Arakawa: Right. At the beginning, we were saying, “There’s no way we can use two screens,” but we kept playing with the idea that we could have a battle on both screens.
Kando: And that was the answer we were looking for. We shifted our thoughts to making a game that would utilize every function of the Nintendo DS, something truly worthy of the system. That’s how the dual-screen battle was born.
Arakawa: So sudden (laugh). We were like “So we’re really going to go with this idea after all.” (laugh)
Kando: The bottom screen has a battle, the top screen has a battle...
Arakawa: That sure was amazing.
Kando: But the idea wouldn’t come to you if you’re thinking in a straight-forward manner. Even if you came up with the idea, you’d dismiss it like ‘that’s just impossible.’
Hasegawa: It is impossible (laugh).
Kando: Everyone was shocked at first at the idea. They kept saying that it was impossible. Then we decided on using both screens for the battles, and from that point on, it took a long time to materialize the idea. After that my heart kept racing. It kept racing until the game was finally announced.
Arakawa: We didn’t want the game to be announced, if possible.
Kando: We knew that this was a brand new concept, so I was really afraid of someone else doing it first.
Arakawa: We kept the secret amongst ourselves for about two years (laughs). We worked real hard for the Tokyo Game Show in September. We sure conceived a lot of ideas up to that show. But we actually decided that the game would be set in Shibuya pretty early on.
Kando: That was really early. We decided by January 2005 or so.
Arakawa: We knew it was going to be set in a modern world. At first we were going to use the entire world.
Hasegawa: We first had ideas to gather cities. Like gathering the Tokyo Tower or the Sphinx. Then, we wanted to get some source materials for inspiration, but we couldn’t go to Egypt (laugh).
Kando: So essentially the game’s world was shrunk down.
Hasegawa: Mr. Kando one day just told us that we’re going with Shibuya and Shibuya only (laugh). That we’re going to make a game that completely remakes Shibuya.
Arakawa: Quality over quantity, making one thing solid.
Kando: We first thought of including cities that could be reached with the Yamanote Line train and travel around known cities, but then we decided to concentrate it down to one spot. Shibuya has an image as a melting pot, so we thought that we could stage the entire game world in Shibuya. We also thought that it’d be easier to tell a story this way as well, so we stuck with Shibuya.
Hasegawa: I was unsure about it at first, but once the playing field was decided and being made, I felt that it was realistic. We knew from the beginning that the game would be in 2D, and even in such a limited state we were asked to recreate Shibuya faithfully. That’s when I saw the game in my head. I felt then that this game, with its dual-screen battles and the setting in Shibuya, would not have a heavy, epic story. I rather felt that it would have a stoic, mystery-laden story that would keep the player guessing. Within that setting there are battles, and people meet with each other and tell a story of comradely in a realistic way. At least that’s what I imagined (laugh). I think that’s how the game turned out, though, pretty much.
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Fantasy Violence |
Mild Language Mild Suggestive Themes |
Platform: Nintendo DS™
Genre: Action RPG
For more information on the World Ends with You, visit the official site at www.theworldendswithyou.com
