Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo recently participated in a Q&A session for investors, and one of the investors pointed out that the visuals of Ys X: Nordics on PlayStation 5 leave a lot to be desired. Mr. Kondo responded by saying that graphics are an important issue. He further said that in order to improve the visual quality of the series, they would have to devote both time and money, and that this would not be sustainable as they intend to produce a Ys game every year. If they wanted to improve the visual quality of the games, they would have spent about 4-5 years on each individual game.
Ys X: Nordics is a lot of fun to play. However, the PS5 graphics were noticeably grainy. I don’t think HD would help either. What was the biggest reason for that? Was it a technical issue, cost, schedule, or was the game released on multiple platforms and the Switch pulled everything?
Condo: You’ve talked about Nihon Falcom’s game graphics at various times and it’s an important issue that we’re aware of. Graphics are expensive, require both time and money. If we talk to the designers, they say ‘If we have time and money, we can do it’. Our basic plan is to deliver a new game every year.
We work hard to stay within that range. We could spend 4 or 5 years on each game, but there is no other company in the country with 65 employees that releases RPGs every year. We are aware of the graphics issues, but I think it gets better with each game. Keep the long term in mind.
Thanks to GreatSong1 for the news tip!
