japanese restaurant interior design concept
my name is hashino, i work for thevideo game studio atlus, where i mostly create rpgs. i directed games such as shin megami tensei nocturne, catherine, then persona 3, persona 4, and most recently persona 5. for persona 5, i wanted to create a storywith a burglar in the style of arsã¨ne lupin. rather than a small city, i decided that the story would take placein a big town, at the center of cultural and political life. which is why i decided to choose tokyo as the center point of my story. the game starts with a scene wherethe main character comes to tokyo for the first time. he arrives in shibuya, which is a large hub station,and tries to find his way to the den-en-toshi line.
he heads to the fictional town of yongenjaya where he will find shelter, which is the starting point of the story. i inspired myself from the sangenjaya district in order to create yongenjaya, i hesitated a lot on where the character should be living. with the team, we went location hunting in several places. i wanted to build the game like a picaresque novel, so i needed a place that showed that the character didn't have anywhere to go. and where the character confronts adult generations. for the place where the character should live,
i found it nice to have a large highwaythat looked like it covered all the city, and for the character to end up in small streetsat the brink of destruction. there, he would find shelter at an old man's place, i thought that it would be a good place to start the story there. this is why i decided to set the story in yongenjaya. actually, atlus happens to be located in sangenjaya, so it was very easy to find the places we would later use in the story. the company was facing a difficult periodduring the time we were developing persona 5. the only thing we could dowas releasing a good game.
we had long discussions about thiswith the team, as we were walking in the streets. it is as if we didn't have any place to go either. it was also a trigger in a way,as we were writing the story of the characters. in the end, this town really became a key point of the story. one of the biggest landmarks in sangenjaya isthe carrot tower building. on the second floor, there is a store from the tsutaya chain, that sells books, games, among other things. they offer a wide selection of manga. during my free time, i often come here to check the new titles.
obviously, i tend to take a closer look at stories that take place in high school, or other titles that have an universe that shares similarities with persona. i browse through the pages to see how it looks like. i am also currently working on a new rpg,so i make sure to check the new fantasy titles as well. it is a very stimulating place. during weekends or on days where i need to find new ideas, which is quite often, i come here i buy manga or other documentation and read themon the top floor of the carrot tower, at the observatory. an observatory is, by definition,far away from the ground. up there, i feel like i can distance myself from all my everyday problems.
i can look down over the city,and also see myself working down there, i can think of the core of my problems,the type of game i want to make in the first place. it allows me to focus moreon finding actual solutions. as persona 5 takes place in tokyo, which is a giant city, i wanted to find a way to make the player feel like he is in tokyo. i used to think about this here, looking down over the city. when you go travel somewhere,there's always an observatory right? if you don't go up there,you don't get to realize how big the city really is. by coming here, i realizedthat i had to add a scene in the game
where players could realize that they are in a big city. which is why i decided to add this view in the game. when i create a game, i never start bythinking of its surface, such as the type of characters, or the story genre, which in the end are just ingredients to make the game. there's an example i often tell my team: when you plan a trip, everyone is aiming at a different objective. there's always that moment,that peak you want to reach. you would picture that moment where you and your friends are having the most fun.
some people plan their trip so they can reach that goal, others would picture the moment they enter a hot bath and take a deep breath of relaxation. in order to reach that moment, one must think who he will go with, the program of the trip, the destinationor the trip length. those are questions that will become the base of the game. conversely, when we think of the story, we don't want the player to just think he had fun upon clearing it, but that he acquires some kind of wisdom, something that he can use in the future. if that can become a plus, i believe it would bring a great entertainment value.
i try to insist on creating that experience. i spent more that 10 years working on the persona series and we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the series last year. with the team, we decided it was time to move onand to work on new projects. when creating a game that takes place in the real world, at some point we start to face limitations. i wanted to distance myself from this and take on core human themes. for example why do humans fight, etc. i wanted to depict this, which is why i started to work on a rpg that takes place in an imaginary world.
when referring to an imaginary world,this can also mean escaping reality, or trying to forget about reality. however, i believe that this allows to see reality under a new angle. i am very excited to see what kind of meaning it will bring. it is the expression "tatte hanjo, nete ichijo."(be satisfied with what you have) despite all the ambitions someone can have, at the end of the day he is half a tatami's size standing, and a full tatami's size sleeping. when creating games, there is that pressure of making something that pleases as many players as possible. i believe that before that, it is important to please people who are around you, no matter how many.
and having those people become the starting point to spread that to a wider number of people. i try not to lose to pressure, and just be the way i am.