An article written by the game's scenario/game designer Kazuo Fukushima. The article was OCR-scanned, cleaned up manually, and afterwards machine-translated and further edited by myself. I hope I got the gist of his sentiments right, with my apologies for any evident mistakes. A couple sentences I had to omit due to failing to translate them properly, others I elaborated on, all at my own expense. The original text will also be spoiler-tagged in the end for those fluent in Japanese. Hope you enjoy the read!
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What would happen if history was to be included in an RPG? I had been thinking along these lines absently for a while. Indulging in the imaginary worlds of sword and sorcery - there was always great fun to be had. Yet, having played various games, I began to feel a lack of something. When I realized this enveloping feeling was in fact 'emptiness', a vagrant idea in my head was starting to shape into something concrete.
What is important for games is probably for them to be "fun". But is it "fun" if you only have fun playing it? In this way, games are no different from idle amusement. No, I don't mean to deny the importance of entertainment, but maybe there's something else, something important to be had as "icing on the cake". Looking at sports, for example, it's not that we only play sports to have fun - but to also stay healthy, learn good sportsmanship, and so on. All of those factors add to the value of sports.
While thinking about such things, my head was already spinning with chibi characters moseying around an ancient Chinese setting. Many stories and historical figures came and went in my mind. Well, how about we make our hero an ordinary peasant? And the setting Warring States era China, centered around the city of Luoyang? Sure, and because we need friends, here's Lin Xiangru. We also need a swordsman, so there's Jing Ke. I don't particularly want magic, but there's the Chinese concept of "qigong". For the longest time, I was completely absorbed in planning and preparing this story.
So why choose Chinese history as a subject? After all, northern European setting with Norse mythology would make for a great sword-and-sorcery world. Considering the recent boom in 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' games, it's reasonable to expect Chinese setting to be a profitable enterprise. But the ROTK setting is already too saturated. How about we turn, instead, to the more crazier Spring and Autumn, Warring States era? It's the original and most interesting period of Chinese history. It's certain to introduce diverse characters, the fight for supremacy between the seven states, and familiar stories that we recall in form of common proverbs every day.
However, what became a problem were the hanzi (Chinese kanji). With place names, people, etc. it was impossible to avoid hanzi entirely. At first, I wasn't well versed in hanzi, and in addition many kanji not usually used in Japan came up frequently. I had already decided not wishing to grate the players' patience. It wasn't possible to implement text in 8x8, so 16x16 symbols had to be used. Then we could only have 14 letters on a line, with three rows of text at a time on screen. Could we make it work with such a small number of characters displayed at once? I didn't want players frustrated hitting X over and over again. Well, we tried various things, and as a result I think the message window turned out rather easy-to-read, somehow?
Some of the stories and proverbs weren't familiar to everyone. In addition to new literature, we delved into second-hand bookstores, chased discontinued titles and utilized libraries to the maximum. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the authors of the literature that we referred and drew inspiration from.
Due to my immaturity at the time, there may have been mistakes. In addition, some parts are arranged for convenience due to gameplay reasons. Please be understanding with this as well.
I cannot say if the genre of "historical RPG" will stay established in the world of gaming. Indeed, at this point I cannot yet say what kind of evaluation and reception "Shiki Eiyuuden" will receive. But, if you take your time to explore every nook and granny of this title, you will certainly be satisfied. In the wake of this game, players developing an interest in Chinese history will surely find literature such as "Shiji" and "Eighteenth History" a highly interesting venue to explore further.
- Kazuo Fukushima (Scenario / Game Design)