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Atlus’ newest RPG, Metaphor: ReFantazio, sold one million units on day one, earning itself the title of the fastest-selling game developed by the developer. Launched this month, the game has attracted much discussion in the community around its story, art style, especially the fancy UI design, characters, music, and more.
Director Katsura Hashino, who is known for his work in the Persona series, talks about how he sees players’ voices and feedback. In a recent talk with the Silent Hill and Siren series creator Keiichiro Toyama (published by Famitsu and translated by Automaton), Katsura says that he “tries not to be that conscious of” players’ feedback, though he does check them.
“Of course, I do check things out at certain times, such as right after launch. But it’s not like I can adjust [the game] based on what I see. When I need to look something up, I do it quickly in one go, because constantly looking at reactions isn’t good for your mental health.”
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It would be a misinterpretation to say the director “avoids” checking the players’ voices, and “constantly” cannot be ignored here. Toyama was a bit surprised to hear that and continued asking if Katsura would check out his own names online. “I don’t, and I don’t use social media either,” answered Katsura, who shared that actually doesn’t “really want to appear in promotions.” He also frankly said that probably due to the fact that Metaphor: ReFantazio is “a new IP, I get a lot of requests to talk about it” compared to when he worked on Persona titles.
Last week, we also heard some insight about the importance of “user feedback” from Yong-Hyun Park, the CEO of Nexon Games. Park believes that "focusing on user feedback is the most reliable method” when game development costs have constantly increased over the years.
Personally, I don’t think there is a conflict in the views of the two industry veterans. It seems more about the degree of incorporating players’ voices, which could vary depending on the game’s style. For example, a live service title might lean more towards players’ voices by its nature.
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