The company had it’s own building in the Gifu Prefecture that looked very official in comparison to the neighborhood around it. The interior was very clean and well organized, and they took us up to the top floor conference space in good time. The company began with a presentation, though it rapidly became obvious that our translator was struggling with the technical diction and rate of the presentation. Noriko stried to help, eventually having to step in fully as a translator between us and the Nippon-Ichi representatives. I felt bad for the translator, but I’m glad Noriko stepped up to the plate.
Nippon-Ichi considers itself somewhere between a developer and publisher company, seeing as it does a little bit of both, as well as taking development commissions. The company feels that American and Japanese game companies are very similar, and seem to be very active in targeting an overseas audience. The expressed to us that they are currently based in the console market, though are branching out into mobile gaming. Nippon-Ichi expressed that they see the line between mobile and console gaming disappearing, and they wish to be a company that can create game content that is applicable to a variety of mediums. It sounded like a very progressive idea and I’m interested to see what comes of it. The company’s overarching goal seemed to be the sale of entertainment in order to better society and provide good things. They wish to revitalize Japan as it continues to recover from the earthquake desaster in the spring, providing dreams and hopes through their merchandise. I was moved by their love of their country and desire to see it back on its feet. I only wish we could feel the same way about America sometimes. Nippon-Ichi walked us through their company structure, which mimicked the various other game studios we visited earlier in the trip. I found it interesting that Nippon-Ichi and its fellow Japanese game companies perfom user testing throughout the development process, while US companies perform user testing at the end, before the master version. It made me think back to From Software and the difference in development mindsets we discussed. I wonder if there is something that could be learned from the Japanese mind set, or visa versa? I’d like to see a mesh of some of these development strategies, and see if something successful might come of it.
After discussing for a bit, the company brought in Mr. Suzuki, the manager of the Design Department. The conversation turned to Disgaea specifically, and the progress that the game has made. We discovered that Nippon-Ichi creates its own development tools in-house, building on the programs as the games develop. It was cool to see such a comprehensive company working on games and driven to make things to suit their needs.
Moving from the technical aspects, censorship was brought up, and how they felt about the censorship that they had experienced with their games. They expressed that they are very nit-picky with translations, though they have had religious symbols and references removed from previous games. This has made them conscious of what may be censored overseas, and have even left some of these things out of the domestic versions. It was sad to hear that, but understandable. If they truly wish to be competitive on an international market, they have to (unfortunately) cater to the majority’s tastes.
We wrapped up the visit with a photo-op with a Prinny (a penguin-looking character from the Disgaea series) before hustling off to find food and meet up with the rest of the group for our visit to Trident University. Yay more trains! We found everyone and were split into teams, joining up with some Trident students to engage in a scavenger hunt at Nagoya Castle. Laura, Christina, and I were will N, Yuko, and Mai. It was quite the adventure, since none of us really spoke the other’s language, but we managed to breeze through the hunt with charades and drawings and end up first! The language barrier was an interesting challenge and made it really hard for us to connect with them outside of the scavenger hunt. We couldn’t carry a conversation with the girls, so we were left to talk amongst ourselves and it was a bit fustrating. I had hoped to be able to share more of a connection…but I guess you win some, you lose some.
From there, we took some pictures and wandered the castle for a little while, before following the girls back to Trident. We all participated in a group activity, munching on chocolate and folding paper samurai hats and posingn in them. It was fun, though a touch quiet in our group. Afterwards, we took pictures and parted ways. It was a bit of an awkward experience overall, with the langage barrier. I was a bit jealous of the other groups that could communicate with one another, since they seemed to be having such a blast and getting along so well. I really wanted to connect with the girls in our group, but not being able to speak Japanese killed that a bit. It was disappointing for me, but I’m glad I got to have the experience. 
From Trident, it was back to Kyoto for our last night in Japan. Laura and I made a run to the convinence store for snacks and gift-things, before heading back to the hotel. We packed a bit more before dinner, enjoying the company of our peers as we ate. I enjoyed my curry before frolicking over the arcade. Since it was our last night, many of us wanted to blow whatever yen we had left on games and claw machines. I ended up winning Laura an alpaca plushy, much to her joy. It was so worth watching her face light up when she hugged it to her. It was then the fiasco of trying to win one for Michelle Ludwig. She watched me win the one for Laura and asked me to win one for her as well, but we didn’t quite realize how much money/effor that would take. 5000 yen and a good while later, Nikki was sweet enough to ask one of the employees for his help, and he aligned it just right so that Nikki could knock it down for Michelle. Much joy was shared and pictures were taken to commemorate the moment, and then we dashed out of the arcade so they could close. It was quite the adventure, and well worth the story that came out of it. 
It was back to the hotel from there, where we had a youtube bonanza in the room, watching music videos and funny cat videos and just having a blast. I’m really bumed that I’m not going to get to see these people all the time after this It’s been so much fun spending time with them and getting to know them that it’s going to be weird to not have them around all the time. After everyone departed for their rooms, Laura and I packed some more before heading to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.
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