[Honey’s Anime Interview] Keisuke Kikuchi from Koei Tecmo, Producer of Fairy Tail

6:34 PM November 18, 2019

Hello Everyone and welcome to another wonderful day here at Honey’s Anime. We were invited to check out Koei Tecmo’s and Gust’s newest video game, Fairy Tail! Based on the very popular series around the world, Fairy Tail will take on an adventure in a magical world with wizards and fantastical creatures. As you take on the roles of either Natsu, Lucy, or Erza, you embark on missions/quests to help rebuild your guild’s reputation after having the Magica Council kick you out of the guild society and without no more support.

Fairy Tail will be covering 3 arcs from the series: Tenrou Island arc, the Grand Magic Games arc, and the Tartaros arc. We got to play through the tutorial and it was a really nice introduction into this turn-based RPG and you can find out more by clicking on the box link below this article for our impression of Fairy Tail. Whether you are a fan or not, you will enjoy this title as it is a nice entry to the series and gameplay style.

After we got our hands on the preview gameplay, we had some questions we wanted to ask in the short amount of time we had with the producer of Fairy Tail, Keisuke Kikuchi-san, who was more than happy to answer them if he could. So without further ado, here is our interview with Kikuchi-san!

Enjoy!

Keisuke Kikuchi

Honey-Chan

Interview with Keisuke Kikuchi from Koei Tecmo, Producer of Fairy Tail

Hello Kikuchi-san and thank you for having us with you, today. We were able to get some good playtime with Fairy Tail that after a good 30 minutes or more, we noticed things and also wondered about others that we would love to ask them to you!

First, we noticed that the game is based on 3 story arcs and within those arcs, there are a lot of characters introduced to the series. We wanted to know if we’ll get to see some iconic characters from other guilds in the series?

OK, so first all, I want to make clear that Tenrou Islan arc in the game, is not that extensive and is basically just the tutorial of the game.

I see! Ok, so the Tenrou arc is your basic intro to the game. And the other two arcs are the meat.

Yes, and yes, the game primarily focuses on the Grand Magic Games and the Tartaros arcs. So going back to your question, there are so many characters in the world of Fairy Tail that it is just about impossible to include them all into the game. For both Friends and Foes in the game, their guilds will look limited because not all could be included so some guilds might have only 3 members representing the entire guild.

With that, so far we have announced 10 playable characters and while they are from the Fairy Tail guild, we also want to introduce other playable characters from other guilds in the series like Sabertooth guild. So keep an eye out for more info being released in the coming week(s) which we will announce more characters in the game!

That is great to hear because Fairy Tail indeed has a lot of characters and to know that we would be able to play as some of those memorable characters in the near future is fantastic. The hype is real!
Our next question also about the characters but more in combat. We noticed that in battle you can form Link Chains with your party and while still early, “Weak” and “Finisher” are the only options to choose from. What other options in Link Chain can we expect?

So there are 3 sides to this. First, as you expand your guild, the number of Chains can actually be increased, and second, as you level up your characters, in turn, they can cast stronger magic and abilities than before, as opposed to Weak. Third, when certain conditions are met, your character is able to complete some legendary magic.

To continue off that, when we were playing the game, we noticed that some attacks were different after a certain point and at the same time, not all Link Chains were activated. With Link Chain, are there any different types of attack combinations each character can complete and is it dependant on specific actions to enable?

Well, the number of attacks will increase as you level up and as you progress, the attack and the animation will also be different to help provide some extra enjoyment. Now, this is also due to your guilds level/reputation as it will unlock more attacks for you to use. With the Link Chain, and whether you will be able to land 2-3 combo attacks, is more of a probability thing that has to do with the infinity system: the higher/stronger the bond with characters, the higher the chance of Link Chain combos being enabled.

Oh, wow! That is nice. Branching off from that as well, does it matter or is it better to have the same party throughout the game so their bond is the best possible?

Yes and no, it is more efficient if you did it your way but via the story, there will be situations where you will have to be facing enemies alone and also since different characters have different attributes, you’d have to pair up with other characters who will help you advance in the game.

Ah, ok. So you will have to be mindful of who is in your party before missions?

Yes, exactly.

We can’t wait to play this game!!
One thing that we really loved about this game is the representation of the characters and the environment. We noticed we had found Lucy’s house and were able to enter it and see how things looked, and we were able to explore the town of Magnolia. Since we are only able to see/know about certain areas of Fairy Tail’s setting from the anime, are the floorplans/layout of Lucy’s house and the town of Magnolia an accurate representation?

Well, there are character places you can visit in the game but in terms of homes or rooms specific to a character, Lucy is the only one you can visit. As an example, in the Grand Magic Games, everyone goes to the capital of Crocus which had each guild staying in a hotel or tavern and those types of places you are also able to visit and explore. So look forward to that!

Ah, this is very nice to know as well. It will be great to visit such areas in the game which came straight from the anime!

Now, for the town, we wanted it to be official as well so we did ask Mashima-san—the creator of Fairy Tail—to check out the town we had created and he was happy and saying how “oh, so this is what Magnolia looks like and this is where this place is…”. *chuckles* So since the author was happy and very surprised about it, he gave the approval of it but to be very precise, there are certain areas and routes that are specifically designed for the game and don’t have anything to do with the anime. We are not so sure we should be so bold to claim it is official...but it is good in the eyes of Mashima-san.

That is some wonderful news to hear. Just knowing that the author gave his approval means a lot and, in turn, has more meaning as well!
For our last question, is there a roadmap planned for the game regarding DLCs of maps, events, or characters?

So, it is my strong wish to provide more content for Fairy Tail as a series and not just a single game down the road and there is only so much we can do pre-launch. I would like for our fans to play the game for an extended period of time so I do plan on adding more characters in the future for post-launch. Also, Mashima-san has also expressed his wish to add some characters of his own into the game but at the moment, we are still planning so stay tuned!

This is really good stuff. We can’t wait to see what characters will join the game as well as knowing what characters Mashima-san asked to add if the information is disclosed, of course
Thank you very much for having an interview with us about Fairy Tail and wish you the best of luck with the launch!

Thank you! It was a pleasure!

Final Thoughts

Well, folks, that is it! With our curiousity about certain things with the game, we definitely got some juicy info from producer Keisuke Kikuchi-san. Just knowing about the mechanics more is something to keep us entertained and not feeling bored while playing. Knowing how Mashima-san, the author/creator of the Fairy Tail manga, gave the approval for the design of the map and giving the town of Magnolia life for us fans to visualize is something that we’ll cherish for sure.

We hope you enjoyed this interview and if you have a burning question which we can attempt to answer for you, make sure to sound off in the comment box below. Even if you are super excited about this game to release, let us know! Heck, who is your favorite character in Fairy Tail?? Also, make sure to check out our impression article of Fairy Tail the game! We hope it will get you as hyped as we are right now!

Ja ne!

Editor in Chief

Author: Alfonso "Fonzy" Ortiz

I'm a Geek, Nerd, Writer, and lover of all video games, anime, science, technology and the internet. I previously worked for STFUandPlay.com, a contributing writer as the Japanese Corespondent at TheKoalition.com and founded a website called Transcend-Gaming.com! I currently live in Japan as Editor in Chief of Honey's Anime and its very talented writers! I'm down for anything! What do you want to do?