Anime Expo 2024: CyberConnect2's Taichiro Miyazaki Talks With Anime Herald

Note: Due to the time-sensitive nature of our coverage, this will debut on the main Anime Herald site on August 21. We apologize for the inconvenience.

• Interview Date: 7/6/2024

• Interview Location: Anime Expo 2024

• Interviewer: Seth Burn

Anime Herald: There are a number of games you’ve been working on for many years, can you give us any updates?

Taichiro Miyazaki: As a video game development company, we’ve been putting out many titles over the years. Thanks to all of our fans, Fuga (Fuga: Melodies of Steel) is a trilogy. The first two games are now out and the third is currently in development.

Anime Herald: Can you tell us a little bit about the third Fuga? How will it be similar or differ from the earlier entries?

Taichiro Miyazaki: As the final title in the trilogy, it will be the conclusion. There will be some new characters, and the Taranis will get an upgrade as well.

In Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3, the Taranis will be able to fly, so there will be some new gimmicks to hype up the battles and make them more fun. In terms of the content and the story, it will be approximately twice as large as Fuga 1 or Fuga 2. There will be a lot to uncover in [Fuga 3]. It should be a game befitting the finale of a trilogy.

Anime Herald: What is it like working with established properties such as Demon Slayer or Naruto?

Taichiro Miyazaki: For the games that are based on other title’s intellectual properties, we’ve done some new things. In April, we released Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Sweep the Board. It’s a party game, so it has tons of little mini games and side quests. Since we are used to making action games, this was a new challenge for our company.

Anime Herald: What is your role in the company?

Taichiro Miyazaki: I am the Executive Vice President. I am in charge of the development budget, the schedule, and the personnel. I also handle the operations department, which oversees accounting, human resources, and advertising. In short, I handle everything but the making of the games themselves?

Anime Herald: Do we have an estimated release date for Tokyo Ogre Gate?

Taichiro Miyazaki: Currently for our original games, Fuga is set to finish with the third installment, and then after that, although this hasn’t been officially determined yet, we will most likely move on to Cecile. It’s already moving in process.

Anime Herald: Does your company generally focus on developing one game at a time?

Taichiro Miyazaki: For a lot of our other games, we’ll work on developing multiple titles at the same time. At any given time, our company will be working on between seven to ten different projects in parallel. However, Fuga was the first game that we were self-publishing, so we really wanted to make sure we got it right. That’s why we want to complete it before we move on to Cecile and Tokyo Ogre Gate. Of course, those games are still being discussed.

Anime Herald: What led you to decide to self-publish in the first place?

Taichiro Miyazaki: We’d been working as a game development company for a long time. We had celebrated our 25th anniversary. We had a lot of experience and knowledge under our belts. We had put out some original titles, but we hadn’t been able to self-publish. A lot of that had to do with the risks you run into when you self publish, including inventory, sales, advertising, and marketing. We didn’t have the capacity to take that on.

However, in recent years, digital games has become a larger share of the industry, which means there’s a lower risk of self-publishing, due to less concern over inventory and back stock. We decided when we reached our 25th anniversary that this was a new thing we could look into. We really wanted to have our own intellectual property. Something we could put out there and say “We made this.”

Anime Herald: Do you think digital is going to be the future of gaming, or do you think we’ll still maintain physical media as well going forward? The digital path, or the dual path?

Taichiro Miyazaki: While digital has increased its share of the marketplace, and will continue to do so going forward, in our opinion the dual path is the future. There are going to be some customers who want physical copies, especially when it comes to collectors editions, that come with things like limited figurines or merchandise. There are always going to be a certain percentage of customers who demand that gaming experience. So we believe the dual path is going to be the way forward.

Anime Herald: I personally own two Nintendo Switches. I purchased the original when it came out, and then the LED edition when it came out. You might not be familiar with this, but Nintendo is a pain in the ass when it comes to digital software.

When I am playing a digital game on my LED Nintendo Switch, it always has to have an internet connection to verify that I own that game. I use my LED Nintendo Switch to play physical games, and I play digital titles on my original Nintendo Switch. If you have the physical game, you can always play it. If you have a digital game, sometimes things happen.

Taichiro Miyazaki: (Nods)

Anime Herald: Do you play games? Are you a gamer?

Taichiro Miyazaki: Yes, of course, I play games. I wouldn’t call myself a hardcore gamer, but for sure, I play games.

Anime Herald: What type of games do you play?

Taichiro Miyazaki: Cyberconnect2 has a lot of connections within the industry with a lot of other game development companies. I always make sure to play the games that they come out with, so we can keep up with whatever is new and upcoming with other companies that have been good connections for us. As a personal preference, adventure games are my favorite, so I tend to play a lot of titles in that genre.

Anime Herald: You mentioned keeping up with what other companies are doing. Can you recall a situation where you felt “Oh my god, they’re doing this? We have to step our game up now.”

Taichiro Miyazaki: Of course we have felt that.

Anime Herald: Any example you care to share?

Taichiro Miyazaki: CC2 puts out anime-based visual games. That’s our main selling point. When we see other companies put out anime-based visual games and they are doing something new or exciting, that is very inspiring for us and can serve as a reference for new projects.

Anime Herald: Do you ever watch an anime and think, “This would make a great game and wonder if it would be possible to do so?”

Taichiro Miyazaki: When we watch interesting anime we get inspired and think “This could make a really good game,” but as a baseline when we choose a title to turn into a game we have to like the anime title from the bottom of our hearts. The creators who work on development have to feel like they can pour their life and energy and soul into making it into a game. We try to see how many of the staff have that passion for the series before we move forward with anything.

Anime Herald: How would you describe the corporate culture of Cyberconnect2?

Taichiro Miyazaki: At the core of our company culture is to make the things we love, that we feel passionate about. The things we can feel satisfied with ourselves as game creators. So we want to make the best games possible as a company. However, we don’t want to fall into the creator’s ego trap. We want to make sure the players and customers who like our games worldwide are going to be happy with the products we put out.

If we keep chasing quality forever, the development time can run very long, and the budget will run high. At the end of the day, we want to make a good product that will be satisfactory but also keep our customers happy. That said, at the base of our corporate culture is the love we have for the series that we make.

Anime Herald: That was a fascinating answer. Do you ever watch American football? The Super Bowl?

Taichiro Miyazaki: I actually like American football a lot.

Anime Herald: Jimmy Johnson used to be the coach of the Dallas Cowboys. He had an astute quote “Good is the enemy of great.”

What you described is the exact opposite. Great is the enemy of good. Great will cost a lot of money and won’t come out until 2035.

Taichiro Miyazaki: It’s a difficult balance to achieve. As a company, great is still the goal for the games that we make, but creative people, people who work in creative industries, tend to be perfectionists. If you let them, they will chase that quality forever and ever. We have to consider the worth of the product for our customers and the company. We want them to reach for the best and put out great products, but we also want them to be careful not to put too much energy into the areas that won’t bring as much back.

Anime Herald: Spoken like a true executive.

Taichiro Miyazaki: (Laughs) We want to make sure we focus on what we do well. We have to pay attention to what we do well and what we want to focus on.

Anime Herald: In that case, what would you say your company’s greatest strength is?

Taichiro Miyazaki: This is for both the intellectual property we are licensed to work on, as well as our original games. We feel our love and passion for the products we put out is the thing that makes us special.

Anime Herald: What led you to personally join the industry?

Taichiro Miyazaki: I was originally a salesperson. I worked for a company that sold 3D CG products to different industries. I had a lot of game and movie companies as clients. For fifteen years as a salesman I talked with these people, selling my products to them. I kept thinking, “People who work in creative industries are so awesome.”

I don’t have what it takes to be a creator, but I wanted to be in a position where I could support other creators. That’s why I changed jobs and joined the video game industry.

Anime Herald: It seems interesting for a salesman to come over and have to deal with accounting and so many other responsibilities that wouldn’t have had to deal with before. Communication and marketing excepted.

Taichiro Miyazaki: It was a surprise that ended up with this many responsibilities. I certainly did not expect to end up as a vice president. I was 40 years-old when I changed jobs and joined CC2 in 2010. CC2 back then was roughly a company of 100 people. Cyberconnect2 was right on the cusp where they wanted to develop a lot of different projects. They wanted to hire more people and grow the company. The CEO had a clear vision in mind.

I was hired right at the time when the company was heading in a new direction and wanted a breath of fresh air. The CEO was, how shall I say… extremely flexible. He let me try a lot of new things. I poked my nose in a lot of different areas. I spent a lot of time cultivating my current job, just talking with people and learning. Mostly in management. The CEO and I, we talked, we discussed things. We decided the direction in which to lead the company. My job is to make sure we get there.

Anime Herald: My brother is in the movie industry. Sometimes the most valuable person on a set is not a creative genius, or the star. It’s the person who can get the project finished and out the door. That sounds like it might be a skill you have.

Taichiro Miyazaki: Thank you.

Anime Herald: What were your goals for Anime Expo? Do you feel that you have accomplished those goals?

Taichiro Miyazaki: There are a couple of different reasons why we are here at Anime Expo. One is to put out some new information for Fuga 3. As I mentioned before, Cyberconnect2 works on many different projects at the same time. We are currently a company of around 300 people. We would like to grow the company further. We need more people, more passionate creators to join us. It so happens that the main market for all of our games, both licensed and original, is the United States. Which means, a lot of Cyberconnect2 fans live in the United States.

We believe that there will be a lot of aspiring game creators and developers who live in the USA. People who like Japanese anime, manga, and games, who might be interested in learning what it is like to work for a Japanese company, or perhaps even dream of coming to Japan and working on games. So we are here to provide that information and maybe even recruit more people to come and work for us in the future. We’ve been increasing our efforts to hire staff from overseas since 2015.

We’re going to be doing a panel this afternoon on what it is like to come and work in Japan, and what kind of support our company provides. One thing that is special about Cyberconnect2 is that we don’t require that people know Japanese. We have support in place for people who don’t speak Japanese as long as they are passionate creators.

Anime Herald: What are you looking for in potential candidates? What can they do to stand out and get an interview?

Taichiro Miyazaki: For most of our positions you will need a portfolio to apply. With that, we can see if you have the baseline quality necessary to work for us. The other thing we take into consideration is “what does the candidate like?” Do they have a clear vision and goal of what they want to make for the future? If they do, those are the people we want to interview. We do multiple rounds during the hiring process, but the final interview is always with me. The thing I am looking for is whether or not they have that passion as a creator.

Anime Herald: What is the application process?

Taichiro Miyazaki: We have a foreign employment page on our website. It’s all in English. There will be an FAQ, as well as all of our open positions. You can apply through the portal on our website. There will be a list of things you’ll need to submit. If you’re applying to be a game designer, programmer, or an artist, you’ll need to upload your portfolio. You’ll need to fill out a CV or resume page, and then a survey. We’ll screen through all of that and reach out for an interview if we’re interested in the candidate.

Anime Herald: I’m glad I asked. Do you have anything you’d like to add?

Taichiro Miyazaki: We know that what might be considered a Japanese subculture, that is, Japanese anime and manga are spreading worldwide. That makes us really happy. We know that the media, like Anime Herald, are a big part of that. We are a small game company from Japan. We are glad you were able to sit down and speak with us.

Anime Herald: Thank you.

Taichiro Miyazaki: Thank you.