Super Robot Wars T Famitsu Interview

(Translated from Weekly Famitsu, December 19)

The origin of the game's T (Top supervisor)

On November 16, 2018, at the Bandai Namco Mirai-Kenkyusho (aka Bandai Namco head office), we interviewed the two producers of SRW T. Takanobu Terada and Shohei Mogami sent fans into excitement with the introduction of the latest installment in their long-running series, and now they're here to talk as the two big Ts (Top supervisors). What follows is an insider track that you won't get anywhere else but this magazine.

A new SRW launched on two hit platforms

—Let's start by asking what your angle was in selecting the letter T for your game's subtitle.

Terada: T is the first initial of my own last name, so it feels a bit self-aggrandizing, but at the same time, we've gone 20 years without using it, even though we've used the first initials of other producers' names (laughs). We're running low on letters of the alphabet to use, and when we first started development, we used the letter T as a placeholder name. Honestly, I didn't think it would stick, but it got officially adopted.

—You use Terra as a keyword to refer to the Earth. Did you choose the letter T because you had the name Terra in mind, or was it the other way around?

Mogami: The other way around. Earth is a staple setting for SRW games, but we figured if we were using the letter T, Terra would be the most fitting name.

—This will be your first SRW title on the Nintendo Switch. What went into your decision on what platform to develop for?

Mogami: We wanted to develop for the Switch early on in SRW T's planning. We discussed the matter with BB Studio, and what ultimately happened was a multiplatform release for the Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4.

—The Switch is distinguished by being playable on a big-screen TV or on the go. Did that factor into your choice to make a Switch version?

Mogami: Yeah, it did. We thought it would be nice to give the players the option of being able to play the game on the go, not just on a TV screen.

—Next, could you tell us a bit about how you settled on this game's debut entries?

Mogami: This time around we gave more weight than usual to surveys from users (including players abroad) about which series they'd like to see. There was a lot of enthusiasm for King of Braves GaoGaiGar and Mobile Fighter G Gundam, two series that haven't been in a console game in years, as well as Getter Robo Armageddon, Brave Express Mightgaine, Gunbuster, Gun x Sword, and Martian Successor Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness, not just from domestic audiences, but from our overseas audience as well. We also wanted to keep up the element of surprise we had in V and X, which is why we brought in two entries that don't exactly fit in the mecha anime genre, Cowboy Bebop and Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX.

—It's this game's "battleship entry". (laughs)

Terada: People make that comment a lot, but we weren't going out of our way to pick a "battleship entry" for V, X, and T. It just ended up that way. We had surveys from users remarking that if this or that battleship anime made it in, we should put in Captain Harlock and his Arcadia next.

—Magic Knight Rayearth is particularly distinctive, given that it's a shojo manga written by CLAMP.

Terada: You'd think that, if you were going by older SRW standards. These days we've got SRW Cross Omega featuring all kinds of series that fall outside the category of mecha anime, and I think that's created a wider breadth of series that players want to see featured. Magic Knight Rayearth's inclusion can be considered in response to that, in a sense.

—Do you think it will attract fans who pick up the game specifically to see Magic Knight Rayearth featured?

Mogami: It's my hope that it will increase our female player base by at least a little bit. Of course, I know from surveys that the greater majority of the SRW player base is male...

—Ah, I see. That aside, this is a debut lineup that covers a wide breadth of anime from different decades.

Terada: We paid attention to that to some degree in T. For players in their 40s and up we chose Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX. For the next bracket down, Magic Knight Rayearth. And for the younger audiences, we went with Cowboy Bebop, as well as Expelled from Paradise, which had been a popular request for a debut entry in recent years. While this isn't technically its debut, Mazinger Z Infinity was hot off a theatrical release and getting tons of requests from players already. We also selected the roster with respect to SRW DD, the new smartphone game under development at the same time. Basically, we tried to make sure neither game stepped on the other's toes.

—From V onward, you've been including non-mecha anime in your rosters. Has that gone over well with the fans?

Mogami: Even better than I could have hoped for, really. Thanks to the positive reactions we've gotten, inclusion of non-mecha anime has become something we want to continue doing, moving forward.

—Incidentally, the roster includes some entries where the Earth is a wasteland. Do you pay any particular attention to elements like that?

Terada: We make tweaks to series stories for our own purposes, since we have crossover interplay with other series to consider. X's story was set in a fantasy world, but for this game, we opted to go for a more conventional series setting dynamic. Sometimes in SRW games we can pick out the roster (at least to some extent) after deciding on the general gist of the story, and sometimes we only start working out the story after the roster has been mostly solidified. In T's case, it was the latter.

Special attention paid to systems that are continually iterated on and improved, and to signature anime elements

—Are there any new system features that you're ready to talk about?

Mogami: I'm not ready to go into details yet, but we've got some new systems included. Rest assured that we'll cover that later.

—I'm looking forward to that. You included movie cut-ins back in X, and I get the impression those are going to be back in this game. How have those been received by the fans?

Terada: The character movie cut-ins were surprisingly well-received. We're including more this time around. That said, the rub of it is that for all the work that goes into making those, most people won't note which parts are character movie cut-ins without being told... (laughs wryly). Not that it matters much to the end user, but with a few exceptions we've redrawn character movie cut-ins to look closer to their imagery in the source material. Those are mainly featured in finisher moves, so you can look forward to that.

—Battle animations are where SRW really shines. Are there any battle animations you particularly struggled with?

Terada: All of the staff struggle when working on the most powerful finisher moves. The staff has joked for years about how brutal it would be if Mobile Fighter G Gundam and King of Braves GaoGaiGar were both featured in the same console game, and now that it's really happening, well... They're hanging in there.

—(laughs) The protagonist of G Gundam, Domon, was in NEO, but it's been a long time since his fellow Shuffle Alliance companions joined him. Can we expect the Shuffle Alliance Fist team-up attack to make a comeback?

Terada: I'll just say no spoilers there. We put in a lot of work for cut-ins of the robots and male characters, but we also put in plenty of care for cut-ins of the female characters from shows like Gun X Sword and Magic Knight Rayearth. There's a lot to look forward to.

—I can't wait to see them. I'm also curious what the relationship will be between Aura Battler Dunbine protagonists Show and Shion.

Terada: X featured the Sirbine without including its proper pilot, Shion, so we brought him in this time around. SRW is the place to go if you want to see what-if scenarios like Show coexisting with his future reincarnation Shion.

—You've had special guest robots from V onward, and this time around you're featuring the Gespenst. Can you talk about how you settled on that choice?

Mogami: In V we used the Grungust and the Hückebein, and we used Cybaster in X, so we figured we should throw in another OG series robot for this entry too. I discussed the matter with Terada, and we settled on the Gespenst, an old fan favorite.

Terada: We don't HAVE to feature a special guest original robot every time, but even in X it was well-received, so we decided to go that route again this time around. Original protagonists have become a staple of the SRW series, but the first incarnation of that was in SRW 4 back in 1995, where the Gespenst was the first robot the protagonist piloted. It's a mech-only inclusion that will be piloted by a T original character, meaning that our very first original robot will be piloted by one of our very latest original characters.

—Lastly, do you have any words for the fans eagerly awaiting the game's launch?

Mogami: I think that our series roster will live up to the hopes that many of you have been voicing for years. Everyone on the development team is working hard to ensure that you get the best game possible. Please be patient until the game's launch date of March 20, 2019.

Terada: We have a huge amount of new recordings from veteran voice actors this time around, even compared to historic SRW entries. I hope that in addition to the roster, the story, and the robot combat animations, you'll also take a moment to appreciate the incredible performances that the actors have delivered. We're on serious crunch time to make this deadline, and I hope that you'll appreciate everyone's hard work.