Last week’s issue of Famitsu had a feature on Cygames, and it was revealed that Danganronpa producer Yuichiro Saito, Bravely Default director Kensuke Nakahara, and Idolmaster general producer Akihiro Ishihara now work at Cygames.
According to Akihiro Ishihara, who left Bandai Namco in January 2016, he originally worked together with Cygames on Idolmaster Cinderella Girls, but the biggest factor that got him to join was the speed that decisions are made in Cygames. He brings up one time when he asked, “Why don’t we do this?”, and it was approved in around five seconds. Ishihara believes that this sort of speed is needed in this age of making cross-media content.
Ishihara is currently working on Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, a cross media project about anthropomorphized horse racing. The anime for the project has been airing since April 2018, and the game is due to come out sometime this year as well. When asked what he would want to make someday, Ishihara replied that he would love to make a “hakoniwa”-type game that is easily understood by players across the world. (Think Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker)
Danganronpa producer Yuichiro Saito is another big name producer who ended up working at Cygames. He left Spike Chunsoft last October in order to make even more challenging games while he still had the sense in him. During that time, Cygames president Koichi Watanabe brought him on a tour around the offices, and he thought that Cygames was a place where he could put all his effort into making fun games.
Saito is also very impressed by Cygames’ internal network, as whenever he needed any help, experts in that area would immediately be available to provide quick and accurate answers. Thanks to this, he has been able to focus a lot more.
Currently, Saito is working on three console game, and he hopes to be able to announce one of them within this year. He wants to fulfill his ambition of making a million seller with this new IP.
Kensuke Nakahara was the director of the Bravely series, and he ended up joining Cygames back in 2015. After the release of Bravely Default: For the Sequel in Japan, he had lunch with Cygames’ current CTO once, and decided to tour the company. The factor that clinched his decision to work at Cygames was being able to work on the same floor as the legendary Akihiko Yoshida, who was the company and art director of CyDesignation.
Nakahara is currently working on a new title alongside Yoshida.He believes that you can really feel the spirit of “wanting to make the best content ever” at Cygames. He also mentioned that plans and projects move much quicker at Cygames.
