"Letter from the Producer #13: Garnet & How it Started (Part 13)
Hello there. I'm Masaru Saito, the producer of Brigandine Abyss.
This time, I'll be writing about another main character in the game, Garnet.
She's the protagonist of Scarlet Will's story mode.
Garnet leads a heroic band of mercenaries, the Scarlet Will, and, together with her friends, faces off against the Novus Imperium.
Garnet is a young woman who shoulders the responsibility of leading her father's mercenary band in his stead. She is brave, earnest, and cares deeply for her friends.
On the official website and such she is introduced as being ""A very serious character!"" or something, but that's not all there is to her!
Throughout the game there are scenes where we see her bravery, her gentleness, and even a more vulnerable side of her that's rather endearing.
She's a great girl, the kind of character you just want to cheer on. Play the game and you'll see.
Now, let's continue from where we left off with ""Brigandine Abyss: How it Started"".
Last time I was talking about my search for a developer that could help us make Brigandine.
I met with a number of developers personally and had online meetings with others.
With some of these developers, I was familiar with their names and track records but had never had a chance to meet with them before.
So, one of the positive experiences from this project was that it gave me the opportunity to make contacts at many of these companies.
Still, I was having trouble settling on a developer, and that's when someone introduced me to Adglobe Inc.
Thanks to this introduction, Adglobe Inc. ended up handling the development of the game, and I got a chance to meet some great creators as they helped us work on Brigandine Abyss.
(To be continued in the next letter.)"
"Letter from the Producer #14: Saya & How it Started (Part 14)
Hello there. I'm Masaru Saito, the producer of Brigandine Abyss.
This time, I'll be writing about another main character in the game, Saya.
She's the protagonist of the Samura clan's story mode.
The Samura are located in a region to the east of the continent that's loosely based on Japan, and Saya is the head of their clan.
Her story in the game also touches on the backstory of how she became the clan head.
Saya's narrative is multi-layered, and family plays a large part in it.
The bonds and conflicts between Saya and her companions intertwine with the story of her family (and its secrets) to create a complex plotline.
One thing that really stands out about Saya is that she's something of a tomboy, and in the Japanese version she prefers to address herself with ""boku"", a typically masculine form of ""I"".
Now, let's continue from where we left off with ""Brigandine Abyss: How it Started"".
Once Adglobe Inc. was chosen as the developer, we had various meetings with them.
I can't give too many details about these meetings, but one thing I clearly remember is how thoroughly the people at Adglobe Inc. researched the Brigandine series and how easy it was to envision the completed game when looking at the development plan they drafted.
This convinced me that they were the right ones for the job!
There was one more thing that made want to have Adglobe Inc. as the developer for Brigandine.
After receiving their development plan and having more meetings with them, they introduced me to Makoto Yamamoto, the director of the ""Sengoku Basara"" series as well as other famous titles.
(To be continued in the next letter.)"
"Letter from the Producer #15: Attacks, Counters, and Magic & An Unrelated Tangent
Hello there. I'm Masaru Saito, the producer of Brigandine Abyss.
Today I'm going to talk a little about game mechanics.
Brigandine Abyss has a combat system that allows units attacked directly to counter.
When you attack an enemy unit, they can counter as long as they still have HP and one of your allied units is within their attack range.
However, magic attacks and area attacks do not trigger enemy counters, allowing you to attack more freely.
Before going into battle, it pays to have an understanding of each unit's attack and counter options.
(This next topic is related specifically to Japanese language video games, so sorry if it doesn't make much sense to non-Japanese speakers.)
Today I'd like to talk about something that's not directly related to the production of Brigandine Abyss.
In recent Japanese video games, does anyone else find it confusing when foreign-language words that you aren't familiar with are sprinkled in as-is, just written phonetically with katakana characters?
One term in specific has been catching my eye: ""inventory"".
Lately, Japanese video games have begun using the English term ""inventory"", simply spelling it out phonetically using katakana.
It used to be that you would see more commonly-known terms like ""mochimono ichiran"" (list of things you are carrying) or ""aitemu ichiran"" (item list), written using a mixture of hiragana, kanji, and katakana.
I think it was fine just the way it was! What was wrong with the old terms?
I don't think the average Japanese person is ever going to use the word ""inventory"" in their day-to-day life.
I wonder if kids are saying ""inventory"" at school nowadays...like, ""Hey, grab me that book from the inventory.""
Sorry for the weird tangent.
I'm participating in the Bitsummit convention in Kyoto that starts May 22nd, so I've got a lot of excess energy this week!
Every year I'm there handing out flyers, helping people out with gameplay demos, or getting up on stage!
(To be continued in the next letter.)"
"Letter from the Producer #16: A Vampire Skill & An Unrelated Tangent (Part 2)
Hello there. I'm Masaru Saito, the producer of Brigandine Abyss.
Today, I'd like to introduce a specific monster skill.
Vampire-type monsters have a skill called ""Bloody Rain"".
When this skill is activated, it will call down a rain of blood on one of the battlefield's tiles for 3 turns.
When a unit ends their turn on a tile with the Blood Rain effect, they will take damage at the start of the next turn. Vampire-type monsters, however, will instead recover HP.
If you have a lot of Vampire-type units in your army, you can cover the battlefield in a downpour of blood!
(This next topic is related specifically to Japanese language video games, so sorry if it doesn't make much sense to non-Japanese speakers.)
Today, I'd like to continue talking about a topic unrelated to the production of our game.
That is, the same thing I talked about last time, the prevalence of unfamiliar, foreign-language words being used in Japanese video games.
At some point, Japanese games started using English terms like “buff"" and ""debuff"" on a regular basis.
These are terms you often see in video games now, but, unlike some foreign-language words that have been adopted for everyday use in Japanese, I don't think these terms are something you hear very often outside of games.
However, when I looked into Japanese usage examples for ""buff"", I saw that it seems to have started seeing use in corporate settings.
Apparently, someone who's good at motivating or improving the performance of their fellow workers is called a ""Buff Specialist"".
A Buff Specialist...that sounds kinda cute.
Sorry for the strange tangent again.
I'll be going to Kyoto tomorrow to participate in Bitsummit, which starts on 5/22.
But I'll still be updating these letters every weekday while I'm there!
I'll be joining an on-stage event on Sunday, May 24th, starting at 10:40 (JST).
I won't be talking about Brigandine Abyss, but hopefully I can be a Buff Specialist for my fellow speakers!
(To be continued in the next letter.)"