Death end re;Quest Devs Talk About How Simple Wordplay Helped Define The Game Concept

The developers of Death end re;Quest from Compile Heart sat down for an interview with 4Gamer recently, sharing information about how the game came to be, and who the main character originally was before Shiina.

Here are the highlights:

4Gamer: Moving on, how was the motif of the game decided?

Kei Nanameda, character designer: “It all started with the wordplay between computer bugs, and bugs, as in insects. When this was put into image, it was not only really fitting, but it also matched up with the character design concept as well. And by defining this concept, you could say we found our path, and things like the worldview, weapon designs, and the like were decided in a flash afterwards.”

4Gamer: So the process until you reached the concept of ‘bugs’ was quite difficult, then.

Nanameda: “That’s right. Again, with the concept of bugs, I thought of using insects that, while they aren’t pests, do give off a bad image. For example, the main character, Shiina, has a spider motif. Lily’s is a bee, Al has a centipede theme, Lucil is a fly, and Clea’s is a mantis. The only exception is Celica, who has a pretty butterfly motif, but that was because of special circumstances.

On the whole, it is a pretty vile image, but it wouldn’t do if people were to dislike them because of this, so it was contrasted with the girl’s cuteness and coolness. The bosses of the game have more realistic designs, and this is to contrast with the heroines of the game.”

Norihisa Kochiwa, development coordinator: “The first design Nanameda showed us was Celica’s. Like we said earlier, we saw it and thought: ‘This will work’.”

Nanameda: “In the earliest drafts, Celica was the main character.”

Kochiwa: “Afterwards, we discussed and concluded that Shiina had to be the main character. Looking back, that was the right decision. Celica would have been too cliché.”

Death end re;Quest will release in Japan on April 12, 2018 for PlayStation 4.