by Samantha H., Staff Writer, Inside AX- Anime Expo

Known for the development of the popular game series Disgaea, Sohei Niikawa appeared at Anime Expo 2011 as a guest of honor.  The president of Nippon Ichi Software hosted a panel on day 3 where he answered various questions about the Disgaea series and game design.  Here at Inside AX we’ve compiled the most interesting questions and answers that Niikawa has received and answered for your enjoyment. Check it out,  dood!

Introduction:
I’m Sohei Niikawa and I am a producer, song lyricist and scenario writer.

How did you get started in the video game industry?
I’ve always been fond of games and played lots of them. At first I wanted to be an archaeologist in college like Indiana Jones. I hadn’t even thought of becoming a game developer. When I played the Final Fantasy games, I thought about how I could improve parts of it. That’s when I decided I wanted to be a game developer. So I applied to Nippon Ichi Software and have stayed there ever since.

How did you come up with the concept of Disgaea and different characters for the game?
Laharl was the first character I created. I made a very deep story and was fully involved in the production of the games. We made the music ourselves and paid great attention to every detail. Our company wanted to improve in Disgaea and made it 20% story and 70% game play. When we released the game in the United States, we thought it wouldn’t sell as well as it did in Japan. However, the game actually had bigger sales in the United States. We put everything we could into Disgaea. The only regret I have is that we may have put too much into it and had to up everything for the 2nd and 3rd game.

For Disgaea 4 (which comes out in September in America!) we have updated the characters, included more character involvement, and updated the network system.

Do you have any advice for those who want to get into game development?
I don’t recommend going into game development for your health! It’s like hell on earth. If you’re passionate enough start drawing, doing designs, programming, do wahtever you are passionate about. Few game developers are actually gaming majors in college. You want to introduce a product to the world and learn from the evaluation it receives.

Why is there so much music in your games?
Before we weren’t really known for high-quality games. So we tried to do something that no one else can do. So I thought let’s put a musical in our game.

Why do has the anti-hero character stuck with the games for so long. How did you come up with the concept?
Big companies are scared to do it, so we did!

What is your driving motivation for the Prinny games?
I wanted to launch into the action adventure game genre. We wanted to promote the prinny character. My dream is for Prinny to be the next Mickey Mouse.

Tags: Anime Expo 2011, Sohei Niikawa