{18Trip} Tidbit collection of producer & scenario director interview with Numan
A rather big tidbit collection of my personal highlights from the 18TRIP interview from numan, featuring A3! producer Okita-san and scenario director Fujii-san.
These are paraphrased and not a direct translation, but I hope it will be interesting information either way!
Original plans conceived during the pandemic. Okita-san felt a sense of indebtedness to the tourism & travel industry, so he wanted to āgive backā to it.
The philosophy of 18TRIP puts emphasis on forming an emotional connection with places outside of the game. It plays on the idea of doing āpilgrimagesā, aka, going to visit places you have seen in your favorite movie or anime. They wanted to create a sort of incentive to go to the places featured in the game, thus establishing an emotional connection between the game and real life, leading to a newfound appreciation of the game itself.
The main scenario writers, Misao Higuchi and Raichi Kyuyozawa, were chosen because Okita-san himself is big a fan of their works. He believes theyāre capable of creating complex characters, depicting them with a range of delicate, fierce emotions which feels satisfying. And more than anything, being able to write truly beautiful dialogue that will be etched within your heart.Ā
Context: Misao Higuchi is a writer for several BL manga and novels. Raichi Kyuyozawaās most notable work includes the BL 18+ visual novel game Paradise, besides that they also worked on a selection of several BL mobile games.
The artist, Oyo-san, was chosen due their talent of being able to draw male and female characters in a charming way. They also excel at drawing backgrounds too. Being able to appeal to men and women, it creates an unisex appeal which is fitting for a joseimuke game born in the āReiwaā era.Ā
Context: Some of Oyo-sanās most noteable work are the designs for Vtubers Luca Kaneshiro and Alban Knox. Context2: The Reiwa era is the period of the current imperial reign in Japan. this started on May 1st, 2019.
For fashion, while it is a futuristic setting, they wanted to keep it grounded in the fact it could be something worn in reality. The characters have their own brands they prefer, and some of them might be wearing the same brands.Ā
A big theme in 18TRIP is how each of the Mayor Wards have āa burden they cant tell others aboutā. There is a so called āhiddenā or āsurpriseā aspect to all of these characters. In the game, the more you unlock their intimacy, they more you will get to know their true self. By being able to touch upon each of the characters secrets, it will flesh them out in a three dimensional way, making you love and appreciate them even more.
While the creation of the groups follows a pattern just like in A3! (day, to noon, to evening, to night) there is no prerequisite to unlock stories. You can start with whatever group to your liking at any given moment, nor do they need to be played in order.
The volume of the main story scenario is a huge volume of 630.000 Japanese characters.
Context: English, this should equal to 250.000 english words, roughly the same length as a standard 20~ hour visual novel.Ā
Players can switch whenever they want between female & male player character. They wanted to keep the players tastes in mind and appeal to them. The MCās are also siblings, simply because Okita-san would be sad if the other vanished from the setting when picking one of them. The siblings have aĀ good relationship and the absence of the other is explained by how theyāre traveling the world while youāre working.
The staff team is aiming to cover all 47 prefectures, and want to make people think of 18TRIP wherever they go in Japan. The interviewer asks if thereās a possibility that there will be more than 100 characters in the future, and Okita-san quips with a chuckling āyes!ā.
Thereās also an emphasis on the characters relationships, related to the main story. Each dynamic has a āduo nameā. Some relationships are a strong duo from the start, others get entangled within the main story and become stronger over time. Fujii-san hopes that youāll be able to feel how precious these dynamics can be.
As Okita-san mentioned, he wants to create ācontents that increases your feelings of happiness when travellingā, which is also his number one priority. He knows there are people that canāt go travelling right this instant, but they hope that they instead can create a memorable experience by also letting these kind of players visit tourist attractions with the characters through the contents, and create memories like that too. Heād be happy if youād get hooked thinking about the characters, wondering where their next destination would be.
That is all I personally thought was interesting from the interview, as you can see it is quite a lot! Do check out the interview for yourself if you feel like it!
