Nyoro: Before we begin the interview, please tell all the EventHubs readers who you are, your job title, and what an average day at SEGA is like for you.



Sam Mullen: My name is Sam Mullen, and I am a Localization Producer at SEGA of America. My average day at SEGA is taking Japanese-published games and working hard bringing them over here!



Nyoro: So, let’s talk about Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax, otherwise known as DFC, since that’s the reason we are here. This game was released in Japanese arcades first. Then, for the Japan-only console release, characters were added as console-exclusive content. We at EventHubs are very familiar with the arcade model of fighting game releases because Arc System Works uses the exact same model. The arcade version is released exclusively, the console release version has extra non-arcade content, and then that content is patched back into arcade at a later date. I assume DFC will continue to follow this pattern?



Sam: That is indeed the business model used for arcade fighters, and I don’t see that changing for DFC.

Nyoro: So, why was Fighting Climax chosen for localization?



Sam: So, in late 2012 I became aware that this game was under development from our Japanese branch, and I was concerned that SEGA doesn’t have strong 2D fighting games in their current portfolio. This is something I thought would resonate very well with the West, because it’s super unique, has characters from a wide variety of popular works, and is a very accessible fighting game.



Nyoro: It’s true that SEGA is most known for Virtua Fighter…



Sam: Exactly. Which is our more technical 3D fighting games. Fighting Climax is in a big contrast to this game as a 2D fighting game. With Virtua Fighter, it takes a lot of investment; you could spend a lot of time on one character and still not have a full grasp of what they’re capable of. DFC has a lot more up-front accessibility where all the flashiness is available right from the start for any player.



Nyoro: Did you look at the popularity of each character when deciding to localize the game? Like, “Sword Art Online’s Asuna and Kirito are popular among anime fans, so it will appeal?” Or was it more “this game has characters from all these anime series, so it will appeal to all sorts of anime fans” in a general, wide-sweeping sense?



Sam: It’s a little bit of the second one. Obviously, in the West some characters will be much more popular than others mainly because of the access to those characters in terms of media. It’s really all about access and how well people can access the characters and their background. We don’t really know if any characters in DFC now or in the future will take off in the West, but because there’s such a wide variety, we figured it was a pretty good bet to go with this title.



Nyoro: In the last 20 plus years, many fighting games are created based on licensed content from other parties outside the developer. Since DFC has characters whose licenses currently exist all over the place with all sorts of media, how was SEGA able to license all of these characters for international release?



Sam: To immediately answer your question, the international licensing for the cast wasn’t too hard because all the characters are owned under the Dengeki Bunko overarching license. If I may speculate a little, what I think has happened over the past 20 years is that originally Japanese developers and creators who wanted to license content overseas weren’t very aware of how to go about it. So they offered it piecemeal and created all sorts of problems. Over time they’ve realized this is a bad idea and have altered the licensing structure to become much more intelligent and much easier to execute on. It’s still not easy, but it’s much easier than it used to be.



Nyoro: DFC is coming to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, and the release date is… this October, am I correct?



Sam: We haven’t actually announced a date yet. We’ve had a lot of different websites posting different dates, and that’s because we haven’t locked in a date yet ourselves. The news about the date is coming in the very very near future, so please hold out for that!



[Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax was recently announced to be releasing on October 6th]



Nyoro: Did SEGA’s recent company move from San Francisco to Los Angeles have any part in delaying the announcement of a release date for this game?



Sam: That’s a tough one to answer (laughs).



Nyoro: Well, it is a very big shift for a company so I would consider it a natural occurrence, if that was the case.



Sam: It is a big shift. I think it goes without saying that such a big shift will have impacts, but the impacts will not all be negative.



Nyoro: SEGA’s own Valkyria Chronicles, though not a fighting game, has achieved great success on Steam. Has the fantastic success of that title created any imperative for similar anime-styled games like Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax to come to PC?



Sam: We are aware that Steam and PC is definitely a growing platform. That’s basically all I can really say on that front.



Nyoro: SEGA already has incredibly good PC support with their teams like Creative Assembly. However, it feels like there is a divide between what SEGA of America does with the PC platform and what SEGA of Japan does with the PC platform.



Sam: Yes, absolutely. The reality is that PC isn’t as big in Japan, and often when we go to localize our titles we’re picking up what Japan has already done and taking it on. Adding a platform after the fact can add heavy delays to a project.



Nyoro: That is true… unless a platform is designated from the very beginning before development starts it can be quite a time addition to do a port. So then, for titles that are developed by SEGA of Japan, how much say does SEGA of America have for what platforms games like DFC come to?



Sam: It really does depend on the situation. Some games, we have a lot of input, and some we don’t. It ultimately depends on how invested the different territories are on each platform. [Fighting Climax] was developed first and foremost for the Japanese audience, so when it comes to our end we look at the game and discuss how much does the local fan-base want us to alter for a foreign release and make the decisions there.



Nyoro: To swing back to DFC, let’s discuss localization. This game is not an RPG by any means, just a traditional fighter. Does this make it easier to localize?



Sam: Actually, no! It is actually fairly hard because there are so many characters from different universes. Some of these characters I was vaguely familiar with and some I had never heard of before. So when a translation comes in for review, sometimes I have to double check and say “is that really right?” or “is that really referring to the right definition?” Some of these properties have never had an official translation of their content overseas. Some do, and others have had fan translations done.



One thing to remember is that everyone’s depiction in Fighting Climax is based off of their light novels. So, if there’s an anime-referenced version of a translation, it may not apply to the light novel’s depiction of an event. So far, it’s been a very tricky translation with a lot of internet sleuthing involved. Often, characters will make a passing reference to a scene, and I have to triple check to make sure whether the scene only happened in the light novel, then I have to consult with the developers, and so forth.



One thing in particular that’s very important and compelling in crossover titles like these are the special dialogue between characters when they come on screen to fight. So we made sure to add subtitles in those critical scenes, since in Japanese they are only spoken without any dialogue boxes.



Nyoro: In regards to changes made per region…



Sam: So another thing to mention is that the online play has cross region support, for all players who want to play each other overseas.



Nyoro: That is actually considered to be a default feature in fighting games. It is very rare for the netplay of a fighter to be region locked. It’s still very good news though.



Sam: Well, it seems obvious, but it may not be! Another example is that in the Japanese version, there are custom titles you can set that can be viewed as you fight online together. We had to make sure that if an English speaker connected to a Japanese speaker that they didn’t see something unintelligible on their screen and vice versa. We could have left them as Japanese but we translated them all to English for everyone to use. This also involved us making sure that the titles viewed are cross-compatible in both languages.



Nyoro: So very similar to Persona 4 Arena Ultimax!



Sam: Yes.



Nyoro: So, the next item to note is regarding Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax Ignition. With unfortunate timing for SEGA of America, Ignition was announced as the arcade update to Fighting Climax, with two new characters, two new assist characters and a rebalance incoming. What can we expect to see in terms of how this release will be handled in North America? Will it be another case of waiting several months after the Japanese console release for the American console release or will SEGA aim for a simultaneous console release?



Sam: It’s a little too premature to speculate on that, as for right now we are focusing 100% on the release of the current version. We want to make sure that everyone is really satisfied with what they receive with this game. Once we finish getting everyone’s eyes on this title, then we’ll turn our focus towards Ignition.



Nyoro: Understandable. Though players may not like to hear it, sales of “first entry” can influence future decisions and it wouldn’t surprise me if fan and sales reception to the initial offering affected how SEGA addressed the series in the future.



Sam: One of my personal concerns is that when an update appears ahead of time in another region then players tend to wait for the sequel. However, I know that the current group of DFC players right now are very passionate about the game. I just want everyone out there who wants this game and supports this game to keep growing the group of interested players so we can grow this property in the West.



Nyoro: That’s one thing I personally noticed that I don’t think Japanese companies understand. When you announce a sequel or revision to a fighting game that is Japan-only, the interest in the original title overseas hits a big low. However, like you said earlier this game right now appeals to a very interested and invested fan-base, so it’s unlikely that they’ll lose interest in the upcoming title. Though, the fanbase isn’t 100% “hardcore” because the number of properties in the game is so far reaching to a casual base as well…



Sam: That’s the great thing about this game. You have the more hardcore player who’s invested in the fighting system and technical parts, and you have the softer side that really likes the characters, setting and dialogue. And of course the game itself is really, really fun to play at all levels.



Nyoro: I also believe that the game will do just fine in North America due to its ease of pick up and play along with the high number of recognizable characters that will be noticed by anime viewers, manga readers and light novel aficionados alike. Sam, thank you so much for the interview.



Sam: Thank you!