For the release of Granblue Fantasy‘s 8th soundtrack “Awakening”, GBF composer Narita Tsutomu graciously answered our questions about his gaming habits, his musical influences, and some of the stories behind each track on the soundtrack.
Check out his tales of dragons, remixes, and old-school RPGs!
As a change of pace from interviews with voice actors, FKHR, and KMR, we reached out to Cygames and asked if we could pick the brains of their localization team. To our delight, they agreed!
As Granblue Fantasy‘s development team adjusted to the new rules of the Coronavirus pandemic, we reached out to Kimura Yuito, (“KMR”, producer of GBF) and Fukuhara Tetsuya (“FKHR”, director of GBF). Armed with questions from Twitter, we asked them about challenges the game is facing in the age of COVID, along with a few other burning questions.
Kimura Yuito (KMR) and Fukuhara Tetsuya (FKHR), the producer and director of Granblue Fantasy, talk about GBF‘s increasing international presence, and provide a behind-the-scenes look at the fun side of GBF development. Continued from Part 1.
Granblue goes global
Granblue_en: Are there plans for creating localizations for GBF in other languages, like Chinese or Korean?
At Anime Expo 2019, granblue_en was granted a special opportunity to sit down with Kimura Yuito (KMR) and Fukuhara Tetsuya (FKHR), the producer and director of Granblue Fantasy.
If we had a chance to interview KMR and FKHR at Anime Expo next month, what would you want us to ask them? Try to focus on things that wouldn't necessarily be covered at their panel!
(translated from the 04/11/2019 issue of Famitsu by @vibratingsheep, all mistakes are Sheep’s. All bolded phrases were highlighted in the original interview.)
The Granblue Fantasy style built over 5 years
Famitsu: When you look back at the last 5 years, what stands out?
Kimura Yuito (KMR): I left the Granblue Fantasy team for a time, but when you consider the time we were in development, I’m right at 5 years now.
Fukuhara Tetsuya (FKHR): I’ve been here since we started development, so it’s been about six and a half years for me. You could say that I’ve given this game my 30s.
Web Newtype has published an interview with Touyama Nao (Lyria), recorded after she took home Best Supporting Actress and the newly created Game award at the Seiyuu Awards. The awards ceremony was why she was 2 hours late to the 5th Anniversary broadcast, in case you were wondering. The full translated text of the interview follows:
Touyama Nao with her Seiyuu Award
Newtype: It’s been quite a while since your debut, hasn’t it, Touyama-san?
Touyama Nao (Touyama): I’m about to start my tenth year in the business, but it feels like it’s gone by so quickly, and I haven’t done that much…. Because everything still feels so fresh to me, I feel like a greenhorn compared to the other ten-year vets near me (laughs). To this day, I still feel excited when I see ads for the voice school I went to, or see the training materials we used. They brings me back to a time when I didn’t know what path I could take to follow my dream, or when I had just joined an agency and didn’t know the rules of being a pro yet.
(translated from a Pash! April 2019 issue interview by @vibratingsheep, all mistakes are Sheep’s)
Pash: What kind of character does Sandalphon strike you as?
Suzumura: I see him as a very earnest character, who’s capable of true idealism. But I feel like his idealism also resulted in great pain and tragedy. He has a strong soul that lets him move forward, in spite of that pain.
(translated from the original Pash! interview by @vibratingsheep, all mistakes are Sheep’s. Please support Pash! Magazine by buying it from Amazon or Bookwalker)
Planning story events a year in advance
Pash: Congratulations on Granblue Fantasy reaching its 5th anniversary! Tell us your thoughts about reaching this milestone.
Fukuhara Tetsuya (FKHR): It’s all gone by in a flash. 5 years is ancient by the standards of a mobile game, but there are still so many plans in motion for new content and things that we still want to do. We’re not going to rest on our laurels; we’re going to keep working hard.