Disaster Report – 2002 Developer Interview

Kazuma Kujo - Producer

When I was job hunting, it was the peak of the bubble economy. I didn't have any hope of working at a securities firm or going to grad school. But when I played Dragon Quest, I thought it was awesome, so I decided to go work at a game company. That was Irem. When I joined everyone asked, "What do you want to make?", and I said role-playing games. Then they told me, "Well, that's not Irem's thing." (laughs) Back then, Irem was strong in arcade games like shooters, but RPGs weren't really their focus. Later, when Irem withdrew from games, I worked independently, freelancing on various projects… but now I finally have the chance to make RPGs and adventure games. Still, I'm glad I worked on shooters like Metal Slug.

I think the mindset of those developments carries over in some ways. Watching location tests, seeing where people quit, or threw down their controller in frustration. Even when the genre changes, what makes a game fun doesn't change, I believe.

Game Mechanics

It's interesting that there are hardly any games using disasters as a theme. I guess it's probably self-censorship. Well, if no one else is making them, I thought, I'd give it a shot.

Thirst was originally conceived as a fatigue mechanic. Eating food would restore it. Sleep was also part of the original concept, but it felt confusing, and since the game's story only spans two or three days, I figured it was probably impossible to incorporate eating and sleeping as game mechanics. So I decided to focus solely on thirst. Food just didn't have the same tension. Filling a plastic bottle with water takes up a ton of inventory space, but you have to carry water. So I wanted thirst to create a sense of urgency in the game, for players to be thinking about where they're going to get their next drink. "I've got to find another fountain before this runs out!" That kind of tension. By the same token, I wanted to create a sense of relief, and thirst was one easy way to do that. I think the distance between water sources could have been a bit longer, though.

Things like having to brace yourself or else you fall, or feeling thirsty, these are incredibly trivial things to build a game around. But I thought exaggerating those ordinary little things could be interesting.

Another thing I wanted was for the clothes to gradually get more and more tattered. For Aizawa's clothes in the latter parts around the tenant building, I actually submitted that for CESA review. (laughs) I showed them exactly how ripped and torn they would get.

As for the compasses, I guess the staff added those. But that one compass is kind of creepy, right? It's pretty tough to find them all.

Character Design

The protagonist Masayuki Sudo is the player character, so I didn't give him much personality. Unfortunately games where the characters have no personality tend to get pretty bad reviews. Despite his blandness, I wanted players to grow attached to him by the end. All ragged, covered in Band-Aids, with a crowbar sticking out of his bag… it gives off this kind of endearingly plucky vibe. I want people to think, "man, this guy's kind of pitiful." I figure they may not like him much at first, but as they control him and play through the game, if they would come to feel some affection for him, that would suffice.

Mari Aizawa (Karen Morris) ultimately comes across as a bit of a scatterbrain, doesn't she? I think there's something elusive about her too. This applies to all the characters in Zettai Zetsumei Toshi, but I wanted players to feel a certain frustration with the characters they're traveling with. In most games, your companions don't really have personalities, right? Once they join your party, you strip them of their gear, swap it for better stuff if you have it, and so on.

I wanted to avoid that. So when you give Mari your umbrella, you can't just make her give it back to you. I wanted to create that kind of frustration. When she suddenly returns it near the end, I thought that was kind of funny. I wanted that scene to make you feel like, "hey, maybe she's alright after all." Personally, I like her. But within the development, she wasn't exactly popular. Natsumi Higa might be more popular. I'm the only member of the Aizawa Fan Club.

I think we made Natsumi Higa (Kelly Austin) a bit childish. Making her different from Aizawa was the most important thing though, in terms of her design. I wanted to show that difference through things like her shorts and her quick-witted speech. We were tweaking Higa's design right up until the end… her clothes, her face. We were still figuring out what to do with her around November of last year. Our previous version of Higa got pretty bad reviews, so we rushed to get her to her current form.

Kouji Jinnai's (Greg Bach) character is pretty much the stereotypical "regular guy", but people say he leaves an impression. Honestly, I wanted to make him a much, much more unpleasant guy. I guess he just didn't get enough screen time, not enough to make people think, "wow, this guy's a jerk." There weren't as many scenes as I'd hoped where you'd be like, "Who the hell is this guy? He sucks."

Even his final disappearance is pretty standard in how it's done. As a creator I wanted to give it a twist somehow, you know? But we had to remind each other many times to hold back and make it ordinary. That goes for the town scenery and the story too. It's still a weird game anyway, so we thought the main aspects should be played straight. Even the part where you meet Jinnai... despite being at the end, the story itself doesn't change that much, but I think viewers feel more relieved this way.

Takumi Hatta (Albert Simms) was popular. People think he's funny. I think it would've been better if his nicer side showed a bit earlier, though. Even during voice recording, the voice actor remarked on how much of a jerk he was. (laughs)

Yoshitaka Shinzaki (Terry Stiver) has a calm demeanor. We created him from the premise that he's originally Aizawa's uncle, but he's a somewhat tragic character, both a perpetrator and a victim at once.

With Yuki Takebe and her looting, I wanted to show how people change as the devastated city crumbles. Her character was created pretty late in the process. And the jewelry store was built specifically for this episode. That whole situation, of looting a jewelry store, we wanted something that would really get the point across for players. We had to include a looter, I thought. Yuki is always clutching that paper bag. And she survived, you know. She's at that helicopter spot, the one next to the Metropolitan Expressway Management Center. She made it out alive with her paper bag full of stuff. She's probably had the most ideal experience--she's the one who made the best use of this earthquake. (laughs)

Professor Spelunker is a character from a four-panel manga serialized on Irem's official website. We actually planned to feature him as a main character. There was this character who broke his leg on the subway and couldn't move. We had the idea that you would get a helmet from him. His background was that he was a schoolteacher on Capital Island. But due to time constraints, the character didn't make the cut.

Endings

If you play normally, we made it so you'll get the most orthodox survival ending. I think most people can see the influence of Japan Sinks. And that's because I really wanted to make Japan Sinks. Seriously! The final game turned out to be very different though.

For the ending where they don't survive, that's exactly how I wanted it. I wanted there to be a basic ending that's somewhat predictable but reassuring, and then on top of that, to show that this other possibility actually exists too.

I was adamant about definitely including the sinking part, but as for how it ends, I think it's better if they survive. That final line, "Capital Island disappeared from view," can be interpreted in many ways, after all.

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