“It is because the copyright has expired and there is no cost,” he says. “I did research on Wikipedia. What convenient world we live in. “
Taro served as creative director on the game, which is advertised as a collaboration between Square Enix and Pokelabo, a small Japanese mobile gaming studio. While But Alice actually released in 2017 in Japan, it launches globally today as a free title for both us Android and iOS . In a way, it’s a typical mobile fee: You have to play regularly to unlock a wide variety of characters and teams while engaging in relatively simple real-time battles and dealing with things like premium coins and daily registrations.
However, what makes the game unique is its tone, which is largely due to Taro’s writing, as well as artist Jino’s elaborate character designs and a gripping soundtrack by Nier composer Keiichi Okabe. Each of the characters is defined by a specific theme: Alice represents “slavery”, for example, while Sleeping Beauty is “languid” and has her own narrative arc of stories from various chapters to play. Weapons even have their own story that you can slowly uncover, as in Nier .
According to Taro, the universal familiarity of these storybook characters made the writing process easier in one way. “Everyone knows the story of famous people, so it’s convenient that you don’t have to explain the back story every time,” he says. “It is difficult to explain why Red Riding Hood wears a hood, for example.” But that does not mean that the process was simple.
“It is not difficult to make the characters unique,” adds Taro. “If you just give Alice and Cinderella four eyes and spit out vomit from the poisonous projectile, it would be something new. What is difficult is to retain the feeling of freshness and commercialization. It’s so hard that I almost gave up But Alice . I honestly feel like I didn’t care anymore. “
“I did research on Wikipedia.”
Deep stories aren’t exactly common in the free mobile space, where games are generally considered a waste of time. (“Don’t worry,” Taro jokes, “the story can be skipped with just a tap!”) But arguably, it’s the main draw of But Alice . I’ve been playing for the past few days, and while I’ve found the main game to be largely monotonous, I’ve been going forward to see what happens next. Even the text of the tutorial is concise and entertaining; At one point, the characters in the puppet guide joke that a dragon you meet is “totally unbalanced”.
According to Pokelabo producer Shogo Maeda, one of the things the team learned later But Alice It was launched in Japan that storytelling outside the game, on platforms such as YouTube and social networks, is a very important tool. “Mobile gaming is becoming a more complete form of online entertainment,” he says.
It is far from guaranteeing that But Alice It will be as popular worldwide as it has been in Japan, but the first signs are positive. Square Enix says that more than 2 million players pre-registered for the game in the lead-up to the launch. It is yet another example of Taro’s growing celebrity. Since then Nier: Automata became a cult hit, the shy advertising director, who wears a haunting moon mask in public, has been in demand. In addition to working on this mobile game, he also helped create a new search line for Final Fantasy XIV . It is a balancing act that has been difficult to achieve.
“I was late on all deadlines and everyone was mad at me from all directions,” says Taro. “It was beyond imagination.”
