Famitsu (via Hachima Kikou) had a sit down this week with some of the team heads that are responsible for the recently announced Star Ocean: Integrity & Faithlessness. Shuichi Kobayashi and Hiroshi Ogawa, the producer and director respectfully, had plenty to say regarding their choices when it came to what they wanted to focus on.
For starters, they talked about the console choice – why PS3 and PS4? Kobayashi said that they wanted to make sure that Star Ocean 5 would reach as many of the series’ fans as possible, and the best way to do that would be to put it on which consoles the fans played most; PlayStation. He also mentioned, in particular, that it wasn’t a decision of home consoles versus handheld, but rather simply wanting to reach as many players as possible.
Later, when asked about the development concept, Ogawa said that they focused on a concept of ‘virtuousness’ and ‘a return to our origins’. Even better, though, he went on to say that he is aiming to make a game that RPG fans will truly be pleased with. Kobayashi then chimed in, saying that their most basic goal was to make a Star Ocean game that will live up to contemporary standards and one that will be able to win over long-time RPG fans.
Famitsu also asked what the development team was putting most of their effort into at this stage. Kobayashi said that he’s really fixated on making the game seamless between exploration and battle. A lot of resources right now are going to making the camera during battles function well, as Kobayshi wants to be sure that even in tight spaces, the player will be able to see the action and perform comfortably in battle. Ogawa also said that there is plenty of room left to improve on the camera still, and it’s likely something that will be worked on up until the very end. Kobayashi also tacked on a mention that all of the screenshots that have been released so far are real-time game shots.
However, the best piece of news to come out of the interview was this: when asked about DLC, Kobayashi responded by saying that they are not even thinking about story DLC or even a complete version. He mentioned that if users want it, the possibility is there of course, but said that in his opinion, if they have time to make DLC like that, it’d be much better spent on working on their next game, as it’ll make fans happier.
In case you missed it, we detailed the game’s story and world, translated interviews with the voice actors behind Miki and Fidel, and even detailed the game’s combat systems.
