Terada Storytime: Masoukishin

Translated from Takanobu Terada remarks in the following Twitter thread:
https://twitter.com/TakanobuTerada/status/1687534019964182528

Storytime (This one's a long one) - The Super Famicom game Masoukishin was originally going to be titled Masoukishin Cybaster, but we found out we couldn't use the name Cybaster in a video game due to trademark issues (though we could in the anime). "Shouldn't you have registered it first?" you may ask.

While we did want to eventually release Masoukishin Cybaster as a stand-alone title, we went through SRW3, SRW EX, and SRW4 before finally getting the green light from our company at the time (Banpresto) to make the stand-alone game. That was when we did trademark research and discovered that we can't use Cybaster in a video game.

That led to the title "Masoukishin: THE LORD OF ELEMENTAL". The Lord of Elemental (LOE) is an English translation of Masoukishin and doubles as the subtitle of the game. As I'm sure people who played the game are aware, we had plans to make LOE into a whole series. The plan was to wrap up licensed SRW games with SRW4 and transition fully to the Masoukishin series afterward. However, Banpresto told us to keep making licensed SRW games. The chronology around this point is a bit muddled, but I'll lay out the things that come after this more clearly.

The SRW4 staff was working on LOE, so we had to start a second development line. This led to SRW2G, SRW4 Scramble, and Shin SRW. Story-wise, we couldn't make an SRW5, so we moved forward with Masoukishin and Shin SRW. Fun fact: A Shin SRW 2 proposal doc exists.

However, it was at this point that we received direction from above to "put all our effort into making SRW5 for the Sega Saturn" (paraphrased), which meant Masoukishin 2 and Shin SRW 2 got cut. We explained that an SRW5 wouldn't work, and we offered to make an alternate version of SRW4 instead. Ultimately, this became a project called Super Robot Wars 4 Plus, which went on to become Super Robot Wars F.

Masoukishin 2 and Shin SRW 2 were in the planning stages, but considering the console situation at the time and Evangelion's breakout success, we didn't complain about the company making unreasonable demands. We put forth a positive effort - "We barely have any time, but let's do this!" but frankly it was chaotic and rough in a lot of ways.

Due to that and internal issues, along with my own inability, F was released in parts, and the future of SRW was unclear. That was when SRW Complete Box (CB) came into play. We didn't have the time or resources to make a new game, so we decided to remake older titles. This was the most chaotic period in early SRW history. I had my hands way beyond full, when Morizumi-P emerged out of nowhere for CB.

Sales-wise, the company wanted more SRW games (obviously). The prior developer of SRW titles, Winkysoft, couldn't keep up with the demand and bowed out. Then Banpresto told me to make an SRW better than SRW4 and F, and make several separate licensed SRWs.

One of those was SRW Alpha. Another was Impact, which came out of the Compact series that Morizumi produced. And another was SRW Advance. Any hope of making Masoukishin into its own franchise was completely gone at this point...

Shin Masoukishin came out after that. I wasn't involved in it, but I found it to be a decent enough continuation of the Masoukishin IP. I carried on a sliver of hope by putting Masaki and friends into Alpha Gaiden and the OG series, but honestly, those inclusions themselves are changes, and I get why old-school fans might have gripes about them.

I firmly believed that if we were to put out an official Masoukishin sequel, Winkysoft should definitely be the ones to do it. As the years went on, I suspected even that wouldn't work out, so I was ready to leave Masoukishin on the backburner indefinitely, but then Winkysoft reached out and mentioned being interested in working on a Masoukishin sequel. But it wasn't easy to get Banpresto to green-light it. I eventually talked them into it by pitching a Masoukishin reboot as part of the Super Robot Wars OG Saga. You all know how the rest goes.

While the Masoukishin reboot was ongoing, we were having a hard time deciding whether or not to do an SRW EX retelling in the OG story. We'd been planning on making Masoukishin sequels, but honestly, we were on the verge of giving up - "It's no use. We can't expect more than this." But when it all worked out, we ended up doing a La Gias arc in SRW OG II.

The saying "Never give up and you'll get there eventually" doesn't necessarily apply in all cases, of course. My reluctance to give up my dreams is purely a personal thing. Thanks for sticking through this long story.