00:08Stringi is also left up to the player, everywhere you go, developments change.
00:13I'd say it's less like you are controlling yourself, but rather that you are a character in this world.
00:19I want to entice players with the melody in the battles.
00:22The protagonist gets involved in this election race, and as the story unfolds, he embarks
00:29on a journey to travel around the country and gather support.
00:34When I look back and see what is being created now, I realize it is quite a grand game.
00:41While it's a story that has several twists and leaves you wondering what happens next,
00:46the game is also really fun, and I feel that it's shaping up to be a very rewarding experience.
01:07Even though it's a world where magic exists, people can't use it without help.
01:12In this world, you have to purchase a special piece of equipment to be capable of magic.
01:20Magic is a kind of power that is supposed to spring from a person's imagination, but that art has been
01:27lost over time.
01:29Now, magic has more restrictions.
01:33In other words, people have become reliant on the world's magical tools.
01:38That said, the main characters are able to transform their own bodies into weapons, which we call archetypes.
01:48People are born with various heroic aspects, but these embodiments are typically never awakened,
01:55and when they are, it's not as though it was predetermined.
02:02An awakening happens by interacting with others and being inspired by their actions.
02:09For example, you might think to yourself that someone acts very much like a knight,
02:14or another person might seem like a true warrior.
02:18By making this connection, the archetype of the warrior, which has been dormant within you since birth, is awakened.
02:25That's how the system works.
02:28The game is set in a kingdom, but the king has been killed.
02:33The king who is killed in the process gives way to the person who will gain popularity among the people
02:39as the next king.
02:42In modern terms, you'd call this an election.
02:46This is where the story starts, as this sort of election is cast on the world in the form of
02:52magic.
02:53The goal of becoming king is a classical one, but the road to that goal is full of ups and
02:59downs.
03:00And I think one of the things to look forward to is the mystery of how it unfolds.
03:06Under this election magic, anyone can become king if he or she becomes the most popular.
03:14There will be people who make outrageous promises to gain popularity, and some pretty interesting battles in turmoil unfold.
03:32The starting point of the story is that any person can become king if he or she becomes the most
03:39popular.
03:39After that, many things can happen.
03:42Those currently in power frame the election as a competition so they can display their own power, hoping to maintain
03:49the control they currently have.
03:53The protagonist gets involved in this election race, and as the story unfolds, he embarks on a journey to travel
04:01around the country and gather support.
04:06We're combining this aspect with the element of travel, which is a critical element in a fantasy.
04:13In our own unique Atlas approach, we are trying to combine a very grounded and realistic travel experience with a
04:21more serious and mysterious main story for players to enjoy.
04:28Previously, with the Persona series, we created stories about daily school life, continuing through the first and the second semester
04:36of a school year.
04:39School life is a bit like a journey in that sense.
04:46In the first semester, students are divided into separate classes and basically spend the rest of the school year in
04:53the same class.
04:55While not exactly once in a lifetime, there are these encounters that take place within a defined period of time
05:02before everyone parts ways.
05:04I think that school life is kind of like a microcosm of the flow of life from beginning to end.
05:13Journeys also have a beginning and an end.
05:16You meet and say goodbye to many people along the way.
05:20Travel is a common concept in games.
05:23And most of the time, you can travel as much as you like without any time constraints.
05:31But just like in our own modern lives, the time allotted for travel within the world of metaphor is limited.
05:40Maybe you could travel for just a week or two weeks, or you might have only three days.
05:46By framing this election as a travel experience, something we've experienced in modern times,
05:52those in the running are faced with the need to travel around the country within a set amount of time.
05:58In order to turn the people you meet across the world into supporters, you have to fight a variety of
06:04battles.
06:05Basically, the idea is to follow the main storyline and enjoy how it leaves you wondering what could happen next.
06:12But in terms of the time you have between those major events, the strategy you make and the order you
06:20do things in is all left up to the player.
06:24I guess it puts you in a situation where you're playing and you're not sure what the correct answer is.
06:31But in a good way.
06:33When you've got this dungeon that you absolutely have to clear, for example, do you head straight there to get
06:39it done?
06:41Or, because this dungeon looks difficult, do you make all kinds of plans to, for example, do this other quest
06:50over here first and do some leveling up and then go there?
06:54I don't know how to describe it, but you can make judgment calls as you play, where you'll consider the
07:00difficulty of each quest or the sense of danger you feel.
07:04And you'll feel a sense of accomplishment for having completed a quest based on those assessments.
07:10I think one of the main attractions of this game is that it takes the good part of the Persona
07:16series to date, which progressed on a schedule and adapts it in a way that perfectly matches the storyline for
07:22this work and the travel system we've created.
07:35As for what kind of game we are making this time, as creators involved in Persona, naturally we have included
07:42command battles, which you might say is our specialty, or our expertise.
07:47I wouldn't exactly call them a waste of time, but often battles with low-level opponents that you already know
07:54how to beat can at times feel like a hassle.
07:58Those parts should be quick and fun. There are other parts that are more deserving of the player's time.
08:03It could be a part of the story that leaves you wondering what happens next, or the party customization aspects,
08:10or planning your journey as you strengthen your party.
08:13We would like players to spend their time on the more interesting aspects, like these.
08:20In order to achieve this, we decided to adopt a new battle system where we have the command battles as
08:26the base, but on top of that we've incorporated a system where you're able to defeat enemies on the field
08:32directly if you determine that they are weaker than you.
08:38It's not a separate two-part system where some enemies can only be fought in command battles, or some must
08:45be defeated with action.
08:46We actually let the players judge which enemies are stronger than they are, or which ones they have fought before.
08:53We were very particular about letting the player make that determination and giving players the option to choose at all
09:00times.
09:00This is an all-new system, so I strongly encourage you to pick it up and play with it.
09:14The main character wears a checkered coat, and some people said, isn't it strange that he is traveling wearing white
09:22clothes that can get dirty?
09:24I designed the protagonist with the idea that I wanted to create a character with a sense of style, prioritizing
09:32design.
09:34Both persona and metaphor don't have a name for the protagonist, meaning they're the player's characters.
09:41But the context in which I designed the protagonist this time is a bit different.
09:47When I draw illustrations, there's an overall impression you get when the protagonist comes to the forefront.
09:55How should I put it?
09:56I think you can sense more of the character in the eyes than before, going beyond just a self-projection.
10:06For example, the protagonist does things like riding on a sword and there's a vehicle called a gauntlet runner.
10:15Since the setting is a new world of fantasy, we needed to borrow some new wisdom and creative energy.
10:25The original designs of the vehicles, which we call gauntlet runners, were made by Ikuto Yamashita, famous for his work
10:34on Evangelion and other productions.
10:39We decided to ask Koda Kazuma, who has been very active in works such as Nier Otomata, to do the
10:47background artwork.
10:51We talked in depth with them both about the themes of the game, the nature of the work, the story
10:57and various other baselines,
10:59and the things they came up with and proposed felt very unexpected.
11:06It was very creatively stimulating for us to hear their ideas and interpretations, and piggybacking on this.
11:14I feel they provided such power and creativity to the game. I couldn't be more satisfied.
11:29I feel that the diversity of the music is very extensive and broad in range.
11:39The theme was based on religious music, but it also needed to reflect the worldview of metaphor.
11:49The world of metaphor has many different tribes of people, so their faiths are as varied as they are.
12:00I took it upon myself to dig deeper and contemplate what music rooted in this idea would be like.
12:10I think there is a much broader interpretation of the music since they were written in accordance with such a
12:18theme.
12:19It's not often that we've done such large-scale live recordings of the music at Atlas,
12:27so I feel that the sound is very elaborate in that regard.
12:32We are taking a different approach than with Persona.
12:48Naturally, the game has a lot of battles, character growth, party customization, and the everyday aspects of travel.
12:57We designed it with the intention that the player can enjoy these various elements while always keeping pacing in mind.
13:06As the work nears completion, I think it has a great deal of those elements in a very condensed form.
13:14The way it's turning out, I don't feel like there's anything quite like it out there.
13:20I wanted to bring metaphor re-fantasio to RPG fans around the world.
13:27I can't talk specifics yet, but I would like to bring a demo of the game to events in countries
13:34around the world,
13:35so you can play through it for yourself.
13:40So, I look forward to meeting you, and I hope you will continue to support us.
14:08Off screen.
14:08Thanks for listening.
14:09Thanks!
14:09See you soon.
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