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Introduction

Digimon is a franchise full of content and many people sometimes have questions about some of it. Some people believe that the best way to know about a franchise is by talking about the people who created it, and that kind of thinking is something these fans and the current producer of several current Digimon games, Kazumasa Habu, have in common. This may be a reflection of Habu being a huge Digimon fan, and to know the best way to develop the games he thinks it's a good idea to talk to the people who worked on the Digimon franchise.

“ In order to know more about "Digimon", I will ask interested parties about stories that I can't normally hear, such as the content of the creation process and effort of the same. „

Habu has already participated in several interviews and many of them have been translated by some people who certainly have more knowledge about it than I do, but there are still some interviews that have not yet been translated and I would like to share a little bit about it. At the moment I plan to bring only two interviews, but if possible this will become a blog that will be updated normally with the goal of bringing in more interviews or comments from the developers.

Kazumasa Habu interview with Kenji Watanabe and Mr.Maekawa

Mr.Maekawa is the Production Manager of the Digimon toys produced by WiZ. He is part of the planning team of WiZ CO., Ltd (If you saw my last blog you should know that this was the company that created the original concept of Digimon). He is not only responsible for planning and developing toys and other products of Digimon, but also defines the characteristics of characters. In addition he is a long time partner of Kenji Watanabe.



Without further ado let's start the interview.

Habu: Mr.Maekawa I have the feeling of knowing you since I started working with Digimon. Are you from before "Digimon Savers"?

Maekawa: Yes, before "Digimon Savers". The first time I worked was on the development of the fourth version of the LCD Toy "Digimon Accelerator" (Ultimate Genome). I participated in the project where my superior was in charge until I took over.

Watanabe: It was back when there was not having Digimon anime shows on TV.

Habu: In terms of animation, was it between "Digimon Frontier" and "Digimon Savers"?

Maekawa: As it was in 2005, I believe it was between "Digital Monster: X-Evolution" and "Digimon Savers".

Habu: From then on, it could be said that you were continuously active with Digimon.

Maekawa: Yes, it will complement itself around 12 or 13 years this year.

Habu: (Surprised)! Taking into account the staff continuously involved with Digimon, Mr. Maekawa seems to have the longest career after Mr.Kenji.

Watanabe: I think so.

Habu: This is Mr. Maekawa, what kind of things did you do? First of all, please introduce yourself to the readers.

Maekawa: I am responsible for both the planning and development of Digimon toys. And when I make content about new "Digimon" I also think about the profile of the character.

Habu: When I'm developing a game and there's something I do not know about the Digimon setting, I'm going to ask Mr. Maekawa. He always helped me! I understand that you have done the planning of the toys, and is told to the general public part of what is planned, but sometimes it is difficult to understand exactly what is to be done.

Watanabe: Explaining briefly, the plan is what the person thinks about the specifications of the game or toy, do not you think? It becomes plan job to think about the profile and personality of the characters that will appear.

Habu: "Digimon Accel" was mostly made by Kenji and Maekawa?

Maekawa: There were a few more people developed in the project, but it was still a small amount.

Watanabe: Of course, there were others on the team, but the planning itself is made entirely by one person. With that, considering what was specified in the content to the point of creating all the things that were planned, the responsible person will do everything ahead of the production.

Habu: What about the program ....

Maekawa: The program I'm going to leave with the programmers (Laugh)

Watanabe: The planning department is responsible for making the specifications before programming.

Maekawa: That's right. About programming itself, the programmer is making his own specification document while observing my spec sheet.

Habu: We sometimes see what was specified, but the fans are not even able to imagine. Is it possible to publish a spec sheet made by Mr.Maekawa?

Watanabe: Even if we give a spec sheet, will a flowchart ok?

Maekawa: I want to be able to press the A button and then press the B button ...

Watanabe: If such a specification is okay.

Habu: Please do.

Habu: Thank you for the valuable stuff. Returning the story, Mr.Maekawa not only plans, but thinks about the setting too, right?

Maekawa: I started to develop the scenario little by little in "Digimon Accel". Sometimes I just think about the base and leave it to other people, other times I think of everything myself.

Habu: How do you develop the setting?

Maekawa: If there is an illustration of the character while I have to think about the setting, I think a lot through how he looks. For example, I decide by the way he is if he is a kind of lone wolf or friend of all. Also, when there are already characters with an atmosphere close to this new character, there is a moment when I add to the setting that they have a friendship.

Habu: And when there is no illustration of the character.

Maekawa: I develop the concept on my own and consult Mr.Watanabe when deciding what kind of character I want to do. It was so with Huckmon and the Royal Knights. When two members were left for the Royal Knights group, and I could do any Digimon, I thought of incorporating a master and student relation in Digimon. It would be a good idea to develop a disciple who would be a new member and his master be a Royal Knight.

Habu: Digimon does not have parenting relationships in his base setting, have you tried to express this in another way through the master-student relationship?

Watanabe: The number of Knights of the Round Table is about 50, not just 13 *. With that in mind I thought it would be a good idea to have a "Baton Touch" ** between the current Royal Knights and the new Royal Knights.

Habu: When I first asked about the scenario, there was a discussion about it.

Watanabe: Huckmon was the trigger, if Huckmon is connected when the next generation of Royal Knights come up, it will be easier for this to be accepted by the fans. When we thought about Huckmon, we had that feeling.

Habu: That reminds me that, the plan on the new generation of Royal Knights is no longer in the foreground.

Watanabe: Because we do not have places to show this easily. It's more of a feeling that we want to do it someday. Anyway the name of the "teacher" Gankoomon comes from "stubborn father"

Maekawa: "Gankoo" (「ガンクゥー」) comes from the Okinawa dialect, has meaning of stubbornness.

Wanatebe: Yes. It's a very different kind of name, but I really wanted him to have a name like a stubborn father. In its draft phase, its name was "Andrewmon" (「アンドリューモン」).

Habu: I feel like this name makes sense.

Maekawa: Although it did not have elements of Andrew, I belive (Laugh).

Habu: (Laugh) So, please tell me about the development of LCD toys.

Maekawa: LCD toys, they can start from something we want to do in a project at the time, or it's something that starts moving from an announcement coming from somewhere in Bandai.

Watanabe: And then we think about new gimmicks or stories first.

Maekawa: Basically while we think about the latest built-in gimmick, we've always thought of developing a new, more impressive gimmick.

Watanabe: Well, there are things we overreach (Bitter Smile)

Habu: Well, you also had the toys that could be used as MP3 players. What on Earth did you think to implement this ?

Watanabe: That was the "Digimon Xros Loader". This was implemented because at the time the item at the top of the list of what elementary school students wanted was an IPod.

Maekawa: You not only used it as a toy, but as an MP3 player too (Laugh).

Habu: I understand (Laugr). How long can the LCD Toy development since it started to move?

Maekawa: Once everything is decided, it can be finalized in a year or a year and a half. However when we run into problems, it may take up to 3 years to complete.

Watanabe: In the past when we finished planning, the old LCD toys were finished in half a year. It was a beautiful time, but it can not be done the same these days.

Habu: Anyway, when you're doing the LCD Toy you talk first about new gimmicks and other content first. Does that change the Digimon setting?

Watanabe: If a product is a "Hit", many people may believe that the next one will be the same. However, Digimon is a challenge at every turn. As the wishes of the fans change, we look for new trends and things like the "Super Sentai" and "Kamen Rider" series. Based on trends, a new setting may emerge in Digimon.

Habu: So in "Digimon Xros Wars" it was no longer "Evolution" but "Fusion. But when creating a Digimon game it is difficult to do something that is very distant from the normal evolution scenario ...

Watanabe: Really?

Habu: There's a simple way to force a Digimon into a normal evolutionary system and make something come out of it. However as "Evolution" and "Digi Xros" are originally different concepts, I think it is necessary to implement specifications on "Digi Xros" different from the evolution system if we really want to use this. So that's just why I thought, "We're going to have to create a new system just for Xros Wars, do we really have to do that now?" Still considering we could use this budget to increase the number of Digimon that have not yet appeared ... But there are also things that fans have asked for many times and was forced to be placed in the current system, although I originally also wanted to work with "Spirit Evolution ". I think the difference between "Fusion" and "Jogress" could also appear in something like a game.

Watanabe: I think it's a good idea to consider "Fusion" as being an extension of the "Jogress". Firstly because Omegamon is also said to be a "Fusion".

Maekawa: Jogress and Fusion are just changing the concept.

Habu: I firmly like to think about the opinions of Mr.Watanbe and Mr.Maekawa. Please tell us what you really care about while doing the "Digimon" LCD Toys.

Maekawa: As mentioned before, challenging yourself is something important, but what you should worry about will depend on whether the target is a child or an adult. For children not just trends, but unprecedented things are necessary. For adults I have the vision that one should stimulate memories through new thing. How do you start feeling nostalgic while experiencing something new? I think a balance is important.

Habu: I'd like to ask Mr.Maekawa about the various settings . Because there are many things in Digimon that have not yet bothered to set a detailed setting . It's surprisingly mysterious how the "Vortex Warriors", "Crack Team" and "Metal Empire Army" play their roles.

Maekawa: The role of teams is really that, but if you put too much detail on a character, there's no room left to think about them. So I intend not to be so careful with the details.

Watanabe: We always talk to each other about the setting, but we always say we're not going to make a decision. As games and anime are made based on the LCD Toys that we make, another person can think about the story. By setting the scene with a lot of information from the beginning, I think about the people from the story team who are going to look for information, I want to prevent the setting from becoming an obstacle. Of course, there are ways to explain things in great detail, but those who make the games and anime are in charge of it, it's a realistic thing.

Maekawa: It's cool to define how a character is, if you turn the character into something it may end up with other opportunities to put the character on the table.

Watanabe: So when we're together we're thinking of going to the limit. When we talk to each other, we tend to think even more, but we also think when to stop.

Habu: Do not you think it leaves a lot of room for the fans' imagination for not saying much about the setting? Speaking of fans, is not it that they are more often involved in the work of the current generation of Digimon?

Maekawa: Exactly. I'm counting on a fan team to supplement the knowledge that was lost. Isn't this information archiving? There is a lot of information lost from before I get in touch with "Digimon" and absolutely there is a limit of knowledge that a person can store. To complement this, I think you can add more information about a character by hiring the work of a Writer to make a detailed scenario, to thereby add more in-depth information.

Habu: Actually, the opportunity for "Digimon" fans to work actively is increasing.

Watanabe: Among the team that is in charge of debugging, there are those who "loved Digimon as a child." If there's something I do not know at the moment, I'll ask them if they know. For us, fans are always welcome. Just be kind (Laugh).

Maekawa: The fans are reliable, but we still do not use everything they say. As the final decision is mine, I try not to go too far.

Watanabe: I think that's the case with other games or works, but in those who like something a lot, the knowledge is very deep. I feel we'd like to incorporate their opinion, but if you go a lot into what the core fans want, the content becomes too broad and it's hard for the newbies to have fun. But if you do not hear the opinion of the "core fans", the content will be very thin and they will not have fun.

Habu: It is very difficult to think of the balance of how much the opinions of the "core fans" should be adopted. What kind of decision do you try to make in your trial Mr. Maekawa?

Maekawa: I think we need to discuss a lot from case to case. I try to insert it into the story as a starting point, but when it seems to be too difficult to explain I try to define what lies behind it. Looking at the previous Agumon scenario is easier to understand. What kind of personality did it have and how did it live?

Watanabe: The Digimon settingis something that gradually becomes something more active (Laugh)

Maekawa: When I thought of defining, I thought of doing something that might make it easier to understand about it than at the time that Agumon was created. In addition, we are trying to make fans happy by incorporating setting that we had thought about in the past. It seems that it was really popular to introduce Zubamon's setting as a weapon.

Habu: The Weapon Digimon scenario was out for a while. The Weapon Digimon Spadamon was the first Digimon I asked to be made, so I would like to expand it a bit more in the future. Anyway, tell me what you are particularly impressed and pleased with your Digimon work so far.

Maekawa: I'm very happy to hear "This toy was interesting" even after years of launching the toy. With the toy I was producing, Digimon Twin, it was like this. And despite being self-flattering, I'm proud to have been a good product that brought good Digimon and the battles were able to be well done. "Digimon Twin" would have a sequel, but it was archived.

Habu: It's really something difficult not to bother. Is there anything down the road to making this fun?

Maekawa: It was something in the developmental history of the second version of Digimon Twin, we were going to introduce a 2 x 2 battle for the first time. We were considering a mechanic that could allow the sprite of a character to a model to be able to perform the battle in pairs. Version 2 of Digimon Twin was canceled, but we were able to introduce the mechanics of two Digitamas at the same time into the "Digital Monster Ver.20th" as if it were an old revenge (Laugh).

Watanabe: Mr.Maekawa's obsession has been fulfilled (Laugh)

Habu: I'm in favor of the developer! Anyway, is the opinion of the fans seen through the SNS?

Maekawa: Although not often, I try to look when new products are announced. If the stomach starts to shine, stop here (bitter smile).

Watanabe: Anyway, it's good to have a good opinion.

Maekawa: That's right. There are still some fans who are showing signs of promoting Digimon on YouTube and other media, we can feel more strongly that they are enjoying.

Habu: The distance with the fans is diminishing.

Maekawa: Although the voices of the fans often do not get straight to where I am, I think the distance to the fans is getting smaller because we started the official Digimon Twitter this year.

Watanabe: It was nice to be able to create official Twitter. There are many things I couldn't say, because there was no place to say officially so far, with this place we can send information from there. I think it's a merit from Mr. Maekawa who said it was possible to do it.

Maekawa: It is not a time when a strategy book can be produced in the same way as in the past, and by what we think if we could only produce one to accompany the twentieth birthday toy, we needed a new place to transmit information. In addition to the tips of what one can play in a way, we would like to be able to transmit the ideas of the setting we were thinking.

Habu: I'd like you to create a place where fans could learn more about Digimon.

Maekawa: Well, I would like to help even more the opportunities to learn.

Habu: Thinking about illustrations and other things makes me excited.

Watanabe: There are things I've been drawing for a long time. Some original images that are only on paper and have not yet been converted into data.

Maekawa: There are past illustrations of things we have not yet had the opportunity to show. We hope to publish this information on Twitter.

Watanabe: This is an illustration of Mr. Kinoshita *** that I want very much to show (Laughter).

Habu: I think a lot of people will be satisfied (Laughter). Anyway, referring to the new toys and setting, is there something, Mr.Maekawa, that is helping you?

Maekawa: Ideas are often within popular games. I also get stimulation when I'm playing the "Digimon" games. When I played "Digimon World -next 0rder-" I was completely covered by the idea of ​​developing two characters at the same time (Bitter Smile).

Habu: If possible I would like to help develop the project. We could think between a cooperation between game and LCD Toy with the same goal of developing two characters.

Maekawa: By 2016 we have become a integral subsidiary of Bandai and we are trying to further strengthen cooperation. I hope we have a cooperation between games and LCD Toys.

Habu: That sounds great to me! Let's look forward to it. What else would you like to challenge yourself in the future?

Maekawa: Earlier, Mr. Habu said it was difficult to deal with Xros Wars. I also think Digimon "Armor" and "Hybrid" is something we want to do in the future.

Habu: Is it true? If that happens, it will be very exciting.

Maekawa: As we are in our 20th anniversary, we are also planning various projects. We will announce it sequentially, so I am happy that I will continue to make you happy.

The number of Knights of the Round Table is a subject of discussion because of several different stories, the number can vary from only 12 and there are mentions of being a number almost immeasurable. In fact Robert De Boron described as King Arthur having 50 knights and 50 seats in the Round Table, possibly Watanabe and WiZ members based on that idea.

“Baton Touch” (バトンタッチ) is a Japanese term whose original meaning resembles the idea of passing a baton in a relay race from one runner to another. However, the meaning has been extended to mean the act of passing a job or some kind of responsibility to another person.



Mr. Takeshi Kinoshita, illustrator responsible for initial illustrations of "Digimon".



Original Interview.

Kazumasa Habu interview producer Ryo Mito

Before Habu arrived at Bandai as producer of the main games of Digimon, this position belonged to Ryo Mito. He produced games of the franchise since Digimon World X (At least was the point of origin that I found), after that he started the series Digimon Story producing his sequences until Digimon Story Lost Evolution, which was when Habu arrived in the production of Digimon and has become the new producer since Digimon Story Super Xros Wars. In addition to these games Ryo Mito also was the producer responsible for Digimon Savers: Another Mission and several other games of other franchises like "Dragon Ball", Saint Seiya "," One Piece "and" Gundam ".

Without further ado we will start the interview.

Habu: Mr. Mito was the producer responsible for Digimon games before me, but in addition to Digimon he was involved in several other games with fictional characters. Please, Mr. Mito, tell me what kinds of games you have been responsible for so far.

Mito: Since about 2002 I have been in charge of producing home games. In addition to Digimon I was also involved in the production of "Dragon Ball", "One Piece", "Gundam" and "Saint Seiya"

Habu: You say 2002, was not it the same time that "Digimon Frontier" was being broadcast?

Mito: That's right.

Habu: At the time I imagine the excitement of the fans was incredible, but what was it really like?

Mito: It was incredible.

Habu: After the development of "Frontier" and "X-Evolution", "Savers" began after a certain period of time, was the "Digimon Story" project released as part of "Digimon Savers"?

Mito: It was another axis. We were already working on it before the conversations about "Digimon Savers" popped up. It was at the time that "X-Evolution" ended and there was no further development of new animation, but we decided to develop a new game. So I thought I could try to make a game that I thought of myself and I was planning the project. Anyway, as soon as the animation plan "Digimon Savers" began to move on another axis, we decided that some Digimon and others characters from Digimon Savers would appear as guests in the right time.

Habu: As the Agumon that appeared in "Digimon Story" was wearing the red leather gloves, I thought it was a work that came up in "Digimon Savers" project (Agumon was somewhat modified in "Digimon Savers").

Mito: Regarding the Agumon design, I thought it would be more enjoyable for fans to adapt to "Digimon Savers" and incorporate it in the game.

Habu: When I first talked to Mr. MitoI heard "Anyway, releasing 'Digimon Story' was a difficult project"

Mito: As there was already the "Digimon World" series, inside the company there were opinions that seemed concerned about another RPG like the "Digimon Story" series, so it was difficult for the project to be approved.

Habu: At that time, was there a trend in home games to be a part of the "Digimon World" series?

Mito: Exactly. Although the "Digimon World" series was well known, "DIgimon Story" was an original RPG, a new work, and many differences were pointed out in relation to previous work. I explained what was interesting in "Digimon Story" and received the permission to go ahead.

Habu: Of the differences between the series "Digimon World" and "Digimon Story", what was emphasized?

Mito: At that the time when the Nintendo DS was released the environment in which simpler games for new users began to be explored. So I thought I'd do something that brightened up more than the "Digimon World" series and was meant to be easy to understand so anyone could play with the game system.

Habu: "Digimon Story" looks similar to "Digimon World 3: The Door of A New Adventure". Were you aware of this at the planning stage?

Mito: I simply thought the look was simple and would look good for a Nintendo DS title at the time. Regarding the game system, I thought about a new unique way of playing that this work would have and had not appeared so far in a Digimon game. Specifically, such factors were to Digifarm and Scan the Data of a Digimon in combat and make it your friend.

Habu: I think Digifarm was an interesting concept that was created.

Mito: Collecting many Digimon, this was the pillar of "Digimon Story". However, hundreds of Digimon appear, and you may only have a few characters in your Party. I thought of Digifarm as a solution to this problem where a Digimon that is no longer used can gain the opportunity to be used again. Also, in order for you to remember the digimon you deposited, we made the place where the Digimon was deposited as if it were a ranch. As the DS had two screens I realized it was interesting to see what the Digimon was doing while you were out moving. In addition, as Digimon are both Data and living beigns, I thought it would be fun to express such an atmosphere. How they can be something alive within DigiFarm, and can also have their data scanned to become a Digimon.

Habu: Digimon has many items and systems, are many digital words do not you think?

Mito: Anyway, in the series "Digimon World" there are many things difficult to understand. For example, even considering that the name of an item was Floppy Disk, I heard voices who did not know what that was. So, in order to get the target audience, elementary school students to understand, the items and terms of "Digimon Story" were chosen being easy to understand.

Habu: In the "Digimon World" series the item was really a floppy disk. I think there are many elementary school students who have never seen a floppy disk, even though there is the concept that old data gather around the Digimon.

Mito: I wonder if this will change in every age.

Habu: I believe so. In addition I feel that the rhythm became more dynamic when it was for the Nintendo DS.

Mito: I think the rhythm feeling has been improved considerably by the use of a ROM Cartridge. The series "Digimon World" had a long loading time and the rhythm was not so good.

Habu: "Digimon Story" is appreciable, a sense of ease and clarity that needed to be pointed out from the beginning. At that time 5 to 6 years have passed since the birth of Digimon, how old was the target audience you had in mind?

Mito: I thought of the game as being playable by elementary school students. Many Digimons were created and I thought that the element of collecting Digimon could not be removed at all, so I concentrated on giving a particular emphasis on the development of collecting and training Digimon.

Habu: You appropriately took on the concepts of "Digimon" of adventure, train and battle.

Mito: Exactly. The basics of "Digimon" games are adventure, training and battle, so I followed directly from these points.

Habu: Adventure, training and battle are still considered basic ideas when planning a game of Digimon. They are easy to analyze and explain inside the game. I heard that development was difficult in the past, please tell me more about it.

Mito: It was about the game system. I explained the specifications several times and continued to refine the project. It also retouched the elements of DigiFarm. Originally it was an element that was not in the world of "Digimon", but I implemented it thinking that it really was interesting if it incorporates it. In addition there was not only Evolution of the Digimon, but also incorporated the "Degenerate".

Habu: Could you say that you had a greater result than you first speculated?

Mito: Specifications have increased. At the planning meeting, we gathered interesting ideas and promoted development in a way that we were constantly incorporating. The result was that "Digimon Story" has become a game full of specifications.

Habu: With the colors of the Nintendo DS, I think you created a game with a different taste by putting Digimon in a pop world.

Mito: I had this as my goal. Be it as it appears on the scene or on the battle screens, I wanted to use a pop image from the beginning, so I did my best to look like something pop. As you play for a long time, it will go on to enrich the Digimon number.

Habu: About 240 Digimon appeared in "Digimon Story", right? I think it's a large number from the beginning, considering it was the first work of the series, was it difficult to implement this?

Mito: Sure, it was difficult, but the higher the Digimon number this will lead directly to greater user satisfaction, and as there are several Digimon species, I have implemented as many as possible from the beginning.

Habu: The number of 240 coming from "Digimon Story" was used as a base value for the Digimon number that would appear in "Cyber ​​Sleuth". Considering the "catch game" nature of the "Digimon Story" series, it seems that it was serious to want to preserve at least that number.

Habu: Even considering the Digimon as being sprites, the scenarios were very beautiful.

Mito: "Digimon" is a popular play for boys and girls so we wanted to make a map that was meant to be cute, seen by a boy or a girl, and could keep that atmosphere beautiful even if seen by an adult.

Habu: I think "Digimon Story" has become a division point for the Digimon games. At that time "Digimon World" had fans, but sales of the series fell. This is because the product was not the "Digimon World" that consumers wanted, and this is a point we should always remember, but in such a situation "Digimon Story" was able to gain new fans and bring a revival, I feel that this is the biggest fact that I can continue to develop Digimon games after that. The target audience may have been elementary school students, but what generation do you think was part of the real audience?

Mito: As planned, there were many elementary school students. In the past there were few RPG works for the Nintendo DS, and we were able to release it very early, I think kids played.

Habu: Well, comparing the age of consumers of the series "Digimon World" and "Digimon Story", the "Digimon World" is younger around 5 years compared to Digimon Story. Certainly, Digimon Story sold around 210000 copies in Japan.

Mito: I think it was around 210000 and 220000 (Total sales arrive around 218800)

Habu: This value has not yet been exceeded ... The title of which I was responsible sold only about 18,000 copies in Japan, but production costs increase rapidly (Bitter Smile).

Mito: Please start a new record (Laugh).

Habu: Well, let's start talking about the next topic. "Digimon Story", the sequence "Sunburst / Moonlight" was released immediately. Was that the original plan?

Mito: Release a sequence was not planned. But, "Digimon Story" sold around 40,000 copies on the first day, and soon it exceeded 200,000 copies, so it was immediately decided that we should do a sequel. We released the first game in June, and the second game was released in March the following year. So I think we've developed in just half a year. And there were two versions. We had a scary schedule if you look back now (Bitter Smile).

Habu: And the reason this schedule was decided was ...

Mito: From April 2006 until March 2007, "Digimon Savers" was being shown. I thought it would be more satisfying for players if we release the new game at a time when they were still enjoying the animation, so we pushed development to be something fast.

Habu: At that time, TVCM was still the main method of advertising, so it was important for fans to know the product while watching the animation commercials, so it was a common story to have to release during the anime period. "Sunburst" / "Moonlight" is popular with fans, do not you think? I believe it was appreciated the mechanics of the main character of one version appear in the other version with a different point of view.

Mito: I wanted to make the two versions clearly different, so I thought about the idea of ​​Digimon "Sunburst" and "Moonlight". And then we develop Coronamon and Lunamon to symbolize each game, and we continue the development with them being the main axis.

Habu: How was the design concept of Coronamon and Lunamon decided?

Mito: I thought of the Sun and the Moon, the brightest and the darkest. The sun is like a flame, when I think of the sun as an animal I think of as a lion. Already the moon I think of a rabbit. With that kind of feeling, the design of Coronamon and Lunamon was decided.

Habu: In Ultimate, Coronamon evolves to Apollomon and Lunamon to Dianamon. These two characters are members of the Olympus XII, were not they?

Mito: When we decided that we would use the image of the Sun and the Moon, the space for these Olympus XII were empty, so we put Apollomon and Dianamon.

Habu: These days, the teams of the Royal Knights and Olympus XII were empty.

Mito: Olympus XII had only few members at the time, I believe only 2 or 3.

Habu: At the time of "Digimon Savers", Mercurymon was created. In the beginning there was only Marsmon, right?

Mito: Yes. I think the members of the Olympus XII were not decided at all. There was also space among the Royal Knights, but as Apollomon and Dianamon were not knights type, so we thought that Olympus XII would fit more.

Habu: It was only a long time later until the Olympus XII were complete. Even the animes did not deal with their existence ...

Mito: That's right.

Habu: Because of this they are not well known (Bitter smile). As for me I would like to use them correctly in a future title. Speaking of "Sunburst" / "Moonlight" human characters are also popular, specifically Sayo the main character of "Moonlight". Did you evaluate that at the time?

Mito: We were not aware of it at the time. Originally we did not expect human characters to become popular, but I remember being surprised to know that Sayo was so popular later.

Habu: As the protagonist of "Sunburst" / "Moonlight" appears as characters in the other version, the characters became remarkable. Many sub-characters have also appeared and the Leader Characters are no longer Digimon, why do that?

Mito: Regarding the Leader Characters, just for convenience I thought it was better that the Lead Characters were not Digimon.

Habu: I even thought about making a Leader Character that was not a Digimon, but this makes it difficult for them to appear in other works ... There's a reason why they can not be Digimon ... It's a dilemma because it becomes difficult for them reappear. The third part of "Digimon Story" was Lost Evolution, but at that time you also worked on "Digimon Savers: Another Mission" (2006) and "Digimon Championship" (2008).

Mito: I did it. So we did 4 Digimon games between 2005 and 2006. "Digimon Story" in June 2006, "Digimon Savers: Another Mission" in November 2006 and "Digimon Story Sunbrust" and "Digimon Story Moonlight" in March 2007. So "Digimon Savers" and after a while we release "Digimon Championship". "Digimon Savers: Another Mission" was a bit difficult.

Habu: There's still Digimon with the 3D Model based on "Digimon Savers: Another MIssion". I have in memory that somehow I managed to make a game of "Digimon", at that time we were fighting for available resource of "Digimon" because we had almost no development budget. However the data of some characters were lost so it was a waste ... After that still had "Digimon Championship", but he had a strange game system.

Mito: "Digimon Championship" is different from the games in the "Digimon Story" series. We have tried to extend the playability of "Digimon Pendulum" portable LCD toys and we have developed thinking about the concept of playing with the Nintendo DS Stylus.

Habu: You've developed several Digimon games, but the most memorable is still "Digimon Story"?

Mito: That's right. I produced four games in the series "Digimon Story" and then "Sunburst" / "Moonlight", at the time I was thinking of developing the series using concepts like Mars and Jupiter. Finally, it became "Lost Evolution" (Laugh).

Habu: "Digimon Story Lost Evolution" was the game of "Digimon" that I worked for the first time, so it was something very impressive. There is something new in the game, is not there?

Mito: Considering the different versions, I had already produced two games, so I thought I would enjoy making a big difference with "Lost Evolution". As it is in the title, we decided that the Digimon lost the evolutions and we made a game in which they needed to repair the evolutionary tree. The whole game was worked out as an overhaul of the series so far, but the repair system was something that left a strong feeling in the game. It was a point that made the players feel dissatisfied because they could not evolve immediately into a Digimon, they wanted to be able to move through the entire evolution of a Digimon.

Habu: Mr. Mito has been working on other content after "Lost Evolution", but please tell me if there is any unique feature in working with Digimon, if there is something difficult, etc.

Mito: It's a charm the fact that there are many Digimon, it's something appealing and yet challenging.

Habu: The Digimon number was used as the most important attraction for the player based on that?

Mito: Because the appearance of Digimon never seemed to be too much for the players. Well, some really want to pick some Digimon. However, we are very sorry to fans, but due to circumstances like budgeting and programming, it is difficult to implement all Digimons. Unable to choose the Digimon that appears, if there isn't a Digimon that someone likes, the voice of dissatisfaction naturally appears. It is really difficult to choose when it comes to balance.

Habu: Increasing Digimon numbers is one of our missions. In the last game, "Digimon Story: Cyber ​​Sleuth Hackers Memory", around 320 Digimon appeared, but I want it to increase even more. The subject will change, but please, Mr. Mito, tell me something that you had to suffer and one that you were happy about, particularly in your work related to Digimon so far.

Mito: Considering the complications, I still believe that the number of Digimon, still in the development period, is the most serious. What makes me happy is the warmth of Digimon fans. If we are well rated by them then it is because we did a good job.

Habu: Of course, there are some harsh opinions, but it is encouraging when we have several fans who support our work (because there are often painful things).

Mito: Fans sometimes go to the extreme.

Habu: That's right. Besides, there are some things I would like to ask you, taking advantage of this moment. What kind of things do you, Mr. Mito, like to do in your games?

Mito: When developing a game, it is important to have a "flat eye". If you are a player, then I create the game thinking what you think. In "Digimon" games, I try to be careful with people who do not know the franchise premise. As someone who knows a few things it's easy to upset the ideas, we pay attention to creating an easy entry with a good atmosphere to make it easier to understand the game's specifications.

Habu: I think I'll think more about the user's perspective. Also, when I released "Cyber ​​Sleuth" in 2015 you were in the position to check, but I'd like to ask you directly what you think of my work.

Mito: Before Cyber ​​Sleuth, when Suzuhito Yasuda was named as a character designer in "Digimon World Re: Digitize" (2012) and I saw the characters, I got the feeling of a different and new possibility with Digimon. I think "Cyber ​​Sleuth" is good for adults with a cool and stylized line. I got to say "You do not need to put 'Digimon Story' in the title."

Habu: You're right. As the age of the players of "Digimon" is about 20 years, I did "Digimon World Re: Digitize" focusing a bit on adults, but in "Cyber ​​Sleuth" not only the images but even the worldview has changed. Anyway, as I wanted to follow the idea of ​​"easy to understand for anyone to play" from "Digimon Story", at the planning time I decided not to change the fundamental gameplay system of "Digimon Story" and while chatting with Media / Vision development company together we have done a planning trying to improve the feeling of feeling comfortable while playing. So we thought fans could recall the gameplay by seeing the title, so I thought and said to Mr. Mito "I want to use that in the title."

Mito: Yes, yes. Even considering that it followed the gameplay, the art changed from something more pop to something more stylized, so I did not find it fit like a "Digimon Story".

Habu: Now Mr. Mito is focused on the management work and I think it's hard for you to accomplish, but what kind of titles would you like to develop if you could create a Digimon game now?

Mito: Whereas the number of adult Digimon fans is growing now, so "Cyber ​​Sleuth" has included the most stylish and cool line, but originally "Digimon Story" was developed with a cute and pop concept. So using "state-of-art" technology, I would like to make a "Digimon Story" using a cute and pop style.

Habu: That sounds cool to me! I want to see it anyway.

Mito: I do not know if it can be performed, but I will continue to create games while listening to the fans' voice as much as possible. The content of the series has changed a lot since when I was involved, but I still look forward with your continued support in the future.

Habu 4Gamer Interview

Habu's interview for the 4Gamer site during the announcement of Hackers Memory is well known because it was in it that Habu revealed that a new Story saga game is in production. In addition this interview brings many other information, so I decided to translate it completely to use in future posts.

Frist Part

4Gamer: Thank you for your time today. I believe it's Habu's first time at 4Gamer, so could you tell us about your career so far?

Mr.Habu: I was originally at Namco and I've been involved in series like Tekken and Soul Calibur as Visual Designer. So after the merger between Bandai and Namco when we formed the Bandai Namco Games, we moved from the development department to the production department of the games involved with Bandai, so I decided to work with Digimon.

4Gamer: "Tekken" and "Soul Calibur" to Digimon, it's a big change.

Mr.Habu: I am not from the Digimon Generation, but I believe that the interest in collecting and developing characters has existed universally since a long time ago. In my generation had Bikkuriman and I thought it was interesting to see the setting of a title where multiple characters are gathered, I thought I was going to do this.

4Gamer: What was the first title you worked on?

Mr.Habu: The title I started working on was "Digimon Story Lost Evolution". At this time I was involved in Digimon for the first time as Production Assistant below Ryo Mito who was the producer of the Digimon Story series. During this production the planning of Digimon Xros Wars began, so after completing Lost Evolution we developed Digimon Super Xros Wars as a tie-in title and I was involved as a Producer.

4Gamer: In the Digimon Story series before Cyber Sleuth, the character design and the Digimon Partners were close to Anime, was this a conscious feat?

Mr.Habu: Well, I think there's a bit of misunderstanding about the proximity to the animes side. In the production of the Digimon home games, there are not many works that are just compilation of the anime. Of course, although there are works that have anime as a theme, originally the roots of the Digimon were the LCD toys and games for this target audience like "Digital Monsters Ver.S ~ Digimon Tamers" was released in 1998 before the first animation, Digimon Adventure, be aired. Digimon's worldview also expanded with "Digimon World" released in January 1999 and in fact Digimon games have their own way of spreading.

4Gamer: Originally the Story series and the animation began as completely different things. However, the Digimon that appear in the series Digimon Story were based on the visual of the animation and the characters of the anime also appear as guests.

Mr.Habu: There is a big reason for the anime characters and others to appear as guests, it was during the time that the animation was being broadcast. At that time Digimon was being produced for the children and the basic business model was that the children should be interested in Digimon when watching the anime and would ask that related products be bought, despite the story of the game being original, at that time it was imagined that if active monsters or anime characters did not appear in the games, the consumer layer would be disappointed. So even in Lost Evolution the main character could use Agumon or Gaomon who had an active role in Digimon Savers.

4Gamer: I see.

Mr.Habu: The world view of the anime was used in titles like "Digimon Adventure: Anode Tamer & Cathode Tamer" for Wonderswan, "Digimon Savers: Another Mission" for PS2 and "Digimon Adventure" for PSP and although there is a bit in the World series and the Story series, they are not anime compilations with the exception of Super Xros Wars.

4Gamer: As mentioned earlier, the Digimon series was being developed with titles aimed at children at that time, but this concept seems to have changed for adults in 2012 when I believe that "Digimon World Re: Digitize" was released. Cyber Sleuth also adopted the phrase "For adult Digimon fans", but what was the critical point for that?

Mr.Habu: For me Super Xros Wars has definitely become the critical point. The anime Digimon Xros Wars was an animation that tried to attract new children fans with the concept of "Fusion" instead of "Evolution", but the true audience was composed of people with an age greater than originally planned for the target public.

Regarding Lost Evolution, and even Super Xros Wars, which were released during the broadcast, consumers were high school or college people … In other words, the data indicated that the people in search of the Digimon series were the ones that played since the time of the LCD Toys and the old animated series.

The developers were unable to attract many kids with the Xros Wars animation, and the real audience was the old Digimon fan who was not looking for what "Fusion" was in Xros Wars, but for what "Evolution" was about.

As a result, Digimon Super Xros Wars was greeted with a stern voice from consumers saying "Digimon isn’t like that!" (「デジモンはそうじゃないよ！」).

4Gamer: So there was a disagreement between what consumers wanted and the developers side?

Mr.Habu: Yes. When I realized this situation there was one side of the development team that said "Digimon is a title for kids!", So I thought with a little bit of spirit. "Aren’t you sure that you can’t reach the fans that currently support Digimon?"

So I thought, "I want to do something for adults in my next work." Then from this spirit inside me came "Re: Digitize" for PSP and then "Digimon Adventure" based on the animation.

However, there was also a very painful part at the beginning of planning.

4Gamer: What are you talking about?

Mr.Habu: Initially there were people inside the company, external people, wholesalers and many others with the idea "Digimon is for children" and they were not sure about what would result from a product developed for adults.

"Why PSP? You should made this for 3Ds as it is for kids," there was a lot of disagreement even to expand the platform.

Lost Evolution and Super Xros Wars did not give much results, so at that time Digimon was in a bad situation and the budget was very small.

Even in that situation, the development department worked very hard and somehow we were able to release Re: Digitize.

4Gamer: At that time I remember being thrilled with "We will work with the original Digimon World system".

Mr.Habu: Looking back now, the content itself was not complete and there are many points in which I feel remorse, but Re: Digitize sold a lot and the mobile game "Digimon Collectors", which was running at the time, had sales much higher than expected.

As a result of the good sales of products with older target audience the recognition that "Digimon can also be for adults" began to spread in the company. It was a result of this process that completely adult games like Cyber Sleuth were produced.

4Gamer: How old is the current Digimon audience?

Mr.Habu: The Digimon games of the moment are the series Digimon World and Digimon Story. The Digimon World series is next to the generation of LCD toys, so by average the target audience that plays is around 25 years. In the Story series it seems that the average age drops by about 1 to 2 years from this point. The Story series has a release date that overlaps with "Digimon Savers," so the little younger audience comes from that.

4Gamer: So people around the age of 20 seem to be the main target.

Mr.Habu: Cyber Sleuth was produced with a target audience of people around the age of 20 who watched the anime in the past, it was the title that defined the concept that the worldview of Digimon could be seen by adults as interesting.

4Gamer: Cyber Sleuth leaves the impression that it has gone a step further with the adults than the previous titles.

Mr.Habu: I agree. While we changed the visuals and other things on a large scale, the fundamental world view was made so that the critical point of Digimon that had been developed in the previous stories was put in its proper place.

The world view of when it was developed in LCD Toys, Hackers attached a wireframe texture in computer viruses that were generated in cyber space, this led the lifeform to become an self-evolving A.I in the form of a "Digimon".

At that time Windows 95 had been released and the popularization of the PC has advanced and now we are in the era in which we imagine how the world of the internet will evolve.

Considering such backstory, "Digimon" had a difficult worldview for children to observe. When it was animated, the aspect moved toward a fantasy route as the media gradually merged and expanded.

4Gamer: Certainly. Digimon with more and more heroic design also increased.

Mr. Habu: Yes. So in Cyberspace, Digimon was born into a hard sci-fi world. Instead of cutting off the fantasy world that was built into animation, I did it with the desire to make a worldview that would connect and merge the two others.

So at the beginning of the story only the Hackers in cyberspace were using Digimon, but by engaging with the Digimon, they are not just computer programs, but living beings from a different world from the humans that appears in this world through computerized human society.

This will gradually become more and more known. In the introduction as we draw the worldview of LCD toys, the world view of anime begins to spread.

4Gamer: So it seems there was a desire to draw the history of Digimon itself on Cyber Sleuth.

Mr. Habu: Yes. The concept of Cyber Sleuth was to write a story in a way that the recognition of the characters in the game had a connection with the story of Digimon in reality.

4Gamer: I was surprised that Digimon was picking up the setting that said they were originally computer virus. If you were from the generation of LCD toys you might remember "Oh, there really was such a setting," but it should not be familiar with the people of the anime generation.

Mr. Habu: I was thinking to myself "The critical point of Digimon is this," so I thought about how I should incorporate this setting.

This is a good point for Digimon and it is also a negative point, because there is the characteristic that the world view is different for each series.

In the TV series only "Adventure" and "02" are connected, but after that they are made as if they were completely different worlds or parallel worlds for each work. Also, because it is a long-lasting content, the impression of Digimon is different by the work is what touches the person first.

I really hoped that in Cyber Sleuth people of various generations would confirm what "Digimon" was while they enjoyed the game as well.