――Now, I have a question for you that I’ve had since Hero was first created as a mobile game app. Why does the story take place over the course of a five day period?

Mr. Masuda: Actually, originally it took place over the course of seven days. Mostly because that timeframe was easier to remember.

――So a week, then.

Mr. Masuda: I thought it would be really wonderful to start on a Monday and have that seventh day fall on a Sunday. After all, when you talk to people, you say, “I’m going to be doing x on Wednesday”.

However, due to the usual circumstances that happen with adults, we had to cut the amount content itself and the number of characters down roughly twenty to thirty percent less because it was a mobile phone app.

――So you had to make some sacrifices with the content.

Mr. Masuda: That’s right. So in those first seven days, two or three of those days had no additional content to them.

――I did notice the amount of days and the amount of events didn’t quite match up. Speaking of which, which characters were cut from that time?

Mr. Masuda: It was the characters we included in the PS Vita version.

――So, Jonah and Veranabel, then? Those were the characters added in the PS Vita version, correct?

Mr. Masuda: Yes, that’s correct. However, it’s important to note that I didn’t completely resurrect all of my previously scrapped ideas for this one.

I wanted to add one more dungeon and one more town, but I couldn’t really predict the effect that would have on the budget, development period, and most importantly, the adjustment period. So I decided to make as much as I could within the space I had at that time.


――Under the influence of a certain famous RPG, then. [laughs] But that’s right, that’s why they call them country-building simulation RPGs.

Mr. Masuda: The Japanese market is clearly very influenced by that singular work that must not be named. Of course, you can do anything you want. However, it was at a level where I had to assume that fewer people would be playing. But of course, there will be some people who will ask for games like it in the future.

We had that happen with Oreshika. Even if games are set a long time ago in Japan, people will want them. If you’re planning to make a game for that kind of person, there’s more fantasy in worldbuilding than anything else. But if you’re not aware of that, you might end up making a game with the widest frontage. And Hero is like that.

――I see. I really think that the game has such a unique take on things, especially the last scene with the Hero’s death and funeral. Did you purposely write the game and engineer the world to where it would be easy for [Japanese] users to easily imagine themselves within?

Mr. Masuda: It’s kind of like a love simulation game in that sense. But at the same time, it’s also not, mostly because it’s not quite as close, emotionally-speaking.

Otherwise, I felt it would’ve been a bit too sentimental. For example, if you have high school students doing age-appropriate things in school in a realistic way, that tends to add a dimension of emotion to it that we rarely think about.

――In that sense yes, it does stop feeling like a game because it feels too vivid and recent, emotionally-speaking.

Mr. Masuda: Exactly. I would say it’s because it’s like when you’re packing a box of fragile things you’re going to ship to someone, and you have to put in packing materials to cushion that thing you’re trying to send. That vivid, recent feeling becomes those packing materials you’re using to cushion your heart with - in a sense, you know?

But if you can say, “well, it’s just a game”, I think you’ll find yourself enjoying it more even if you do get that vivid, emotional material inside of it.

――I see. I would say precisely because of the way that it deals with such emotionally exciting material, that’s a really important thing to keep in mind and think about. In that way it kind of acts as a border or a cushion around reality.

Mr. Masuda: That’s exactly what I was aiming for. So I made sure to put in a lot of realistic material and details. For example, the east and the west after the collapse of the wall, and the food of developing countries post-Cold War. There are many themes like that, that I threw in there that really isn’t the stuff of fantasy when you think about it.

――In that sense yes, it does stop feeling like a game because it feels too vivid and recent, emotionally-speaking.

Mr. Masuda: Exactly. I would say it’s because it’s like when you’re packing a box of fragile things you’re going to ship to someone, and you have to put in packing materials to cushion that thing you’re trying to send. That vivid, recent feeling becomes those packing materials you’re using to cushion your heart with - in a sense, you know?

But if you can say, “well, it’s just a game”, I think you’ll find yourself enjoying it more even if you do get that vivid, emotional material inside of it.

――-I see. I would say precisely because of the way that it deals with such emotionally exciting material, that’s a really important thing to keep in mind and think about. In that way it kind of acts as a border or a cushion around reality.

Mr. Masuda: That’s exactly what I was aiming for. So I made sure to put in a lot of realistic material and details. For example, the east and the west after the collapse of the wall, and the food of developing countries post-Cold War. There are many themes like that, that I threw in there that really isn’t the stuff of fantasy when you think about it.

――That’s true. When I talked to people in town, I sometimes thought, “Wait, I’m really the Hero, right?”. After the Hero saved everyone, they were convinced he was happy because he’d achieved that. But instead, Hero decided to take the realistic route with things. People can only really unify if there’s a common enemy, and as long as you have a vector in place, you can keep the peace, in that sense…

Mr. Masuda: That’s how I look at it. So in that way, it’s a really raw and almost vulgar world.

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