Bloodstained: An Interview with Koji Igarashi

Between Castlevania – a game that defined a genre of gaming for us (at those of us here at Dorkadia), and Bloodstained, the second most funded video game on Kickstarter that we’re (im)patiently waiting to release, my heart did a little double take when we were given the opportunity to interview Koji Igarashi. We met Iga and his translator Mana Ikeda with no more instructions than “in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt” – but a small gaggle of nerds keeping distance and whispering behind their hands, pointing to the man in the western hat, we knew we found the right folks. Mana and Iga were kind enough to answer our questions.

Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with us! Our first question is, how many takes did it take to shatter the wine glass in the Kickstarter video for Bloodstained? (Editor’s note: LOLOLOL)

IGA: So actually it took me two takes, and when they were recording it they didn’t actually shatter it. There was another person that caught it when I threw it so we didn’t waste any wine glasses! (lol) It’s funny because we recorded at a winery location and we just used grape juice for cost efficiency.
(Editor’s additional note: I would kickstart the making of Bloodstained kickstarter video, because I want to see that poor intern covered in grape juice catching Iga’s wine glasses. lol)

Real question: It’s been seven years since you last worked on a Castlevania game. What has it been like getting back into making another gothic horror, a spiritual successor to Castlevania?

IGA: Yeah, it’s been seven years, and getting back to it has been really refreshing. It was really surprising that so many people still wanted this kind of game – so it was very surprising but gave me a lot of confidence. Since I an pretty used to working with this genre of game, it’s easy for me – it’s something that I am very used to and I’ll do my best to create that kind of game again. 

We know that Bloodstained is a spiritual successor to Castlevania – what else is your inspiration (other than Castlevania) walking into Bloodstained?

IGA: There isn’t a title or a game that stands out specifically that we have been inspired by, it’s basically kind of a melting pot of all the previous games that I’ve worked on – so combining all those games, mixing them, and modernizing the visual esthetics of the game is what is Bloodstained. We want players to feel very comfortable with the controls and how it feels just like a game they played seven years ago.

What was the thought behind making the protagonist female, and especially the design on her esthetic? What were your goals there in the departure from the traditional strong male esthetic?

IGA: There were many thoughts that were going through our mind trying to make this main character (Miriam); She is a very powerful, strong female lead. During this time (making the game) there was a trend of very strong power female characters, and we wanted to do that as well for this game. And the design of (Miriam) – in the game her body slowly crystalizes, and we wanted to be able to show that. In a lot of the games that I have worked on, the female characters don’t expose a lot of skin. The design is based on the gothic style – it doesn’t go towards gothic lolita, but we wanted to have a gothic feel with her design and show the crystal design on her body, so that’s how we designed her.

And actually, when we went to design the character, the first plan was to create a male character – and in between processes, we decided to change that and go with a powerful female lead. What’s different from the previous games…  From the very beginning, all the male characters that I designed haven’t been very “manly”, or they have their feminine side too. So that part hasn’t really changed much, because if you changed those characters to a female, it wouldn’t change all that much. For story line, if it’s a male character I could make up a reason (for a conflict) like “oh I hate you, I want to destroy you right now”. But a female lead, I wanted to come up with a more complex story for her, and as this is the first time I am creating a female lead, I wanted to make it right. That’s also the part that is challenging.

What was your expectation going into a Kickstarter campaign? You went 11x over your goal- what has that allowed you and the team to expand in this project?

IGA: Before we even started the Kickstarter campaign, I was kind of betting with friends, how far would this project go. I had said that we would set the goal at $500,000, but maybe, maybe it would go up to $800,000. (lol). Other people thought it might go higher, but I didn’t expect it to go that high up. I knew we’d reach our initial goal, but to go beyond, to 5.5M, it was just unexpected!

As you know the initial goal was $500,000, and after receiving the 5.5M, thinking about the scope of the game, maybe $500,000 wasn’t enough! Even though we received the 5.5M in backer funds, we are still working in that minimum space – what we could do with that amount of money, because that amount of money doesn’t always go directly to development itself. So we are trying to figure out what we can do with that amount of money. And now that there is that much money involved, there is so much more responsibility involved in delivering the Kickstarter rewards and stretch goals. It puts on a lot more weight!

What are some of the challenges in working more independently, vs. having the backing of Konami?

IGA: So when we were working for Konami, within Konami, they teach the basic skill sets to develop a game. So if we were to outsource to a different development company, they would know for a fact that Konami has their back and that they know how to develop a game with the certain type of skill that they provide. When we’re working independently it’s hard to determine if they are even capable of developing this kind of game. So we’re going back and forth and testing, and being able to make sure that they are able to develop the game is something that is taking us back a little bit. That’s probably the most challenging developing as an independent company.

What is on the horizon after Bloodstained?

IGA: First and foremost, we are hoping that Bloodstained is successful! We want to make Bloodstained a franchise, we want to make a Bloodstained sequel.

What was your experience working on Castlevania then working on Tokimeki Memorial (A game Hannah enjoyed very much lol), and what brought you back from that to Castlevania Symphony of the Night, another classic gothic horror adventure?

IGA: Actually first starting on Castlevania, and before Tokimeki Memorial – I was working on games not available here in North America with a PC engine. I was porting a lot of shooting games for the PC engine. And then we had to make an original title, and we made Tokimeki Memorial. During that time it was trending – these kind of dating sims, and girls in video games were trending, so that’s why we made Tokimeki Memorial. But at the same time, it coincidently got very popular so within the company (Konami) I was able to express what I wanted to do. So originally, I really liked gothic horror and antiques – it was part of my hobby what I really liked doing. So once Tokimeki Memorial was popular, I was able to express my opinion and say I want to join the Castlevania team. I was there originally, but I really like gothic horror so that is why I asked if I could go do the next game there. The higher ups had asked if I could make Tokimeki Memorial 2, but I refused and asked to go to the Castlevania team. (Editor’s note: lol much to Hannah’s sadness)

What else you do you want people to know as they get ready to play Bloodstained?

IGA: Bloodstained is a game where old-school gamers are able to enjoy, and even new-school gamers can enjoy – because we have this old-school type of gameplay style, while we incorporate a more modern type of visual style and game systems. So we hope everyone can look forward to playing Bloodstained!

Thank you again to Igarashi and Mana Ikeda for their time. It wasn’t intimidating at alllllllllllll to speak with someone who had a hand in making games that we’ve played for years and literally use to describe a whole genre of game style.

For those of you curious of the types of questions we left on the cutting board and didn’t end up asking because I didn’t have the guts to see how far I could make Iga’s translator hate me, here are a couple we didn’t end up asking:

What is it like making a ShmastleShmania game? (I didn’t think ShmastleShmania would translate well)
If you could be any kind of sandwich, what would you be? 
alternatively…
If you were a sandwich… WHERE IS MY GAME. (Also, may not translate well)