Interview – Sohei Niikawa on Etrange Overlord and life after the board room

For many individuals, absolutely the pinnacle of a profession is the seat on the prime of the desk, to be president or CEO of a giant worldwide firm. What folks seldom consider is what occurs after you step down. For Sohei Niikawa, who was president of Nippon Ichi Software program till three years in the past, it’s an opportunity to begin over. This do-over, as he calls it, is one step in the direction of his imaginative and prescient for a happier world.

On a crisp November’s day, Niikawa sat down with me to debate not solely his first sport as an indie developer, Etrange Overlord, however how he obtained right here and, most significantly, what comes subsequent.

“So in Japan, we’re calling it a ‘Sushi Lane Musical Motion Journey’,” he tells me, after watching the trailer collectively. “For the West, we’re calling it a ‘Revolving Lane Musical Motion RPG’.”

These sushi lanes carry varied power-ups and particular weapons to our heroine, Étrange von Rosenburg — a duke’s daughter who was wrongfully accused of treason, condemned to hell and sentenced to dying. Waking up after her execution, she finds herself beset by demons. Unperturbed, she units about conquering Hell in order that she will stay her greatest afterlife.

It’s a light-hearted darkish comedy that matches completely with the franchise Niikawa is greatest recognized for: Disgaea.

The Disgaea collection is ready throughout varied Netherworlds, and sees antihero demons embark on humorous tales between rounds of tactical RPG motion. Disgaea 7 Complete, which was launched earlier this yr, is the newest version of this, and we gave it a whopping 9/10.

“The factor that I actually like about Etrange Overlord,” Niikawa mentioned, “is the principle character. She has a really free spirit. There’s plenty of overlap between her and I, with me additionally having begun my very own kind of second life after leaving my earlier firm.

“I’m working actually arduous in plenty of methods as a result of I would like her to be widespread.”

Étrange von Rosenburg entrance and centre in Etrange Overlord

Niikawa-san continues, “This would be the first title that I’m releasing since I began working independently from NIS.” This do-over, as he calls it, additionally has him ranging from scratch as he claims to be in a comparatively weak place inside the video games trade proper now. He’s, in any case, an indie developer releasing the primary sport he wrote below his new pen identify, Roman Kitayama, and his new firm, Tremendous Area of interest.

“I’m working actually arduous in plenty of methods as a result of I would like her to be widespread.”

Naturally, that hasn’t stopped him from including a formidable roster of names to Etrange’s credit.

“In Japan there’s a well-known developer referred to as Gemdrops, and the president of this firm occurs to be the identical age as me.” This president famously labored on Niikawa’s first sport, Rhapsody: a Musical Journey. “As quickly as he knew that I had left the corporate, he reached out to me saying he want to make a sport, and in order that’s how Estrange Overlord happened.

“This would be the first time we’re making video games collectively in about 30 years! Basically, Etrange Overload is type of a mixture of that Rhapsody title we first labored on collectively and Disgaea.”

And this isn’t the one pedigree going into Etrange. “The character designer for the sport is definitely Shinichirou Otsuka, who’s very well-known for his work on the RE:Zero collection,” Niikawa provides.

Well-known names

The discuss of well-known names turned our dialog in the direction of Roman Kitayama, the identify Niikawa used to pen Etrange Overlord. I requested what this identify meant and why he selected it.

“So after all, in Japanese, ‘Kitayama’ can imply a ‘Northern mountain’. And the primary place the place I constructed my residence was a northern mountain.”

However these should not the kanji Niikawa picked for himself. And in true Japanese vogue, there’s some wordplay at hand. As a substitute of the apparent 北山, Niikawa selected 喜多山 for Kitayama.

“That’s a very uncool identify, dad…”

The Yama bit (mountain) is similar, as a nod in the direction of his residence. “However for ‘Kita’, I purposefully used the kanji for each ‘to get pleasure from’ or ‘to be enthusiastic about one thing’ in addition to the kanji for ‘rather a lot’. So, it means ‘to have plenty of enjoyment’.”

The Roman bit is a little more sophisticated. “In Japanese, the phrase romantic doesn’t confer with romantic comedies and so forth, however extra of a classical, romanticised concept — that sense of desires or the sorts of issues that that curiosity us or excite us.

The issue, nevertheless, is that as cool as Niikawa thinks his new identify is, the youthful era might disagree.

“My daughter tells me that’s a very uncool identify, dad…”

Present video games

Within the spirit of our common What We Performed column, and since it’s attention-grabbing to know what video games gas sport makers, I requested Niikawa to call the final sport he performed that basically caught with him.

The issue, after all, is that Niikawa is working so arduous on writing novels and designing video games that he can solely play video games in brief bursts — ”I actually like video games which can be very replayable, and I solely have to play them for five–10 minutes, right here and there.”

“Solitaire is the sport I’m taking part in most proper now! To be sincere with you, I by no means performed Solitaire till this yr. I’m like ‘Wow, Solitaire is absolutely enjoyable!’ So I’m truly doing a little bit little bit of experimenting by myself proper now to see if possibly I could make a sport that’s like Solitaire however with a little bit little bit of me in it?”

Beginning over

Returning to Niikawa’s profession arc, the concept of a profession do-over by beginning his second life concurrently Etrange is a good looking approach to have a look at issues.

“I wish to take each my failures and my successes from my time at NIS into my second life,” he explains. “I’m in a really attention-grabbing scenario the place it’s type of like I’m taking part in a roguelite.

“I’ve jumped in, I’ve constructed up expertise after which I obtained sport over. Now I’m beginning over from the start, however I get to utilise my expertise to drive me ahead.”

These experiences are clear, each by way of sport design and working an organization.

“I’m beginning over from the start, however I get to utilise my expertise to drive me ahead.”

When it comes to sport design, the tone is the obvious factor he’s carrying via. The combination of darkish underworld vibes with light-hearted tone and at-times slapstick writing is one thing of a signature for Niikawa.

“There’s a few causes for that,” Niikawa explains, once I requested what attracts him to the theme of lighthearted darkness. “One is that there’s not too many different those who have a tendency to do this, however then the opposite half is simply just because I prefer it.”

Finally, Niikawa says, video games are leisure, and he desires his video games to convey folks pleasure. This, he says, drives how he builds his video games. They should be each form to the consumer and simple to know. The issue is that in the event that they’re too tough to get into, the participant received’t get to the bit that makes the sport attention-grabbing.

“What actually offers you a good suggestion about whether or not you’re getting in the fitting course is when any individual sits right down to play your sport and will get a sport over. Do they nonetheless wish to proceed taking part in regardless of that?”

“I feel what turns into vital there’s how attention-grabbing the story is and the way attention-grabbing the mechanics are, but additionally is there a way of ‘If I simply hold going or hold making an attempt a little bit bit extra you realize can I get a little bit bit additional?’

“So each time I’m engaged on a sport I are likely to pay shut consideration to these first two hours of gameplay to see if it meets these necessities: is it type of the participant and is it straightforward to observe?”

Legacy

It’s tough to look ahead on a regular basis, particularly with such a formidable previous. We’re, in any case, we’re all human. And as creators, it’s straightforward to get caught up in previous initiatives. Not so for Niikawa. When requested if there have been elements of previous initiatives he would revisit, his reply was prompt.

“I don’t actually give it some thought that a lot, to be sincere! I don’t give attention to the previous. I simply take into consideration what I’ve discovered up to now and I construct on it to maintain making issues higher.”

So, what does Niikawa take into consideration his legacy, if he’s not one to look over his shoulder?

“For NIS, I really feel like the corporate itself is my legacy. I genuinely suppose that had it not been for Rhapsody and Disgaea, it wouldn’t exist as the corporate it’s now. I take nice that means from having labored at NIS America and helped to construct that firm.

“However shifting ahead with Tremendous Area of interest, I would like my legacy to be extra centered round not simply video games essentially however every kind of types of leisure.

“I’m 52 years outdated. I don’t know if I’ll stay to be 70 or 80, however truthfully proper up until the tip I wish to hold making new content material.

“And that may very well be a number of issues — not simply video games however mild novels, manga and board video games. There’s plenty of various things that I’d prefer to work on.”

“I’m 52 years outdated. I don’t know if I’ll stay to be 70 or 80, however truthfully proper up until the tip I wish to hold making new content material”

Niikawa’s love for entertaining folks actually shines via as he picked up a Tremendous Famicon cartridge that had been repurposed as a enterprise card holder.

“That is truly an Indie sport that’s in improvement proper now,” he tells me. “There’s a person named Yoshitsuna Kobayashi who labored with me on the very first Disgaea, and he’s the individual placing this online game collectively.

“He’s truly already stop the video games trade as soon as, however I’ve all the time thought he’s a genius sport creator and if he have been to vanish from the trade I feel it might be an enormous blow. So I’ve type of invited him to kind of come residence, because it have been, and work with me on making video games sooner or later.

“And I have a look at that as a really significant exercise. My biggest need is definitely to fill the world with increasingly more attention-grabbing items of media, whether or not it’s my very own works that I’m invested in doing or serving to another person put their work out to the world as a producer.

“Actually, behind all of that’s simply the concept that the extra constructive issues that we will put out into the world for folks to get pleasure from, the higher. If folks can get pleasure from them, and if that helps the world turn into a extra peaceable place, nothing may make me happier.”