Source
r/DragaliaLost•
AwkwardSpaceTurtle

Director Okada interview (Translated)

Other

Welcoming Nintendo and Cygames' iOS/Android ARPG [Dragalia Lost]'s 1 year anniversary on 27th September.

Q: Ever since taking over as director in July, is there any new content that you can tell us about?

Okada: Our direction remains the same, which is to create an action RPG that is easy to play, with smooth controls and good character development. However, there are still some parts of the game that we feel that is not as comfortable to play as it should be, and we also feel that the amount of content in the game is not enough yet, so as the new director I would like to work on these areas of the game.

​

Q: It has been a year since the start of DL, what was the event that left the biggest impression on you? Can you tell us how the event was conceived and how they were received?

Okada: It's the FEH event in April. We developed it not only for players of DL, but also for fans of the FE series, and it was very well received. Oh, and also the summoning changes. The changes drew many opinions from our playerbase. While we were thinking of the best way for summoning to work for this game, we decided to change the way how wyrmprints are acquired. Such a change is quite unprecedented in other titles, but we've received good responses so we're glad that we made such a drastic change.

​

Q: FEH was the first collaboration event right? It was held quite some time after the launch of DL, why such a timing in particular?

Okada: Regarding taking a long time before the first collaboration, we felt that we should prioritise on world building right after the game's launch. An event like FEH brings in a different feel to the game for sure, but in order for the event to mesh well and be interesting, we felt that we had to first have a solid foundation for our game, with proper world building and content.

​

Q: The main story is up to chapter 10 right now, what is your favourite scene so far?

Okada: It's the scene where the protagonist's sister Zethia becomes the enemy in Chapter 5. The illustrations were done well, and is the first critical plot point of the story.

​

Q: I was certainly surprised by that scene! The new kingdom was founded in chapter 6, so that scene was certainly the turning point in the story. So what were the chapters and scenes that received the most feedback?

Okada: The chapters that reveal the siblings of the Alberian Kingdom always garner the most responses. Since the siblings are important characters in the story, we have to make sure that the personalities, settings and designs were done well, and I'm always worried about the reaction whenever we reveal them, but each of them has been received well so far.

Amongst the siblings, it was a little surprising that Emil garnered so much attention. (laughs) Even though he has a troublesome personality, perhaps the reason that he is liked so much is that somehow you just can't hate him. As for what will happen to him in the future, I'm sure everyone is excited so please look forward to future developments!

On the other hand, Leonidas and Valyx were designed with the image of dependable elder brothers in mind, and they were also well received.

​

Q: Since he has been so popular, there seems to be a request from the playberbase to make him a playable character, but are you planning to implement it in the future?

Okada: As you know from the events that happen in chapter 10, the relationship between the siblings have changed dramatically. Right now they are important characters in the main story, but we will think of ways to surprise the playerbase in the future.

​

Q: It seems like chapter 10 is the climax of the story, but how far is the development of the main story going right now?

Okada: To the public it might seem like the story is showing signs that it's ending, but on the development side of things the story is nowhere near completion. It will be a story that betrays your expectations in a good way, so please look forward to it!

​

Q: How soon will we get main story chapters from now on?

Okada: We released chapter 10 in September, but Chapter 11 will take us some time and will be released around December. After that, we plan to release a chapter every 2 months, and we think that we should be able to release chapters more regularly than we do now.

We will also be releasing a story that supplements the next chapter when it releases. While the story will not be fully voiced, there is a likelihood that the narration will foreshadow an important development in the main story in the future, so please look forward to it.

Regarding the main story, we will gradually be releasing stronger enemies. And not just the story, we will also be making combat more satisfying to play, so please look forward to it.

​

Q: Next question regarding characters, since this is a game that focuses heavily on the action element, it seems that it would be difficult to create characters. What is the creation process for the characters like?

Okada: We design new characters and dragons with the balance between the currently released characters in mind. We want to avoid creating unbalanced characters, so we are careful to create characters that can be enjoyed alongside already released dragons and wyrmprints.

​

Q: Is there a certain order with the illustrations and the character setting in the creation process?

Okada: It depends on the character, design and the story of the event.

​

Q: Then what about the Gala versions?

Okada: Regarding the gala versions, they are different versions of the characters that appear in the main story, so the process of making these characters are different. We focus on creating a story that explains how the character gets stronger during the transformation into their gala versions.

In the 1st year anniversary, the gala version of the prince will be appearing. The details as to how he has gotten his new appearance is covered in the latest chapter, so I hope you can play it.

​

Q: Who is your favourite character?

Okada: My number 1 is Agni. Even though there are quite a few noble dragons, there are a lot of finer details in the design with Agni... and I think that's cool. Oh and the design team really likes Cleo and Maritimus.

​

Q: By the way, which weapon type do you use the most?

Okada: I don't really have a preference, I play both melee and ranged type weapons. I've also cleared all the HDTs with every weapon class, but I'm sure I would lose to the clear speeds of the playerbase. (laughs)

​

Q: Please give us some details and highlights regarding the anniversary.

Okada: Coinciding with the Gala, players will get a free ten-fold summon daily. I think this is a great time for new players and returning players to start as they get a boost.

​

Q: It has certainly become easier to play over this past year. What does the game currently have to appeal to potential players?

Okada: There wasn't much content or characters when the game first launched, and the amount of content in the game was actually a big issue. However, now that we've reached our first year, the number of characters, dragons and wyrmprints have increased dramatically, and the amount of content like HDTs have also increased substantially.

We will also gradually add more systems of convenience like the automatic function, speed function and the items to immediately finish building facilities so that players can proceed comfortably to more challenging content without much stress. I think this will make the game more satisfying to play. We are also releasing new content while adjusting the current balance, so please come and try out the game if you haven't already!

​

Q: Are there other highlights?

Okada: There will be time-limited celebration voice lines from the character details screen. We have prepared voice lines for every single character, so use this chance to also listen to characters that you don't usually use. We're also releasing 3 stickers of Sarisse and Mym. They will be added automatically, so please try them out.

​

Q: The raid battle system has also been updated, making it easier to play.

Okada: Yes. We have been holding multiple raid events for a year, and it was starting to get montonous, so we were thinking of improving it to make it feel different each time.

So we have come up with the "Raid Boost" system, which increases the parameters randomly everytime you participate in a raid. Players can get excited thinking about which parameters will increase everytime they participate in a raid, and they will also be able to challenge raids that they could not complete previously.

In addition, players can also accumulate tokens that provide entry to EX Boss Battles, allowing players to enter EX Boss Battles at any timing they so choose. A new event to be released on September 30th, coinciding with the anniversary, will also include a new difficulty. New players and veterans alike should be able to enjoy the event, so please participate!

​

Q: I have a question regarding future content. Since multiplayer content is popular in DL, will the proportion of multiplayer content be increasing in the future?

Okada: Regarding the highest difficulty content that we have now, 4 player co-op challenges have received positive feedback, so we would like to continue working on and improving this aspect as the game's main attraction point for our players.

However, it's not easy to schedules amongst 4 players, so we are also thinking of increasing the amount of single player content.

While we are planning to release more multiplayer content like the current HDTs, we would also like to adjust it such that new players can participate easily.

​

Q: What kind of adjustments specifically?

Okada: The amount of information available for high difficulty content tends to drop over time, and it then becomes harder to clear the content. We are considering introducing ways to provide the strategy to clear high difficulty content after a certain period of time has passed. In order to minimize the stress to our players, we are thinking of improving the guidance offered to players in order to help them to play the game effectively.

​

Q: There are 8 types of weapons currently, are you planning to increase them in the future?

Okada: If we simply increased the number of weapons, there is a definite concern that the current systems that we have in place would be disrupted, so it is not something that we can do right away. However, it is something that we are considering.

​

Q: Which characters will be receiving the 6th mana circle unlocks?

Okada: Since it's currently still under development, it's not something that I can go into specifics about. However, it would be the characters in the main story and characters that were released in the early stages of the game that we would like to strengthen, and we are planning on introducing them one by one.

​

Q: Besides Gala Euden, will you be introducing new characters in the main story and in upcoming events?

Okada: Yes, the number of characters will be increasing.

Posted Sep 28, 2019, 7:17 AM UTC · edited

21577
dolgoldMEZAMERO, SONO TAMASHII!•

Oh and the design team really likes Cleo and Maritimus.

That explains everything.

119
MajoraXIII•

Really? They like Cleo? Couldn't tell.

48
O-nigiri•

lmao this was my 1st reaction after reading the interview

"well, of COURSE they're in love with Cleo..."

1
GoldenriceHalloween Elisanne•

great insight

acknowledging that raids are getting stale is good. lets see how year 2 shapes up

72
RyoukaiCSS Moderator / Hiatus•

Glad that the team is aware of it, quite strange that they haven't mentioned facility event at all though or in the anniversary. Here's hoping for a new event type or using defensive battles event type more in year 2.

32
wisdumcube•

I hope they realize that facility events are stale too.

6
3riottoXainfried•

Q: Which characters will be receiving the 6th mana circle unlocks?

Okada: Since it's currently still under development, it's not something that I can go into specifics about. However, it would be the characters in the main story and characters that released in the early stages of the game that we would like to strengthen, and we are planning on introducing them one by one.

well it settles that 6th circle will be for weaker units overall to bring them higher to match newer units thats reassuring thats thier plan, at least.

50
BrooklynSmash110 Million!•

Im gonna body y'all with my 6th Tier Celliera

27
3riottoXainfried•

im intrested how those upgrades will look like

datamined s2 xain from launch (lvl3) was showing that it's either 25% buff for 15s OR 20% buff for 30s which makes me think if it was just placeholder, they couldnt decide or it's just scrapped idea lmao.

10
star-light-trip•

Except Elly is part of this group and absolutely does not need any buffs aside from full burn immunity.

6†
3riottoXainfried•

i doubt Elly will be thier priority honestly. :p

from this interview you know Okada also plays DL so im sure he's aware she's on the stronger side of the charts, majority of story characters and release units aged tho, and im 100% sure those will be thier targets.

12
star-light-trip•

Here's where all the discourse comes to give us a reality check. All the people saying "Gleo was a mistake, they didn't mean for her to be that strong" don't make sense if Cygames actually playtests their game, but now even less so knowing Okada plays it in his spare time. Is he really aware of her power? If so, how could they possibly have let Gleo slide? Either they really have no clue how to balance a game, or they are doing this on purpose. Either of these options leads to a scary future where Elly will continue to be the second best unit in the game while the other welfares lag behind hopelessly. And they said they would give a 6th circle to the story characters, so I doubt they would leave out Elly, as much as she deserves to be left out.

As long as "everyone" gets these buffs and Cygames continues to show no awareness in regards to what makes units strong or weak, the unit balance issue will continue. For some units, their S1 is too weak. For others, the S2 has too much of an SP cost. For others, its their passives or kit synergy. The only way the 6th circle can help is if every single unit gets a custom circle instead of just the same "hp up x2, atk up x1, s2 buff, coab buff," but the "rebalancing" attempts we've seen thus far in year 1 don't give me any hope that Cygames will do that.

-9
3riottoXainfried•

definitely better than be such doom and gloom about everything lol.

everyone knows gleo was too strong and they said they try to not make too strong characters, gleo was literally the onyl accident that is that much stronger than others.

Elly also have her own drawbacks but in ideal conditions she beneftis team alot, and lets' be honest it's like mmo where you want to have good balance between selfish dps and buffs.

13
Endgam•

It's a simple calculus little one.

Cleo deserves to be overpowered for she is super cute.

-2†
skipshentaiscenesveronica•

He's saying all the right things in the interview so that is good. Also good to know that he wants to make grinding more 'idle' so we can focus our manual effort in more difficult contents - that's really up my alley.

48
LordofthedarkdepthsCurran•

I didn't think Agni would be Okada's favorite since unlike Cleo or even Maritimus you don't see him pop up too much. Still, it's neat that he's a top favorite for the director of the game, particularly since his reasons for liking him are some of the exact reasons me and many others do.

Looking at the Mana circle comment, I'm glad the plan is to use it to buff older characters similar to FEH's refine system rather then buff characters that don't need it. Characters like Hawk would greatly appreciate that buff and I hope they do a good job with them.

27
xenapan•

I think it really shows in void agni's design. Storywise, he doesn't have much reason to show up. Dragonwise he was a pretty early release dragon so he couldn't get too much bells and whistles. But I think the void agni fight got a lot of love design wise.

4
AwkwardSpaceTurtleOP•

From https://dengekionline.com/articles/12466/

25
jhanschoo•

Okada: The amount of information available for high difficulty content tends to drop over time, and it then becomes harder to clear the content. We are considering introducing ways to provide the strategy to clear high difficulty content after a certain period of time has passed. In order to minimize the stress to our players, we are thinking of improving the guidance offered to players in order to help them to play the game effectively.

It's interesting that he says this. Redditors in r/DragaliaLost are typically highly invested players so we don't notice things like this as much, but a huge priority for developers lie in ensuring that new players have a clear path from onboarding to the current meta.

Personally, I think it would be interesting to see CyGames maintain an official wiki with links from ingame to them. Some MMOs do this.

16
i-didnt-do-nothingZethia•

Nice to see what I said yesterday is being reaffirmed about them wanting to get more people into HDTs. They have been made even easier to get into for new players with the introduction of Mini Mids.

15
The_Space_JamkeRawn•

Leonidas and Valyx

Dependable elder brothers

Yeah, about that... I usually don't see authoritarianism or stubborn hypocrisy as things to look up to. If they're going to make a second impression, it better be a damn good one.

Okada's laid out an awesome-looking roadmap for future content. Mobile games thrive on a steady stream of new releases and Cygames seems to have a lock on keeping up with and exceeding demand.

12
xMusicaCancerInnocent Bean•

Regarding the gala versions, they are different versions of the characters that appear in the main story, so the process of making these characters are different. We focus on creating a story that explains how the character gets stronger during the transformation into their gala versions.

Huh, i thought granzal was immediately after the saint lotier alliance. Well, looking forward to it.

10
Mr_CreedRanzal•

It was around that time. I don't think he meant creating more story for the existing gala characters, but rather that they generally do that. Gala Mym came out around chapter 8 that gave her a spotlight. The Gala Cleo connection to chapter 9 felt somewhat tenuous imo, Leif would've made more sense. Cleo would've been suitable for chapter 10, with her Alberius background, but that was already taken by Gala Euden.

8
PlaseNine•

I think it makes sense. Her interactions with Chelle and the changes in her personality becoming more open to the others lines up pretty well with the chapter.

4
CaeltiaTouyamaNao4DL•

This might be just nitpicking your comment, but I feel there will be more backlash if Cleo got her Gala version right now even after chapter 10 story background for her than Euden story. Although there could be chance that they made Gala Euden free, like from story clear or an anniversary gift, but they have to tone down his abilities because of availability.

But I also feel your right too though, I think there are no more backstories available for Cleo and her past only involves Alberius that would be the best time to showcase the Gala unit story-wise.

Well, just want to tell that but they exist already.

3
YoshiChao850Albert•

Lmao after the amount of debate over “whether or not GEuden is good or not” I doubt many people would complain if he was a freebie

All they’d have to change is his Co Ability probably

3
Mr_CreedRanzal•

I like that they are also looking at more solo content. Hopefully it turns out different content, not just more MG levels, since I find MG pretty uninteresting.

Also great they they state the 6th mana circle is a catch-up mechanic.

9
edenofthyleafsaving for rat and gala luca•

After reading the interview, I'm happy it isn't just me that wants Emile to be playable. Even if he's an annoying brat, he's the royal sibling whose backstory and development is the one I'm the most interested in. I'm pessimistic but I'm hoping I'll be surprised.

9
l-NatsuDrgnl-lezeshit is trash•

> We want to avoid creating unbalanced characters, so we are careful to create characters that can be enjoyed alongside already released dragons and wyrmprints.

I don't think they realized what they've done.

6
star-light-trip•

Yeah, this is really funny to read amid all the Cygames white knights claiming "Geuden is fine, he just doesn't have the right dragon YET." The more the game goes on, and reading stuff like this, they really come across as very poor in the balance department.

4†
Jerbits•

Geuden IS fine, sorry that a bunch of tryhards need all their characters to be obviously broken in their DPS sims.

10
star-light-trip•

That's easy enough to say when your favorites are already top tier. Sure he's "fine," there's nothing wrong with being slightly above average, but when you're supposed to be the anniversary Gala unit and you're inevitably going to get powercrept in a month by a 4-star buffbot and maybe even by a flat-out better DPS it's disappointing for his fans and showcases either ineptitude or bias on the part of Cygames. Euden did not need to be "obviously broken" to be more worthy of the Gala this month.

0
Jerbits•

I'd say it's ineptitude for players to look at numbers on a stat sheet and think they know that a character is completely useless. The singular metric of MG viability is such a limiting scope. I guess that means no one should invest in healers either, going by your judgment.

I didn't see anyone praising V!Eze's skillset on her release, now she's part of a powerful unique strategy. At the same time, some person's powered-up Gleo didn't do jack squat for our team last night when they died in the first minute of the astral raid. Different characters fit better in different content. Geuden's fast clear rate in Shadow is already previewing how well he'll do in facility events, and whenever defense events come back. Day 2 is too early for any of you to make a call on a unit's lifetime worth.

1
finnbulvetr•

Dragon parity is also a big problem. At the time, skill damage dragons were the only ones "competitive" with full str dragons. Those got buffed to put them ahead, but what about all the other crappy dragons that no one wants?

1
star-light-trip•

Not sure why you're getting downvoted for this. It's definitely interesting to note that they buffed skill damage dragons right before Siren released but they've never gone in and done something to the resist dragons (Prometheus and Gilgamesh) to make them more viable.

1
Lephytoo•

Gala Cleo is super strong and is the best character. But that unit does not wall you off any content.

Sure it makes it easier, many players have made do without her as well.

Like the director said things will be achievable by everyone over time.

-1†
Aninymouse3Rex•

Thank you for this! It seems like there's a lot to look forward to, since this interview touched on most of my biggest concerns about the game. Harder single player content is definitely something the game needs to spice things up, but it's good that the main focus will remain multiplayer. The advantages to multiplayer are numerous, and the only real disadvantages are, like he said, scheduling/logistics and the problem of uninitiated players being a drag. He touched on both issues and is going to try to help both, that's admirable.

4
CrescentShade•

So they are considering new weapon types.

I feel like we really will be getting guns around December before the Mega Man stuff. Really we only need 2 more weapon types so that when/if we start getting Eternal like set of characters they can have 1 for each weapon type and 2 for each element. Perfectly balanced like all things should be

Guns and Gauntlets would be my expectations. Guns also would allow them to have a Granblue collab at some point and include either Rackham or Eugen.

And yeah the 6th mana circles are gonna be like Granblue's 5th star uncaps. Still hope we'll get something similar to the extended mastery points this next year as well.

3
AwkwardSpaceTurtleOP•

original Japanese line was definitely more along the lines of generic PR "yes, we are considering", I wouldn't read too much into it.

19
ProtonRageMissleGala Mym•

To me personally, the weapon answer reads as them still trying to figure out how to even implement it. Seeing as they're likely already doing at least initial designs on the Mega Man content (if they aren't farther along) it seems equally possible they might try to fit the characters into the current weapon system and maybe get creative with the designs.

For example, Mega Man could be an offensive staff unit with a non-standard co-ability. The attack projectiles would mimic the megabuster already and Gala Euden has shown that they're looking to expand the co-ability space.

That being said, getting a new weapon type with Chapter 11/Mega Man would also be dope and something I'm down for.

5
CrescentShade•

I mean it would just be super weird to add Mega Man and friends as a heavily reskinned bow/wand/staff users and then several months later add guns. You know?

1
ProtonRageMissleGala Mym•

Sure, but who said that "gun" has to be one of the new weapon types though? It's a possibility of course, but literally everything is speculation right now anyway. And not every Mega Man character needs to be ranged, either. Zero and Protoman could be Blade and Sword characters for instance.

1
CrescentShade•

I mean we probably will see a collab between Dragalia and Granblue at some point, possibly several.

Which would likely see the main story characters mainly appear in the other game, so they'd need guns for Rakham and Eugen.

And most likely any other weapon types they're planning will be from the remaining types in Granblue. Which are Melee, Gun and Harp. I could see either 2 of those being added or if all 3 then possibly some 4th type as well to keep it an even number.

1
supersonic159Natalie•

His answer definitely indicated that we are not even close to getting new weapons, so there's an extremely small chance that we'll get anything new this year.

As for the MM collab, we'll likely be getting that in Oct. He stated that he'll be giving us details of the event in the 'This month in Dragalia Lost' on Oct 1st. There's not a lot of reason to have it featured in such a post unless.. It's going to be in that month.

3
ProtonRageMissleGala Mym•

Okada said the Mega Man collab is during Winter in the Dragalia Digest so we're probably not getting it till after Chapter 11 in December since that's when Androids are being introduced into the game.

5
Otoshi_Gami•

yep and my guess is that the megaman Collab is SCREAMING January as December is a Christmas Event and a main chapter 11.

1
supersonic159Natalie•

Hmm it seems that's a bit contradictory then. I'll wait to see what he says in the post. It makes so little sense to talk about it in something 'this month' if it's really coming in Dec+.

That said if there is a weapon type made for MM and the androids and for it to all make sense, it would be cannon not gun.

-1
AwkwardSpaceTurtleOP•

In the anniversary's digest video, the section from Okada onwards were all about future updates. He mentioned at the end that the megaman collab will be in winter. We have not received a "DL this month" yet, because its not October yet anyway. He did talk about expert and master HDTs coming in October though.

3
CrescentShade•

Didn't they say Mega Man was in December in the Dragalia Digest?

3
Mr_CreedRanzal•

No, they said "winter". I'd guess it's probably early 2020, but I'm not quite sure which months are considered winter in Japan.

-1
CrescentShade•

Weird, dunno why I thought they said December.

But still wouldn't be October, pretty sure that's still Fall for them.

2
Mr_CreedRanzal•

and include either Rackham or Eugen.

I like the way you think.

3
slipnatMegaman•

This has been stuck in my mind since the announcement of 6th tier mana circle

A possibility of lv3 skill 2

3
CaeltiaTouyamaNao4DL•

Or upgrade from level 80 to 100? Not that it will do much but 80 is a bit weird spot to stop I think.

3
Darknight3909•

that's pretty much guaranteed. in GBF the normal lvl cap is 80 but when the character gets its 5th uncap it allows it to reach lvl100

5
AlexisSama•

i see the design team has good taste

1
Skyppy_•

We want to avoid creating unbalanced characters, so we are careful to create characters that can be enjoyed alongside already released dragons and wyrmprints.

Looks at Gleo

Looks at Geuden not having a proper dragon to use with

Well that's a fucking lie.

Oh and the design team really likes Cleo

This explains why she gets so many alts -_-

-17
AwkwardSpaceTurtleOP•

Okada's response was vague regarding what he meant by balance. In the original Japanese, he uses the words balance and bias, and because he continues with talking about compatible dragons and prints, it seems like when he says balance he meant having compatible dragons and prints to use (i.e. A well-rounded character), rather than balance in terms of power level.

15
TsubukiN4DDdDDddDddDddddDddDDdDddDDD•

Seems like Gleo was a mistake and so for GEuden they toned it back because they were afraid of a second Gleo, but they undertuned him a bit. Some SP tweaks would fix him up a lot to be a bit closer to Gleo but not surpass her.

12
star-light-trip•

"Afraid of a second Gleo?" Noelle and Emma bring more to the table than her when in their respective element. They aren't afraid of reaching Gleo's levels again. They're either incapable of proper unit balance, or they intentionally gimped Geuden.

-6