The complete edition has finally been released, and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (hereinafter referred to as Wo Long) has celebrated a full year since its release. Game*Spark conducted an interview with Koei Tecmo Games' Team NINJA, which has taken on the challenge of creating a new IP. We asked him about his feelings about development and his future prospects.
A year of continuing to respond to user feedback
──First of all, congratulations on the release of the complete edition and the 1st anniversary of its release. Looking back on the past year of working on “Wo Long,” what do you think?
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Mr. Masaaki Yamagiwa (hereinafter, honorific title omitted):We received a lot of opinions from users as well as things we were looking for ourselves. In addition to direct opinions, I think it was a year where I collected information from social media, videos, etc., repeatedly analyzed it, and did what I could.
At our peak, we were constantly releasing patches every week and considering what we could do for DLC, so even though it seems like a long time, it feels like it was short.
Mr. Masakazu Hirayama (hereinafter, honorific title omitted):I feel the same way, and my honest impression is that the year has flown by in the blink of an eye. Since its release, we have been releasing regular updates, but it has been a hectic year as we often change and adjust the content in real time in response to the opinions we receive. I feel like I can finally look back on it now.
──Thank you very much. In fact, Game*Spark interviewed Mr. Yamagiwa before the release of “Wo Long'', and we also had the opportunity to cover Mr. Yasuda closely for “Nioh 2'', so we have a deep connection with Team NINJA's works. Since this is our first time speaking to Mr. Hirayama, please tell us about your career to date.
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Hirayama:I was assigned to Team NINJA as a new graduate, and the first title I worked on was the “NINJA GAIDEN” series. Yasuda was the director at that time. Next, I was in charge of the “DEAD OR ALIVE'' series, and the arcade and home versions of “Dissidia Final Fantasy.''
After that, development of a certain title that I was involved in as a director was canceled, but at that time Yasuda approached me and I started working on “Wo Long.'' That's how my career began.
──Thank you very much. I would like to ask you about the main story of “Wo Long''. How has the reaction been received from users?
mountainside:In terms of the main game, I feel that the boss battle against Lu Bu received a great response. I can see the users getting excited about the strength of the game, and I feel that they are having a lot of fun with it, which is a great memory for me.
──While playing the main story, I also felt that Lu Bu was a “comfortable opponent'' as a boss.
mountainside:I guess it's like “I'm about to die” (lol). It left an impression on me as well, in the sense that it was a boss that was able to express the strength and balance that makes you want to challenge the way Wo Long aims to play.
Collaboration is an opportunity to try expressions that are not normally touched upon.
──“Wo Long” also involved various collaborations. Recently, equipment has been implemented in “Lies of P”, and I think it has been a wide-ranging development. Was it planned as a goal from the beginning?
mountainside:The circumstances surrounding each collaboration are case-by-case, but the original goal was that “Wo Long” was a new IP, and we wanted to widen the range of opportunities for users. Part of this was being able to participate in Xbox Game Pass from day one.
Of course, I didn't launch this indiscriminately;NARAKA: BLADEPOINT”, the theme is Chinese martial arts, and “Lies of P'' is a similar action genre, so we thought we could get a synergistic effect from each other.
──I think the announced collaboration plan has now been completed. How has the reaction been to the collaborations so far?
Hirayama:How do you express each world view in “Wo Long”? It was fun to see the interactions users were imagining. After all, the title is based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so there are worldviews and visuals that can only be handled through collaboration (lol).
mountainside:It was fun to have a different worldview (lol).
Hirayama:That's exactly why the umbrella-shaped “etiquette” weapon in “Lies of P” is difficult to obtain unless it's in the form of collaboration or DLC, so it's exciting to create such items. I had fun.
The bitter expression is meant to depict the muddy lifestyle of military commanders.
──Speaking of the worldview, I had the impression that the “Nioh” series was full of yokai-like characters, and the “Shin Sangoku Musou” series was full of flashy warlords. Although “Wo Long'' has elements such as senjutsu and tanyaku, the overall expression is calm and the characters feel life-sized. What was the purpose of this?
Hirayama:In terms of the visual tone, we wanted it to be in line with the impression of “Dark Romance of the Three Kingdoms,'' and a big reason was that we wanted to give it a profound feel of ancient China in terms of the era.
Also, I knew from the concept stage that I wanted to depict something like the dirty lifestyle of military commanders at the time. In that sense, although Wo Long has a story that follows the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, we created it with the intention of heightening the reality, including designs based on historical research.
──I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know much about history, and I've given up on reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms several times. However, Wo Long, which begins with the Yellow Turban Rebellion, is a stage-based game, so it was easy for me to progress while keeping track of the chronology.
I think the NPC with a red name
that appears in the middle of the game has a certain meaning if it's made by Koei Tecmo, and that's because of their past experience.
(*In multiplayer, you can invade the strategy by challenging other players, but NPCs using this effect will appear during the stage)mountainside:
I'm not naming it randomly (lol).Hirayama:
Even if players like highly difficult action games, they are not necessarily familiar with “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” from the perspective of reaching users around the world. Who is Liu Bei? Who is Cao Cao? In order for those who want to enjoy the game to the fullest, I thought about starting from the beginning of Romance of the Three Kingdoms…that's what I was thinking from the time I created the title. Therefore, I am very happy to receive such opinions.
──At the end of “Wo Long'', the story up to the “Battle of Guandu'' was depicted. In the story of stopping the misuse of Tanyaku, the main character is evaluated by the warlords who appear for the strength of their bonds. However, in terms of the flow of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a future awaits us in which the military commanders become enemies… Please tell us about the future, including your prospects for the sequel.Hirayama:There are currently no plans for a sequel, and I have no information to share…
“Wo Long” depicts various military commanders rising to fame. In subsequent eras, many famous military strategists such as Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong appeared, and battles over intelligence began to unfold.
I think this kind of development is an attractive part of Romance of the Three Kingdoms that is different from this work, and as a developer, I would like to take on the challenge of creating a game experience that was not possible in Wo Long.
Challenges to PC version optimization and strengthening of QA system
──I would like to ask about your evaluation of the title. In preparation for this interview, I played through the complete edition. To be honest, before I started playing the game, I was worried when I saw the ratings on Steam, but after playing it, I found it so easy to play that I wondered why the ratings were so low. Please tell us about this evaluation in general and your current challenges, including over the past year.mountainside:
I feel that the issue is lack of optimization. As you said, I think we were able to deliver the original issue with various improvements for users who started with the Complete Edition, but even among us we saw this as a problem when it was first released. .
It is often said that it is difficult to deal with the complex conditions of PCs, but we will strengthen our QA system so that we can detect defects in as many different combinations as possible, and we will use what we learn from this. We were desperately trying to fix it with patches.
Of course, this lack of optimization was a problem, but what we need to reflect on is that we need to clearly communicate to users what we are going to do about optimization. I feel like I should have gone.
Therefore, although it was not possible to achieve this right away, we decided to take measures such as director's letters, in which we communicated what problems we were aware of and what plans we had for moving forward.Even so, the reviews we have received in the past will naturally remain, and I think there may be some concerns even though we are releasing a complete edition.
In order for you to play with peace of mind, we have prepared a trial version for the PC version, so please try it out first.Hirayama:
Speaking of our QA system, we have made it possible to quickly verify various combinations of parts when reproducing and testing in a PC environment. Of course, it wasn't something that didn't exist in the first place, but we were also working on faster verification and reinforcement of check patterns.
We also tried to improve efficiency by using real-time information, such as checking the trends of parts used on Steam in real time… It was a continuous process of trial and error to make improvements. Even so, it was often difficult to reproduce the problems we received from users, and there were times when we had to wait for a response, but we have always continued to respond carefully to each and every piece of information we receive. not.mountainside:
The patch notes for Wo Long ended up being quite long because I wrote about each issue one by one. We would like to respond to your feedback as honestly as possible! That was a strong feeling.
The aim was to feel a sense of accomplishment and feel good.
──Since it was called a “Dark Three Kingdoms Death Game”, I think there are many users who weren't thinking about high difficulty action from the beginning. However, compared to the so-called “death games” that I have played so far, I felt that “Wo Long” was easier than I expected.
The “Kakei” system, which corresponds to a parry, probably has the widest allowable time in the same genre, and can also be blocked in parallel, and even if you get hit by one dangerous attack from an enemy, it will end quickly. It won't.mountainside:
Our aim was to ensure the sense of accomplishment that can be gained through trial and error during tough battles, but at the same time, we also wanted to achieve a “feeling that is typical of Chinese martial arts.'' It's like in a movie, where the offense and defense are constantly changing at a fast pace.
System-wise, we were conscious of lowering the damage caused by attacks from enemies to create a situation where it would be easier to take on challenges. Since the system is centered around “responsiveness'', some people may not be comfortable with taking the risk of jumping into enemy attacks, but we are aiming for a balance that will make you want to “responsibly''. I did.Hirayama:
Of course, the main premise is that we want players to enjoy attacking and defending with “Kakuen'', but we also want them to try out other options such as “Martial Arts'' and “Senjutsu'' through trial and error. One of the things we've been working on over the past year is increasing the utility of those tactics and making adjustments that will make you want to incorporate them into battle.
Even if you played the game when it was first released, if you revisit it with the release of the complete edition, I think you'll feel that it's changed a lot.
—I was using a “dual-wield” weapon. For this weapon type, if you use a more appropriate “Category'', the effect will become flashier and the effect will increase. This feels good and I've been using it all the time. Also, there are quite a lot of different motions in martial arts action just for this weapon type.Hirayama:
Actually, this is also an element added in the update.mountainside:
We have asked Kenji Tanigaki, who is well-versed in various types of action as a film director and action director, to participate in the development and supervise the action of this work.
We are also very particular about the action and motion, including inviting people who are familiar with Chinese weaponry to do motion capture.
The characteristics of “Wo Long” make it a hit in China
──In terms of user acquisition, how was the ratio in Japan and overseas?mountainside:
China has the highest percentage. Other than that, it seems to depend on the population ratio, but “Wo Long'' has a particularly large number of users from China.Hirayama:
Team NINJA's titles tend to have more users outside of Japan, but the ratio of regions outside of Japan has become a unique trend.mountainside:
Still, “Wo Long'' has a high proportion of China, which I think is unique. There was a lot of excitement in China even before its release, and I think people had high expectations for it.
──What was the response to having it appear on “Xbox Game Pass” from the first day?mountainside:This was our first attempt at doing business with Xbox Game Pass. In the end, I feel glad that I did it. Although this has already been announced,The number of players is nearly four times the number of sales.
I think it was good in the sense that it was an introduction to the title, an opportunity.Hirayama:
I imagine that even users who had never played a Team NINJA title or a so-called “death game” played it. I'm glad that a wide range of users were able to experience it as a new IP.
Team NINJA as seen by Mr. Yamagiwa two years after participating in the race
──It's been two years since you joined Team NINJA from SIE. During that time, how did you feel as you released the title “Wo Long'' and watched the team?mountainside:
Since joining Koei Tecmo Games, I have been working with Hirayama, the main game director, focusing on Wo Long. He mainly worked on internal development, and I mainly worked on external development, so I feel that we were both inspired by each other. I'd like to think that it was easy to do…but I guess there were times when we had a lot of fun and insults (lol).Hirayama:
We had a lot of fun (laughs). “This is what I’m thinking!” “No, this isn’t it!”…mountainside:
Can it be communicated to people? Why did you think so? What is the concept behind making something, how do you communicate it, and how do you want people to play with it? I am very concerned about such things. I don't like it when there's no logic to it. You can't explain something to others unless you believe it yourself. I think I kept saying, “That's not true!'' when I felt that things weren't going well from my point of view.
──To be honest, what was the thing that bothered you the most?mountainside:
I guess it's “Kakei” after all…Hirayama:
Is it “Kakei''? As we continued development, there was a time when the game just wasn't that fun to experience.mountainside:
I joined the team after the project had started, so I joined the team in a position where I read the plans and themes that Hirayama had originally written. When I read it, I found it to be quite well written. …It's been written, but if you look at the development status, you can't seem to do what you want to do, right? Why hasn't it been done? So, we had this kind of interaction over and over again.Hirayama:
To tell you the truth, somewhere in my heart I know that I'm not done yet. So, when someone says that to me, I'm like, “I know that!” (laughs).
As we continued these conversations, Yamagiwa picked up the words that I had said many times unconsciously and used them as the promotional words for “Wo Long.'' I feel like by that time we were able to understand what we both wanted to do and what was important to us.mountainside:When I belonged to SIE, my main job was producing with external companies. for example”Bloodborne
'', Mr. Miyazaki (FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki) said “A feeling of fighting to the death'' in a random occasion, and I thought it was a good idea, so I used it as a promotional word.
The words that come from directors are often to the point, and their choice of words that resonate with people is outstanding. I frequently take notes of things I say casually and words that stick out to me, and when I'm in a situation I confront them with them and say, “I'm not good enough.'' (laughs)
As someone who came in from the outside, I hope that experience will be useful.Hirayama:
I've always been involved in development, so I think I tend to think in terms of the micro rather than the macro. I think we were able to proceed with development with a synergy, a good relationship, because we were given opinions from a bird's-eye view.
“Wo Long”, which was released to the world as a new IP from Koei Tecmo Games, shows that they have been working hard to meet the needs of users, even if it was a bit messy, including optimizing for PC, which was met with harsh opinions when it was first released. . Looking back on the past year, the development team was confident that the period they wanted to depict and their commitment to Chinese martial arts action had been consistently built from the beginning of development, centering on Kakyu. It has been transmitted along with.
I hope that the progress we have made over the past year, incorporating Mr. Yamagiwa's new style and overcoming difficult times, will be a source of strength for Team NINJA and that new works will appear.