Alfa System Interview: 32 years and counting

[cj iwakura]

The author was kind enough to approach a Shikigami nerd like myself for questions, and I was more than happy to provide some.

https://www.controller-warriors.de/news ... worldwide/

Fantastic interview with some of the most durable shmup devs in the business.

Founded in 1988, Alfa System is one of the oldest developers in the business.
Alfa System celebrated it's 30th Anniversary on June 2018 with Sisters Royale in Japan which is now available on Nintendo Switch and PS4. Being one of the oldest Development Studios in the business, they have quite a portfoliobuilt up.
In celebration to the recent release of Sisters Royale we had the opportunity to ask Alfa System 10 questions! Some of them are from Fans of their works.

1. What are your thoughts on bringing the Castle of Shikigami Series to modern Platforms, including “Shikigami no Shiro Nanayozuki Gensoukyoku” (Consoles & PC)

A: It’s been a long time since we released the original version of ‘Shikigami no Shiro’. In fact, it’s long enough for the babies who were born in the year ‘Shikigami no Shiro’ was released to have come of age as fully grown adults! So, it’s not surprising that there are many who have never heard of ‘Shikigami no Shiro’ series. We will be delighted to reintroduce the game to the old fans and will be honoured to bring the series to the new players. It will be amazing if there will be an opportunity to port all games to current platforms, for example as ‘Shikigami no Shiro: Complete Set’.

Castle of Shikigami was re-released on Steam in 2017, including a rebalancing DLC called Evolution. The first game was instrumental in the evolutionary success of the second game.

1. Will there be a Castle of Shikigami 4? (Gameplay Request: All characters + Path branching alá Tohou)

A: Unfortunately, there is no project planned for ‘Shikigami no Shiro 4’ right now. The scale of ‘Shikigami no Shiro’ series has grown so much that we won’t be able to publish ourselves. It will require a partner who could support us in developing the series. That said, we remain hopeful. I’m convinced that we could offer amazing experience and gameplay if we were to develop the game on current consoles. Let’s wish for the day when we can develop ‘Shikigami no Shiro 4’ . It will be fantastic. We’ll think about the path branching if we could develop the game.

Question from Geraint Evans (Head of PQube Publishing) as a Fan, obviously:



He praises you for making “loads of excellent games”! Loves Phantasy Star Portable 2 in particular.

1. After Sisters Royale, which genre have you put your eyes on? RPG, Shoot’em Up or something different?

A: Great to hear that you like ‘Phantasy Star Portable 2’!

Personally, I love shoot ‘em up, so this will be a great genre to develop, but RPG with some action elements similar to ‘Phantasy Star Portable 2’ will be amazing as well. Or perhaps, an action RPG that are like ‘Tales of the World’ series. I’m also interested in developing a hybrid RPG that mixes elements from Shoot ‘em up, rogue, and treasure hunt.

The whole interview is great, still hoping they publish Shikigami 2 on Steam one day, with a proper translation.


They especially seem sad that Oreshika and Gunparade March were never localized.

‘Gunparade March’ may not be well known internationally, but this is the signature title for Alfa System in Japan. It is a simulation game set in high school where students fight with the incoming enemies as part of their school life. AI-controlled NPC’s activities make this a unique game, and I haven’t encountered a game like this to this day.

‘Gunparade March’ (PS) was the game that made us who we are. We became the known entity within Japan, and there were many passionate fans who travelled to Kumamoto to visit where the game is based. We still have fans who send us flowers for the birthdays of their favourite characters.[/quote]

‘Sisters Royale’ is a title that was released to mark our company’s 30th anniversary. For those who know ‘Shikigami no Shiro’, it should be a title reminiscence of the old game with new story and characters. The game is designed for all players, including the fans of Shoot ‘em up, and easier mode for those who have never played this genre. We’ve prepared an online leaderboard for everyone to challenge for the world number one, so hope you stand up to our challenge.

Going forward, we’ll continue to develop games in multiple genres and worlds. We haven’t decided on our next title, but we are convinced that it will be great fun.

[FRO]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing this!

[KAI]

Maaaaan, i want Gunparade to be translated so bad!!

Thanks for sharing this cj, was an awesome reading.

[EmperorIng]

Concur; this was a lot of fun. Sisters Royale is a cute and fun little game, and for what it is I have fun with it. Pretty breezy and hopefully able to appeal to larger crowd (that likes anime tiddies). I'm sure that this would have been "Shiki 4" but on a much larger scale had they resources, as they allude to. Regardless, I'm glad they have the cash to still make a shmup every now and then. I should make a score topic for Sisters Royale sometime this weekend.

[cj iwakura]

I didn't like the pandering look of SR, but I'll have to try it eventually, since it basically looks like Shiki 4 in all but name.

[xxx1993]

Castle Shikigami 2 is the most acclaimed of the trilogy? I thought the third one was the best... It had a lot more to offer than the first two.

[M.Knight]

Thanks a lot for linking this cool interview and for providing some of the questions!
I knew Gunparade March had some links to the series but I had no idea it has been such a hugely important game in Alfa System's history. \(@ o @ !)/
The lack of translation really hurts our perception of how big a deal some of their games are since we can't really experience them, unlike the shmups.

It's also really cool seeing the producer still so passionate about the Shikigami series and shmups in general! As if Sisters Royale's existence wasn't already a good enough testament of their desire to make shmups, haha.

Castle Shikigami 2 is the most acclaimed of the trilogy? I thought the third one was the best... It had a lot more to offer than the first two.

3 is also my favorite for its scoring system, but yeah if you check out the discussions and general reception (maybe the popularity rankings too?), 2 is more fondly regarded.
As for why, I have a few theories :
-Much better and more coherent atmosphere in Shiki 2
-The scoring system in 2 is a refinement of the original game's system so there aren't any surprises, while 3 goes in its own direction
-The absolutely memetic PS2 Shiki 2 dub. 3 actually has a competent one so it's not as memorable despite being "better".
-2 was available on a lot more platforms (DC, PS2, GC, PC, even Xbox) while 3 was stuck on J360s (pretty early in the gen too, so possibly quickly forgotten), Wii (that only a few crazy people like cj_iwakura or myself would get for shmups lol), and PC (but not on digital platforms). Not to mention it was a gen where CAVE ports dominated the release schedule more than the DC/GC/PS2 one where ports were from even more varied devs.

[xxx1993]

Well, it had much better artwork for the characters. The voice acting was much better also. And the some of the scenarios got me truly invested also.

[cj iwakura]

3 does have the most coherent story in the series, no denying that. It knows when to be dead serious(Kohtaro's solo route) or go totally crazy(Roger and Munchausen), but 2's gameplay is the most fun, IMO. The final boss of 3 is just insanity, 2's is fair.

[M.Knight]

Well, it had much better artwork for the characters. The voice acting was much better also. And the some of the scenarios got me truly invested also.

While both games have nice artwork, I kinda prefer the style in 3 as well. But the artwork/story/VA is something not a lot of shmup players, including those who to your surprise praise 2 more than 3, care about.

I am under the impression that this point has been repeatedly told to you in this forum and you never really understood it, but yeah. Other people are not like you. The overwhelming majority of the playerbase will put the game mechanics, pacing, game feel, scoring system, level design, art direction and music/sound design above the story when they evaluate shmups. Not to say a cool atmosphere doesn't have its appeal but storylines and characters are not even considered as a potential metric to rate a game on for many people who play these shmups.

The final boss of 3 is just insanity, 2's is fair.

If you have issues with that boss, maybe the Director's mode (or whatever it is called) tweaks can help you. One of the changes in it compared to the arcade version is that the last phase in the 5-1 boss fight gives you 100mil points, so if you kill it with a x8 multiplier you replenish your entire lives + 2 bombs. You can see the difference between an Arcade run I did here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyJUmoHj0WM&t=24m42s and this Director's Cut playthrough : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPi67yTwwDY&t=29m03s
Obviously that makes the scores not comparable to the arcade version but it could be enough to train and build the confidence to be able to defeat the 5-2 even in arcade mode.

-----

Speaking of the Shiki 3 plot and characters,I cam across this a while ago and it has been bugging me ever since :
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/94 ... i/45939740

In the manual, it refers to Mihee Kim as a doctor when she is quite clearly in all of the game's story and dialogue an assassin. I wrote this off as a mistranslation. Just recently though, I was playing Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, and Tesshu, a character in that game who is also clearly a hired assassin, introduces himself as a "doctor by trade." Doctor and assassin must be similar terms in Japanese, or at least commonly used slang of some sort.

Even for Shikigami's wacky humor, the whole "doctor whose patients are scared for their lives" thing didn't make any sense to me, and this makes me think it's indeed a mistranslation.

[xxx1993]

3 does have the most coherent story in the series, no denying that. It knows when to be dead serious(Kohtaro's solo route) or go totally crazy(Roger and Munchausen).

I felt some sadness inside after Kohtaro's solo route. You can tell how hurt he was after having experienced something like that. The melancholic piano music that plays in the endings makes it all the more depressing. That scene alone is why I created the Tear Jerker page for Castle of Shikigami on TV Tropes. As for Roger and Munchausen, that one had me ROFLing because of how ridiculous it was. XD

[FRO]

-The absolutely memetic PS2 Shiki 2 dub. 3 actually has a competent one so it's not as memorable despite being "better".

I don't know, I threw this in the Wii recently to play around with, and it still has some pretty WTF moments in the dialogue that don't really make much sense. But yes, 2's translation and dub are legendarily bad, and the game is worth playing for that alone, in a sort of bad movie, MST3K sort of way. The fact that it has a great game underneath is just icing on the cake

[M.Knight]

Yeah the translation is not always the most sensical out there, and that's also why I suspect Kim's occupation has been completely mistranslated, but I don't really have complaints about the voice acting itself. One of the big reasons I avoid dubs like the plague is that characters are constantly miscast, with voices that do not match the age or feel of the characters. But here it didn't feel this way to me. And I would even say Munchausen's US voice is a much better pick than the JP equivalent. The US voice sounds like the calm and dignified yet powerful and ready-for-battle older man the character seems to be, while in the JP version it's as if he was barely able to talk and on his death bed or something.

As for Roger and Munchausen, that one had me ROFLing because of how ridiculous it was. XD

Yeah that was one of the sillier, if not the silliest scenario in the whole game, hahaha. I think they were parodying something but I am not sure what exactly.

[cj iwakura]

Yeah the translation is not always the most sensical out there, and that's also why I suspect Kim's occupation has been completely mistranslated, but I don't really have complaints about the voice acting itself. One of the big reasons I avoid dubs like the plague is that characters are constantly miscast, with voices that do not match the age or feel of the characters. But here it didn't feel this way to me. And I would even say Munchausen's US voice is a much better pick than the JP equivalent. The US voice sounds like the calm and dignified yet powerful and ready-for-battle older man the character seems to be, while in the JP version it's as if he was barely able to talk and on his death bed or something.

As for Roger and Munchausen, that one had me ROFLing because of how ridiculous it was. XD

Yeah that was one of the sillier, if not the silliest scenario in the whole game, hahaha. I think they were parodying something but I am not sure what exactly.

The localization team really did their homework. For example, when Tsukiko acts like a nutcase in their route, she pretends to be Elvis Presley instead of an enka singer like in the JP version.

[xxx1993]

Oh? What are they parodying?

[cj iwakura]

Oh? What are they parodying?

No idea, it's just random silliness, I think.

[xxx1993]

Another thing about Shikigami no Shiro III I love? Reika Kirishima. She's a really friendly and cheerful girl, not to mention very comedic. She also breaks the fourth wall!

[jigenbakuda]

Oh wow thanks for the link to the article! Since this literally a Shikigami thread. I was introduced to the series with the Wii port. I then got a version of Shikigami 1 on PC. I LOVE the series, one of my favorite. I am excited to learn more about the developer! Thanks again for the link.