OR: Now, with the localization, is it common for the localization team to NOT do the programming? Or is it something that is usually shared, or was this just a fluke [with Exile: Wicked Phenomenon]?
VI: No, no, its actually extremely common. What we do, when we do the localization and the programming ourselves in the U.S., its very uncommon. XSEED doesn’t do it, Aksys doesn’t do it, I don’t think even ATLUS does it. They do the translation/localization, they send their files to Japan, Japan makes the changes, and then [Japan] sends them a ROM back.
That’s still the way it’s done by most of the RPG publishers in the U.S. We’re kind of a really weird anomaly, but the benefit is that we have a lot more control over our final product because we can do things that they could only ask for and be denied. Because the Japanese team doesn’t care about adding extra features. You have to really, really work to get them [the Japanese team] to put aside whatever line they’re working on in Japan for the game that they are doing next to do something special for you [in the game being localized].
Whereas, doing it ourselves, we have all the time in the world to do something special. You know, just like with the dual screen play, I spent an extra six months on that. We could have released it six months earlier, but we really pushed to try to get this cool feature in there. And we did it! And now we have that technology and we can use it for any future PS3/PS4 games.
” [F]or now, iDOLM@STER is just a ‘want’, I would love to do it. “
OR: That was in Class Of Heroes 2g originally, I believe. Do you have any plans to use that [the dual screen play] in any future titles?
VI: Any PS3/PS4 titles that we do that have enough memory, I absolutely want to find some way to do dual screen play. Dual screen play is really cool. I think all RPGs should be doing it. Its awesome. At least as an option.
OR: You mentioned earlier that the word ‘pissed’ caused quite a controversy.
VI: *laughter* Yeah.
OR: And you had mentioned in previous interviews that you are sometimes forced to change particular aspects of the games based upon where you’re localizing the game, even if it’s sometimes inconsistently done by the company. In Cosmic Fantasy 2, NEC forced you to edit out Babette giving the middle finger and instead replaced it with her shaking her fist. However, in Exile, despite NEC saying [by inference] that ‘you can’t use LSD, marijuana, peyote’, ‘we don’t have a problem with you burning people at the stake.’
VI: Yeah, I don’t know why that was no big deal. The Genesis version didn’t have that whole area, that burned people thing was gone. I think the naked people in the Bacchus area, that’s gone in the Genesis version too. But NEC is like ‘Burned at the stake? No problem!’ and you could talk to the people burning too. It was ridiculous. Burning at the stake, you have a little conversation with them, it was bad. But they had a real problem with drugs though.
OR: And all of this was in the days before ‘Mortal Monday’ [OR Note: The home console release date for Mortal Kombat on September 13th, 1993] and the ESRB [OR Note: Entertainment Software Rating Board]. How have things changed in what you’re allowed to depict and not depict in video games since the days of Cosmic Fantasy 2?
VI: Oh, it’s night and day. There’s no comparison. I mean, you can do just about anything you want nowadays. It’s actually more an issue of – it’s so open that you can do anything you want, you basically have to police yourself as ‘is this really necessary? Does this really help the game? Does it help the story?’ Whatever, that kind of stuff. So you really just have to use your creative instincts to try to figure out whether what you want to add will help.
Back to that Alundra thing, that [passed] ESRB with no problem – the double entendres. So it wasn’t like really that bad, but I guess it was bad enough that John Ricciardi freaked out when he saw it. But that was also much later, what 1999 [Note: the game was actually released in 1997]? There’s been a whole lot worse stuff out, so maybe it wouldn’t be that big of a deal now, I don’t know.
OR: Do you think part of this is due to the rise of a digital release platform for games, including Steam, the PlayStation Network, and the Virtual Console [Nintendo]?
VI: Maybe, but the thing is that even though you have ESRB, you still have the console manufacturers who have a – I don’t think its really stated, as far as ESRB – but there are certain types of games that I don’t think they would allow to be published on their system, period. I think even if you can get a game rated, you may run into problems if it’s too extreme [,you may struggle] getting a console publisher to let it go up. Steam, I don’t think you’d have a problem. Pretty much anything can go on Steam. *laughs*
But with console publishers – Nintendo, Microsoft – although they may take it because they want games – and Sony – certain types of content that would work in Japan may not be allowed for release without some changes here.
OR: And so you still have to keep in mind what the parent [company] console will say at the end of the day?
VI: Yeah, a little bit. It would have to be really extreme, like you know, like pedophilia or that kind of stuff, that’s the kind of stuff I think that you’d run into problems with the console manufacturer. That’s why you see some publishers self-edit things like Criminal Girls, where they self-edited. And I think that was more because they’re pretty sure it wouldn’t be allowed the way it was.
That’s my opinion, not necessarily fact. I think that’s why they did it.
OR: Along those lines, you mentioned as recently as in an interview with Nichegamer earlier this year [2015] about how you want to localize iDOLM@STER: All For One. –
VI: Yeah, I’d love – iDOLM@STER anything.
OR: Now, there are various elements, such as lolicon, that can make it potentially hard to do for an American audience. But you said that you had a way to make that work.
VI: Yeah. Yeah I’m pretty sure that we could do it and get it in a state where it would be releasable though consoles.
OR: Can you give us an idea of what kind of changes you would make to bring this game over, while still maintaining the original spirit of it?
VI: I would not do very many changes, but I would not go into details because holy crap, that Nichegamer interview was a firestorm that lasted for weeks.
OR: Really.
VI: Oh my God, people went crazy on the interview just because the fact that I said I wouldn’t do a scat simulator or – I was giving like extreme examples of stuff, saying ‘no pedophilia, blah blah blah’, and just people freaked out. They lost their minds. And so, if you look at the comments section of the interview with Nichegamer, it was like their number one story for feedback – I think still [is] – was hundreds of hundreds of responses, [it] was ridiculous.
So yeah, I mean, for now, iDOLM@STER is just a ‘want’, I would love to do it. If we licensed it and we were able to do it, I would totally go into the changes I would make, but I don’t even want to speculate because I don’t want another three-week long ‘we hate you’ fest.
OR: I can understand that.
[Going back to] Cosmic Fantasy 2, is there any chances of seeing the first or third game of the series being localized?
VI: First, third, fourth. There’s one, two, three, four, and four is a two-parter. So its ‘4A’ and ‘4B’. But yeah, I would love to do this. Actually, getting the Telenet licensing to Sunsoft, – because when I was working with Sunsoft a few years ago, that was the whole point of getting the Telenet library acquired through Sunsoft – so [that] we could re-release some of the Telenet stuff and update some Telenet stuff too.
And that deal just kinda fell apart after they acquired the Telenet stuff. So now, the Telenet library is at Sunsoft and we aren’t doing anything with Sunsoft now. *laughs* So its on my wish list, its something I’d love to do, but who knows if it will happen.
Update 3/1/16: Since this article was previously published, some minor spelling and grammatical corrections were corrected.
This concludes part one of three. Come back Wednesday at noon ET for part two, and Friday at noon ET for part three!
All images were provided courtesy of, and are the property of, GAIJINWORKS. They are used here with permission.
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