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Ahead of the Arc World Tour Finals, I had a chance to speak with Minoru Kidooka, CEO of Arc System Works. Though our time was brief and our interaction was through a translator, there was one thing that we had in common, and that’s a love of great fighting games.
Minoru Kidooka spoke in earnest about many topics. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to all our questions, as there was a limited amount of time, but we have submitted those as well. If we get a chance to find the answers, we’ll update this interview accordingly.
We spoke to Minoru Kidooka about Guilty Gear Strive’s future, past, and if fans could ever see a comeback for classic ArcSys titles like the Sailormoon S fighting game. Here’s what the CEO of Arc System Works, Minoru Kidooka, had to say about Guilty Gear.
Arc System Works CEO Minoru Kidooka on Guilty Gear Strive, potential future games, and more
Q. First, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today. There's a pair of very exciting tournaments coming up at Arc World Tour finals. How excited are you and the developers to see it all kick-off?
Minoru Kidooka: So you know, we do this type of Arc World Tour event every year. But this year, we're kind of in this post-COVID era and we're finally able to bring our fans and gamers to the venue in person, have them visit the venue to really interact with them.
Not just for them to play games, but we have so many other different attractions and events that are going on that are there for everybody. And so, yeah, we're just really, really excited to get back to doing these in-person events.
Q. We have three seasons of Guilty Gear Strive so far, with A.B.A. just released. After that, can players expect a fourth season of content, or is it time to work on another GG title?
Minoru Kidooka: Well, that’s kind of a difficult question to say directly, yes or no. But obviously, we do want to continue pushing Guilty Gear and providing a fun time for all the fans, that for everybody that's here today, all the fans that are out there in the world, we want to continue supporting Guilty Gear and making that fun for everybody.
But at the same time, obviously, we do want to create new games and think of ways to expand our reach, provide more fun to more people, and create new excitement for the FGC. So, we’re gonna do both.
Q. Guilty Gear -Strive- has a pretty amazing cast so far - but have any of the characters received an exceptional amount of feedback - positive or negative?
Minoru Kidooka: Yeah. So that's another hard question to say, like identify here's one character, but Guilty Gear, as you say, is a game that has a collection of very unique characters. Each character is unique and very special. And many of our fans might really be invested in one character.
But also, there are fans who like a variety of characters. We take all the community feedback, and we work really, really hard to bring something special to each and every one of the characters.
What I can say right now is we will continue doing that, working hard, and bringing unique and fun characters. This may answer a part of your question, but we have, as developers, a certain vision for what kind of character we want to release or create.
We understand that there is a community that has certain desires and wants as far as what kind of characters they want to see appear in Guilty Gear. So we take that into consideration and try to, and we will continue to create and deliver, you know, awesome characters.
Q. There is no gaming developer I trust more to see awesome IPs brought to life in a fighting game format than ArcSysWorks. Are there any plans to bring back a beloved IP back for another run? Perhaps a new version of Shuyaku Soudatsusen/Sailormoon S?
Minoru Kidooka: So, we don’t have particular plans, but we have a dream of doing those! Things like Sailormoon, of course. Guilty Gear and BlazBlue are our IPs and we released those. And we do collaborate with other companies, such as CyGames (GranBlue), here at the tournament. We do want to continue working with other companies to bring different IPs, develop games for them and create something new for the fans to enjoy.
This includes newer IPs as well as older IPs, like you said Sailormoon. If we have the opportunity to do that, that's definitely something that we would like to do. However, for IPs that are handled by other companies, we don't have full control of how to handle them or how often we can release them - the frequency with which we engage them. However, it is our goal to continue working with other companies collaborating to create these awesome games.
Jason Parker: So you’re telling me there’s a chance! [Laughs]
Minoru Kidooka: Of course, there’s always a chance.
Q. When the first Guilty Gear dropped back in 1998, I remember personally being very excited to see 2D fighting games when the shift was pushing towards 3D gaming. Were you worried there was a major risk in making that move?
Minoru Kidooka: This might be a really good question to ask Daisuke in the next block of interviews. From my side, '98, that's 25 years ago. I think back then, we weren't really thinking about, "Oh, everybody's doing 3D, so it might be a risk going to 2D". I wasn't really thinking about that. It was just simply Daisuke who wanted to do this game, and it was 2D, and it was my job to support that effort fully.
And so that was my mindset. I wasn't really feeling any kind of risk or thinking about it in those terms. Maybe Daisuke had some sort of sentiment regarding that. I would say back then, once the game had been developed and we were sort of pitching the game to different suppliers and distributors, they were like, "Hey, everybody's doing 3D. What's this? Why are you guys doing 2D? It's not hip".
So there was that sort of negative feedback back then. However, we believe that the feedback from the community and the players when we were showcasing at different events, at arcades, the community feedback was very, very positive. But again, you should ask Daisuke. He may have had some genius calculation going on - or he might not have. It could be either way.
Q. DragonBall FighterZ is a great deal of fun, but it has been hit with criticism for things like taking a long time to receive Rollback Netcode. Was that something ArcSys had any control over?
Minoru Kidooka: Back then, as a company, we didn’t really take Rollback as something that was - I don't wanna say it's not important; we didn't value Rollback as much back then. And this is mainly because back then, the Japanese playerbase had no problems playing online without Rollback, including Guilty Gear and BlazBlue.
There were no issues there with online play without Rollback. And so, in that regard, because of our stance regarding Rollback, the fact that we did not implement it in Dragonball FighterZ from the onset or early on may have been our responsibility.
Minoru Kidooka is joining the other ArcSysWorks developers at the Arc World Tour Finals are taking place from March 21 to March 23, 2024. At least one major announcement was made, with the reveal of Guilty Gear Strive’s next character, A.B.A.
