Memory of Blood Interview

WARNING: I didn't receive explicit permission for this, like the other translations, as Barnabism has seemingly disappeared off of the internet. I considered us friends, so I'm gonna keep this up until further notice as I believe they would've been okay with it.

We asked the four main staff about their feelings towards this work and a never-before-seen look into the stories regarding its development!

—It's been about four months since the release of Drakengard 2 (Which from here on will be referred to as "2"), but what has the response been from its players?

Mr. SHIBA — (Title omitted hereafter): There seems to be mixed opinions about the story and the characters, but the overall response isn't too bad.

Mr. YASUI — (Title omitted hereafter): Yes, the base concept for 2 was to make it an easy-to-follow game. In 1, the story branched out from the middle, making to difficult for some players to grasp the content, and there were parts in where it's production team deliberately left things out to make the setting more difficult to understand. In order to improve upon these issues in 2, we used language that was as easy to understand as possible, and created a story that followed in a straight path. Even so, this ease of understanding has cause a bit of controversy among players.

SHIBA — For those who played and enjoyed the dark and vague atmosphere of 1, 2 seemed a bit too simple to them. It doesn't seem like "Drakengard" to them.

YASUI — On the other hand, for people who were going to be introduced to the series the first time through 2, I thought it would be better to make it as easy to understand as possible for them. As far as the story is concerned, I didn't want it to be as dark as 1, but rather incorporate the taste of traditional RPGs into a style and setting like Drakengard's.

SHIBA — Quite early! Immediately after the release of 1, I was already trying to convince the staff.

Mr. HASEGAWA — (Title omitted hereafter): Shortly after 1 was released, I remember feeling a little bit excited to see what appeared to be a proposal for 2 on the desk of a high-ranking person at the company. I was thinking to myself "Yes, let's do this again!"

YASUI — At first, I never would have imagined that I would be given the responsibility of directing the project.

YASUI — It was something that had never crossed my mind! But thanks to him, I think I was able to fill in almost all the parts that didn't fully live up to expectations in 1, or that I couldn't talk about.

—If one thing's for certain, it's that the story ended in a way that could be considered "A perfect resolution."

SHIBA — There are many RPG sequel titles that follow the atmophere of the original work, even as the story and main characters change completely. Of course, while that's a perfectly valid line of thought, it was something I definitely didn't want to do with the Drakengard series.

YASUI — The main premise when producing this sequel was to bring the story to a conclusion. It was decided from the very beginning that it would take place in a time when the characters from the previous work were still around.

SHIBA — One of the earlier concepts was to have either Manah or Angelus serve as the main character.

Mr. FUJISAKA — (Title omitted from here): In the very early stages, there was a plan to have Angelus be the main character. The story would have been about raising Angelus, who would be reincarnated as a young girl in her next life. Unfortunately, this plan got rejected as its atmosphere was far too different than that of 1's. So, personally speaking, I was a little happy to see it revived as an initial concept project for this artbook materials collection.

—As a big fan of 1, I would also have liked to see something like that idea⁽¹⁾ for Drakengard.

SHIBA — There were many other concepts as well. As a matter of fact, we even went to a conference camp ⁽²⁾ together to come up with a plan! We did this with 1, as well. However, that one was ... Well? To be honest, it was pretty difficult, wasn't it?

YASUI — Oh, it was definitely pretty intense. (Laughs) But the conference camp for 2 was held at a certain training centre in Zushi, in the Kanagawa Prefecture. It was a really isolated island, we thought, "Is this really still the Kanagawa Prefecture !? "

FUJISAKA — However, the location wasn't too great, either. When I was there, I felt like I was still somehow trapped within the company.

SHIBA — That's because the person in charge of organising the event was Iwasaki⁽³⁾ (Laughs). I was the organiser for the boarding house when it was the first game.

YASUI — Well, thanks to all of you I was able to concentrate on the planning conferences all the way through! Because of that, I feel like I was able to come up with some ideas. I think it was at that training hall that 2 really started to take off.

Square Enix's 10th Development Division and 9th Producer Development Divison

柴貴正 Shiba Takamasa

"We aimed to make the game easier to understand so that it could be enjoyed by everyone."

—Among the many unique characters that appear in the Drakengard series, Nowe, the main character, feels quite different, doesn't he?

YASUI — The character of Nowe is quite unlike any other character within Drakengard, yes.

SHIBA — He's very "normal". Many characters in Drakengard are "Different", for better or for worse, but Nowe is the only one who sets himself apart in his normalcy.

YASUI — His overall character is very modernistic, and I think that's why it's so widely said that he doesn't fully feel like he's from the Drakengard series.

SHIBA — It's because Nowe is such an ordinary-feeling character that he begins to feel out of place when surrounded by so many unordinary characters. If anything, even though he's supposed to be the most normal one of the cast, he ends up looking the strangest! But even so, it seems this ended up being a disappointment to fans who were expecting a protagonist like the first Drakengard. He seems to be hated quite a bit, and I feel sorry for him. Ahh, but there is a part of me that intended to make his character that way.

YASUI — I think the beginning of his story is quite "Empty". Rather than fighting out of his own will, he seems to be heavily influenced by those around him. He fights because his superior, Gismor, tells him to fight. And then he meets someone he cares about like Manah, who says she's going to break the Keys to the Seal, so he helps her. As the Newbreed, he possesses some of the strongest powers in the series, but he wields his sword without having found a reason to fight — when you think about it, that's a horrifying concept.

SHIBA — I was hoping players would feel unsettled and averse to these aspects of Nowe. That Nowe, who simply fights and does as he's told without thinking too deeply about the right or wrong or even his reason for fighting, might actually be the worst person of the cast.

YASUI — There were some parts of Nowe's personal development that couldn't fully be fleshed out in the game alone, but Ms. Eishima did a wonderful job of laying it out in the novel adaptation.

SHIBA — For those who are interested, I would recommend reading the novel adaptation to experience the true charm of Nowe's character.

YASUI — On a similar note, doesn't Nowe's personality have some similarities to Yasui's? Could this be the fate of all the Drakengard protagonists? (Laughs)

SHIBA — Oh, they're similar! I thought so too. Caim in 1 is like Yoko⁽⁴⁾ and Nowe is like Yasui. (Laughs)

YASUI — Is that so? Well, if I'm being honest, I actually thought that several times when I was developing him. I often worried that it would end up like that.

—Maybe that's why Yasui has such a deep attachment to Nowe. So in that case, what do you think of the game's heroine, Manah?

YASUI — Manah, in contrast to Nowe, had a rather smooth development. Her character was already well-established in 1, and by the time of 2, she hasn't changed much.

SHIBA — As the story progresses, you'll see that even by the time 2 takes place, the "Nameless being = God" still exists within her heart. She's a person with serious mental instability who's being treated as if she's a saint and is fighting in a war. There are parts in the story where I wanted players to feel the sense of danger and discomfort to be had in that. But as you might guess, she doesn't seem to be well-liked by fans, just like Nowe...

YASUI — When we were working on the story and characters, Shiba and I decided on the main image from the start: "The main character grows from a boy to an adult while being guided by a beautiful older woman" - something like that.

SHIBA — Guided by Manah, who is like an older-sister type character, Nowe, a young boy still unable to decide his own path in life, grows little by little. The story of 2 is also a story about the growth of this boy.

YASUI — Nowe, who was always being guided by Manah, eventually finds a reason to fight of his own will. Not for something grand like "Protecting the harmony of the world", but something very personal—his love for Manah. I think that facet of human nature is something very typical for Drakengard as a whole.

Cavia Development Headquarters — Development Department — Creative Director

安井章 Yasui Akira

"Nowe is like my alter ego, so I'm very attached to him."

YASUI — The concept of "the Goddess" already existed from the start, but other than that, she didn't have much of a strong personality.

SHIBA — At first, she lacked a lot of the impact Manah had. This actually wasn't just an issue with Eris, but at some point every character was given the order to "inject more poison." Well ... I was the one who ordered it. (Laughs)

YASUI — We say "Poison", but because there was a larger cast than in 1, each character's individuality tended to be weakened. The order was to do something about that.

SHIBA — And the demon girl who was set to burn Manah at the stake was the result. I think that the main essence of Drakengard is that the story is woven together by characters who have a deep darkness hidden within their hearts like that.

—When you think about it, the cast who makes up the Knights of the Seal, the main antagonists, are all characters that are very typical of the Drakengard series.

SHIBA — That may be so. As a matter of fact, its the antagonists who are sometimes more popular than the main characters. The secret to that popularity might lie in the fact that they're especially easy to understand and have a more extreme personality.

YASUI — Not to mention, they're all pact-partners, so there's no way they could have normal personalities. (Laughs)

SHIBA — Take for example the antagonist General Gismor — he has a look that at first glance makes it easy to tell that he'll be a boss later down the line. In a sense, he symbolises what we wanted to do with 2. The very concept of 2, "Easy to understand", is reflected in the points of his character.

FUJISAKA — Similarly, when I designed Yaha, I designed him to be a typical narcissist — a character who would probably go and describe their own self as "Beautiful". But even though his character is supposed to be one who is attracted to both men and women in the story, people who are attracted to both genders in real life are usually not of this type. Like Gismor, he also largely captures the image of "Bewitching".

FUJISAKA — She's a character I had a lot of trouble designing. It was exceptionally difficult to express the concept of a woman who was originally beautiful, but lost her charm as a result of her pact. As a last resort, I tried giving her certain features like dark circles under her eyes and the detail that she was always dripping with water.

SHIBA — This idea of always being soaking wet was very popular among the production staff. Maybe it was attraction instead?

YASUI — Just to mention, it's not spoken of in the game, but Hanch actually has an older sister who is even more beautiful than her and a nice personality. She's the type of woman that people really like. Hanch, on the other hand, was so cute when she was younger that she was called "Sunsmile". However, this was due to her cunning and careful calculation. She was, for one reason or another, jealous of her older sister, who always emitted a dazzling and radiant charm. My interpretation is that such ferocity towards her sister was further amplified due to her pact, and that her inner charm was lost, rather than her outward appearance.

—It seems that Hanch, Yaha, and Zhangpo each have their own character colours of blue, yellow, and red. Why so?

FUJISAKA — This resulted from more of an issue with the game than of design. It was known from the start that these three characters wouldn't appear in any FMVs. Because of this, we were able to set the colours quite freely, since if a character with colours that were too bright were to appear in a cutscene, that character would unnecessarily stand out or the overall colour would have to be changed. It would prove difficult to put these things together. On the other hand, if the colours or designs were too subdued, it wouldn't look good on the screen at all. There were a lot of things I had to consider because of this.

Yasui's Work

He was the main designer of the previous game, and the director of this one. He was deeply involved in the construction of the world of Drakengard 2.

Furthermore, 2 will mark his debut as director! His hobby is watching movies, but he tends to pay more attention to the direction and blocking before getting too absorbed in the story.

Cavia Development Headquarters — Development Department — Graphic Designer

藤坂公彦 Fujisaka Kimihiko

"We paid special attention to the design of the characters and the use of colours."

—From here, we'd like to ask everyone about their favourite characters and scenes. Mr. Shiba, would you like to go first?

SHIBA — My favourite character is Gismor. First of all, he has the best design. I want to give my praise to Fujisaka, that is to say, I think this character is the only one who got OK'ed at the first shot. After all, Fujisaka's best characters are the old men. (Laughs)

SHIBA — As expected from a professional like Tachiki, I think it's thanks to his rough voice that the whole game came out so solid. Of course, I like the character as well! I think it's cool how he sticks to his beliefs. That is, even if they are evil.

SHIBA — Angelus' and Caim's final scene, of course. I liked it so much that I took the scene when it had already been completed and reconstructed it to make it even more moving!

YASUI — At first, it wasn't a scene that required much effort. There weren't any flashback scenes from 1, and the two of them disappeared even more abruptly. But, now I think it would have been nice to have made that scene even more moving.

YASUI — For the fans who have been playing since 1, this was the one part that was going to make them cry, so we put a lot of effort into it!

YASUI — As you might expect, I definitely feel an attachment towards Nowe. There are some parts of his character that are similar to me — I like the final battle against Legna! That scene where the parent and child talk and fight while expressing their feelings to each other is one of my favourite scenes in the series.

HASEGAWA — It was flat, by which I mean, the lines didn't come out very well. The emotional dialogue at the end came far too late, and the story had already been wrapped up and resolved by then.

YASUI — That was one of the dilemnas: The better the player, the faster they could defeat the boss. In the meantime, we had calculated the estimated battle time when creating it, but it still relied entirely on the skill of the player.

FUJISAKA — I agree with Yasui. I also quite like Nowe! But the best one is definitely the Kelpie! Hasegawa's design was amazing!

HASEGAWA — Eh, really? That's the first time I've heard something like that. (Laughs)

SHIBA — That sounds an awful lot like a Fujisaka thing to say ... (Laughs)

FUJISAKA — Yes. I should say, the design of Ifrit was made during the production of the first game, so I have a certain fondness for it.

HASEGAWA — In the end, it was shelved for 1, but it finally saw the light of day in 2, which made me happy. The design was quite elaborate, with the hand having a cannon that looked something like a kamado, so when I finished it, I thought "I did it!!"

FUJISAKA — However, Zhangpo was killed without it even having a chance to appear. (Laughs)

HASEGAWA — Yes, that's the role it played in the end, and I was disappointed in the way it was handled. Zhangpo was too weak...

HASEGAWA — As far as human characters go, I think it would have to be Urick. Koyama Rikiya's voice is very gruff, and I think it suits the character. And even though the design is unbalanced, it's still in good taste.

HASEGAWA — Although the area around his upper body is tight, his head looks huge because of his mask. That sort of imbalance is really cool. If I'm being honest, I get the feeling that Fujisaka likes those kinds of designs, but he hasn't had much opportunity to draw them until now.

—Admittedly, I was quite surprised, as I thought there would be more build-up towards Urick's true identity.

HASEGAWA — There's nothing rough about it, and I rather like it's graciousness. It's honestly a favourite of mine. As for monsters, I like the Holy Dragons! Unlike Legna and Angelus, I get the image of them being somewhat soft.

SHIBA — If we're talking about monsters, then I really like Unknown. Especially the hanging Unknown you fight during aerial combat!

SHIBA — I think the story from Chapter 10 onwards became much more exciting thanks to the appearance of that monster. The impact it left was breathtaking!

HASEGAWA — I wanted to somehow create an enemy that was comparable to the child angels from the previous game. Thanks to all of you, I think we were able to create a creepy enemy with a different approach!

Fujisaka's Work

He doesn't just design characters for the series, but also handles a wide variety of designs across the board, from the world setting to weapon designs and clothing. His attention to detail and detailed designs are said to sometimes bring graphic artists to tears. Even after the software release, he was one of the people who were involved with 2 for the longest time, and has made illustrations for both the novel adaptation and the original illustrations for this book.

Cavia Development Headquarters — Development Department — Graphic Designer

長谷川太郎 Hasegawa Taro

"Even though Ifrit finally got to see the light of day, I was disappointed to see Zhangpo get defeated so quickly."

—So here, I would like to ask you all about your ideas for the next game, which fans are probably very interested in...

SHIBA — I don't have anything to say about this yet. To tell the truth, if I were to make a new Drakengard game, I have an idea for the kind of form I would like to make it in. When I went overseas for work not too long ago, I suddenly got the idea on the plane. However, that doesn't actually mean the project's been put into production at all so far...
Unfortunately.

FUJISAKA — Personally, I feel like I've exhausted all my ideas for Drakengard with 2.

YASUI — We all worked on the production of 2 with great enthusiasm, determined to deliver the last great sendoff for the series. That said, if we were to make a sequel, it might have to be a completely new version of Drakengard.

SHIBA — It's just a joke, don't worry. But, we started working on 2 really soon after finishing the previous game. If you think about it like that, I feel like there needs to be some kind of recharging period, even if it's just for a while. After all, even if I say I want to make something new, it can't get started unless all the production team goes "Let's do it!"

—If you were to make a sequel, you'd have to hold that "Conference camp" again, right?

SHIBA — If we were, I'd definitely be on board with it. But if so, I wonder if it would be better if I was the organiser ...

YASUI — I'm really, really happy that there are so many people getting involved. I hope that people will continue to love the Drakengard series even more.

FUJISAKA — I'm grateful that even though it's been a long time since its release, that there are still passionate fans who continue to buy the novel and this collection of concept materials. Everyone's comments are very encouraging!

HASEGAWA —I'd be happy if this book allows some to see the detailed concepts that aren't usually published in magazines, and makes them love Drakengard even more.

SHIBA — This series, which I've been involved in for about the last five years, has come to an end for the time being. Personally, I think it's all thanks to the fans that this has become a title I feel so fondly of. That said, I think it would be great if I could see all those fans again sometime. I don't know if it will be through a sequel, a completely new work, or if any of that will actually even happen. Until then, I would like everyone to play 2 to its fullest.

Hasegawa's Work

The one behind all the various monsters and dragons that appear. He created a dragon specific to Drakengard which stands out from most types of dragons that appear in other games. Additionally, the monster designs, who have a unique charm you just can't bring yourself to hate, stems from his unique sense of style. He says that because he was able to leave production as soon as possible due to the nature of his work that he was always able to enjoy 2 in a fresh way.

¹: Point of production with the initial concepts submitted to the "Drakengard 2" planning meeting. The special project at page 108 in this book is based off these initial concepts.

²: Development camp... A conference camp where the development team gathered to go over their plans. During the production of the previous game, Mr. Shiba served as the organiser for this plan and rented a guesthouse, which has since become a tradition. The conference organiser for this work was Mr. Iwasaki.

³: Mr. Iwasaki Takuya... He is the general manager of development and chief producer of Cavia Co., Ltd. Like Mr. Shiba, he is heavily invested in the development of the Drakengard series.

⁴: Yoko Taro... Created the atmosphere of the series alongside Mr. Shiba and Mr. Iwasaki. While he participated as the creative director for 1, he served in 2 as a video editor.