Idea Factory International’s 2nd Press Event

Hello, it’s been quite awhile, hasn’t it? Being busy with lots of term papers, exams and graduation stuff robbed me of any free time I had until all of those were finalized just last week. Sorry to keep you all waiting, but I have lots of good stuff coming your way! ✨

On December 3rd, Idea Factory International held their 2nd press event to announce and talk about select titles they are currently working on. Yours truly got to attend to check it out, along with talking to the lovely staff of Idea Factory International and other attendees!

Let’s detail on what happened at the press event.

The event itself took place at the Rickhouse bar (they serve some AMAZING cocktails!). After signing in, we went downstairs where the Idea Factory International staff had arranged a plethora of things for us to enjoy.

There were also playable demos of  Megadimension Neptunia VII, MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies, and Trillion: God of Destruction. I didn’t manage to get a picture of the demo station because I was either talking to other people, or too wrapped up in playing the demos myself. Oops! 💦

Speaking of the demos, the one I enjoyed the most is Trillion; it has a pretty interesting battle system that I hadn’t played before in a SRPG. As you move across the grid, the enemy also moves towards you, which I feel gives more of a sense of urgency to to try and set up a strategy on how to defeat your foe rather than it just being the normal selecting “end turn” option to then have the “enemy turn” begin afterwards. Hiroki Nagai, director of Trillion’s battle system, was standing by the Trillion demo station, helping out each attendee by explaining how everything works. He was so passionate about the game! I also enjoyed playing MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies, which was pretty much a hack and slash game. I kept coming back to it and trying out different characters, which had a different set of weapons and skills. It was addicting, so I’m sure fans of the Neptunia games will love it!

After chowing down, having several drinks while chatting with the attendees, the event finally starts.

The lovely Nao was the MC for the evening. She thanked everyone for making it over to hear about their announcements. She also thanked everyone for their support throughout the years. From last year’s press event to this year’s press event, the number of staff members increased from 7 to 12! 12 is still a small number, so it’s amazing the amount of work that they’ve done so far.

Haru Akenaga, Idea Factory’s president is then introduced. He notes on how he started up NIS America  in 2003 and worked there with several of the other staff that would soon become part of Idea Factory International. While working at NIS America, they held several press events for announcing titles and showing their appreciation and support, which is something that they carried over from NIS America to Idea Factory International. Akenaga-san expressed his happiness to be present so he can express his gratitude for all the continued support that they’ve gotten since NIS America.  He also expressed his surprise at the number of people in attendance to the press event: 85 people! The attendees are thanked again, along with the promise of bringing more unique titles to be enjoyed.

Afterwards, Hiroki Nagai and Masahiro Yamamoto are introduced to talk about Trillion: God of Destruction. Nagai-san is the battle system’s director. As he apologizes for probably making Trillion too strong, everyone else laughs, but his trillion HP is no laughing matter; that’s A LOT of HP! 💦 Even in Japan, all the fans complained that Trillion is too strong, but that the game was so enjoyable that they soon got over the difficulty of the game, which Nagai-san hopes that overseas fans will also do.

Masahiro Yamamoto (he asked to be called Dark Overlord Yamamoto!) is the director of Trillion: God of Destruction who also created the game’s concept in addition to directing the scenario writing and overall development. Dark Overlord Yamamoto used to work at NIS and was in charge of the Disgaea series (game direction, design and programming). Now he is working at a company named PreApp Partners alongside Idea Factory to make Trillion. There are many former staff members of the Disgaea team on board, so perhaps that’s why a lot of people think that Trillion is a game developed by NIS. However, Trillion has a much different SRPG approach compared to the Disgaea series. Dark Overlord Yamamoto states that he was able to offer something fresh to the SRPG genre and he hopes that SRPG fans will give it a try and enjoy.

Here’s the trailer for Trillion: God of Destruction!

Trillion: God of Destruction is coming out on Spring 2016!

 

The next game that was talked about was Megadimension Neptunia VII, which is the first Neptunia game on the PS4. It has new systems like Giant Battles and new formation skills.

They didn’t spend as much time talking about this title, since it’s a title that’s been talked about plenty before. The biggest thing about Neptunia VII at the event was the demo of it that everyone got to play. 🎮

Here’s the trailer for Megadimension Neptunia VII!

Megadimension Neptunia VII is coming out on early 2016! Make sure to get the Limited Edition Set filled with tons of goodies!

 

Nao then introduces Ari (who is an AMAZING cosplayer, check out her blog!) to talk about one of the two unannounced titles: Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force, Idea Factory International’s next PS4 title.

Some of the new features the series will have are palette switches, so you can now customize your characters to your liking. It’ll also now have the option of three difficulty modes of gameplay to choose from: easy, normal and hard. Along with that, it’ll feature new characters, and the option of having six different characters that you can include in the battlefield.

Here’s the trailer for Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force!

Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force is coming out on Spring 2016!

 

David was then introduced, and talks about titles that are going to be released on Steam. Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed, Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart, along with Monster Monpiece will all be released on Steam. Monster Monpiece will have all the original Japanese artwork in the Steam release, which many celebrated! All of these titles will be available in Spring 2016.

 

The last unannounced title is MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies. This game will feature all-new characters in an all-new setting. It’ll feature a 4-player battle option via Ad Hoc, and online multiplayer. You can have up to 4 characters join you in battle!

Here’s the trailer for MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies!

MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies is coming out on Spring 2016 (seeing a pattern here?)!

And that finalized the announcements, so the attendees were free to eat and drink more, play the demos available and talk to the Idea Factory International staff.

Some of the Otomate World staff was at the event, and I had the pleasure to talk to them about otome games! They, along with the Idea Factory International staff were surprised and really happy when they saw me with the Amnesia: Memories pins on my jacket. 😃 I made sure to say that we’re pretty hungry for more otome games to play and support in English, and I dropped some titles and I along with many other fans are really looking forward to seeing in English!

Now, I know awhile ago, there was plenty of discussion among fans about not wanting any more Hakuouki games to be translated thanks to the interview that RPG Site published some weeks ago. Idea Factory International’s president Haru Akenaga had said:

With our label, Otomate, you can see on our site that a lot of the conversation that the fans are having are about Hakuouki. So we can’t tell whether a lot of that passion is around Hakuouki or if they are loving otome as a genre. That is still hard to gauge, and that’s why it’s still early.

I do understand why fans are so quick to say “NO MORE HAKUOUKI!” because we all want a variety of otome games to support and play in English. However…I do feel that response isn’t correct in my eyes. There are a few Hakuouki games that have not been translated in English that I, along with many other fans, wish to see in English, and just saying that “we” don’t want any more Hakuouki games is a big stretch. I think the real feeling here is that we want MORE otome games to play and support in English, so rather than alienate one series, why not try having your voice heard that you wish to support more titles in English? E-mail, tweet at or make a Facebook post to Idea Factory International and Otomate World. 📣 I promise you that they are listening! They WANT to know what titles fans are talking about the most. Though, please do keep in mind that Idea Factory International is only a team of 12 people, which is pretty small. They’re only human and they’re trying their best!

As if the delicious food and drinks weren’t enough, Idea Factory International gave out these sweet gift bags for attendees! Inside the bag was a Neptunia VII PS4 skin, 3 shot glasses, an Umio chocolate bar, a Trillion pin, and 5 Amnesia: Memories voice boxes with them saying very lovely things when you press a button. 💖

(Can you tell that I dislike Toma a lot? 😂)

If you’re curious about what are some of the messages that the Amnesia guys say, I made some Vines of the voice boxes:

(THE IKKI ONE DIDN’T WORK!!!! 😭)

(Toma takes so long to say his messages, lol)

 That concludes my report on the Idea Factory International Press Event! I hope you all enjoyed reading about it, albeit it being several weeks late.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Omake:

Why, of course there are extra pictures from my trip! Enjoy~