They all worked on KINGDOM HEARTS II. They were all graphic designers. They all love sci-fi monster movies. These three Square Enix warriors were gathered once again, and this time they were faced with a challenge that seemed almost impossible - to create a completely new title, with two-screen battles, on a brand new handheld device called Nintendo DS - long before the DS was even available on the market.
After two and a half years of their blood, sweat and tears, however, the mission is now complete, and their triumph is called The World Ends With You. Action-packed with battles that require you to control two screens simultaneously, The World Ends With You pushes the DS's capabilities to its limits, while exploring distinct styles to fit this new title.
So how did they pull this off? The three warriors get together to tell you straight up.
Kando: What kind of work do you generally do for The World Ends With You?
Hasegawa: Let's first cover Mr. Kando's duties as a director.
Kando: Being a director, well, is basically doing chores (laugh).
Hasegawa+Arakawa: (laughs)
Hasegawa: Saying that you do chores doesn't sound like you work at all. Please, clue us in a little.
Kando: Well, I first oversee the entirety of the project and give directions where it's needed. It's basically my job to grasp the contents of the project and to keep it moving forward. When it comes to the heart of production, I concentrate mostly on the scenario. I also recheck the entire project and read through the dialogue near the end. What about you, Hasegawa?
Hasegawa: The three of us have taken on multiple tasks since beginning this project, but I was more in charge of the graphics.
Kando: I remember when Hasegawa sent in the first designs for Noise.
Hasegawa: Right, from concept to completed design.
Kando: Now, Arakawa.
Arakawa: My job title is Planning Director. Everyone has an idea of what they want to do, and I'm the one that sorts through those ideas (laugh).
Kando: Everyone says whatever they want without any consideration.
Arakawa: I basically shape the product, in a way.
Kando: The three of us have been the main staff members for a while, but there were definitely parts in the project that we just came up with on the spot, without a formal plan.
Hasegawa: That's true.
Kando: We're not so used to planning since we're graphics oriented.
Hasegawa: Right (laugh).
Kando: Arakawa was really helpful to us since he was the only one with planning experience.
Hasegawa: I remember suggesting some things for the game and he thought of ways to work it into the game.
Kando: So, we're the three responsible for kicking this game off.
Arakawa: Right.
Kando: Sure has been a long time. The World Ends With You has taken a really long time.
Arakawa: Two and a half years ago, while we were working on KINGDOM HEARTS II.
Hasegawa: We hadn't even seen a DS unit then.
Arakawa: I remember how we wondered how the touch screen would work (laugh). We knew that we had to use the touch screen but didn't know how.
Kando: There are surely people who haven't played this game, so let me briefly explain. The DS has two screens, and this game not only uses one screen for battle, but two. We thought that it'd be interesting to have a game where both screens were packed with action, and that's how we formulated this game idea.
Arakawa: Two screen battle, the Stride Cross Battle.
Kando: We previewed a playable demo at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show.
Arakawa: The people who played it were really taken to it.
Kando: They really were.
Hasegawa: It may look confusing when you read about it in magazines, so I really insist everyone to try it out on the DS.
Kando: We tried to materialize the idea of having battles on both the top and bottom screens, so the battle system was created with that in mind.
