The Chinese edition of "The Trail of Dawn" will be officially released on February 10, and we had the honor to interview Mr. Yoshihiro Kondo (hereinafter referred to as "Kondo"), president of Falcom, together with other media, and ask some questions about the Chinese version of "Lee Rail 1" and "Lee Rail 2".
What does the word "Li" in "The Trail of Lai" represent? This game has been released in Japan for more than three months, is President Kondo satisfied with his current performance?
Kondo: The plot of the Trajectory series has officially entered the second half, and most of the mysteries accumulated in the series have not been solved, so we decided to make an image that symbolizes that these mysteries will be solved one by one, like the last darkness before dawn, so the word "Li" was used. The color of pre-dawn darkness is actually the representative color of the protagonist Van en.
Regarding the evaluation of the Japanese market, this game has a lot of changes for the series from the stage background to the gameplay, and many players in Japan are looking forward to more different possibilities derived from the drastic changes, but this is a series that has lasted for more than 15 years, and some old players have also said that they are overwhelmed by new things. After that, we will listen to the voices of players more, and when adding new systems, we will make good proportions to avoid players not recognizing the new works in the series.
The work "The Trail of Dawn" has made many new attempts not only in the trajectory series, but even in the JRPG. Hopefully, not only Tracing players, but also players who like traditional Japanese RPGs can come to experience the innovative places in the Lower Dawn Rail. In addition, the Republic chapter has elements that integrate into oriental culture, and I believe that Asian players will have a sense of familiarity and familiarity when they come into contact.
Compared with the previous series, what are the notable changes in the world view and character style of "Li Zhi"? Is it difficult for new players to incorporate such a large worldview?
Kondo: Unlike the previous monarchies such as The Libert and The Erebonnian Empire, the background stage of the Republic of Calvad is a multi-ethnic republic with different characteristics, and this characteristic is also reflected in the partners who can join the protagonist's team, and by observing these teammates, they can find that their clothing and design styles are very diverse. I believe that in the complexity of presenting the entire country, it will make the old players of the trajectory see the different places in this stage setting.
This time, "The Trail of Dawn" is a good opportunity for new players to enter the pit. The game adopts a new stage, and the first two chapters are almost always new characters, so that the starting point of new players and old players is the same, and the worldview of the game and the relationship between the various forces of the Republic are slowly understood from the game. So I don't think it's difficult for new players to integrate into The Trail of Dawn, but instead say, if I'm a new player and you let me start playing from Trail of Flash 4, and I don't know anything about the previous plot, it's definitely not okay, but "Trail of Dawn" doesn't have this problem.
What changes have been made to the new engine this time? What are the advantages over older engines? Did it work out to your expectations?
Kondo: The new engine is not yet finished, and we have been trying to improve it in development. The picture part under the new engine should be greatly strengthened for the previous works, and with the current results, I can score a passing score from my point of view, and there will be a lot of room for improvement and progress after that. In the development process, there are big and small problems every day, and it can be said that it is not easy to solve and complete the first work of "The Trajectory of Li". In the development of subsequent works, I believe that with this experience, we can focus more on improving the new engine and create more wonderful content with the new engine.
The advantage over the old engine, as I said just now, is that the picture has evolved. Another point is that although players can't see it, for our development, the new engine can absorb the differences between different teams and make their development more efficient. For example, the development environment of the Isu team and the trajectory team was originally completely different, in the scheduling time, if it is the old engine before, the graphic designer needs to adapt to a long period of time when switching between different teams, and the new engine is not used, it can be adapted quickly, and now the development of the first part of "Li Zhi Trace" has come to an end, and it is currently transferring people from the trajectory team to help make the new work under the new engine, which is very efficient. Of course, the new engine also has the advantage that it can be more efficient in the development of multiple platforms in the future, which is still being prepared and strengthened.
Will the design process of this game be as fixed and templated as "Trails of Flash"? Or do you want to add some new structure like Tron Trail?
Kondo: The Story of "The Trail of Dawn" unfolds, the protagonist runs a "Settlement House" in Edith, the capital of the Republic of Calvad, and he starts to pick up large and small cases in each chapter, and then goes to other parts of the republic to solve the follow-up of these cases, basically repeating such a process, which is not much different from the previous trajectory series from this point of view. Since "Trail of Tron" is more inclined to combat, it can use that relatively novel structure, while "Trail of Dawn" still takes the existing trajectory route style.
This game is the first work set in the Republic, and it is necessary to let the player know what places in the Republic are and what is happening, so the game will arrange for the protagonist to travel to various places, and it is still necessary to take this into account the previous style.
What was the idea of this combat system design? How will the real-time and AT command battle systems be adjusted in future titles?
Kondo: The Locus series has been going on for 15 years, and for 15 years I've been hearing feedback from players that the battle rhythm is a bit slow and the time consumed is a bit long, so this time the battle system has been greatly corrected, not only the ACT combat part, but also the AT command battle system has been improved, speeding up the pace and making the battle less lengthy.
This time, the combat system combines act and series OF command battle systems to achieve the effect we expected. After the game was released in Japan, many players gave various opinions, and in the future, or in "Li Zhi 2", they will find ways to improve it.
Did the ACT battle clash with the Isu series? Will later works gradually abandon turn-based systems? Why did you choose Trajectory of Dawn instead of Trajectory of Creation for such a change?
Kondo: I'm not worried about this situation, because at present, when looking at the Japanese market, many players who like traditional Japanese RPGs are not good at playing action games, and we have always taken this matter to heart in game development. The introduction of ACT elements into the Li Rail Battle System is not to transfer Isu's set of combat systems to the Trajectory series, but to import the parts of Isu that everyone feels refreshed, so that everyone can be more efficient and faster when exploring the maze, so as to avoid too long battles.
As for whether the turn-based system will be gradually abandoned in the future, we have not considered this at all. If you have played "Li Zhi Trajectory" will soon find that after entering the battle with the ACT, the attic command can be triggered with the newly added gradient system, which is the most in line with the gameplay we designed on the combat system, and it is not so simple to fight with only actions and AT commands, I hope that everyone can experience the thrill of the ACT and the faster pace of AT command combat.
In terms of development time, "Li's Trajectory" and "Chuang's Trajectory" were developed at almost the same time, although the positioning of "Chuang Rail" is also the second half of the whole story, but it is also the end of "Flash Track", if you start from "Chuang Rail" to change the system, players who have played 1 to 4 generations of "Flash Track" are obviously playing THE AT command battle system in the previous generations, and at the end of the article it has become an action, try to avoid such a situation, we hope that it will be better to use the system that everyone is used to playing. "Trail of Dawn", because it is a new beginning, but also can carry the new elements that the old players of the series want, so it was decided to make changes to the combat system on the "Dawn Track".
Compared to the knight god in "Trail of Lightning", the transformation mechanism was added to "Trail of Dawn", is it because someone in the team likes Kamen Rider very much? Are there any elements that you wanted to include in development but didn't implement them in the end?
Kondo: The core members of our development team happened to be the age of kamen riders, and it happened to be a very popular work on TV, whether intentionally or unintentionally, more or less affected by this aspect. But it is not necessary to make Kamen Rider such a simple reason, but from the perspective of the protagonist's background and plot, Van En lives in a metropolis and opens a firm to help others solve problems, which is very suitable for arranging Kamen Rider elements for him.
As for whether there are elements that you want to join that have not been realized in the end, first of all, in terms of story, the elements you want to do should be done, and you see even the transformation of the protagonist and the monster thief. In terms of gameplay, due to the consideration of production time and energy, it is true that there is a desire to add the last but did not achieve.
The protagonist Van En's personality is realistic and black-and-white, so what is the significance of giving him to the trajectory series relative to the protagonists of other series?
Kondo: First of all, the image of the protagonist of the trajectory has always been set up by guerrillas, police, students, or teachers (a green-haired guardian knight: What does your full protagonist assembly have to do with me?). ), all belong to a large organization, and the attribute is kindness. In the role setting of Fann, he has both black and white good and evil attributes, such as he has contacts with black moon and the association, two organizations with traditional evil camps, but if someone encounters difficulties and needs help, he will also choose to help. It has also been mentioned earlier that the republic is a country with very complex national conditions, and the protagonist needs this character to crawl around in such a country and solve all kinds of problems.
So how does Vann's black-and-white all-you-can-eat identity manifest itself in gameplay? Compared with the Guerrilla Association, it is all a task to perform, although some of Van's tasks are gray tasks, but will it feel like playing "The Trail of Emptiness" repeatedly?
Kondo: It is true that the process is still the player operating the character to complete the commission, the basic approach is the same, but this time the commission has a choice of bridges, allowing the player to choose how to do it. Many of the commissions received by Van En on the character setting are gray areas between black and white, and the organization of the good and evil camps has no way to intervene, which is the turn of the protagonist, such as a mission, in which a person borrows a bunch of debt from the underground bank, and finally the player chooses how to deal with this person, whether to call the police or tell the location of the person in the underground bank, different choices will bring about follow-up irreversible character development, through this choice to reflect Fann's personality.
This time, the protagonist sets three values of order, gray, and chaos, and each choice will affect the values of these camps, and then some of the heavy **** encountered in the story flow will determine the direction according to your camp values.
This time, many new characters have attracted the attention of players, such as Yanias and Ellein, are these two different in popularity from the team's expectations?
Kondo: There was a survey in Japan this time, and what surprised us was that Ellein's popularity changed a lot before and after the release, and both male and female players spoke highly of Ellein, and as for why this is so, please understand it after you actually play it. Of course, Erein's popularity was indeed something that was not expected when it was developed.
Will such high popularity affect the subsequent plot development? For example, Fann's heart will be changed or something? (In short, the possibility of the sword woman ascending to the throne)
Kondo: More or less, but not necessarily affected, not as the player imagined that Erein was popular and would be with Vann, not so straightforward. Fann has a part of the person he likes, and at the moment it can't be said to be open-ended, and there is no standard answer to the matter. Erein made a judgment on her past in "Li Zhi 1", that is to say, her story is only going to really start, before the game was released, we actually decided to dig into her various aspects in the future, just now her popularity is high, maybe we can dig more.
This time, the work is in collaboration with Teacher Enami (Katsumi Yubo), can the president share the experience of cooperation?
Kondo: Finding who to do the character design began after the plot of the Riku track was finalized, because the plot of this game is biased towards a mature style and will depict a plot with a heavy social atmosphere, so we began to evaluate which illustrator to find that can fit this plot style. Our first consideration was to design Vann as a very attractive new protagonist, and after repeated evaluation, most of the people's opinion was to ask Teacher Enami to take charge. In fact, the previous work has been cooperated with Teacher Enami (zero track), and there was an appointment draft when "Trail of Flash", but it was not successfully cooperated for various reasons at that time, and this time "Trajectory of Li" was very happy to agree. Later, when we saw The design draft of Teacher Enami, we felt that there was nothing wrong with the choice at that time, whether it was the color or the presentation of the entire character, it was in line with our needs for the protagonist team.
What about Kevin?
Kondo: The character of Kevin will involve spoilers, at present I can only say that some of the guardian knights in the Seven Dawn Church to which Kevin belongs will appear in this game, as for Kevin himself, everyone will know where he went until the end.
"The Trail of Dawn" now talks about the entire plot of the Republic? Will there be a separate chapter on the Codex artriya states?
Kondo: "The Trail of Dawn 1" has now made a complete introduction to the human geography of the Republic, and the later works will explain the mystery set up before, so as to bring to the end of the Republic chapter. Specifically, I want to talk about a few percent of the republic's plot, or to do a few, at present I can't give accurate numbers, I once said that I only did three when I flashed the track, and the result was that I didn't finish the story until the fourth part, so it is not easy to give accurate predictions at this point in time.
With regard to the Codex artriya states, there are currently no plans to do a separate chapter or work. Players of the series should have discovered that the Codex Kingdom is the core organization related to the mystery behind the Goddess of Emptiness, and there will be more depictions in future works, in fact, "The Trail of Dawn" also mentions that there are many forces under the Codex State, and these forces are opposed.
"Li Zhi Locus 2" has been released, for the players who are playing the 1st generation, does the president have anything to remind?
Kondo: Players can pay more attention to the movements and internal situations of various organizations when playing Rail 1, such as The Black Moon and the Church of Qiyao just mentioned, there is no excessive ink in the previous works, there are also many branches of forces under them, and the contradictions and confrontations between them are highlighted this time. If the player carefully studies this part of the plot, it will be more interesting for the subsequent plot direction and the plot of the second part.
The technological development in the game is also worth noting, such as the sixth generation of the guide used by the protagonist, and the Genesis that the heroine Yani Es has been looking for, all of which have a deep origin with the development of worldview technology.
Which newer version of the Japanese version is the Chinese version released?
Kondo: The Chinese edition contains all the updated versions of the Japanese version so far.
What enhancements will Trail 2 have on PS5?
Kondo: We currently hope that the frame rate and reading speed of the new PS5 version can be improved, and I am personally interested in the haptic feedback function of the PS5 controller, and if there is enough time and the above allows, I hope to try this.
How long until the end of the Trajectory series?
Kondo: There are still 40% of the stories that have not been told after the end of the flash track, and the Republic chapter is not all of these 40%, and after the end of the chapter, it will also tell some areas that have been enigmated before. New mysteries have been added to the Republic, and these new mysteries are not created to delay the sequel, because in order to finish the story of the Republic, you must throw these problems out in order to continue to develop. Looking at the direction of the story as a whole, it is highly likely that these problems will not be explained in "The Trail of Dawn 2".
Set on the republic and the empire is the same specification of the country, if the republic chapter to do two ends, it is bound to cut a lot of things, we still hope to be able to complete the story to explain clearly, with the way of rushing to finish the player is definitely not satisfied, as far as possible to present the complete story to everyone.
In the previous interview, the president mentioned that Fann's story has been told, but "Li's Trajectory 2" is still Fann as the protagonist, please ask what the story of Fann that has been told refers to specifically? Just his background?
Kondo: The last time I mentioned Vann's story, it actually refers to his end to the past in "The Trail of Dawn", and the same is true of Erein, who has grown up after this, and in the next work they will face the unsolved mysteries in the Republic in a new state.
Will the subsequent Republic chapters still feature "The Trail of Dawn" as the main title and Vann as the protagonist?
Kondo: In our original "Trail of Dawn" plan, the entire Republic chapter was unfolded with Vann as the protagonist, and the story of the Republic will be told from the perspective of the grown-up Vann.
Will Trail of Dawn 2 have full voice or mini-games?
Kondo: Whether it is full voice or partial voice, we have not yet decided, the words of the mini game will definitely exist because of the traditional relationship of the series.
What is the development progress of "Trail of Dawn 2"?
Kondo: In fact, the internal tradition of our development team is that the development progress will suddenly explode at a certain point in time, so now I can't give a very accurate number, I can only describe, the current overall development progress on the plot direction has been completed, what new system to add has also been decided, but the detailed script of the plot has not yet been completed. However, we will step up our efforts to launch in the fall of 2022.
Can the Chinese version of "Li Zhi 2" be released simultaneously?
Kondo: In order to be released simultaneously, the script needs to be written as soon as possible and then handed over to the translator in time. But as I said just now, the detailed script of the plot is not yet complete. Falcom's work is characterized by a very large amount of text, and it can indeed be written in a very short time, but at the same time, we often polish the script, and even in the final stage. In this case, it is important at what point in time to start the translation work, too early after there will be a lot of changes, which will cause a lot of trouble to the clouded leopard side. So synchronous release is not a lot of manpower and time can be done, but at the same time we do not want to let Chinese players wait too long, within the scope of our ability, we will try to achieve synchronous or similar date release.
Chen Yunyun: When it sells well, it is synchronized.
One of the reasons why the sales of "Li Zhi Locus" were lower than expected at the previous shareholders' meeting is that the Japanese PS market has been shrinking year by year, are you worried that "Lê Locus" will face the same situation in overseas markets? Did Lee's Trail 2 consider Xbox, Epic and more platforms?
Kondo: We believe that the PS5 is out of stock because of the global shortage of semiconductors, not only in Japan, but also in other Asian countries. Of course, this may be a crisis, but it may also be a turnaround, and we would have been willing to promote our works to more platforms. Since Falcom is not a big company and has limited resources, it is impossible to do everything ourselves, so we have been working with CloudEdAr and other companies to make our works available on different platforms and regions, even animated, all in collaboration with partners, and we will maintain this approach to achieve our desired goals in the future.
The trophies of the Locus series have always been set to reopen the week if they miss one thing, and I wonder if there are plans for future works to make it easier for players to remedy the trophies? For example, can I choose any chapter in the new weekly catalogue?
Kondo: When the player can turn on the second week, it can be easier to promote the process, so there is no special function for this. The easiest part of "Li's Trail" to miss the trophy this time should be the camp system mentioned earlier, because there are three factions and three attributes, and if an attribute at a certain event point does not meet the conditions, it is impossible to choose. For the remedy, I can make a few small suggestions, the first is that the player will face an important choice in the fifth chapter, it is recommended to save a file here, and then you can read the file to complete other events; the second is the LGC camp system, if you choose the order, then the chaos value will be reduced, but the three attributes can be accumulated, when playing to the second week, basically the value of each camp can meet the demand, so that in the second week the game can make up for the missed route.
After the completion of the first generation of "Li Zhi", it was randomly put into the development of the second generation, so how was the development manpower of the new "Isu" arranged? Will it go on sale this year?
Kondo: A new game for "Isu" is already in development, but whether it will be released this year is unknown. But it is certain that the new work of "Isu" will have great changes like the Railroad, for example, Isu has developed from the 7th generation to the 9th generation, and the combat system basically maintains the attribute gram system, but in the new work, it will be a new way to play with you that completely changes the old rules.
The Chinese version of "Trail of Dawn" is about to be officially released on February 10, does the president have anything to say to Chinese players?
Kondo: This time the work has a lot of oriental elements, I believe it can make players feel intimate. "Li's Trajectory" is a brand new work, compared to the entire series has also made a lot of changes, but we are not for the sake of change, for a long-lasting series to make a sense of freshness, whether for old players or new players are a very important thing, these changes can make the entire trajectory series get a new life, it is the so-called Li's trajectory. I hope that new and old players will play together.