Dengeki: To start off, let's talk about the characters you revealed on the TGS stage.



Niitsuma: The concept behind Vergil was the same concept we used when designing Dante. When producing [Vergil's] original techniques, we made sure to differ him from Dante. Now that our design of him is complete, all that's left is fine-tuning his techniques. You could say "Like Dante, but not Dante" when describing him, as that is the feel we were trying to transmit when playing as him.



Iron Fist, to put it bluntly, is a "Fei Long" type of character. One of his signature techniques is an attack with three different parts, separated by Light, Medium and Hard Attack. Because he can follow up off the ground with this technique as well, I really feel that this makes him an interesting character.



UMvC3 characters were polished quickly despite very little time to work, but I believe the two presentations today show the craftsmanship behind the two recently announced characters.



Dengeki: I was astonished to hear Mr. Hiroaka Hirata (Vergil's Devil May Cry 3 voice actor) was to reprise Vergil.



Niitsuma: That was decided by both the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 team and the Devil May Cry team. The final call for Vergil's voice was up to me and the producer [Kobayashi] in the end.



Dengeki: What is your feeling over the choice [for Vergil's voice actor]?



Niitsuma: It was a very smart choice, right? Just perfect! I thought his Japanese voice would inspire a feeling of astonishment.

Dengeki: What was your reasoning behind the redesign of the appearance of X-Factor on the HUD?



Niitsuma: There were often beginners who would lose games without activating X-Factor, and there were times when the team would frustratingly say "use it, use it!" That is something we wanted to eliminate with a redesign.



Dengeki: You've altered X-Factor's effectiveness, yes?



Niitsuma: The biggest change is the ability to use it in the air. Connecting two techniques in the air with the use of X-Factor is now possible. Because X-Factor was becoming more of a lopsided technique in favor of offense, there were decisions made to counter this effect. To be specific, the amount of time you are in X-Factor Level 1 and 3 have been changed.



Dengeki: Any other system adjustments?



Niitsuma: The Team Aerial Combo. We added ways for you to steal hyper combo gauge during the exchange.



Dengeki: There have been quite a few changes [in UMvC3]!



Niitsuma: The truth is, our team has tried to make big changes to X-Factor. This was a rejected idea, but it was thought that we would give the X-Factor user continuous one-hit Super armor after activation. It was decided in the end that this was akin to giving out infinites in X-Factor, so to defend against such a strong system like that a Mega Crash system would have to be put into the game.



(Editor Note from the article: Mega Crash is a system in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom that acts as a Burst to free you from your opponent's combo. In that game you needed two bars of hyper meter to use it and it took away roughly 10-15% of your life bar.)



We realized that after all these changes that the game was becoming too complex, so we specified our plans in terms of simplicity. We thought to ourselves, "such a system would make it Marvel vs. Capcom 4, not 3." Proceeding with that attitude, we have only touched the time X-Factor is active.



Dengeki: What about future character announcements?



Niitsuma: The illustration on the stage [at TGS] had all 50 characters on it. While we are considering the idea of DLC characters, nothing has been decided yet. Because of that, it's almost like a fresh start for us now (Laughs). If I may speak honestly, our team hasn't decided yet whether or not we want to do DLC characters at all.



Dengeki: On the illustration shown on stage we could see the protagonist of Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright. When will we get to see him in action?



Niitsuma: Please wait a little longer. We are still working on his very interesting presentation video. He reminds me of Hakushon Daimaou from Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. To put the comparison in perspective, it's "I don't have attack motions, but I will make my own way of attacking." (Laughs)



Dengeki: This interview was a lot of fun! To send it off, please give a message to the players in Japan.



Niitsuma: The same of which we will say on stage today(which includes plans and announcements). We have tailored the announcements today in various ways to Japan, so we wish to say thank you very much for your praise and support!