Was that a very big surprise to have such a desire and attention? Did the game end up bigger than you guys anticipated?
It’s been eight years since I started on Digimon Games. When I started there wasn’t– Digimon wasn’t famous in the US, but I really wanted to deliver you guys a game… but it wasn’t so easy. What broke that was the petition from the fans. That’s why we got Cyber Sleuth in the States, but after we released it, the fans really loved it. So the reactions from the fans were really good. So the reason why we can release this game in the states is because Cyber Sleuth was so popular.
As the popularity grows with Cyber Sleuth and this game, can we expect even bigger games set in the Digimon universe? Games that are specifically for PS4 and not Vita, or any other wild ideas you guys may have for like large RPGs?
You mean after this title?
Yeah, after this title.
After Cyber Sleuth, I was near getting off the Digimon producer role. Maybe I was gonna do something else. But, because the success of Cyber Sleuth I was kinda brought back to do much bigger stuff, so of course after this title we’re working on different stuff.
We have ideas for different games. It’s going to take a couple of years I mean, but we’re not just gonna finish with it the next one. We’re gonna keep going for the series. I think the fans should keep waiting, we’re gonna have something more. I hope we can bring something new, the next year to Comic Con to the same place, and I hope you come to.
I’ll look forward to that, definitely. One more question, because since we keep touching on Digimon Story and Digimon World. With both increasing in popularity and offering different things — Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth was more of a mystery thing and Digimon World is more like you’re a trainer in the anime — can we ever expect to see maybe some type of crossover between the two types of games?
That’s the really hard part, not technically, but how it works. In Digimon World, the player themself doesn’t really go into the battle when you make them fight. You’re kinda watching them and making decisions and telling them what to do. I want to ask the fans, how much can we change that? You know, if we do a crossover. If I was working on the Vita Version, I would probably change a whole lot.
Anything in mind that you would have wanted to change?
I wanted to change the battle system.
What would you have preferred battle-wise?
I wanted to make the player be able to control it more.
Like choosing their moves instead of just choosing strategy? Like being very direct in what they do?
Yeah
Is that something we can expect to see from you in a future Digimon World game? Giving it a little more player control to the systems?
We’ll be thinking about that, but as for next year, probably there will be a different story, a Digimon Story title. As for now we want you to focus on this one (laughter), but if we were to power the Digimon World, next title, it would be more about online features. Like you can play with others or something, we would put that into the new concept.
For more of a like connected Digimon Universe?
Yes.
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It’s great to see that Digimon has survived after seemingly fading into obscurity for some time here in the West. Fans are clamoring for more from the franchise and things are looking bright for the monster-driven RPG. Habu sees bigger and better things in the future as the Next Order makes its way overseas, and we can’t wait.
