The latest HD-2D style RPG “Octopath Traveler II” (Octopath Traveler II) developed by Square Enix and ACQUIRE will be released next week. Before the game’s release, Square Enix and Taiwan Bandai Namco invited producer Masashi Takahashi and director Miyauchi Jijie accepted an exclusive interview with the Chinese media and talked about various details of the game design.
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Q: The first generation was only released on Switch at the beginning. This time, it will be released on multiple platforms simultaneously. What are the different challenges?
A: Launching multiple platforms from the very beginning this time is indeed very hard work, mainly due to the adjustment of different performances of each platform, and some specific problems will occur on a certain platform. But on the whole, because it is developed with Unreal Engine this time, there is not much difficulty.
Q: Why do you continue to use a generation of old occupations? The types of weapons used seem to be relatively ancient. How to distinguish the characters of the new game from the previous one?
A: There are two reasons for this. First of all, I would like to thank the players for their praise of the previous game, so first of all, we hope that the old players will hope to be able to do the same things as the previous game. For example, if they cannot steal NPC things, the players may be a little disappointed, so we have retained some of the same content as the previous game.
The second is that we have indeed considered changing the name of the profession, such as changing the swordsman to a knight, and the dancer to a bard, but because the previous game is already well balanced, it will make the game too special, so we hope to maintain the original design. Make it easier for players to understand.
In terms of weapons, if we talk about types, it is the same as the idea of characters. In fact, each weapon in the early stage is indeed full of repetitions with the previous game, but in the later stage, each character has some new special weapons, which are different from the previous game.
As for how to make the difference in characters, the main reason is that this era is indeed more modern than the previous one, so how should the story of a businessman develop? Under various ideas, there are still some differences from the previous work.
Q: This time the music is still composed by Koji Nishiki of the previous work. I would like to ask how to communicate with him?
A: After the previous work, everyone’s relationship has become better. The music creation process this time is to make a list first, and then hold frequent meetings. Every time a piece of music is completed, a meeting will be held to review whether the piece is suitable. The process of music creation this time can be said to be quite smooth.
Q: What is the difference between ocean exploration and land exploration? Is there any special gameplay?
A: The water exploration in this work is mainly divided into fresh water and sea water. You can use boats to move to places that cannot be reached by land. You can get some treasure chests, some side missions, and mazes during the exploration. Nothing can be done without water.
Q: My impressions of the current game, except that the map commands are divided into day and night, many parts are the same as the previous game, including some inconvenient designs, such as not many prompts for branch lines, the protagonist cannot be changed in the early stage, and characters who do not play will not get experience points, etc. Wait, when making the second generation, based on what considerations did you keep these designs?
A: The types of map commands are indeed the same as those of the previous game, but I hope to play more smoothly, so I have made some adjustments for more convenient commands.
It is not clear that the hints for the sidelines are done deliberately, because too many hints means that the player must complete them quickly, so it is hoped that the players can trigger the sidelines naturally, and they can complete them immediately if they have a chance, or it may take a while before they can be completed, so that players can Feel free to discover the details of these tasks.
The inability to change the protagonist is also the insistence of the development team. I hope that the player who chooses it will be your protagonist, which also means that the journey of this character has begun, so it is designed in this way. The experience value part will not be answered for the time being.
Q: In fact, I feel that it is okay to use the old map. Why did you choose to use the new map?
A: The biggest goal is that players can enjoy a free journey, so instead of using the previous map, we want to use a brand new world for players to explore.
Q: The first generation is popular with players, so will the second generation of plot and characters be connected with the first generation?
A: The world and characters of this work are brand new, so it has nothing to do with the previous work. It is also 5 years after the previous game, some players may not have played a generation, or have played but have forgotten. So I hope that both new players and old players can enjoy this work, so it is designed to have nothing to do with the previous game.
Q: In the previous mobile game “Forked Road Traveler Continent Overlord”, all eight players played and were divided into front and rear rows. Did you consider this method when developing “Forked Road Traveler 2”?
A: The mobile version and the console version were originally developed by different teams, and the suitable gameplay for the mobile version is also different from the console version, so I never thought of combining the gameplay of these two works.
Q: How long does it take to clear customs?
A: According to the general process, it will take more than 60 hours. If you are mainly playing branch lines and map instructions, as well as some mazes that are not needed for the main line, it will take 100 hours to complete all of these.
Q: Will there be enemies/mazes that appear at specific times, and will different sessions be triggered at different times?
A: There is no difference between the maze and the boss when switching between day and night. Players who have finished the trial version will find that the location of NPCs and people are different. This part took a lot of effort to produce.
Q: Why are there orc characters this time, and will there be non-human characters in future works?
A: Compared with the limited space of the previous work, the world size this time has become larger, like some Asian-style countries, or countries that have developed for a long time, and the orc characters are added this time for freshness and richness. As for whether orcs will appear in subsequent series? A sequel hasn’t been decided yet, so there’s no answer as to whether it will happen or not.
Q: From the first generation to “Triangle Strategy” and other works, what kind of progress has the development team made in HD-2D technology?
A: The first work of HD-2D style is “Forked Road Traveler”, and then there are two or three works such as “Triangle Strategy” and “LIVE A LIVE” that also use this technology, so this technique is constantly evolving. This time “Forked Road Traveler 2” is also produced by a generation company, so it has also done a lot of technical updates.
For this work, we focus on making the picture more beautiful and beautiful. We hope that the whole game can look like a work of art at any time. We have adjusted the head-to-body ratio of the characters, and the background resolution has been significantly improved compared to the previous game.
Q: Does this work support the special functions of the PS5 controller?
A: This work does not support the unique functions of the PS5 controller.
Q: The second generation does not have XBOX, and the first generation does not have PS. Is there any special reason?
A: We also hope that many players can play this work, but unfortunately there is no more information to disclose.
In the end, the director Keisuke Miyauchi said: “I’m very happy with everyone’s support for Yigen. I have been to Square Enix Coffee in Shanghai to cooperate with Yigen, and I have also been to Taiwan in private. This time, everyone has any ideas or criticisms. Welcome to let us know. us.
Masashi Takahashi said: “The previous game did not support Chinese at the beginning. We really received a lot of feedback from players. It was also the first time we tried Chinese culture. This time we included Chinese from the beginning. I hope everyone can play it. This work.”
“Wild Road Traveler 2” is expected to be released on PS4, PS5, and Switch on February 24, 2023, and the Steam version will be released on February 25. The downloadable trial version is currently open. We expect to launch the trial impressions of the official version of this game on tomorrow (17th).