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GungHo on their upcoming original Switch game, chances of Puzzle & Dragons/Let It Die on Switch

by rawmeatcowboy
26 July 2017
GN Version 5.0

A portion of an NWR interview with head of GungHo, Kazuki Morishita...

NWR: We’ve heard that you may have a game in development for Switch. Can you please tell us a little bit about it?

Kazuki Morishita: So there isn’t anything we can officially say at the moment for a lot of it, but there are a few things moving forward in regards for Switch. All I can say right now is that internally we are developing an action game for Switch. So it’s actually a project that we’ve been sitting on for, developing, and incubating for the last 4 to 5 years, but once the Switch was announced and we saw what it could potentially do, we decided that’s the direction we want to go, we felt that it was the best fit for this project, around the time of the announcement, the official announcement.

NWR: So can we assume it’s a new IP?

Kazuki Morishita: A new ip, yes. If you’ve been following, we’ve made a few titles on the 3DS even the Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Edition so we had a collaboration with the Super Mario franchise, but putting that aside it’s something completely different, a new IP on the switch.

NWR: How’s the reception been to the Mario inclusion (in Puzzle & Dragons) and do you see a continuation or a series based on this in the future?

Kazuki Morishita: So Puzzle & Dragons: Mario Edition came out as it’s own version in Japan separately whereas in America it was bundled with Puzzle & Dragons Z. With different regions you get launches at different times. Japan had Puzzle & Dragons Z and then it had the Mario edition, but America and Europe got it as a bundle together. It might have been better if they had all released at the same time. It’s something we would have liked to have done. The greatest part of the project was that the puzzle action in Puzzle & Dragon on both mobile and 3DS, the core base game mechanics of the puzzle action are unique in that anyone can pick it up, play it, and enjoy it and the greatest thing with the Super Mario edition is that it even furthered the reach of Puzzle & Dragons to a lot of people that we were fortunate enough to reach because of Super Mario, the IP being so strong, and we felt that was great. People were able to enjoy Puzzle & Dragons especially with Mario’s help. And moving forward we would like to find ways and to keep the Puzzle & Dragons IP and put it on Nintendo’s platforms in some sort of way. At least for the game itself, Puzzle & Dragons, when making the smart conversion we had already decided we were going to put it on the 3DS at the same time so it wasn’t smartphone first and then 3DS, it was from the very beginning stages it was already planned to be on the 3DS. We think Puzzle & Dragons is made for smartphones & 3DS, not smartphones then 3DS. So the next one might not be 3DS, maybe Switch, we’ll see where Puzzle & Dragons will take on their next adventure.

NWR: Is there any hope of seeing Let It Die on Switch?

Kazuki Morishita: Personally, there are reasons why I would like to bring it to Switch, but from a technological standpoint and a development standpoint it might be quite a bit difficult to do so. One of the hurdles that we see is that Let It Die is an action game that plays at 60 frames per second so that’s one of many hurdles in bringing it to another platform the frame rate could be greatly affected potentially. It’s a very heavy action game and quite punishing as well. So if these hurdles could be overcome, we’re not going to say never. Personally, if I was able to bring it to Switch that would be nice. There’s a reason why. I can’t really play the game in front of my family.

[Link]