Since you’ve had the opportunity to meet both Western and Japanese fans of the Disgaea series, could you let us know the differences and similarities you’ve noticed between the two?



Niikawa-San: They are very similar in a sense! To go into this a little deeper, it has less to do with fans themselves and more of how people act in different countries. Japanese fans tend to be a bit quieter and are on the shy side, whereas Western fans are more outgoing and more likely to be excited about the series at conventions. When we made the game I didn’t expect it to do well in the West, because it was written with a Japanese otaku audience in mind. All the terms and parodies in the game stem from Japanese culture and were made with this specific audience in mind and I wasn’t convinced this would resonate with people abroad. But, when it was released in the West it sold more than in Japan! So, I wondered why. With this question, I started to wonder why do these people like Disgaea? When I was first invited to the West, I remember seeing fans over here excited about seeing Disgaea trailers even though they were in a different language. I would see fans laugh at the Japanese parts of the trailer, which I found very interesting from them. They all recognised the parodies from Japanese otaku culture and at that moment I realised otaku are all the same all over the world. Because they’re all the same, if we can increase the number of otaku around the world, we will be closer to world peace! No more wars!



*EVERYBODY LAUGHS*



NISA Europe: We’ve probably found the answer to world peace now.



Niikawa-San: You often hear in Japan that games are bad for children, but I don’t buy it for a second. Games will give us world peace.



NISA Europe: That’s really nice I’ll have to tell my mum about this!