Project X Zone 2 devs on choosing new characters, fan feedback, series’ future, and more

A new interview with the developers of Project X Zone 2 has been published by Nintendo Life. The site spoke with Bandai Namco producer Kensuke Tsukanaka and Monolith Soft development director Soichiro Morizumi about the new 3DS game. Topics include how some of the new characters were chosen, the influence of fan feedback, and the series’ future.

Head past the break for a few excerpts from the interview. Find the full interview here.

On whether the decision to work on Project X Zone 2 was taken quickly given the commercial success of the original…

Kensuke Tsukanaka: We were really pleased that many people played the original Project X Zone in both Japan and overseas. After we released Project X Zone in Japan, it took about half a year until the localized version was released in the West; and so ‘Project X Zone 2’ was a project that was launched right after the localized version of the original game. Therefore, the characters and game system concepts which are in the sequel reflect a lot of feedback from the users who played the localized version of the first game.

On the inclusion of the new characters…

Soichiro Morizumi: From the beginning of development, one of the major motivations behind our selection of characters and franchises for Project X Zone 2 was that if any player worldwide discovered through playing the game a particular character from a franchise they were interested in, they could then access the game that character originated from. In the original game, we found that many overseas players were a little limited when it came to playing certain games in their respective countries – so with the sequel we have tried our best to focus on games/characters where localised versions are available.

‘Segata Sanshiro’ is maybe an exception to this, as he is not a character from a game. However, his memorable character is recognised not just in Japan, but a number of overseas gamers know about him too.

On design aspects that were adapted/changed based on fan feedback from the first game…

Soichiro Morizumi: When we made the original game, it was made as simple as possible – but some players complained about this. So for Project X Zone 2, we have added some elements that don’t complicate things, but give it more of a sense of fun strategy: such as giving direction to attack the enemy, unit customization and adding an SP parameter. Since the launch of the game in Japan in November, we’ve had a lot of positive feedback about these adjustments.

On how important the views of fans have been in influencing Project X Zone 2…

Kensuke Tsukanaka: We decided to develop a localized version of Project X Zone 2 from the very beginning of the project as we saw that overseas players very much enjoyed the first game. We’ve also added more languages to the game too.

Of course, it was quite a tough schedule for the development team to handle multi-language versions at the same time, but we felt we had a great opportunity to release such an interesting crossover game to everyone in the world. We therefore adjusted schedules and also strived to release information about the game simultaneously worldwide and hopefully succeed in releasing the game to everyone in the world again.

On whether this crossover franchise is a series that could continue in the future…

Kensuke Tsukanaka: I personally would like to continue such a cross-over series game even though this kind of game is not that easy to realize each time. Additionally, I would really just like all players to try the game and hopefully enjoy playing it – and as a result of Project X Zone 2, if players demand another crossover game, we’re happy to start planning the next one!