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Strange Creators of Outer World/Violet Detector Interview with ZUN

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ストレス発散から生まれた!?
「秘封ナイトメアダイアリー」
開発秘話

Created to blow off steam?!
The secret story behind the development of "Violet Detector"

今年はゲーム開発をお休みかと思われていたZUN氏だが、
そんな予想をいいいい意味で裏切って新作が世に送り出された。
本作で目指したこと、そして本作を作ることになった経緯などを聞いてみた。

Mr. ZUN was thought to be taking a break from game development, but such expectations were betrayed (in a good way) as he published a new work.
We asked him about his goals for this game and how he came to create it.

SNS映えは幻想入りしたのか?

Has "Social Media-worthy" passed into fantasy?

――

開発お疲れさまでした。今回はストーリーから先に発想があった感じなんですか、それともシステムありき?

Thank you for your development efforts. Do you feel like the idea
for the story came first this time, or did you have a system in mind?

ZUN
(Z from below here)

システムがメインですね。もう一回「文花帖」を作りたいなぁ。でもまた文を出して新聞を作るゲームにするのは芸がないなって。プレイする感覚としては同じでも違うストーリー、別の設定がほしい。それが無いと月の都の住人達も出し辛いし。「インスタ映え」という言葉が流行語大賞をとりましたから、じゃあ後は死語になっていくだけだなって。

The system was the main focus. I wanted to make another "Shoot the Bullet"-type game, but I thought it'd be no good to just have
the game focus on Aya making newspapers again. The feeling you'd get while playing it would be the same, but I wanted the setting and the story to be different this time. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to feature the residents of the Lunar Capital in this game.
The term "Instagrammable" had won the Buzzwords Contest this year, so I was thinking that it'd only be a matter of time before it'd end up falling out of fashion.

――

先日、「やべぇここ超バエじゃん?」みたいな、こんなテンプレ喋りする人本当にいるんだって人らに出くわして、結構ショックでした。

The other day, I came across a group of people saying things like "Oh man, this is so Instagrammable, right?", and it made me shocked that people with such a run-of-the-mill way of speaking actually exist.

いやあもうそういう人たちは既に幻想入りしてるでしょ。それにしても、あちこちで「フォトジェニック」という単語を聞くようになったけど、凄い違和感を感じるんですよね。そんなことを考えつつ、むしろ幻想入りしろと(笑)。頭の中では、去年がピークなイメージがあったんです。「インスタ映え」という単語が。

Well, those people have already passed into fantasy, haven't they? Nevertheless, I've been hearing the word "photogenic" everywhere, but it feels really strange to me. Thinking like that, I really wish the word would pass into fantasy (haha). I thought it had reached its peak last year. The word "Instagrammable", I mean.

――

確かに、意識の高い人達のほうは段々落ち着いてきてるような。

Well, it certainly seems that the more conscious folk are settling down.

インスタ自体も人が増えちゃうと、昔は穏やかな場所だったのに今は荒れやすいみたいになってきて、ネットサービスが必ず通る道を辿ってる。そういう風に衰退の方向にいってしまうのでちょうどいいなと。ゲームの中では、極力インスタっていう単語は使わなかったんだけど、タイトル画面バック完全にインスタですよね。

As the number of users on Instagram itself increases, what used to be a calm place now seemed more prone to unruliness, such is the path all online services end up following. I thought it'd be good to mention that, since the site seems to have been on a decline. I tried my best not to use "Instagram" in the game, but the page on the main menu screen was unmistakably Instagram.

――

そういえば、あれなんで被写体が寝てる写真ばかりなんですか(笑)。

While we're on the subject, why is there just a photo of someone sleeping? (haha)

うーん、あそこのやつは、自分の持ってる写真の中で適当に選んだので(笑)。自分で行った場所だけですね。

Well, I ended up choosing that one randomly from the photos I had on hand (haha). The other photos are of places I've been.

――

「鳥居の足湯」って箱根ですか?

Like the "Torii Footbath" in Hakone?

あれは多分箱根だね。一人で行ったと思う。

That was probably Hakone. I think I went there alone.

――

え、あの人影は自分ですらない? (笑)

Eh, was that your shadow in that photo? (haha)

最近スマホのアルバムみると子供の写真しかない(笑)。だいぶ古い写真ですねあれは。そもそもの流れとしては「文花帖」を作ったときに、新聞ってもの自体はどんどんと減っていくだろう、っていうところから始まってる。

Lately, when I look at my phone's album, all I see are pictures of my kids (haha). So, that's a very old photo. When I first made "Shoot the Bullet", it was with the idea that the newspapers themselves would start appearing less and less frequently.

――

実際かなり青息吐息な感じはあります。

It actually seems like they're having quite a hard time, yes. Sounds pretty stressful.

だから今度はSNSですね。これまでのSNSのあり方が、かなり終わりに近いのかなぁってニュアンスをちょっと考えてた。本当はね、企画を考えていたときはTikTok(編注:短編動画共有SNSおよびアプリ)とかが念頭にあって。

So, this time, the idea was social media. I was thinking about the nuances of the way social networks have been, and how they seem to be nearing their ends. Actually, I'd been thinking of TikTok (editor's note: a social networking service and app dedicated to sharing short videos) while working on this project.

――

終了どころか、かなり最新じゃないですか。

But it seems far from the end of its run. It's quite up-to-date, isn't it?

ゲーム内で動画を撮影できるようにすることを考えてたんですけど、その部分を実現するのに手こずってね。動画を撮るとかになると、途端に難しくなっちゃって、実装してゲームにするにはあと3か月欲しいなぁって感じになったから、スケジュールと照らし合わせて真っ先に切っちゃった。最初のアイデアの中にはそういうのあったんですよ、菫子の超能力レベルが上がっていったら動画が撮れるようになったら、絶対面白いなぁと。そして、そのためだけに必要な労力でかいなと。実装できたところでゲームが成り立つかどうかわからないしね。動画撮影中に死んだらどうすんだとか、そうすると写真のほうが良いじゃん、単純に難易度上がるだけじゃんとか。いろいろあった。

I was thinking about making it possible to shoot videos in the game, but I had a hard time getting that to work. When it came to shooting videos, it became more difficult to implement, and it felt like I'd need another three months in order to do so and actually make it into a game, so that was the first thing to be cut in light of my schedule. That was one of the first ideas I had, and I thought it would be really interesting to be able to shoot videos as Sumireko's psychic level increased. And the effort required just for that feature was substantial.

I don't know if the game would be viable even if I did manage to add that mechanic. There were many things to consider, such as, "What if the player were to die while shooting videos?". I felt it to just be a way to increase difficulty, so I settled on photography being the better option.

――

そこからの写真撮影第4弾。

This would mark the fourth bullet photography game in the series.

やり方的にも同じで、『ダブルスポイラー』に関してはもう二作目なんで、同じシステムで続編らしさを見せるとしたらやっぱり新キャラと、ステージ数。「文花帖」にほとんどストーリーが無かったから、続編でストーリーっぽいものを入れてみて、突然新キャラも出る。まあこの手のやつは、僕の中では「リソース使い回しゲーム」なんですけど。そういう外伝的なものとして作るので、「弾幕アマノジャク」でも撮影とかよりもストーリー寄りにしたかったんですよね。

The method here is the same, and "Double Spoiler" is the second game in this series, so if I wanted to make it feel like a sequel while using the same system, I'd have to add new characters and stages.
"Shoot the Bullet" had almost no story to it, so I implement something like a story into its sequel, and also included a sudden new character. Well, in my opinion, this game is more like a "resource-usage game". I had wanted "Impossible Spellcard" to be more about the story than the shooting, since that game was intended to be a sort of offshoot.

――

なるほど。

I see.

遊びはじめた当初の感触だと、なんかすぐ進んじゃう、思ったよりゲームの分量は少ないのかなと思ったら、このパターン一週間繰り返すんだ、となる(笑)。なので、あまり心が折れない程度の長さにしています。開発中は、ステージの半分ぐらいをクリアしないと次のステージに行けないようにしていたんだけど、僕の心が折れたので全部一個にしちゃった。

The feeling I had when I first started playing was that the game would progress pretty quickly, and that the amount of gameplay would be less than expected, but then I realized that this pattern would repeat for the rest of the week (haha). So, the length was set so that I wouldn't lose my motivation. During development, I had made it so that you had to clear about half of the stages to get to the next one, but I lost heart, so I made them all only need one.

――

半分は結構厳しいですね……。

Clearing half sounds like it'd be pretty tough.

ステージが進むにつれて徐々に難しくなっていくゲームなんだったらそれもありだけど、そうでもないじゃない。異様に難しいやつがあったり、そうでもないやつがあったりするから、選ばせてクリアしたほうがいいね。

That'd be one thing if this were a game that got progressively more difficult as the stages progressed, but it's not. Some of them are bizarrely difficult, some of them not so much, so it'd be better to let the player decide what they wanted to clear.

――

同じステージの中でも、人によって感じる難易度に差がありますものね。

Even when dealing with the same stage, each person would feel the difficulty level in different ways.

微妙に難しいのがあったりする。それは単純に調整しきれてないかもしれないし、単に個人の得手不得手もあるので。レーザーが苦手とか、速い弾が苦手とか。

Some things are difficult in subtle ways. It may be that I simply haven't adjusted the balance very well, or that you have your own personal strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you're not good with lasers, or fast bullets.

――

キーボードの調整忘れてShift押しすぎちゃうとか。

I forget to adjust my keyboard, so I end up pressing Shift too much.

キーボードプレイはちょっと向いてない

Perhaps keyboard play just isn't for you.

夢の中の住人たち

The Dream-Dwellers

――

敵側で登場するキャラクターの選定基準は、なるべく今まで出てないやつ?

Now for the criteria behind selecting enemy characters, were you trying to choose ones that hadn't appeared as bosses before then?

そうですね。二周目までは基本チュートリアルという扱いなので、そこまでに大体のキャラを登場させていって。最後の一周はもっと過去作品からいっぱい出してあげようと。流れ的にはそういう感じを考えてました。物語の進行役であるドレミーが言ってるセリフでも、これから先にそういう人たちが戦いに出てきますよみたいな前振りで。夢の中の奴らなんで結構なんでもありな感じでコンビを組んできます。

That's right. You're basically playing through a tutorial until the second lap, so I made sure to introduce most of the characters by then. For the last rounds, I tried to get a lot more out of my previous works. That's what I was thinking of in terms of the game's course. Even the lines uttered by Doremy, the story's facilitator, are foreshadowing the fact that such characters would appear in the future. These guys appear in your dreams, so they'll team up quite harmoniously.

――

ドレミーはストーリーが進む時に出てくるんですけど、わりと何しにきたんだ感が。

Doremy appears as the story progresses, but it feels like she's here for something rather different.

敵なのか味方なのか最後までよくわからない。最終的に私はどっちでもいいですよ、みたいなこと言うし。夢の世界の菫子が勝とうが、幻想郷の菫子が勝とうがドレミーにはどっちでもいいんだよ。

Whether she's an enemy or an ally isn't clear until the very end. And in the end, she says something like, "I don't care either way". Whether Dream World Sumireko or Gensokyo Sumireko wins, it doesn't matter to Doremy either way.

――

振り返るとそうですね。最初プレイヤーは、自分が「菫子」を操作してると思ってるから。

In retrospect, yes. Initially, the player thinks they're controlling the Sumireko.

助けて、助けてってドレミーに言ってるはずなのに、とんちんかんの答えが帰ってくるっていうようなゲームだった。当初の予定では、もっともっといっぱいアイデアがあったんだけど、結局ほとんど入ってない。全てのゲームがいつもそうなんだけど、大体アイデアは出してもほとんどは反映しないで終わっちゃう。勿体無い。

It's a game where you're supposed to be asking Doremy to help you, only to end up getting a bunch of random answers. I had plenty more ideas in my original plan, but I ended up using very few of them. It's always the case with any game I make, where I come up with lots of ideas only for most of them to never get implemented. What a waste...

――

アウトプットってそういうものかもしれませんね。

Maybe that's what the output is all about.

これがね、大きなゲームになるとそういうのが反映されちゃって、どんどん肥大化するんです。切る理由のほとんどがスケジュールの問題なので、スケジュール的に絶対作れないから、どこから切っていこうかって最低限残していく。その結果、最低限残ったものぐらいのやつのほうが、ゲームがスリムでいいんだよね。

The bigger the game, the more that's reflected, and the more bloated it becomes as a result. The reason for cutting most ideas is due to time constraints, and since I can't make it on a schedule, I leave a minimum of where I want to start scrapping content. As a result, the game ends up with only the bare minimum left, but that's actually slimmer and definitely better.

――

曲は今回はいつになく、すごいジャズっぽい曲がきたなと思って。と思ったらその後でいつもの感じのが。

Now for the songs, I thought we've ended up getting a lot more jazz-like songs than usual. But then the feeling became as usual.

二周目のテーマ「ルナティックドリーマー」に関しては「こっから本番だ」みたいな感じを意識してます。急にボスっぽい曲がかかって、敵もボスっぽいやつが出てくる。そこも通り過ぎて、これからが本番だっていう三周目からは、そこまで激しくしないほうがいいんじゃないかなって。僕の中で曲の作り方がある。

"Lunatic Dreamer", the theme of Week 2, was made with the feeling of "Now this is where it really begins". Out of nowhere, we get this boss-like theme, and the enemies also start being more boss-like. I thought it'd be better if Week 3 didn't have such an intense theme, where you've passed that point and you're ready for the main event. I have my own way of writing songs.

――

ここからがいつもの東方だよぐらいのメッセージが。でも敵は凄いド級のボスが二人がかりでかかってくるっていう展開で。

So the message for that was something like, "From here on, it's the usual Touhou style". However, the enemies are two-person teams with awesome boss battles.

あれも時間かかりました。ラスボスとEXTRAボスを組み合わせて出してるだけだけど、どこに誰をいれるか、何曜日のどこに出すかとか、凄い悩みました。シャッフルを加味した4人を考えて、どれが面白いかなとか。

That took a while to implement too. It's just a duo of final bosses and Extra bosses, but I had a lot of trouble figuring out who to include and what day of the week I'd want to place them in. I was thinking four people, plus taking into account the shuffling thing, and wondered which ones would interesting.

――

一応それぞれのキャラはある程度同じパターンで攻撃してくれるわけで。

In a way, each character's attack is the same pattern to an extent.

全部がバラバラだと作るのも大変だし、避けるほうとしても訳わかんなくなっちゃう。それに二人で出てる意味がなくなっちゃうので、それぞれ一人の攻撃をどれを避ければいいのかわかるようにしてます。

If every attack was different, they'd be hard to make and confusing to dodge. And since it made no sense for two people to appear together, I tried to make it so that one knew which of each person's attacks to avoid.

――

そういう夢の中で、「夢のキャラ」同士がどういう絡みをしていたとか気になります。

I'm wondering how the "dream characters" would interact with each other while in those dreams.

気になるよね。夢の中だから、結構いい加減なんだ。基本夢の世界の奴は、正直で竹を割ったような[1]性格だと、きっと思うんだけど。

Isn't that curious? Well, it's a dream, so interactions are pretty lax. I'm sure that a guy in a basic dream world would have an honest and clear-cut personality.

――

ところで、あいつらは本当に全部「夢の中のキャラ」なんですか?

By the way, are all those guys truly "characters in a dream"?

「ナイトメアダイアリー」でってこと? まぁ怪しいよね(笑)。隠岐奈辺りとか。

You mean with "Nightmare Diary"? Well, that'd be suspicious (haha). Like with Okina.

――

隠岐奈は「こいつひょっとして……?」って思わせるものがあります。

There's just something about Okina that makes you think "Is this guy, by any chance...?".

隠岐奈に関しては、かなり意図的にそうしてある。あと紫も怪しいですよ。なんでここで出てくんの、みたいなところで出てくるように作ってあるので凄い怪しい。

In Okina's case, it was done quite deliberately. Yukari is also a suspicious character. The reason for this is because they're both the kind of character that makes you wonder "what are they doing here?"

――

隠岐奈は、夢のキャラにしては会話が普通の感じだなっていう。

According to Okina, conversations are pretty normal for dream characters.

今回の中では、隠岐奈が一応悪役というか黒幕なので。要は凄いやつ探しをしているんです。菫子は、その中で見つけた一人みたいな感じになってる。

That would make Okina the villain or the mastermind, in that way. In short, she's on the hunt for someone great, and it felt like she had found that with Sumireko.

――

まだ探してるんですか?

She's still looking?

二童子の後継者として部下になりそうなやつをね。一応探すつもりはまだあるみたい。

For someone to succeed her two Douji? Yeah, she's still searching for that.

スマホをチャージ???

Phone charging???

そういえば、遊んでくれたみんなが突っ込んでいるのかどうかしらないけど、僕の中で一番の悩みというかツッコミどころがあって。「なんでスマホでフィルム巻かなきゃいけないんだろ」って(笑)。もっと連射できるんじゃないのみたいな。

Speaking of which, I don't know if everyone who's played the game delved into this or not, but there was one thing that stuck out to me as my biggest problem. That is, "Why would someone have to roll up film on a smartphone?" (haha). "Why can't you shoot more consecutive photos?"

――

(笑)。

(Haha).

あれだけはね、説明がつかずにそのままにしてます。「文花帖」のシステムのまま、その部分も取り入れちゃってる。自分の中でそのシステムでゲームを作ることが前提だったので、それについて設定を作るのが後回しになっちゃった。チャージって言い方をしてるけど、いったい何をチャージしてるんだろう?(笑) そんなわけで、最初のうちは「文花帖」っぽい遊び方をするのも楽しいんだけど、今回の目的はボスを倒すことだから、最終的にボスを撮影することに拘らなくてよくなる。そうするとね、最終週全ての弾幕とは言わないけど、中にはショットで撃ってデスキャンセルしながら戦うほうが早くて楽な弾幕が結構あるんです。そうすることによって結構クリアしやすい。

That's the one thing I can't explain, so I'll just leave it at that. It's the same system I used in Shoot the Bullet. I had already made the decision to create a game based on the said system within a minute, so I had to put off creating a specific setting for that. It's called "charging", but what the heck is being charged? (haha) So, while it is initially fun to play in a "Shoot the Bullet"-like fashion, the goal this time is to defeat the boss, so ultimately you don't have to be concerned with photographing them. Having done that...Well, I'm not saying it's all danmaku in the final week, but there are quite a few patterns that are faster and easier to fight while shooting and death-cancelling. By doing so, it is quite easy to clear.

――

なるほど???

I guess???

というよりはね、撮影しちゃうと次にチャージが溜まるまでが長いんです。デスキャンだと結構すぐ溜まる。だからテレポでボスに近づいて、テレポ先に弾があったとしても大丈夫だから、もうそれだけの勢いでプレイしていく。ただの勢いゲームになっていくんですよ。

It's more like, once you shoot, it takes a long time for the next charge to accumulate. With Death Cancels, the charge builds up pretty quickly. So, if you teleport close to the boss and there are bullets in your teleport, it's okay, you can just play with that much momentum. It just becomes a game of momentum.

――

ライフを一個セーブしてるみたいな気持ちになってました。

I felt like I had saved one life.

これまたショットでたくさんボスを撃ったほうがチャージの効率がよかったりする。なのでどんどん強気に攻められるんです。トドメがさせる時だけ写真を撮る。

This also means that you have to shoot a lot of bosses with your shots, which is more efficient in charging. Therefore, one can gradually attack with more force, only taking pictures as a finishing blow.

――

一枚は撮らないとダメですからね。

You have to take at least one picture, though.

あのシステムも謎なんだけど、クリアには一枚撮らなきゃいけないじゃないですか。あそこの部分のシステムだけ最後まで、けっこう最初の時から二転三転して。やっぱりクリア条件に一定の撮影枚数があったほうがいいのかとか、撮影した写真にボスが写ってなきゃダメなのか、とか。風景だけでも良いんだけど……って、そこら辺も悩んで、最終的にはショットで倒すってことをメインにしました。写真を撮ってボスを倒すっていうシステムは、「文花帖」がボスを取材するっていう体裁だったから良かったけど、今回はボスが敵として出てくるからお話の設定と合わない。だったら倒したいってなって。でもボスを撮影すれば、結構大きなダメージ入るから基本的には撮影したほうが早く倒せるんですけどね。

And that system's puzzling as well, because you have to take at least one to clear the stage. That part of the design had been changed two or three times throughout the process. For instance, I wondered if it would be better to have a certain number of pictures taken as a condition for clearing the game, or if the boss had to be in the photo or not. It would have been fine to just take pictures of the background scenery, but I was worried about that too, so I ultimately decided to focus on shooting photos to defeat the boss.

The mechanic of "take photos to defeat the boss" was fine for Shoot the Bullet, since said bosses were the focus of the story, but since the bosses also appear as enemies this time, that didn't fit with the whole story. But shooting the boss would deal a lot of damage, so you're basically able to defeat them faster if you did that.

――

今回印象に残ってる弾幕もしくはキャラの組み合わせってありますか。

Did any danmaku patterns or character combos leave an impression on you this time?

後半でボスが二人組で登場するようになりますが、二人組で最初に作ったのがレミリアとフランドールなんです。そこの二人を僕の頭の中では、夢の世界で無茶なことしてるっていうゲームだから、それぞれの弾幕を両方出そうぐらいにしか考えてなかった。で、出してみたら全くクリアできなくて、ゲームにならない(笑)。それをどうクリアできるようにするかの、ギリギリの感覚が凄い難しくて、あまりにも見た目がショボくなっちゃうとせっかく二人出てるのにってなっちゃう。かといって、それぞれがそれぞれのキャラっぽい弾を出しちゃうと、本当にゲームにならなくて。そこの最初の調整が一番大変でした。何回も挑戦して、その後はそれを基準に作っていった。

Boss pairings appeared in the latter half of the game, with the first of these I created being Remilia and Flandre. In my mind, the game was about doing crazy stuff in the Dream World, so I was thinking of just giving each of them their own individual patterns, but when I actually tried it, I couldn't clear the game at all, so the game just stopped being a game then (haha). I was struggling last-minute to find a balance between being able to clear the game while also making it look good, and if the game was too shabby, then having character pairs showing up would've been a waste of time. On the other hand, if each character had their own unique bullets, the game wouldn't really work. That was the most difficult part of the initial adjustment. It took several attempts, but the game was eventually able to be built on that basis.

――

プレイヤー的にはあの二人を見た時点でもうすごい身構えるわけですよ。

From a player's point of view, seeing those girls makes you really brace yourself.

でもボス単体だと凄い弱いですけどね。みんな単体だったら簡単な攻撃ばっかりで、組み合わせてるから難しいだけ。

But when the bosses are alone, however, they're awfully weak. Their attacks would be easy to dodge if they were by themselves, and it's only because they're combined that they're such a challenge.

――

だから片方を倒すとちょっと難しくなるようになっている?

So is it supposed to be a little more difficult to beat one of them than the other?

あれがまたね、異様に難しくなるやつもいればそうでないやつもいるんです。まあ最初の立ち位置とか動きとかによって、明らかに先にどちらかを倒すように仕向けて作っているわけです。それを無視して別の方から倒すと簡単なこともあります。だから、できれば同時に倒したほうが良い。

Again, some of them can be bizarrely difficult, while others are not. Well, depending on their starting positions and movements, it's obviously designed to make you beat one of them first. However, it'd sometimes be easier to ignore that one and defeat the other first. So I'd suggest defeating them both simultaneously if you're able.

ゲームとお酒と

Games, Alcohol, and...

あんまりこのゲームそのものとは関係ないけど、菫子を出して今回初めて気づいたのは、菫子がメインだと作品からお酒の匂いがなくなる。

This is not really related to the game itself, but I noticed that the aura of booze disappeared when Sumireko appeared as the main lead.

――

高校生はお酒飲んじゃダメです。

High school girls aren't allowed to drink alcohol.

ストーリーにもお酒がでなくなって、酒臭い感じがしなくなる。だからちょっと厨二っぽい感じになってくるのかな。お酒を飲んで見る幻覚というよりは、若さが出る何かって感じ。イメージとしては、「女神転生」シリーズはお酒の匂いはするけど「ペルソナ」シリーズはしないみたいな感じ(笑)。単純に若い。
ゲーム的には、システムありきのゲームなんで。攻略するのが楽しいゲームではある。ただその中に今回はストーリーを入れました、ぐらいの作り方をしています。ゲームの性質上ストーリーだけを見たい人には、向いてないゲームですね。ストーリーだけを見るために苦行のようなステージをクリアするのは、本当の苦行ですよ(笑)。あれを楽しんでもらわないと無理だね。

The story doesn't have booze in it, and it doesn't smack of booze. So I guess this one's a little more kitchen-y. It's not so much a hallucination that you see after drinking alcohol, but something that makes you feel young. I imagine it is like the alcoholic odor in the "Megami Tensei" series as opposed to the "Persona" series (haha). Simply young.

From a gaming point of view, VD is a system-based game. It's a fun one to play. But I'd included a narrative within the story, and that's about it. If you only want to see the story by nature of the game, this is not the game for you. It's a real struggle to clear the stages just to see the storyline alone (haha). You have to have fun with it to enjoy that.

――

ストーリーだけ見たい人はもうあまりゲームそのものをしないかもしれない。

People who only want to see the story may not play the game itself much anymore.

動画で見たりね。そういう人たちの為に優しいモードも作らないとダメなんだけど、今回は「悪夢を見ている」っていうストーリーだから、弾幕が悪夢的に難しくないとお話が崩壊しちゃうので、優しくはできないんです。

Or watch videos of it. I wanted to create a gentle mode for those people, but since the story this time is about "having a nightmare," the story will collapse if the danmaku is not also nightmarishly difficult, so I couldn't be gentle here.

――

「本人」に戻った時の難しさときたら。デスキャンも使えないですし。

It's awfully hard when you get back to the "true identity". Not even death cancels were available anymore.

急に能力が減っちゃうからね。そういえば最初の設定というか、作ってた初期はデスキャンは全然別の能力だったんですよ。あんまり便利じゃなかった。デスキャンは単純に喰らい撮影が使えるだけだったんです。それでも強かったんですよ、ちゃんと撮影にもなるしボスにダメージも与えられて。でも凄い上級者向けのゲームになっちゃってね。喰らい撮影にすると、今と同じで次の撮影までが短いから、ひたすらそれを連続でやっていくことでクリアするステージを最初作ってたの(笑)。

It's a sudden loss of your abilities. Speaking of which, in the initial setup, or rather in the early stages of making the game, death cancelling was a completely different ability, one that wasn't very convenient. Death Cancelling was simply "death-shooting". It was strong enough, though. It counted as a successful shot, plus you could deal damage to the boss. But then the game was really difficult, only experts could've won it. The stages I used to make back then were like, when you death-shoot, the charging time would be much shorter (whose feature remains in the actual game), so you would have to death-shoot, death-shoot, death-shoot, death-shoot, and beat the boss.

――

酷い(笑)。

How terrible (haha).

喰らいボムをこんなに要求するゲームはダメだなぁってなって(笑)。もっと緩いシステムになりました。

It was like, "I can't play a game that requires me to death-bomb this much" (haha). So I changed the system to a much looser one.

――

ハッシュタグの「#はっ夢だったか」はその辺りの名残でしたか。しかし「ナイトメアダイアリー」なのに「夢だったか」って。

So was the hashtag "#JustADream" a remnant of that? Saying "just a dream", even though it's called "Nightmare Diary"?

あれもそうだけど、このゲームは結構ツッコミどころ満載でね。基本的には、あえて用意してる部分なんだけど、おかしなところが多いんです。ハッシュタグとか、会話の内容とかね。

Yeah, like that, but this game is full of things to poke fun at. Basically, there are a lot of funny parts that I dared myself to set up. Hashtags, conversations, and so on.

――

そういえば、久々に火曜日に「サザエさん」を放送してたことを思い出しました。

I remembered that it's been a while since they aired "Sazae-san" on Tuesdays.

僕の中では火曜日の「サザエさん」の曲が頭にこびりついて離れないんですよ、未だに。

I still can't get the Tuesday "Sazae-san" theme out of my head.

――

これ以上ないぐらい昭和な会話だ。もう平成も終わろうとしているのに……。

This was the most Showa-era conversation I've ever had. The Heisei era is already coming to an end...

平成終わっちゃうなぁ、あっという間でした。昭和をネタにするゲームはいっぱい出せるけど、平成をネタにするゲームは出せないな。まだピンとこない。

The Heisei era is ending, at such a fast pace too. I can make a lot of games about the Showa era, but I can't make a game about the Heisei era. It still doesn't feel right.

――

まだまだ現役感ありますからね。

That era is still very much alive.

平成という時代とこの後の時代が繋がっているようなイメージしか湧かない。がらっと変わるかな。あとなんか、ちょっと前に流行ってたシンギュラリティを迎えれば変わるのかもしれないけど。

I can only imagine that the era of Heisei and this later era are connected. Maybe things will be drastically different, probably upon the arrival of that "Singularity" that was in vogue a while ago.

――

改めて、開発を終えてどうでしたか。

Once again, how did you feel after completing the development?

こういう開発者がああやこうや言ったって、結局メインは遊ぶ人だからね。遊ぶ人がどう感じたかを、こういう風に感じなきゃダメだよとは言えない。それでもあえて言うなら、これは開発者のストレス発散の為に生まれた、そして作り始めた結果ストレスを抱えることになる、遊んだ人もそうかもしれないけど、そういうゲームでしたと。僕としては定期的にああいうのを作りたいです。

Even if those developers say this or that, in the end the main focus is on the people who play the game. I can't tell you or the players how to feel about it. Still, I dare say that this was a game created to relieve the pressure of the developer, which ended up giving me (and also players maybe) a lot of stress after getting to develop it. As for me, I would like to make something like that on a regular basis.

――

ここでおかしいのは、開発者のストレス=ゲームを作ってないことっていう。

The funny thing here is that "developer stress = no games being made".

その結果ゲームを作るけど、それもストレスになるので、もうストレスからは逃げられないです。

I make games as a result of that, but that's stressful as well, so I can't escape stress anymore.

――

もう作らざるを得ない生き物って感じですね。それで他の人も楽しいんだったらより良いです。

It's like a creature that has no choice but to create something. If that makes it more enjoyable for others, it's even better.

理想ですね。たまに作りたい、いやむしろ毎回作りたい。

That would be ideal. I would like to make those sometimes, or rather, I would like to make them all the time.

Notes

  1. In the original text "竹を割ったような終わったような". It should be double mistakenly.