While Kenichiro Takaki’s stint on the Senran Kagura series ends, another one begins, as he officially joins Cygames to become general manager of its Console Games Division.
Takaki’s fanservice-heavy hack-and-slash action series Senran Kagura has a very dedicated fanbase around the world, and his work on the series at Marvelous has brought a lot of attention to the Japanese developer/publisher. In an interview from an issue of Weekly Famitsu, he mentioned his ongoing work at Cygames, along with details on a certain project involving Senran Kagura character designer Nan Yageashi. Check out some of the notable tidbits on the interview with Takaki below, translation courtesy of Gematsu.
- On April 1, Cygames established the Console Games Division, with the decision to make Kenichiro Takaki general manager made afterwards.
- One of Takaki’s first projects is his work as a producer on Project Awakening, which was revealed in a teaser trailer a year ago. For both Granblue titles (Granblue Fantasy: Relink and Granblue Fantasy: Versus), Takaki is said to be working closely with the team that worked on the original game, taking on a support/advisory role.
- There are a number of titles, both for kids and adults, currently in development.
- The Console Games Division is relatively small as of now, with only 10 members.
- Cygames’ ambition to become the best studio in the world was reiterated, with Project Awakening being used as its selling point. The teaser trailer shown for the game last year was said to be running on a PlayStation 4 and not a pre-rendered cutscene.
- As with other development studios, Cygames is looking into next-gen consoles.
- A big announcement is planned soon with regards to Granblue Fantasy: Versus. Cygames is also planning on including paper manuals in the game’s physical release.
- Cygames iterates that it believes that it should be courteous to gamers, which makes sense since they’re the one buying games. The production on Granblue Fantasy: Relink is also going along well, according to the studio.
- Takaki’s next game is an action title, and although Senran Kagura character designer Nan Yageashi is involved, it is not a “sexy” game. It will supposedly have sexy elements, but expect to see more male characters than female ones.
- The game engine used by Cygames is developed in-house, with the company stating that they do not hesitate in dropping money for investments like that.
In any case, it would be interesting to see how well Takaki’s next project pans out, as well as what the future holds for the Senran Kagura series now that he’s left Marvelous. The series has just released Senran Kagura Reflexions, which plays more like a dating sim in the end rather than an action title. The next title slated for release, Senran Kagura Peach Ball, will launch this July 9.
