#Tomoya Asano

[satoshi-mochida]

Bravely series producer Tomoya Asano teases new developments to be announced in 2024

From Gematsu

Square Enix will share new developments in the Bravely series this year, producer Tomoya Asano said in a tweet celebrating Bravely Default II‘s second anniversary.

“We should be able to tell you about some developments in the Bravely series this year, so please stay tuned,” Asano said.

Back in October 2022, Asano hinted that a remastered version of the original Bravely Default could be in development.

Bravely Default II is available now for Switch and PC via Steam.

[superthatguy62]

FFIII Fun Facts of the Whatever: Dev Interview Edition (Part 1)

When the DS version of the Final Fantasy III remake was released in Japan, Square-Enix released an official strategy guide to go with it. This strategy guide went into quite a lot of detail about the game, giving tips on how to use jobs, showing off unusual team compositions and even discussing some mechanics that may not be clear in the game itself.

I’ll talk about that stuff later, but the most interesting aspect is an interview with the game staff at the back of the manual, touching upon various aspects of the game.

Thanks to Alex Highsmith of Shmupulations, a significant chunk of this interview has been translated. This section features Tomoya Asano and Hiromichi Tanaka as they go into topics such as the reason for the new character personalities, why they cut a significant amount of the new scenes and what drove some of the changes to the game's storyline. There are other topics as well, including explaining the switch from the Capacity Point system to the Job Adjustment Phase system.

(Character Personalities / Story Influences / Cut Scenes)

--Was it decided from the start that you would give the characters individual personalities?

Tanaka: That was actually something we'd thought about doing when we made the original Famicom version. The reason they had no personalities then was a reaction to the character-heavy setting of FFII, but ever since FFIV we've always given the characters actual personalities. It always felt weird that the sub-characters like Desch and Sara have names, but the main characters don't… especially considering how much talking there is in the event scenes. It helps bring the story into better focus, I think, when the characters have personalities. That's why we added them for this remake.

--Were there any influences for the story [scenario]?

Tanaka: In the Famicom version, there were a lot of key points in the story that were deliberately left vague. For this remake, given that we were adding personalities to the four heroes and re-structuring the story, we wanted to see if we couldn't re-visit some of those ambiguities and write something that explained things in a satisfying way.

Asano: I think "why is the floating contienent floating?" lies at the root of all that vagueness, so I put my effort into that area. However, I took care to make sure the character personalities weren't pushed too far forward, so as not to destroy the atmosphere of the original.

--Were there any scenes like that, were you felt "oh, this is actually too much character development" and they got cut?

Yabuta: At first, we had a lot of character-driven scenes throughout the entire game, all the way through to the ending, but ultimately we decided to go in a different direction. We decided instead to have it be more about leaving a certain impression, and we limited the overt character stuff to the beginning (up to where you get the jobs).

Asano: This time you acquire each party member one-by-one, and the story of each of their individual motivations are wrapped up in the ending, but initially--and in part because we were excited about using polygons--there were a lot more dramatic scenes. But we thought it was a little, hmm, cloying or obnoxious even…

Tanaka: If we were making a brand new game I think it would have been perfectly fine. But it would be jarring to the people who played the original. So we went for a decidedly lighter touch. (laughs)

--What were those more dramatic scenes like, by the way?

Asano: From what I can remember, it was like, Luneth and Princess Aria fall in love and Aria dies, and Ingus sets off on a journey after spending the night with Princess Sara.

(The Original Famicom FFIII)

--Did you replay the original in preparation for the remake?

Asano: Of course. I was in 5th grade when FFIII came out. It was the first RPG I'd ever played, so I have a ton of nostalgia for it. Replaying it now for this development, I was struck by how fun it is to experiment with the different jobs and party combinations. That's why I wanted to make the DS version such that you can use your favorite jobs throughout the whole game.

Tanaka: I didn't replay it, but I watched a lot of video replays. I'm still feeling the trauma from not getting enough sleep during the original FF3 development, you see, so I opted not to touch it this time around. (laughs)

--Sounds like that development was no cakewalk either. (laughs)

Tanaka: When we made FF3, we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants. That's why, when I look at the game now, there's all these puzzling things. Like, why did we call them Onion Knights? And why do Dragoons "jump"? The stat data and calculation formulas we used too, even though we put a lot of effort into them and did our best for the time, if we'd just imported that directly into the DS it would have created weird inconsistencies. So we talked with Matrix about freely re-mixing all that. Thankfully, of all the games in Final Fantasy's long history, FFIII was uniquely well-documented and we had all the planning docs and database material at hand.

Asano: It was super interesting to read through those original planning docs. They were written on graphing paper, and contained pixel art designs by Koichi Ishii, as well as jobs that never came to be, that no one knows about.

Yoshida: It was my job in FF3 to analyze the original source code, and I was very impressed by how much they crammed in there: not an ounce of space was wasted.

(Changes from Famicom Version + Last Dungeon)

--What parts of the Famicom version did you want to revise, and what did you want to retain?

Yoshida: We used the experience point table as-is. The other thing I knew I wanted to keep was the flying speed of the Nautilus. (laughs)

Yabuda: I wanted to keep the overall dungeon structure such that they'd feel familiar to people who played the original.

Tanaka: Though there were many things we wanted to change about the dungeons, to be sure.

Yabuda: Especially with the Cave of Darkness. The Famicom version had all these hidden passages, plus the encounter rate was sky-high, and it was really easy, after a battle, to lose track of your position in the dungeon.

Tanaka: That was a regret of ours from the original development, so it was something we wanted to fix here.

--Did Tanaka have any detailed requests or instructions about the dungeons, like what you mentioned about the Cave of Darkness?

Tanaka: No, I don't think I was too specific. Mostly I just gave them guidance about the overall feel of each dungeon, how the secret paths were laid out, things like that.

Asano: We wanted to retain the overall playfeel from the original, so I think the dungeons probably are a little harder than what'd you find in newer RPGs. We did make it a little easier overall though, since we want to bring in new players too. Allowing you to leave Eureka with teleport, restoring HP/MP after boss fights, that kind of thing. The Crystal Tower is probably the most emblematic of those changes, though.

--I bet opinions were divided among the team on whether to allow saving there or not.

Asano: A lot of people who were fans of the original were staunchly against adding save points.

Tanaka: Those would be the truly hardcore players. (laughs) I think more people out there had the experience of throwing their controller down in frustration. We didn't collect any data on this so I don't know for sure, but I think very few people actually beat FFIII and saw the ending. When you consider that, adding save points is one solution, but it does run the risk of making the dungeons less satisfying in some way. We were very careful about that balance.

(Job System Revisions)

--Next, I'd like to ask about the heart of FFIII, the job system. What was your goal in removing Capacity Points and introducing the "Job Adjustment Period" system?

Suzuki: In the Famicom version, if you earned enough CP from battles, there was no penalty for changing jobs, but it was easy to end up with too much excess CP by the end of the game. So at first, we removed the CP entirely and had it so you could change jobs whenever you wanted, but we realized there should be a penalty, or limitation of some sort, on changing jobs like that. So we decided to lower your stats while you "adjusted" to your new job.

Aoki: Almost everyone who played the Famicom version ended up with two Ninjas and two Sages, so you just had all this extra CP piled up. That was something we all decided on early in the development though: no more Sage or Ninja.

Suzuki: We've adjusted things so you should be able to reach the ending with any job.

Yabuda: One of the reason people didn't use certain jobs in the Famicom version was the dearth of available weapons for those jobs. When I played it I remember feeling like the latter half of the game only had weapons for certain jobs, so we adjusted the contents of several treasure chests. However, I do worry that doing so might have had the reverse effect of making players uncertain about what the really powerful items were. I'd like to hear from players on this point.

The second part of the interview, focusing on the battle system and the jobs, can be found here.

Thanks once again to Alex Highsmith of Shmupulations. Both parts of this interview will be on the site in the future.

[nicnsmth1]

end-of-term exams in a nutshell

[lirionegros]

Gakushuu dragged the virtuous on a trip to the jungle

Araki: I think I just saw a snake Seo: Where?! Koyama: Is it poisonous? Ren: Gakushuu, could you tell us what we are looking for? Flash back Karma: I want an Oompa Loompa. End Flash back Gakushuu: I'll tell you when we find him.

[tuulikannel]

If B5 were gamers

[meouwublog]

Well, let's begin! Questions! @bismuthwisdom @aisha-galaxia @luna-loner

[aisha-galaxia]

Storyboard Shuu and Big Five spotted!!!

[tinartsworld]

B5 week day 2- fears

Even in the summer, kunugigaoka follows. It’s not easy for the golden children either, is it?

[solarsavoy]

The Ghosts of Christmas

I am so sorry I totally meant to make a post when I started it and then forgot. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This year, I've decided to make another Christmas fic! (Instead of finishing Kristmas Karma II first, because I'm a jerk.) It follows Gakuhou, featuring the big 5 (plus Karma), in his own, very much needed Christmas Carol! It's got four chapters out so far and the plan is to post one each day until Christmas, and I'm very proud of it. ^^

(No KKII, don't look at me that way! I haven't forgotten or abandoned you I SWEAR!!)

Anyway, hope to see you there, and comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. 😁 (And so are signal boosts)

Trigger warning for the fic: implied/referenced suicide, mention of suicide

[p4nd0rus]

Meanings of the Five Virtuosos’ names.

I’m not entirely sure as to how accurate these are. After all, they’re first page bing searches. Feel free to correct me in the comments!

[luna-loner]

The Philanderer's New Hairdo (Headcanons)

• Ren didn't always have his signature two-block. He only got it sometime at the very end of his second year.

• Prior to that, he had a standard haircut with side-swept bangs. Ren wanted a change. Like any teenager, he wanted to get experimental, switch things up-- he was craving a new look and wanted to go with the Two Block.

• His parents refused. They're fairly strict and place heavy importance on the family reputation, but were with him 'cause he was overall a good kid. Ren knows this, which is why he was persistent about it.

• And by persistent, I mean he pestered them non-stop about it. He never stopped bring it up, and not-so-subtly wondered if he deserved a reward for his good grades *wink* *wink*

• So after the second term finals, they finally relented and to any Kami listening to them it wouldn't turn out as horrendous as they envisioned it to be.

• Ah, teenagers...

• Literally, right after the second term was over, Ren went straight to the barber shop to get his dream cut.

• He never told Virtuosos 'cause he wanted it to be a surprise. When the third term rolls around, they were gonna meet a brand new Ren 😊

Now, onto the Big Five's reactions. Keep in mind these hcs take place pre-canon, so the B5 aren't super close yet.

Gakushuu:

• Hates it >:(

• Absolutely despises it!!

• It's canon Gakushuu is scared of early balding, so you can imagine how overly protective he is of his hair.

• Then Ren shows up with more than half his hair gone. The sight causes Gakushuu internally malfunctions. Flashback to Candy's Android Shuu hc

• It's also so painful to look at, Gakushuu instinctively touches his hair, as if by looking at Ren's head, large patches of luscious strawberry blond hair will fall from his scalp.

• What do you mean Ren wanted this haircut?!

• Look, this businessman-in-the-making knows it's trendy, but he doesn't get why it's trendy. What's so awesome about shaving off your own hair for reasons as frivolous as style? How the hell is such atrocity considered stylish??

• Were it not for Ren's social standing, Gakushuu would've let him go and never looked at him again *steal another angry glance at Ren*

• It's on the list of things he hates about Ren. Actually, it's now the number 1 thing he hates about Ren, beating out height. Gakushuu would rather befriend someine taller than him than an enemy of hair!!

• Highkey judgemental of Ren's life choices, not that he'll ever say it outloud, man's got connections to build after all.

• And...he'll admit Ren's company is pleasant, so it would be a shame to lose that.

Araki:

• To be honest, Araki was not expecting this from Ren at all.

• Sure, he knew the guy was cool and fun to be around, but he never knew Ren would be so daring.

• Araki isn't a fan of this hairstyle, but he'll admit Ren pulls it off nicely.

• Just needs a little time to get used to it...

• Seriously, he thought he and Ren were on the same wavelength. Now, He starts wondering if he should also get a new hairstyle as well. Not the Two Block of course; no way it'll look good on him. (Plus he's too scared to shave any of his hair off anyway)

• Starts researching hairstyles out of curiosity, which turns into a research on social causes of trends, which dips him into the world of fashion, which leads him to learning about the color theory, which lead to him learning about color psychology, and he info-dumps onto his friends the next day.

• Gakushuu was the only one invested in this intellectual discussion.

Seo:

• Big fan 👍

• He first assumed Ren was some goody-goody rich boy, then lightened up when he got to know him better, but still thought Ren was a little bit of a goody-goody.

• "Dude, you better not go back to that lame ass haircut."

• Gakushuu is seething in the background

• Now that Ren's cooler, Seo will look cooler by association 😎

• Let him bask in the ego boost as he marches the schools alongside Ren with a big ass smug grin that says "Look out, cool squad coming through."

• On the other hand, Seo can't deny he's secretly jealous of Ren's coolness. As if the dude wasn't already an ikemen with an army of fangirls at his feet. The insecurity will sometimes rear it's ugly head to tell Seo he's leagues below Ren. What if Ren and Gakushuu decide to ditch him? Well, he'll still have Ara-- wait, no, Araki's known them far longer than he's known Seo. Is he gonna ditch him, too?!! Do they think he's too lame for them?

• Who knew a haircut could trigger his inferiority complex?

• Oh well, he's still cool by association, right? 😎

Koyama:

• Since Koyama was the last to join and wasn't close to any of the guys at first (expect maybe Gakushuu), he was pretty indifferent to Ren's new look. He wasn't even there when the old look was still around.

• As a result, he's so used to the Two Block that he can't imagine Ren without it. He could be stare all day at a picture of Ren in his pre-Two Block era and his brain wouldn't register it's the same guy. It's like he's looking at stranger.

• He jokingly asks the other guys to tell him about this "stranger" and what sort of person he was.

Gakushuu: He was an outstanding, respected individual.

Seo: He looked like a wimp, and he kind of was one to be honest.

Araki: He was pretty nice, but so quiet you almost forget he was there.

• They make up legends surrounding this stranger and add him to the seven wonders of Kunugigaoka for they never knew whatever happened to him.

• Ren isn't sure whether he should be amused, confused, or annoyed by this.

• Meanwhile, Koyama is giggling like a mad schoolgirl as they make the legend more and more absurd. They even added a dragon at one point. (For Irony's sake, they refused to add any female characters 😈)

[mariaashlay]

Hello B5 fans! I made a server specifically for us to be able to scream at each other about our 5 favorite underrated Assassination Classroom characters!

[keeweelyme]

give me character requests from any team asano game im in a certain kinda mood

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Frederica Concept Art

I've done the translations for Frederica's art before, but they were scattered across posts and the scans themselves were pretty low quality, so I wanted to post a cleaner version all together in one place. I've also included a reference sheet I made a while back with some details of her costume.

Translation notes and ids under the cut.

Translation notes:

"Transparent" as it was used on the first page is directly a word that means transparent/translucent. I went back and forth on whether to use a different word that might be more commonly used in English to describe beauty (like "airy" or "delicate" or something), but decided to just go with transparent.

"Sorry for the hasty drawings" was more directly translated as, "don't mean to be a hasty drawer!"

"A straightforward gaze" was literally "a straight/true gaze."

Probably a more literal translation for what I wrote as "Soooo good!" would be something like "tasty" or "delicious". Another translation might have been "Yummm" or something along those lines.

Image id:

[id: Two pages from the Triangle Strategy artbook of Frederica's concept art. The first page has two versions of her canon portrait—one colored and one uncolored. At the bottom there's a note that reads, "We aimed for a pristine and transparent kind of beauty. (Naoki Ikushima)". On the second page, there are many drawings of Frederica and her costume. The page is titled, "Liberty Character WIP (Long Hair)". There's a note by a portrait where she's staring toward something that reads, "A straightforward gaze". Another note nearby reads "Honorable", and another, "Strong-willed", and another, "Generally always dignified". To one side there is a drawing of a snow crystal and a bird's-eye primrose, labeled, "Two patterns associated with Country B". There's a small drawing of Frederica delighted by a food she's eating and saying "Soooo good!", that reads, "I don't think she'd ever make this face." It's labeled, "Eating in a new place for the first time." Next to one drawing of her crying loudly with her mouth open wide, there's a note that reads, "Don't open your big mouth like that, ha". Next to another portrait of her crying quietly, it reads, "Swallowing down her grief" and "Fine-tuning how tough/ soft she is". On the second half of the page (titled "Liberty Brainstorming (hair color test - not final)"), there are more detailed drawings of her inner and outer clothing. A note reads, "Sorry for the hasty drawings! Here's the construction of Frederica's clothing." Another says, "The costume is red and black, which are the representative colors of Country B." Next to her cape, a note reads, "Some people might use fur for the lining." At the bottom of the page, one designer's note reads "She's our team's first pink-haired heroine! Next is green hair! (laughs) (Tomoya Asano)" and another reads, "Mr. Asano had a request for Frederica before we began the design: "I want her to have a bright color for her hair!" It's amazing how it ended up connecting to the world-building. After I decided on pink hair, I was careful to put on finishing touches that would help it blend in even in a somber world. (Naoki Ikushima)" /end id]

[lirionegros]

And more characters

Should I draw the other characters?

[gakuxiu]

I wanted to see if the Chinese and Japanese graduation albums were any different from one another + some comments under my translation. It's almost his birthday too! I'm doing his character book pages next.

Kunugigaoka Junior High, 3rd Year Class A

Asano Gakushu

The Asano Family

Father: Chairman of Kunugigaoka Academy

Mother: Housewife

Siblings: Only child

An only child.

He is very concerned about his genetics because his mother’s younger brother went bald at a young age.

With his genius-level talent, he leads Class A as the student council president.

He has outstanding grades, language skills, business acumen, is proficient in martial arts, has a commanding presence, is eloquent, and can even play the guitar. He is the leader of the "Five Virtuosos," someone who knows too much, to the point of being a bit laughable, and the student council president. He was a fierce rival in the mid-term exams, where a heated battle took place. To win, he would stop at nothing, but due to his noble character, he dislikes underhanded methods.

"I will lead! So please… continue supporting me."

A naturally condescending gaze. To him, "classmates" and "subordinates" are synonymous, and he occasionally slips up and mixes them up.

The side of Asano Gakushu that no one knows!

"And besides… With your abilities, I’m sure you’ll figure out a way, right?"

After going through several intense battles, he has developed a comrade-like relationship with Class E… I guess this could be considered a sign of him becoming more well-rounded.

Messages written for Asano Gakushu:

"After entering high school, I’m always ready for a challenge from you, Asano-kun. Please look after me~" (Akabane)

“I believe that by competing with Asano and the A-class, we can all grow. Thank you. (Isogai)

"We’re not just subordinates, but comrades as well. Don’t hesitate to rely on us sometimes, leader!" (Seo)

Subordinates… The other members of the Five Virtuosos:

Koyama Natsuhiko

The crazy character of the Five Virtuosos. Despite his appearance, perhaps due to his confidence, he is rather flirtatious with girls.

Seo Tomoya

The arrogant character of the Five Virtuosos. He often boasts about being a returnee from overseas and has a quick temper.

Araki Teppei

The "explainer" character of the Five Virtuosos. He excels in social studies. He also takes on the role of MC during school events.

Sakakibara Ren

The ladies’ man of the Five Virtuosos. He’s very skilled at attracting women and even once tried to pursue Kanzaki.

PERSONAL HISTORY

Private Kunugigaoka Junior High School

Private Kunugigaoka Senior High School

Private Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ※ Acquired qualifications necessary for entrepreneurship, including an MBA.

Founded a business in Silicon Valley

Starting from his first year of high school, he began establishing his own system of control, with Karma being the only one who refused to submit to him. The two graduated in a state of constant tension and rivalry. After graduation, he went on to execute his perfect dominance at MIT. By leveraging his connections worldwide to recruit top talent, he became a leading figure in Silicon Valley.

Notes from yours truly

In the original Japanese, Gakushu’s name is written as 学秀 with the simplified kanji 学, while his father Gakuho’s name uses the traditional 學, which is probably a subtle reflection of a generational difference.

However, in the Chinese version, Gakushu’s name is localized as 淺野學秀. Chinese publications, especially in regions like Taiwan or Hong Kong, use traditional characters as the default, so his name would naturally be localized with 學 instead of 学.

I've seen people on Tiktok posting about Gakushu having an absent mother in 2024. The misinformation around this boy is pitiful!

Male pattern baldness (androgenic alopecia) can be passed down through genetics, and there is some scientific basis for the concern Gakushu has about going bald, especially in relation to his mother’s side of the family.

The key factor in the inheritance of male pattern baldness is related to the X chromosome. Men inherit their X chromosome from their mother, so the gene that influences baldness is often passed down from the mother’s side.

The gene in question is related to the androgen receptor, which regulates the body’s response to male hormones (androgens) like testosterone. If someone inherits a particular variant of this gene, they may be more susceptible to hair loss. It’s a fun detail since Gakushu has this whole Genetic General thing running haha

The choice of words for the archetypical roles of the four other Virtuosos are

Natsuhiko: 瘋狂 (mad/insane)

Seo: 自傲 (self-pride/arrogance)

Teppei: 解說 (explanation/commentary. as a role*)

Ren: 把妹 (picking up girls/flirting)

Beyond the obvious qualifications (like top grades and an impressive application), I believe Gakushu’s ability to pitch his vision was crucial. He wouldn’t have just been accepted into MIT for being academically brilliant but for his ability to prove that he's an ambitious visionary. That, and he's extremely charistmatic and knows how to act infront of people.

Given the tech-driven nature of Silicon Valley, Gakushu likely obtained qualifications related to technology and innovation. He might have pursued computer science or engineering coursework, or certifications in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, or blockchain. These qualifications would allow him to understand the technical side of the business, especially if his startup involved tech-driven innovation.

My guess is that Gakushu’s business could be centered around developing and controlling advanced technologies, such as quantum computing/AI/neurotechnology, to establish dominance over human society.