“Legend of Heroes Li’s Trail” Producer Kondo Jiyo Joint Interview to share the features of the new work and the development blueprint of the “Legend of Heroes” series “Legend of Heroes and Li’s Trail” – Bahamut
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Developed by Nihon Falcom, Cloud Leopard Entertainment is scheduled to launch the traditional Chinese/Korean version of the story role-playing game “Legend of Heroes” (PS4) in Asia on February 10. The producer is also Nihon Falcom executive director and president Yoshihiro Kondo , recently accepted an online joint interview with Bahamut GNN and other media, answering various questions about the “Legend of Heroes” and “Trails” series for players’ reference.
Toshihiro Kondo
Introduction to “The Legend of Heroes”
At the end of the blue sky, in the other side of the gleam, what I saw was the land that had ushered in the dawn—
The second half of the “Track” series finally kicks off! The stage moved to the “Kalvard Republic”──
The multi-ethnic Republic of Kalwad is enjoying an unprecedented prosperity due to post-war reparations.
The instability created by immigration and the bold political reforms pushed by the new president have left the great country in a state of turmoil.
However, in the corner of the capital, a “wonderful commission” received by a young man who lives in the “Spriggan” has gradually developed into a situation that shocked the whole of Calvard… …
Refresh the existing command-type AT (action time) combat system of the series!
This game adopts a speedy combat system, allowing players to seamlessly switch between action-type field battles and command-type turn-based battles, and with the unique elements of the sixth-generation tactical guide “Saifa”, the “Saifa” is completed. A more evolved and improved battle system from the original “Track” series!
In addition, it is equipped with a “topic system” that uses topics obtained by communicating with people in towns as bargaining chips to make the situation more favorable to the underground master house, and changes the three existing attributes of the character according to the player’s play style “Order/Gray/Chaos” “, the “LGC faction structure” that affects various ability values, cooperation/hostile forces and even the development of the plot, and other original elements that utilize the stage setting of “Legend of Lai”!
A joint interview with Kondo Jiyo, producer of “The Path of Li”
Kondo Jiyo first shared the evaluation of “Legend of Lai” after its launch in Japan. He said that from the perspective of the entire “Trails” series, this time, “Lizhi’s Trails” has changed a lot in terms of stage and gameplay, and many players have responded very much to the possibilities in the future. However, after all, the “Track” series is a work with a history of more than 17 years. Some old players are not suitable for these changes. The production team will consider the voices of these old players and carefully consider new elements in the next works. import.
He thinks that “The Locus of Li” is not only the “Track” series, even in the field of JRPG, it is a work with great changes and many new attempts. But this is not to change for the sake of change, but to provide freshness to the series. I believe that these changes can bring the series back to life with a facelift. It is a work that challenges the possibility of existing JRPGs. Not only the old players of the “Track” series, but also all players who like JRPG can come and try it. And because the stage of the Republic has a setting that incorporates many oriental elements, I believe that Asian players will feel more cordial and familiar.
worldview
The first is about the title name of “The Locus of Li” “Rei (Kuro)” The meaning of the representative, Kondo Jiyo said, because the “Track” series has entered the second half, and there are still many mysteries on the continent of Semuria that have not been solved. “Li” The symbol is the dark (Kuro) that greets the dawn before the mystery is solved. It is in line with the dark image of the protagonist Fan En and the mature overall style of this game.
Regarding the differences between the story style and character creation this time from the previous series, Kondo Yoshihiro said that the biggest difference from the previous Empire chapter is that the Kalvard Republic on this stage is not a royal country, but a multi-ethnic republic. The multi-ethnic characteristics will also be reflected in the debut partners, showing a rich and varied style, and the story also adds multi-ethnic intricate settings. He emphasized that because it is a brand new stage, and most of the characters are new, the starting point of both old players and new players is the same, and everyone can gradually understand the world view of the Republic step by step. It will be like the previous four consecutive “Trails of Cold Steel”, if you cut from it, it will be difficult to understand the ins and outs of the story.
However, old players don’t have to worry about feeling unfamiliar, because there will still be some series of characters related to the Republic that will appear in the play, keeping the connection with the previous “Track” series. Even some unexpected characters will appear, and this part will not be broken and left for players to experience by themselves.
The role of setting
This time, the protagonist Fan En also adopted a different setting than before. Most of the protagonists of the previous “Tracks” series were decent and kind people who belonged to large organizations, such as military school students, police officers, school teachers and the like. Fan En has both black and white good and evil attributes. Although he will have all contacts with the party that is traditionally regarded as an evil force in the previous series, he will also lend a helping hand to those in need. The main reason is that the Republic is a country with a complex environment, and the protagonist has to roll around in such an environment, so the character setting of wandering between black and white is more suitable for this story.
The production team wanted to design Fan En as a charming new protagonist, so illustrator Enopo Kushi was invited to design the character. Nihon Falcom had cooperated with him before, and he had been invited to draft for “Trails of Cold Steel”, but the schedule could not be matched at that time. This time, “The Locus of Li” can be matched just fine, and his style of painting is very suitable for the mature style story trend of describing various social affairs under the table, so the two parties hit it off. After seeing the setting draft drawn by him, the production team felt that the decision to ask him to design the character was correct, and it met the needs of the game.
The protagonist Fan En’s underground master’s house career setting, although the basic work is similar to the guerrillas in “The Trail of the Sky”, they are all entrusted by others to perform tasks, but in the process of executing the entrustment, there will be bridges that require Fan En to make a choice . Because many commissions are between black and white, and because it is inconvenient for both the good and the evil forces to take action, they will be handed over to him, and he will need to make some choices. For example, when he was commissioned to find a person who owed a huge amount of debt to an underground bank, what should he do with this person after finding it? Is it to the police? Or leave it to the underground bank and let him fend for himself?
Players can choose different actions, and these actions will affect the “LGC (order LAW), gray (GRAY), chaos (CHAOS)” parameters that represent the color of the faction. When there is a major turning point in the storyline, the LGC parameters can affect the choices players can make.
The flow of the entire game is closer to the previous “Trails” series, rather than a series of battle-based settings like “Trails of Creation”. Each chapter starts with undertaking a case, and after the middle game, you will go to other areas to solve various events and trigger more stories. Because “Trails of Li” is the beginning of the Republic chapter, I hope that through the arrangement of going to various places to solve the incident, players can understand the stage of the Republic like a sightseeing tour.
series development
When asked about the story of “Legend of Li” which accounts for about 10% of the story of the Republic, Kondo Jiyo said that many players will push back based on these clues and finally launch a few games, because they don’t want players to have too many games. Conjecture considerations, so it is not convenient to disclose. Moreover, the production team is not sure how many works to make, so it is difficult to assess how much has been said. But at least in the first work, what kind of place the Republic is has been made clear, while bringing out more mysteries. Subsequent works will gradually explore the truth of these mysteries and move further towards the end.
At the end of “Trails of Cold Steel”, about 60% of the story of the entire “Trails” series has been told, and the current plan is to finish the story in the remaining 40%. Among them, the Republic chapter is a very important part, but it is not the whole. There are bound to be some areas that have not yet been explained.
Although the story of the Republic chapter should have a paragraph in “Trails of Lei II”, most of the “Will not” It ends in “Trails of Lai II”. After all, “Legend of Li” has just explained what the republic is, and brought out more mysteries and foreshadowings along the way, and the republic is a huge country no less than the Erebonian Empire. By the end of the two works, there will be a lot of separation, and I believe players will not be satisfied. Therefore, the production team still hopes to have enough leeway to explain the whole story clearly.
When asked about the specific meaning mentioned in the previous interview that “The Locus of Li has finished telling the story of the protagonist Fan En”, Kondo Jiyo said that this sentence refers to the fact that “The Locus of Li” has already told Fan En’s story. The past experience is clearly explained, and in his subsequent works, he will explore the unsolved mysteries of “The Locus of Li” in a state of saying goodbye to the past. From the very beginning, it was decided that the story of the Republic chapter would be told in the series of Fan En and “The Path of Li”.
Regarding whether Kevin will appear, which many old players are concerned about, Kondo Jiyo said that it is inconvenient to explain because it involves plot leaks. However, there will be knights from the Seven Glory Church to which Kevin belongs. As for the part of the Codex Nation, there is currently no specific plan to describe it in a separate chapter, but I believe that players who have played the “Track” series before know that the Codex Nation is deeply related to the core of the “Track” series of stories, so it is bound to be in the future. There will be more inking. This game also brings out more information about the power of the Codex country, which will be gradually clarified in future works.
combat system
When it comes to the battle system part of this major innovation, Kondo Jiyo said that the reason why the design of real-time battle was introduced is mainly because it was observed that many players felt that the battle pace of the “Track” series was too slow and the time was too long, so The production team decided to make a major overhaul for this part. The speed of fragmented battles is accelerated through real-time battles, and the pace of some of the original command battles has also been accelerated, so that players will not feel too long.
In the end, this “command-type AT combat system” that combines field action combat and command combat has indeed achieved the goal set by the production team. However, after the launch in Japan, many players have put forward a lot of opinions on this part, and these opinions will be considered for continuous improvement in the future “Legend of Lai II”.
As for whether to worry about the conflict with the features of another main IP “Ys” after the introduction of real-time combat, Kondo Jiyo said that basically the development team is not worried about the conflict situation, because according to their observations, they like traditional RPGs Many of ‘s fans are not good at playing action games, so the production team paid attention to this during development. The introduction of action elements is not to transfer the entire action combat system of “Ys”, but to use some of the more refreshing elements to improve the combat system of the existing “Track” series, so as to shorten the battle time and speed up the battle. pace.
Kondo Jiyo stressed that the production team did not intend to give up the traditional command battle of the “Track” series. Players who have actually played “Li Zhi’s Trail” will know that neither action combat nor command combat is the whole of this combat system, but It’s a fusion of the two.
Regarding the “transformation” element introduced this time, whether it was influenced by the classic special film “False Knight”, Kondo Jiyo said with a smile, indeed, judging from the general age of the production team members, the growth stage coincides with “False Knight” Knight” heyday, so it’s inevitable to be inspired by some. But it’s not that I join for the sake of joining, but because the element of “transformation” is very suitable for Fan En’s character positioning and story setting needs.
Updates and Asian Content
When asked why the animations of plot cutscenes and skill performances were heavily modified in the 1.1 update released after the Japanese version went on sale, Kondo Jiyo said that the only reason was “I hope to make the game better.” Because this time, “Trails of Li” uses a new game engine for the first time, and there is no basis for the previous work, the time for the final polishing stage is a bit insufficient. However, the dead line of the listing schedule is over there, and the production team can only stop and let the game go to market. But I also hope that the game can perform better, especially since there will be an Asian version to be launched later. So I decided to add content that I originally wanted to do but haven’t done well through a large-scale update. However, all the things that should be done have been put in the big update of version 1.1, and the subsequent updates are just to fix some minor bugs. The Asian version listed later will follow the updated content of the Japanese version, and there will be no significant changes.
new game engine
Talking about the part of the company’s self-made new game engine that was introduced for the first time this time, Kondo Jiyo revealed that this new engine has not yet been completed, and the production team is continuously improving and gradually improving during the development of “Legend of Li”. Although the picture has been significantly enhanced compared to the previous works, but because of the limited development time, the final product can only be regarded as passing in his opinion, and there is still a lot of room for improvement and improvement.
The main reason is that the stage of “Trails of Li” has been changed to a different place this time, which is completely different from before, so there are not many things that can be used in the development of the “Trails of Cold Steel” tetralogy. It has to be rebuilt from scratch. Encountered a lot of problems, it is very difficult to solve.However, with this experience, I believe that more efforts should be placed on the development of subsequent works. “content” production rather than problem solving.
As for the advantages brought by the new engine, he believes that there are two main points. One is the evolution of the picture, which I believe everyone can understand without much explanation. The second is that it can absorb the differences of different teams in the company to make development more efficient. Because the development environments of the two main series “Ys” and “Track” in the past were actually different, when personnel were scheduled, it often required an adaptation period, resulting in a waste of time. The new engine this time will unify the development environment within the company, and then developers can use the same set of methods to respond to the development of “Ys” or “Track” and seamlessly connect.
In addition, multi-platform development is also one of the goals of the new engine, and it is hoped that through continuous improvement, the overall development efficiency will be further improved.
“Lei’s Path II”
Regarding the lightning release of the sequel “Legend of Li’s Trail II”, Kondo Jiyo said that in recent years, Nihon Falcom has maintained a consistent release of the main new work in September, and then announced the main new work plan for the next year at the shareholders’ meeting in December. Therefore, after the launch of “Legend of Lai”, the release of “Legend of Li II” is an established itinerary, and there is no special advance. The reason why I decided to launch a sequel immediately the next year is mainly based on the consideration of striking while the iron is hot. Since I have just finished the first work, I have finally accumulated experience, and there are still some ideas that cannot be included. .
In addition, there are development resource considerations. Because each game is being developed, the resources produced are unlikely to be used only for this game, which is not cost-effective. This time, during the development of “Legend of Li”, we also planned resources on the scale of two works to be produced, so when the first part was finished, we already had the foundation for the second one, so we then invested in “Legend of Li”. The development of “II” is also a matter of course.
Regarding the improvements in the PS5 version of “Legend of Lai II”, Kondo Jiyo said that the advantages brought about by the ultra-high-speed SSD have greatly shortened the reading time of the game and significantly improved the game experience. Including the screen resolution and fluency have also significantly improved. The production team is also very interested in the haptic feedback and adaptive trigger function of the DulaSense wireless controller, and would like to try it out if time permits.
When asked if players can pay more attention to the foreshadowing when they are playing “Trails of Li”, to prepare for the next “Trails of Li II”, Kondo Jiyo revealed that players can pay attention to the topics of various organizations. The relationship and trend of signing, such as the Seven Luminaries Church and the Black Moon, there are many different branch forces under these two organizations, and the struggle between them is the part that deserves attention. In addition, the sixth-generation tactical guide “Saifa”, which evolved into the sixth generation and introduced the “chip” element, is also a key. The “creation” pursued by the heroine Anies has a deep background in the development of science and technology in the game. You can pay attention to the details of which company developed the latest technology. If you understand it well, it will be more fun to play later.
In the development progress and launch schedule of “Legend of Lai II”, Kondo Jiyo said that in terms of past experience, the development progress often begins to surge at a certain stage, so it is difficult to give a specific number at present, but the plot The direction and system parts have been finalized, but the detailed script has not been written yet. At present, the production team is working with very high efficiency, and will continue to step up its pace in the future to catch up with the schedule for the fall of 2022.
As for the launch schedule of the Chinese version that Asian players are most concerned about, in fact, he just discussed it with the president of Cloud Leopard Entertainment, Chen Yunyun (accompanied by the online interview) when he ate before the interview. If the goal of simultaneously launching the Chinese version is to be achieved, the script must be written and sent for translation soon. However, the script has not yet been written, and the script of the “Track” series has always been very large, and it is often revised until the last minute. If it is sent for translation too early, it may require frequent revisions later, which is very troublesome. And now there are many cases in the hands of Cloud Leopard Entertainment, and the workload is huge. Of course, from his point of view, he does not want players to wait too long, so he will try to shorten the interval with the Japanese version as much as possible.
Chen Yunyun
As for whether the new work of another main IP “Ys” has a chance to come out this year, Kondo Jiyo said with a wry smile that the new “Ys” is currently under development, but there is no way to have a definite answer to whether it can be launched this year. . Of course, from the standpoint of Nihon Falcom, it is very hopeful that there will be action within the year of the 35th anniversary of the “Ys” series. He further revealed that this new “Ys” work will be fundamentally improved. The previous “Ys” used the same attributes from the 7th to the 9th generation. The action system has not changed, but the new work will make big changes. Respect Please look forward to!
Finally, regarding the fact that the shrinking PlayStation market mentioned at the shareholders’ meeting a few days ago has led to the sales of “Legend of Li” in Japan not as good as expected, Kondo Jiyo said that the current shortage of PS5 is affected by the global semiconductor supply shortage, so not only Japan, Asia should be similar. However, as the saying goes “a crisis is a turning point”, Nihon Falcom actually had a plan to promote its works to other platforms for a long time, not because of the current market situation. It’s just that Nihon Falcom has a limited scale and can’t do everything. Therefore, it will still take the form of joint promotion with partners to promote its IP to more platforms and regions, and even animation.
product Overview
Product Name: The Legend of Heroes
Game Type: Story RPG
Supported platform: PlayStation 4
Release date: Expected to be released on February 10, 2022 (Thursday)
Game price: physical regular version NT$1790 / HK$518 SPRIGGAN Edition NT$2450 / HK$683 Digital Standard Edition NT$1790 / HK$518 Digital Deluxe Edition NT$2590 / HK$733 Digital Ultimate Edition NT$3990 / HK$1128
Number of players: 1 person
Game Rating: Auxiliary Level 15
Supported languages: Voice: Japanese, Subtitles: Traditional Chinese/Korean
Developer: NIHON FALCOM CORPORATION
Publisher: Cloud Leopard Entertainment Co., Ltd.
Official website: https://www.cloudedleopardent.com/game/kuro/zh/
