A new girl, "Reika," was added to the international version. We asked about this during the live broadcast, but could you tell us again how she came about?
Sakuda
The international version releases events about one year after the Japanese version, so for international owners who already know about them, it's not as much of a surprise.
So the international development team told us their enthusiastic request to "create a surprise that has never been seen before," and we decided to create it.
There have been swimsuits that make their first appearance in the international version, but they were excited to finally create an original female character for the international version, so I thought I'd take on the challenge myself, and Reika was born.
What's more, I was very happy that only the first episode was released simultaneously in the Japanese version.
Sakuda
Since this is for the international version, it was decided to delay the release in the Japanese version, just like the swimsuit. However, this time it's not a swimsuit but a "girl", so owners who play the Japanese version will be more eager to get it than the swimsuit. Since this is the first case, owners of the Japanese version will have to wait without any idea of the basis for "When will Reika appear in the Japanese version?"
And every time the weekly maintenance is over, the first thing they will feel is disappointment, like "Reika didn't appear again...". If that feeling arises, they will feel disappointed with all the content of that week, and I don't want to have to repeat that experience. Therefore, we decided to align the timing of the release of the first star outfit. This was a last-minute, sudden decision.
Thank you, Sakuda! When you say that the international version team is in charge of development, what percentage of the development is handled by them?
Sakuda
The international team is in charge of everything except the parts that involve Japanese. From the original character concept to the design, names, and modeling, everything was created by the international team. Japanese staff were also involved in the dialogue and storyline to ensure that the characters are appealing and don't feel out of place in Japanese, but other than that, they only supervised the rest.
When I heard that the international team in Singapore was creating the character, I assumed that a girl with an international feel would appear, so I was a little surprised that it was a Japanese character.
Sakuda
I was also surprised and asked, "Is a Japanese girl okay?" I wasn't sure if the international version would really be happy with her, but the international version team appealed to us that a character like Reika would be more popular, so we worked on her.
doax-venusvacation.jp
automaton-media.com
www.famitsu.com
