The 9/27 2018 issue of Famitsu includes an interview regarding Wild Arms: Million Memories, with producer Kawaguchi Tomoki of Forward Works, producer Yamashita Youhei of Wright Flyer Studios, and series creator Kaneko Akifumi of Aria Entertainment.
【 制作の裏側ッ！？ 】
本日発売の週刊ファミ通にて、#WAミリメモ に関する記事が掲載されています！
WAミリメモの制作に携わった金子彰史さん、川口智基さん、山下陽平さんへのスペシャルインタビューとなっておりますので、お見逃しなくッ！
◎詳細はこちらhttps://t.co/65TPaI9BWV— 【公式】ワイルドアームズ ミリオンメモリーズ (@wildarms_mm) September 13, 2018
The interviewer starts with asking how WA:MM came to be. Kawaguchi says that Forward Works was founded with the goal of having more people know about Playstation IPs, and Wild Arms was something they had in mind initially. They thus contacted Kaneko almost immediately. Yamashita says that at the same time, Wright Flyer Studios had also been in discussions with Forward Works about collaborating on something, and they proposed Wild Arms to Forward Works as well. Yamashita is himself a fan of the series and thought that he would like to make a game that would remind people of it. This resonated with Kawaguchi, and they talked to Kaneko and decided to go with it.
Kaneko’s title of “production supervisor” is brought up, and the interviewer asks about the level of his involvement. Kaneko replies, saying that the Wild Arms series has many rules that only those involved in its creation would fully understand. They want to make Million Memories not a mere Wild Arms derivative, but a proper Wild Arms game in itself, and so his job is to check the story and see that it’s done right – He stresses that he is not just lending them his name. He also notes that when he first looked at the proposal by Yamashita, it said “it begins with Tony and ends with Ragu O Ragula”, and he knew that it would be alright to leave it with him.
The initial plans were for Kaneko to write the story himself, but this became difficult due to scheduling issues, and they are instead leaving it to a writer that Kaneko trusts. Kaneko says that it is a person who was involved with the Wild Arms series for a long time, and that one of the conditions he had for the game to be made was having that writer handle the story, and himself supervising.
They next go on to discuss the characters. Kaneko says that playable characters are focused around the main characters of the various entries in the series, while other characters show up in the story, with appropriate characters appearing at appropriate times. Kwaguchi notes that system-wise, the player gains more playable characters as they advance in the story, and Yamashita adds that unlocking playable characters is all from story progress; The gacha is only used for equipment, like ARMs and Gears.
The game’s battle system being action-centric is discussed next. Yamashita says that Wright Flyer Studios proposed the action-based system for the game at the beginning, as one apt for smartphones. Kawaguchi talks about how smartphone games are played different from conventional ones, and how they evaluated various factors and came to the conclusion to include action elements. Kaneko notes how the Wild Arms series has action elements outside of battles to begin with, and says that while this may not be a full equivalent to that, one may think of it as shifting in that direction.
The series’ giant bosses are brought up, and Yamashita says that they are of course included, and that the first enemy is in fact one of them.
The interview concludes with Kawaguchi saying that they are putting effort into making it so that people who are coming in to the series for the first time will be able enjoy the game, Kaneko saying that there are many characters and monsters that they have not yet put into the game that he would like to, and that for this to happen they need many people to play it, and Yamashita saying that as a fan of the series, he hopes that the series will make a comeback, and all three hope that readers of the interview will pre-register for the game.
