Famitsu News: - White Knight Story to launch on 25 th December 2008 in Japan

TRANSLATED INTERVIEW OF RYKO

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Hamamura: The fact that you called us into the Level5 studio must mean that something big's stirring right?
Hino: Of course. We're finally nearing completion and decided on 12/25 as the release date, so we wanted to inform you of that.

Ha: December! That's right around the corner!
Hi: Yeah, lol

Ha: Ah..so the game development is almost done then.
Hi: Actually...not as close as you might think so we're working very hard at the moment...
Ha: LOLOLOL
Hi: We're finally seeing the light at the end of the long development tunnel, so the entire staff is doing some major final work.

Ha: I see. When I first saw WKC, I was astounded by the quality of the artwork. You know...how those humongous monsters actually move, the beauty of the artwork contrasted with some very grotesque monsters. I thought "wow!" at the initial stage, but thought it would take a considerable time to develop.
Hi: I've created a lot of RPGs to date so there were a lot of parts where I could apply my experience, but due to the fact that it was an RPG on an epic scale, compounded with tackling another huge aspect of the game, caused the development to take a very long time. This is a title that had 3 major parts to it: developing on the PS3, developing an epic RPG, and a tremendous additional piece. From a gamer standpoint, it is a very rich title, but from a developer's standpoint, it gave us a lot of headaches. This is the largest title I've ever created, even at Level 5. I've been very fortunate that I have been able to create this title with SCE.

Ha: There's a keyword that's grabbed my attention, but I'll ask about that in a bit lol. Is there any story aspects which haven't been talked about before?
Hi: The concept of transforming in a fantasy world hasn't changed. We decided to make WKC an orthodox story where the protagonist goes to rescue a kidnapped princess; where the protagonist fights evil and rescues the princess.

Ha: Orthodox, indeed. lol. A lot of the characters are also very charming aren't they.
Hi: Not necessarily charming. There are a good number of characters that have an "out there" personality and because of that, it was difficult to balance out the character settings as well as the world view. Because I've learned from working on the Dragon Quest series that character design is painfully important, I struggled a lot with character design and world views. It got to the point where I struggled so much that there was a time where I wandered aimlessly trying to deal with this. Creating the world view was also something that my staff put a tremendous amount of time and effort into out of necessity. Also, as a game, I felt it was important to include situations where some tense situations could be relieved in a fun manner so we've included a good amount of that. To the point where it was sometimes difficult to incorporate such events.

Ha: I can hear your suffering lol.
Hi: The story is so immense that every aspect of the game took a lot of time to develop. Because of that, though, this game has an immenseness that I feel will be difficult to recreate in future titles, nor will that opportunity rear it's head for atleast a very very long time.

Ha: So the official title has been decided.
Hi: Yes, WKC -Ancient Pulse-

Ha: What does the subtitle mean?
Hi: WKC is, in fact, a very sorrowful story, but the event that started the chain reaction of events occured ages ago. The event that occured ages ago affects the present day time that the protagonist and friends live in. The title essentially has the meaning that the event of the past is reawakening in present time. How should I put this; from the title, I tried to portray that this is only the beginning, that this is the first chapter of an epic. I hope that this story will go on for a long time.

Ha: Hm...I sense something electrifying lol. So we'll actually be able to play the game at TGS in october right?
Hi: Actually, we're still trying to determine how to have players experience the title in the best way possible. There's no doubt that we will have visitors experience the game, but whether that will be via playing the game? Please look forward to TGS.

Ha: I see. It's exciting to hear that everything is moving forward nicely. BTW, at the beginning of the interview, you mentioned an aspect outside of an epic scale RPG, but what is that about...?
Hi: I think how gamers play RPGs have changed over time. There are many different games out there now, so it's no longer just an era where people just enjoy the storyline.

Ha: Things have indeed changed.
Hi: Because of that, we wanted to include an aspect that everyone would be able to look forward to, beyond the concept of just playing an RPG. While WKC is an epic RPG, games also have a new function, which is contained in this new aspect.

Ha: So that means, instead of a game where you just blindly play to move forward, there's another, completely different face to this game?
Hi: That's exactly it. WKC has a lot of different aspects to it, and has playstyles which have never even existed conceptually in existing RPG's. I can't go into much detail atm, but WKC is not just about enjoying the adventure.

Ha: When you say it's not just about enjoying the story...
Hi: Unfortunately, I can't reveal the details just yet, but we're added this aspect which is only possible on the PS3.

Ha: Hm....I'm really curious. When will we be able to find out the details?
Hi: Hm...I'd like to reveal it as soon as possible.

Ha: Understood. I will be looking forward to it! Finally, a mesage to all the readers. There hasn't been any articles about WKC in close to a year so I'm sure there are quite a few people who are waiting for something.
Hi: It's been 3 years since we started development on WKC. An immense game on the PS3 ends up taking a tremendous amount of time, but we feel that the additional time it took to develop this game has allowed it to become a title with a tremendous amount of content and a lot of impact. It's coming to be an amazing title. Because everyone's waited so long, we hope to make sure that the game was worth the wait. As such, the entire staff and myself will work dilligently to finish and polish up the game. Please look forward to, more or less, PS3's first mega epic RPG.

Ha: We'll be looking forward to more information in the future!
Hi: Gotcha, lol.