Sega’s Toshihiro Nagoshi On The Development Of Judgment, And Other Sega Games

Sega’s Toshihiro Nagoshi appeared at Taipei Game Show 2019, where he was interviewed regarding the development and player reviews for Judgment, as well as some other games like the new Sakura Wars title. [Thanks, Bahamut!]

Here are the highlights:

• Nagoshi is relieved at how Judge Eyes has been received, but the game obviously did better in Japan than in Asia because Takuya Kimura is more famous there. However, Asia sales have been pretty decent. He’s hoping Chinese New Year will bring a new wave of discussion for the game (as it’s essentially a holiday season).

• That said, Nagoshi isn’t sure how Judgment will do in the West as Takuya Kimura is mostly famous in Asia.

• When asked about Mafuyu (Yagami’s ex-lover), Nagoshi reveals that when creating the plot for Judgment, there was a larger focus on romance, which was cut out as Nagoshi thought it would affect the courtroom thriller feel.

• Regarding a sequel, Nagoshi stated that the team is still focusing on making Judgment do well before thinking of what’s next. He feels there’s more than can be done in the Asian regions.

• When asked what Nagoshi would want in a sequel, he answered that he and the team thought the ‘Investigations’ part was quite complete, but looking at player reactions, they realized there’s a lot more they can do with it. Players found some too easy, some too hard; compared to Yakuza series, the light user vs core user playerbase is around the same while Yakuza leaned to heavy users. He’s hoping the team could balance difficulty out more if there were to be a sequel.

• On the new Yakuza project, Nagoshi could only say they’re working hard on it, and adding even more changes as just changing the protagonist isn’t enough to differentiate it from Kiryu’s saga. The changes will surprise players.

• There will be news in 2019 for the Yakuza series as well as other projects under Nagoshi’s watch, such as the new Sakura Wars title.

• Nagoshi stated that he and the Sega devs understand the game quality expected of a classic brand like Sakura Wars, but hope to bring it up to standards expected of modern games, and not just aim for nostalgia.

• There are currently no plans to re-release Yakuza: Dead Souls at the moment.

Ryu ga Gotoku Studios’ latest game, Judgment, is available on the PlayStation 4 in Japan, South Korea, and Asia as Judge Eyes. It will arrive in North America and Europe in Summer 2019. You can check out another interview with Nagoshi in our previous report here.