ARC Live!/EP6

ARC Live! EP6: Q&A w/ Arc System Works President, Minoru Kidooka!

Mar 14, 2018

With Kidooka-san getting trained by Tekken's own Katsuhiro Harada for EVO 2017, would Arc System Works president have enough skills (and even remember some moves) to go against D-Piddy? With James Chen taking his usual seat in the commentary chair, let's find out!

Notes

• It's Tsubaki & Izayoi's bday today.
• They're also celebrating the opening of the LA office.
• "Christening the office" with Arc Wine - which was also the wine they were handing out at their media event.

• ASWA launched an Instagram as well.
• It's ASWA's most-viewed stream so far.

Shinyoko?

• It's their JP headquarters, where the office is - Shinyoko(hama) (新横浜 Shin Yokohama), "New Yokohama," abbreviated to Shinyoko.

• They were considering how to make fighting games more accessible, that's when Mori came up with the idea for a crossover. They thought about P4A and UNI, and their communities and thought it'd be nice to play all of them at once. And Mori, producer of the franchise, is a big fan of RWBY, and came up with the idea of including them in the game. Exactly one year ago on this day, Mori, Kidooka, and Mikey went to Texas to speak with them.

Will there be other guest characters? Even though the current DLC haven't completely been revealed yet, future ones with Type Moon and so on...

• Kidooka: It's not my intent to let the game end with the characters that've always been announced. I know you specifically called out Type Moon... but the purpose of this office is to get closer to the community and hear their voices, it won't be super speedy or agile, it'll take time, and we'll see what you guys want and what the Japanese fans want, and grow the company.
• Last night, they had a team board meeting (in effect, at a bar, having drinks). They started with the dream list ("shooting for the moon"), and followed up with more realistic options - what would actually be a possibility? They're going to go back to Shinyoko, talk it over with Mori, and see what they can do.

[TrueDragonKid] Favorite non-ArcSys fighting game?

• Kidooka: Let's just say it's Tekken 7 for today.

Seeing as DBFZ is a huge success, what other franchises do you want to be made into an ASW game? Probability anime?

• They received many ideas.
• Kidooka: I'd like people to enjoy BB, GG more, and even with other franchises to enjoy it more.
• Well, send us your requests. It's entirely up to you.
• We were discussing what could be realistically produced as a fighting game, many ideas to take home with me, but it all depends on what the fans and what they want to see. Avatar: The Last Airbender fighting game? Feel free to throw them requests.

[Gearproject] Would you be open to an artbook for Daisuke Ishiwatari, especially for Exector (1995) and a Mori artbook, or maybe a combined artbook (ASW collective)?

• Kidooka: I don't know. Is Exector related to Daisuke? Need a fact check. Memories are a little... I programmed Exector, but... I want to tell you the project, I'm sorry in many ways. We'll do a little fact check later on.
• I hope some of you know that this marks 30th anni for ASW, 20th for GG, 10th for BB, and is a cool year for ASW in many ways. Thinking of ways to deploy ideas. The Gear Project is in the hat now, they'll bring it up in the next meeting.

• A little confused about the next Q about a hat: "I like your cowboy hat" (it's on the clothing rack in the room behind them)

[OfficialSDGC] As we approach the 20th and 10th anni for GG and BB, did you think they would ever be such a worldwide franchise?

• I feel very thankful that you think they're so renowned worldworld.
• And really looking back 20 years ago, it was myself, Daisuke and some others developing GG for the first time. 20 years is a long time, looking back on the game & franchise, it's come a long way. Back then, Daisuke was just a kid, (he hasn't changed that much since then) fresh out of trade school. 20 years old, the first game he made was GG.

Watching GG, BB at Evo on the main stage, was there any sort of impact?

• Kidooka: It was a very big moment, I was very glad to witness it. It's been 20 years. Looking at Evo 2017, the biggest fighting game championship, with the game on the main stage -- there are few moments more flattering than that.
• That's a big reason of why they're in Los Angeles [starting up ASWA], actually.

[NolaNerdCast] In his heart of hearts, cake or pie?

• Kidooka: Beer.

[Nachtstun] What led you to break away from traditional 1v1 FGs to make DBFZ, BBTAG? Did you look at other team games?

• They can't comment on DBFZ right now, but for BBTAG, they wanted to design something more accessible to the average consumer. Having designed for 20 years, BB/GG captures the arcade (fight stick) experience. With console, you pick up a pad -- how can you make an interesting fighting game from that?

[Shishimmortal] Is GG vs BB a possibility?

• Kidooka: This marks the 30th anniversary, so there's a 35th, 40th anniversaries ahead of us. It's a question we get asked a lot. Mori and Daisuke don't really get along well sometimes, so the first step is getting them in the same room and talking to each other. But this, it'll be up to the players' support as well. It's a bridge [Arc System Works] will have to cross occasionally.

[MarkMan23] Can you just make a Sailor Moon fighting game? Thank you.

• Kidooka: From before Guilty Gear, there actually has already been a Sailor Moon one on Super Famicom, from working closely with Bandai (and even now with Dragon Ball).... A Sailor Moon fighting game, let's do it... that feeling. [You need to] push Bandai Namco on this.
• There's still a small scene playing the Sailor Moon (in Canada).

[Blue561] Would you consider doing an ArcSys World Tour?

• Mikey: Of course we've considered it, but there's all sorts of logistics. They're Racking brains on how to make it possible and fun for everyone. It hasn't been ignored, and it's in the works. We don't know how it's going to look yet, but we want to do some sort of tour that'll take us around the world.
• So again, we wanted to do a world tour, and now we have an office in LA, like the first branch for getting our toes wet in NA.

[YayaAsakura] Asked this to Mori and Daisuke from last time, what is some of Kidooka-san's favorite characters from the BB, GG franchises?

• Potemkin and Tager (As grapplers, you can see them and immediately know what they do)

[Mamabrat] If you had a chance to add a character from BB or GG to the new Smash Brothers?

• That one's really hard to answer. It's very, very specific.
• Kidooka would like to see Potemkin Pikachu buster.

[Spiral2023] Has Kidooka-san ever considered doing partnerships with other companies like they did with DBFZ and Bandai? But with Camcom and so on.

• Kidooka: Let's just say my philosophy for the company, I like to keep an open mind. If they come to us I won't reject it, if they leave I won't try to stop them from leaving.
• This applies to companies all around, not just to those in Japan.

Does he consider a hot dog as a sandwich?

• Kidooka: Well, I like both. If you made me choose, I think I'd go with a sandwich. Next.
• Kidooka: If I had to choose, I think it'd be beer.

[D-Piddy] Does a straw have one hole or two holes?

• Kidooka: Two. Is this is serious or an American joke? (after explanation) Oh, it's very philosophical. Then, one, I think? I mean, I would like to drink with someone, but just one hole.
• It was hinted that he was at EVO last year, in the Tekken 7 tournament.

Is he going to EVO again this year, and if so is he going to enter any of the other games?

• It's already determined that he's going to be there.
• A recurring theme is keeping an open mind and listening to the fans.
• Kidooka: So last year there was an in-office poll, and they said if you do Internal? you'll definitely win. So I practiced for a month and got crushed. SO I've decided to not trust my employees, moral of the story. I actually had Harada, Mr. Tekken himself, teach me Tekken last year. I did pretty good, had a few wins.

What was playing at EVO like?

• Kidooka: It felt like being pulled around, is the best way to describe it.

Like being nervous?

• Like being pulled on a lasso, like woah what's going on?
• So, he's left it to the fans to vote on which game he's going to play this year (which has been closed already.)
• Kidooka: Say, what was I playing again?
• Smash Brothers MELEE. That's a landslide, almost 50% of the votes.
• Kidooka: So I forgot which Smash Bros I did last year, but I got my ass kicked by a girl. And I didn't know I had to bring my own controller, so I had to borrow one from the guy next to me.

How much practice does Pres. Kidooka have with MELEE?

• None.
• So we'll have to get Sakurai-san to train you this time.
• Kidooka: I'll do my best.

How excited is Pres. Kidooka to see BBTAG at EVO there?

• Kidooka: I'm very honored, we have a lot of titles at EVO. But before, it felt like we were being pulled into Evo as in it happened to us, rather than us making it appear. But this year we're going to do a lot to get there.

• It's been 10 months since Kidooka last played Tekken.

Last words from Pres. Kidooka to the viewers on stream.

• Kidooka: Well, I gotta try harder next time. (Get Harada-san to teach him again.) I forgot everything. I know this is my first time stopping by the studio. I'd love to come back again and take more questions.

BBTAG is going to be everywhere on Easter Weekend: Anime Ascension in SoCal, Anime Boston, and at Sakuracon.

• Many people have been asking for a dub. These will be the first events with the English dub; your prayers have been answered.
• They worked really hard to make the dubs happen this time around.
• TL;DR: three cities, Easter weekend, first public look at English dub.

[ZeroTheLazy] If there was a GG dating sim, who would you pair up? (so like an OTP for GG, no Sol/Jack'O)

• Kidooka: This can't be the last question. Give me something that I can answer. There is no right answer to this, Daisuke will get made at me.

External Links

• YouTube: Part 1, Part 2