At Tokyo Game Show 2017 in Chiba last week, we sat down with Experience president Hajime Chikami and Kadokawa Games sales and PR director Jyuntaro Kohno to discuss the upcoming western release of Demon Gaze II.

During our discussion, we talked previous entries, a potential Demon Gaze III, relationships, and more.

Read the full interview below.

Before the original Demon Gaze, you released a game called Students of the Round which was set in the same universe. Perhaps a silly a question, but would players need to play those games in order to understand Demon Gaze II?

Jyuntaro Kouno: “Students of the Round is actually just set in the same universe as, but is not a part of Demon Gaze. You don’t need to play the previous ones to understand Demon Gaze II. There’s an free add-on for Demon Gaze II called ‘Yagyuu (Call of the Grimodar)’ after you clear Demon Gaze II, which is 20-plus hours of extra content and story that relates to Demon Gaze 1. Playing those can actually be a stepping stone to playing Demon Gaze, and maybe Students of the Round.”

Is the ‘Call of the Grimodar’ add-on included in the English release?

Jyuntaro Kouno: “Yes it will be included. In Japan,the release was a month after the release of Demon Gaze II. People cleared the game early and were very anxious to get the package. I’m excited the western audience will have it available right away.”

Will playing Demon Gaze II first spoil anything about the original Demon Gaze?

Jyuntaro Kouno: “No there isn’t anything that will spoil Demon Gaze 1.”

Can you talk about improvements from the first game to this one?

Chikami Hajime: “The games are set in the same world, but the first took place in an old, rusty town. Whereas Demon Gaze II is located in a big city, which allows us to involve more people in the story. So it’s on a grander scale.”

Juntaro Kouno: “In Demon Gaze 1 you could fully customize your characters, and the demons were like side characters who may help or betray you. While we took away the character creation in Demon Gaze II, the demons are part of your party now and you can select which you want. Since the characters already pre-made in Demon Gaze II, you can interact with them on a greater scale as we can set a background story for them. Which gives you more insight to the story and what’s occurring in the world. The more friendship you will build with them the more you will know about the world.”

Does building these friendships result in romantic relationships?

Jyuntaro Kouno: “It doesn’t go all the way to a certain conclusion of dating or anything, it stops right before something happens. The rest is up to your imagination.”

So can you get on especially friendly terms with the new male demon as well?

Chikami Hajime: “Well, it turns into a friendship…”

Jyuntaro Kouno: “A deep friendship.”

Chikami Hajime: “…a deep friendship bond (laughter).”

Jyuntaro Kouno: “There is skin-ship interaction though. The girls will usually blush, but the male will also blush (laughter).”

While on the topic of relationships, is it possible to make characters hate you?

Chikami Hajime: “It doesn’t come to a point where they actually hate you, you’re actually always liked—you’re always liked. You can ignore them, but it depends on the player and if you want to have a good relationship with all of them—there’s 16 of them, or if there’s one you really like that you want to focus on you can do that, too.”

So then it’s confirmed that there are 16 playable party members?

Jyuntaro Kouno: “Yes, they are 16 demons, but you may find more in the ‘Call of Grimodar’ add-on.”

Recent trailers had English voice acting, but the game have the option of both English and Japanese voices?

Jyuntaro Kouno: “Yes, the Japanese voices will be in there. But, even though we don’t understand English well we think the English voices are good.”

Will there be any content changes based on region or what may some consider censorship?

Jyuntaro Kouno: “Not really. Of course there are regulations we have to follow to not offend people with regards to religious stuff. The one instance I can think of is a city called ‘666.’ In Japan such religious things are regarded lightly, but we didn’t want to insult the religion so we thought it was best to change the number.”

You planned Demon Gaze to be made as a trilogy. Is the Students of the Round or the ‘Call of Grimodar’ add-on considered the third part of that, or is there intent to make a Demon Gaze III?

Jyuntaro Kouno: “Students of the Round and ‘Call of Grimodar’ are not considered a part of the trilogy, so we are thinking of Demon Gaze III; it’s still in the works. If there is high demand for it, that may speed things up.”

So does that confirm a Demon Gaze III is underway?

Jyuntaro Kouno: “We’re thinking about it. It may be a possibilityc.”

Any last messages before we sign off?

Jyuntaro Kouno: “We were really happy to hear that Demon Gaze 1 sold well overseas, so that’s how Demon Gaze II came about. We designed Demon Gaze II to be more approachable. If anyone thought the first was too hard, Demon Gaze II will be a better stepping stone. Anyone who stopped playing Demon Gaze 1 because they found it hard may find Demon Gaze II a better suit because the difficulty is on a more gradual curve. The beginning of Demon Gaze 1 was easy, but then the difficulty spiked. When making these games we didn’t have a chance to take in western audiences’ feedback and wants, so this time if there is any feedback about what you want to see in the next Demon Gaze we’d love to see that.”

Chikami Hajime: “We faced a lot of challenges when making Demon Gaze II, more than Demon Gaze 1, I hope it pays off and we look forward to hearing feedback from the western audience.”