In part two of a three part interview, Mr. Ireland talks about a variety of topics ranging from GAIJINWORKS and its newest localized game, Summon Night 5 to various advertising methods he has used in the past and present to get his games noticed in the marketplace. We also discussed GAIJINWORKS’ relationship with Monkeypaw Games and about their joint next game, Class Of Heroes 3.
In part three tomorrow, Mr. Ireland discusses with Operation Rainfall about the Lunar series and the Arc The Lad Collection, the digital rights to the Working Designs catalog, the future for GAIJINWORKS, and the history behind the Ghaleon Punching Puppet pre-order bonus.
You can read part one here.
You can find out more about GAIJINWORKS at their website and by following them on Twitter.
Also, Summon Night 5, the latest game to be localized by GAIJINWORKS, is out now on the PlayStation Network for digital download! You can find it for purchase for North America on the PlayStation Network here.
Interview by Quentin H. A special thank you to Scott MacDonald for help with vetting the questions and coordinating the interview. Also, another special thank you to Chris Bieniek for assisting with my follow up questions, requests for photographs, and other assorted material. This interview took place on November 27, 2015.
Operation Rainfall: Shifting to GAIJINWORKS – One of the biggest games to come out of GAIJINWORKS is Summon Night 5. It’s the first main game of the series to be localized in English. We had a couple spinoffs come to the States awhile back –
Victor Ireland: Right.
OR: What kind of game is [Summon Night 5] and can you tell me a bit about the storyline of the game?
VI: It’s a strategy RPG and the storyline is basically – there’s an organization that was developed to protect the new world after a big war [that] really almost destroyed everything. They made an organization [called] the Eucross to protect the world and helps the other worlds and the main world [to] all sort of live together in harmony. And they have this melting pot city called Savorle, which is where the Eucross is, and that’s where the summoners operate primarily to keep the peace between all the difference races that intermingle there from the other worlds that surround Lyndbaum.
There’s a bunch of stuff that happens, the story accelerates really fast in the beginning – I don’t want to give too much away – but there’s some stuff that happens that threatens the peace of the world that is anime-trope-ish. *laughs* You pick one of the heroes, male or female, to set about on the adventure to save Lyndbaum -and the other worlds actually, it turns out to be everything – in the end. And you choose a partner in the beginning, and so depending on which character and which partner you choose, [it] dictates which dialogue you see in the game. So there is a huge amount of dialogue, but you only see a fraction of it with one playthrough.
OR: Does this mean that there’s multiple endings to the game?
VI: There’s fourteen endings.
OR: Wow.
VI: Yeah. *laughs* It’s crazy. And even more than that, because [with] some of those fourteen endings, there is an affinity system with some of the characters and some of those fourteen endings have three sub-endings of a love, a neutral, or a hate ‘coloring’, or version, of it.
OR: Will people have [had] to play any of the four previous main games in the series to understand this one?
VI: I don’t think so. I think it’s one of those things where you [can] get the references [to prior games in the series], and there’s some cameos from prior Summon Night games in the game. So if you’ve played the other games or are aware of them and their storylines, then you’ll be like ‘Oh! That’s from Summon Night blah’, ‘That’s from Summon Night this’, ‘That’s that character from, you know, whatever’. But if you haven’t played those [prior games], the dialogue is presented at face value. And if you take it at face value, it’s just [as] enjoyable I think. Recognizing the characters from other Summon Night [games] just adds a little bit of spice to the game.
OR: GAIJINWORKS has worked with Monkeypaw Games quite a bit.
VI: Yes.
OR: Is Monkeypaw Games involved in this particular title?
VI: No, this is [a] straight GAIJINWORKS title. We will still be doing Monkeypaw games as well. That’s John Greiner, that’s his company. Yeah, we just do stuff with him, and we’ll continue to do stuff with him. But this particular title is a GAIJINWORKS-only publication.
More on Advertising, Summon Night 5‘s Pricing and it’s Physical Edition on Page 2
