OR: Another upcoming title is Class Of Heroes 3. And this is being developed in conjunction with Monkeypaw Games. You had collaborated with them previously for Class Of Heroes 2. Now, since April, we have not heard much about this game. Where is this game at in terms of localization?
VI: Almost done.
OR: Really.
VI: Yeah. It’s pretty close.
” …[Y]ou have to keep them appraised with what’s going on. [The] Japanese are very touchy-feely. They want meetings, they want to talk, they want to see you. And they get nervous if you’re away too long. “
OR: Any idea on when we might get it?
VI: Well, we’d like to get it out February, March, something like that. It’s really close. Basically, we’re just trying to get through Summon Night 5 so we can get the poll going for the physical version, and then put the game itself into overdrive as far as testing and polishing and that kind of stuff. But it’s very far along.
And –and- one of the people that’s helping with the writing on that is somebody that lots of people would know, but I’m not going to say who it is. I’m not doing all the writing on that. There’s somebody helping with the writing on that.
It’s a person that’s done other games that other players will know, but I don’t want to get specific. But when people see it, they’ll go ‘holy crap, that’s amazing.’
OR: How did GAIJINWORKS end up collaborating with Monkeypaw Games to localize both this game and Class Of Heroes 2?
VI: Just a friendship thing. I mean John [Greiner], I’ve known John since the TurboGrafx/PC Engine days [when] he was working at Hudson Japan. I think I met him for the first time at Hudson Japan when I went over there. This was like, the early 1990’s. And then he opened Hudson Entertainment here in the U.S., and then when Hudson was acquired by Konami, they closed down Hudson Entertainment around that time frame.
And so then he started a new company – and actually he had helped with some other stuff we were trying to do and I helped him with Miami Law. I helped the Japanese team tour Miami to do some shooting and meet the police and stuff like that. And that was kind of [a] really cool tour. We got to fire guns, that was fun. I mean like, crazy guns, like sniper rifles, and big weapons, and it was fun. Because ‘they had to record the sounds’, at least that’s what they said. *laughs* It’s like ‘can’t you get a sound effects laboratory?’ ‘No, we had to record right at the gun.’
But so when Hudson Entertainment shut down and [John Greiner] started Monkeypaw, we [both] started talking about what we could do. And so we decided ‘let’s get the Working Designs titles up on the store’. Because actually the first games on the Import Store for PlayStation Network [were by] Monkeypaw Games. That was the beginning of the Import Store for PlayStation Network.
OR: Those [games] were Cho Aniki and GaiaSeed, correct?
VI: Those [were] the first Monkeypaw ones. The first Working Designs ones we did were, I think, Alundra and Arc The Lad. We did Vanguard Bandits later. But we did those and then we started talking about other titles we could do. And he said ‘What would you like to do?’, and I said ‘Well, let’s try Class Of Heroes’, because the first Class Of Heroes that was released here I thought it was crappy – if you want to talk about translation versus localization – it was on the fence. It wasn’t quite translation, it wasn’t quite localization, it was kind of [a] weird middle ground. And I just thought it was poorly done.
They didn’t even translate the monster attack sounds they put on the screen, the comic book-style ‘biff, bam, boom’ kind of thing. They left those all in Japanese. It just felt very half-finished. So I thought the game deserved a better try to get some sort of interest in the U.S. So we did Class Of Heroes 2 and now 3. But you know, I don’t think we’re getting enough interest to get past 3. We’ll see. It’s really not very big on sales, so I think 3 might be the end. We’ll see.
OR: When you’re localizing a game in conjunction with Monkeypaw Games, what is each company responsible for? How do you share the duties between the two [of you]?
VI: John handles all the licensing, Japanese liaison, [and] product materials. [H]e does the PR and stuff. Not like interviews, but getting the word out [and] things like that. He also handles the Japanese meetings with the actual companies, because you have to keep them appraised with what’s going on. [The] Japanese are very touchy-feely. They want meetings, they want to talk, they want to see you. And they get nervous if you’re away too long. *laughs* So, he handles the face-to-face stuff with the Japanese side. Because, he lives there in Hokkaido.
And we do everything else. We do the localization, the actual packaging, all that stuff is handled [on] this side.
OR: You mentioned doing a poll for a physical version of Class Of Heroes 3. What goodies are you looking at including? What should people get excited about?
VI: Well, let’s wait until Summon Night 5 is out. Because what we’re doing with Summon Night 5, one of the two things we’re doing that you’re having to open the package to get, we’re gonna do for Class Of Heroes [3]. So they won’t get excited about it until they see what – they should get excited about it – but until they see what it is, it won’t mean anything. So I’ll wait ‘til they see that.
But you know, we could do other things like with we did Class Of Heroes 2. We did the character stickers and things like that – we might do that again. I like[d] the 3D clip pack, backpack clips, with the sort of PVC-style ones. I like those, we’re doing some samples of those too, see what they look like. Basically, a bunch of tests for various things we can include that are small enough to put inside a package and [are] still cool. So stickers, this other thing I’m talking about you’ll see with Summon Night 5, which we would probably do anyway, and maybe something on top of that. And some of the backpack clip[s], I don’t know. We’ll see. *laughs*
I have to see what prototype[s] comes out cool and we’ll go with that.
This concludes part two of three. Come back Friday at noon ET for the final part of the interview!
All images were provided courtesy of, and are the property of, GAIJINWORKS. They are used here with permission.
So, have you picked up Summon Night 5 yet? Are you excited to see Class of Heroes 3 come out? Tell us in the comments below!
