Mages/5pb are going to publish the next Liberation Maiden game, which isn’t going to be shooter, but a visual novel title on the PlayStation 3 called Liberation Maiden Sin. Famitsu.com recently talked with three key personnel, who are in charge of the upcoming game.
The trio of CEO interviewees are Level-5’s, Akihiro Hino, who is the executive producer of Liberation Maiden; Grasshopper CEO Goichi Suda, who originally contributed to Guild01 with Liberation Maiden and will be contributing with some of the scenarios of Liberation Maiden Sin; and Mages CEO Chiyomaru Shikura, the multi-talented creator who is in charge of planning and composing.
You may wonder how these three CEOs teamed up to work on Liberation Maiden Sin. In Shikura’s case, he was called upon by Hino, during an event known as “GAME Fun in FUKUOKA”. Hino stated that he has always wanted to get to know Shikura, especially after seeing him win the “Best Dressed” award during the Famitsu Awards. Meanwhile, Suda and Shikura go back to their days working together for Human Entertainment, known for producing numerous titles for various platforms in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
When asked for his reason of recruiting Suda for Guild01, Hino replied by saying he always saw Suda as someone who is doing well in the gaming industry, and that you can never have enough people like him. He also believes Suda leads the pack of such people and trusted that he could come up with something interesting.
Shikura stated that if it were him, he would have probably gone with a visual novel title for Guild01. Famitsu asked: “If there were to be another Guild series game, would Shikura be seeing an offer?” to which Hino responded with, “Well, most definitely”.
In a rather humorous turn of events, Famitsu then asked: “Regarding Liberation Maiden, what do you feel was the most charming aspect of the game?”
Hino: “Definitely the main character girl’s behind.”
As the conversation carries on, Shikura says that he thought that the amount of work put into Liberation Maiden’s ridiculous setting was the game’s charm. He shared: “When I tried it for myself, I was curious to see how serious the detailed setting was and even asked Suda about it, to which he replied by saying, ‘We actually have plenty of written text for the setting’. I think it’s a title that is full of depth and charm.”
On a more serious note, Famitsu asked Hino about his thoughts on Liberation Maiden being followed-up as a visual novel game. Hino says that he discussed the matter with Shikura, who he describes as a pro at making visual novels, and that this was what convinced him to go ahead with the project.
Suda responded: “It was actually Hino who told me that it’d be interesting to have a full release out of a Guild title, and I thought that Liberation Maiden had the right tools and ability to spread itself onto another platform. When Shikura told me that he had fun playing Liberation Maiden, I asked him if he wanted to do it, and he agreed. At that point, it was a series of ‘Really? Yes really. You really want to do it? Yes, I really want to do it,” for a good while. Before we knew it, we’ve decided to make it into a visual novel game.”
As far as their roles go for Liberation Maiden Sin, Hino won’t be doing much as far as development goes, but he will be helping out in the promotional department, as he sees it as a title that originally came from his Guild series and would like to see it succeed as its own title.
Suda will be in charge of some of the scenarios, but he will also be supervising the written works of other staff members. Shikura will also be in charge of supervising written works while making sure that it stays true to the form of a visual novel title, as he believes the story flow and player perspective is what sets them apart from novels and anime.
The story of Liberation Maiden Sin will take place shortly after the events of Liberation Maiden. Shikura believes that the previous title’s ending had an exquisite ending that made him want more. However, he also mentions that one should consider Liberation Maiden as a prologue for what’s to come, rather than a prequel or a Chapter 0 for the Chapter 1 that’s about to start.
The theme of the game will be the word “liberation,” which will also be related to the “Sin” part of the name. They didn’t go too much into details regarding that, but they talked about the three meanings of sin. In Japanese it can be read as “Shin” which can be interpreted as truth or heart. With the English word included, sin, truth and heart will be the key words of Liberation Maiden Sin.
Liberation Maiden Sin is planned to be released this year for PlayStation 3.
Images courtesy Famitsu.com.
