The latest issue of Famitsu had an interview with Octopath Traveler’s key developers, who talked about what it was like to find out that their game sold well, what they seek in making these games, the possibility of Chinese localization, and whether a sequel or similar is planned.
Here are the highlights:
Famitsu: Just like the good reviews would indicate, the game continued to be sold out in Japanese game stores all over.
Masashi Takahashi, Producer (Square Enix): “We know the scale of the console market and the fact that this is a brand-new title, so the biggest feeling we got was the relief that lots of people got to play our game. While I’m sorry for those who were unable to purchase it, I was happy to realize once again that there were lots of people were looking for a game like this.”
Keisuke Miyauchi, Director (Acquire): “The fact that it completely sold out despite shipping quite a decent number of of copies was amazing to me. Our staff members at Acquire were like, “This might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance! You really should go see the sold out signs at the stores!” (Laughs) However, as we watched the game continue to be sold out on end, we started to feel a bit of panic over when the second shipment would arrive.”
Famitsu: There were a lot of requests from players to add Chinese support in the survey.
Takahashi: “On the week of release, we were told that a hundred feedback messages had come in, and we thought, “Could it be a bug…?” and panicked a bit. However, the next thing that was mentioned was that 95 of them were requests for Chinese language support. There were just that many voices asking for it.”
Tomoya Asano, Planner (Square Enix): “If we can add support for Chinese, then I believe the amount of players will increase even further, so this is task that we’ll be tackling from hereon out.”
Famitsu: There were also a lot of people asking for DLC or a sequel.
Asano: “Regarding paid DLC, we never planned to have it from the start, so as of now there are no planes on that end. There’s also nothing we can speak of in detail regarding a sequel, but I can say that we’re starting to talk about what we should do next.”
Famitsu: So, even if a sequel were to come out, it would be quite a long time ahead…?
Asano: “That’s the case. However, our team has become its own division with more staff, and from now this year onwards, I’d like to release a game each year that everyone will enjoy.”
Famitsu: So by that, do you mean something like another game in the Bravely series? The Octopath Traveler sales milestone illustration was quite curious..
Asano: “That was something that I asked Ikushima (Naoki Ikushima, character designer for Octopath Traveler at Square Enix) to draw. It doesn’t mean that there’s news we can announce regarding the Bravely series, but… There’s one thing I’d like to convey. For us, and for Square Enix, the Bravely series isn’t just a set of past titles to us.”
Takahashi: “We also recognized that a lot of players found out about Octopath Traveler because of the Bravely series.”
Asano: “However, because it takes around 3-4 years to make a game with the amount of content as a Bravely game or Octopath Traveler, we won’t be able to release a game every year just with those two.”
Famitsu: So another entirely new game is also possible?
Asano: “Please look forward to that. (Laughs) Anyways, starting with Octopath Traveler, I hope you look forward to the games coming from Business Division 11.”
Octopath Traveler is available for Nintendo Switch.
