route A protagonist, Watase Kasasagi, also has a strong will, having lost his memories while thinking "I will definitely save everyone!", huh?

　He has his rescue squad instincts. He knows nothing, doesn't recognize the people around him, and doesn't know what kind of people they are. Even so, he takes movements to go help the others, even though it's probably useless. There's no logic to it. But no matter how many critical situations he's driven into, how badly his body is hurt, and how much it seems like nothing can be done, he has an indominitable fighting spirit that won't give up until the end.

――I'm still thinking of reading Route A, but Watase seems like a character who will be very popular.

　I think so too. We wanted to make Route A's Kasasagi like a superhero. In order to write Kasasagi, Tsukishima used "protagonists who lean in this direction from my past works, particularly Takeshi Kuranari from "Ever17: Out of Infinity". He's received support from many gamers, who have called him "a man among men." I think they felt passionate and excited when he was caught in critical situations, but thought of others first instead of himself, and never gave up, no matter what. On top of that, it made them feel like "I want to be like him!"

――From the three different sets of cast interviews that we conducted, a lot of the women commented "I'm interested in the Captain."

　Well, he's really cool. Of course, he's a person who feels despair occassionally, gets troubled, sometimes gets suspicious of everything after getting suspicious of something, and halts in the face of various hesitations, but in the end, manages to stand up and keep moving forward.

　Because of this, I want you to watch Watase's efforts until the ending. Even if everyone thinks "No matter how you think about it, it's hopeless" and "all we can do is give up", he just remains determined the whole time, which is one of his highlights.

――So does that mean your favorite character is Watase?

　I like everyone, but I really like Watase.

――From the impressions I've gotten of the plot so far, it seems that Salou might also be a popular character.

　Salou... is cute (laugs). Her visuals are quite nice, and I can really feel her cuteness through Kei Shindou's performance as her. I know that what I say sounds like a lot of praise, but Salou was also particularly popular, especially during recording.

　When they were recording the other characters, I often imagined what sort of responses Salou would give to those characters. And the recordings staff also said "Salou's cute, huh..." it felt weird at times, to say the least (laughs).

――Salou's way of talking is also characteristic.

　She's a very awkward girl who says little and whose sentences are short. Well, I say awkward, but she's an extremely powerful character in the story.

――She's also well-versed in self-defense, isn't she?

　That's correct. Her reason for being so strong is, according to her, because "I've come to be Natsuhiko's bodyguard." "Why, when she's such a young kid?" might be what people think, but the rest will be told in the game.

[VDZ]

Originally Posted by Nakazawa Interview

He knows nothing, doesn't recognize the people around him, and doesn't know what kind of people they are. Even so, he takes movements to go help the others, even though it's probably useless. There's no logic to it. But no matter how many critical situations he's driven into, how badly his body is hurt, and how much it seems like nothing can be done, he has an indominitable fighting spirit that won't give up until the end.

Originally Posted by Nakazawa Interview

We wanted to make Route A's Kasasagi like a superhero.

[GundamAce]

Originally Posted by VDZ

Honestly, that's exactly what came to my mind when I was translating that section. I mean, I know they're talking about it in a Takeshi-esque way, but yeah, Shirou was the first thing that came to my mind when I read that.