The year 2025 has been particularly eventful for Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka – with the successful release of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, his original concept for Tribe Nine taking shape as a live-service game, as well as new game Shuten Order being just around the corner. Recently, Kodaka spoke to AUTOMATON about his relationship with the projects he took part in, mentioning that “creator-oriented” development is the key to creating unique games.
“Personally speaking, it would be good for Japanese game development to be more dependent on individual creators and focus on nurturing originality. That way, more uniquely Japanese games will get produced. That is one of the goals I set for myself, and it also comes with a sense of responsibility for the work itself.” While it is quite difficult for creators nowadays to act individually given that they are usually bound by a company contract , Kodaka seems to be suggesting that having one “creator” become the face of a project would not only tie into the aspect of having more creative control over the game, but also place a certain amount of responsibility on the creator – as opposed to everything being attributed to a company name.
“If a project has my name or Too Kyo Games’ name on it, regardless of who has the ownership rights, I feel the responsibility to sincerely confront players [of the games I worked on] no matter what.” Case in point, Kodaka recently launched a revival project for the soon-to-be-discontinued ARPG Tribe Nine, whose concept he originally created but does not own the rights to. Forming the Neoneon Tribe doujin group alongside two key members of the original Tribe Nine development team, Kodaka will be reclaiming the game in a completely different format – with the intention of taking responsibility for what he and his peers created and providing the fans with a proper conclusion to the story.
On an additional note, Kodaka’s stance on wanting a more creator-oriented game industry doesn’t come as a surprise at all. The Danganronpa and Hundred Like creator has notably written nothing but original scenarios for over a decade, with his last involvement with an existing IP being 16 years ago.
Furthermore, in another interview with AUTOMATON, Kodaka expressed that he had always felt that this kind of individuality is what makes Japanese games Japanese. “I’ve always felt that the strength of Japanese games lies “on a different axis” from AAA-scale production. Games that have a strong sense of individuality, like those from the PS1 or PS2 era, feel very “Japanese” to me […] Nowadays, game development is becoming “product-driven,” but for Japanese games to survive, I think we have to go in the opposite direction from what’s happening overseas by doubling down on the creator-driven approach” Judging by thisit is very likely that he will continue delivering original stories and characters for as long as he is active – unless he decides to completely betray our expectations Kodaka-style once again.
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