Here’s the second part of the video series discussing Ryu ga Gotoku 7. We’re joined this time by the game’s director Horii Ryosuke, and I apologise in advance for the large amount of things I couldn’t decipher. Horii speaks fast, and I think also my vocabulary’s lacking, since it was mostly the discussion of the character jobs I had trouble with. Anyway, I did my best, and it’s better than nothing, I hope!

 

  • What’s the point of going to Hello Work in the game?

Yokoyama: Well, we’ve talked about this and that, and I think people should be starting to get the idea, that it’s not your usual RPG. So, in an RPG, you can walk around town, go to restaurants, take jobs, all of that, and we’ve done that before in Ryu ga Gotoku but this, Hello Work – “What’s the point of going to Hello Work in the game?” So to explain, here’s Horii.

Horii: I’m Horii, the director of Ryu ga Gotoku 7. Hello.

Yokoyama: Horii-san, you know, he’s famous among a certain section of Ryu ga Gotoku fans, for his work on karaoke. You look at the lyric credits, it’s always Horii Ryosuke. So we touched on Hello Work a bit the other day, but what kind of jobs are we going to have in Ryu ga Gotoku? 

Horii: This is Hello Work, in Isezaki Ijincho, and this is where you can choose your jobs. So, this is the menu, and first you choose your character, and then, your job. 

Kasuga’s job list:

  • Freelancer
  • Hero 
  • Bodyguard
  • Host
  • Dancer
  • Devil
  • Demolition Man
  • Street musician

The message that pops up when you highlight a job tells you what the conditions are for doing it. For Bodyguard, you only have to be level 1 or above. For Host, you have to be level 1 or above, plus have level 3 or above in Stylishness. Also, the job rank numbers show that you can level them up much higher than the rank 5 we were capped at in the demo.

Horii: And the fighting styles and skills, etc., vary depending on the job. And here, you can also see how changing to that job will change the character’s status numbers. So Bodyguard is more about strength, Dancer is more about speed attacks, etc. And then for girls, there’s jobs that men can’t do, like Idol, for example. 

Saeko’s job list:

  • Junior mama
  • Cabaret girl
  • Big sister
  • Idol
  • Night Queen
  • Croupier

Yokoyama: So each job has conditions that you have to meet before you can do it. Each character has a level, and also here, you see your ningenryoku, which are some really important parameters. [Clockwise from top: Passion, Mental, Optimism, Kindness, Intelligence and Stylishness.] So in the game, there’s various conversation scenes, and they feature choices. For example if a girl is worried about something, if you say something blunt to her like, “What’s the matter with you?” then that might make you more “Stylish”, for example. But if you do it properly, then when it comes to changing jobs, it will come in useful. So in conversations like that, in quests or wherever, you can achieve growth in your ningenryoku. So, what’s the differences between the jobs, in battle?

Freelancer: Use brawling and pro-wrestling skills to take out enemies.

Horii: This is the first job the player will have access to at the start of the game. 

Yokoyama: And I think it’s the most similar to the previous Ryu ga Gotoku fighting styles. 

Hero: A leader’s job, swing a bat to take out multiple enemies at once. 

Horii: And then Kasuga, from being a Freelancer, after a particular event, gains access to the job of Hero. It’s well balanced, and something something key point. [… Sorry]

Yokoyama: Namba’s exclusive job is Homeless. 

Homeless: Use tricks like breathing fire and calling down pigeons to attack.

Horii: Right. And this is probably, well, the most RPG-like of the default jobs, and has various special and magical skills associated with it. 

Yokoyama: And Adachi’s job is Detective. 

Detective: Use judo and police skills to take out enemies.

Horii: Right. This is the type of role that uses power and strength. It has strong attack skills, and also counterattacks too. 

Yokoyama: And Saeko’s default job, that she starts with, is junior mama. 

Junior mama: Use a handbag and beauty tools to attack enemies.

Horii: So she can attack enemies over a wide range with her handbag, and can for example charm the enemies [… couldn’t catch the rest of it]

Bodyguard: Specialises in physical attacks, using a sword.

Horii: So, Bodyguard, which we see Namba using here, uses a sword to slash, and can do huge amounts of damage to a single enemy.

Host: Use skills and charm to steal the enemy’s heart … and items.

Horii: And this is Host, and in this job you can attack using Champagne, and other typical host club items. 

Yokoyama: It’s one of the jobs with skills that can do buffs and debuffs, to raise and lower status and abilities. 

Idol: Use cuteness and singing to heal and boost allies.

Horii: Yes, Idol’s another one like that. You use typical idol skills like singing and dancing to restore and heal allies, lower the enemies’ defences, and so on. It has a lot of useful skills, and it’s easy to use from the beginning.  

Yokoyama: Then, Demolition Man. 

Demolition Man: Use a hammer to pulverise your enemies.

Horii: This isn’t very fast, but it’s very strong. And that hammer too, even in Adventure mode, there’s particular times when you might have to break down walls or things like that, so it’ll come in useful then.

Yokoyama: And now Musician.

Street Musician: Captivate the enemies with a guitar and singing.

Horii: Yes. You can sing various songs, and act as support for the allies by inflicting abnormal conditions on the enemies. [… I can’t catch what he said about the Voltage gauge at all, sorry.]

Cabaret girl: Use the hospitality skills of the nighttime economy to put the enemy exactly where you want him. 

Horii: Cabaret girl is very well-balanced, and you have weapons like lighters, and other typical cabaret club things you can use to inflict all kinds of abnormal conditions. 

Yokoyama: The balance is very good, something something [… sorry]

Dancer: Use breakdancing to throw the enemy around.

Yokoyama: Dancer’s characteristics include high speed initial attacks and follow up attacks with a lot of hits, so if you use it right at the start of the battle, when the enemies are close together, you can do a lot of damage. The ground-level attacks are particularly strong.

Riot Squad: Use a big shield to protect allies and fill the role of tank.

Horii: Riot Squad, as you can see, uses a big shield to fight, and of course has a lot of HP. So it’s the kind of role referred to as a tank in RPGs, in this job you can take a lot of damage and protect the other allies. 

Croupier: Be the joker in the pack and bring the allies luck.

Horii: The main unique point about the Croupier role is that it uses cards to fight. A lot depends on luck in this job, so if you’re lucky it can change the course of battle a lot. 

Chef: Use cookery skills and fire to fight.

Horii: Chef, well, you can probably tell from the name, uses cooking equipment to fight. There’s a lot of tools involved in cooking, and a lot of skills, so it’s a very useful job. 

Fortune teller: Use a crystal ball and call down natural disasters on your enemies.

Horii: So as a Fortune Teller you can use a crystal ball, and this job combines well with Homeless as it also has various magic-type skills you can use.

Night Queen: A crazy fighter who will take out enemies with her heels.

Horii: This job is exclusive to female characters, and [… nope, sorry, can’t figure it out at all]

Devil: Use a guitar to give a riotous live performance.

Horii: Now this one is paid DLC, it costs money, but some of the attacks you can do with it are crazy strong. 

Big Sister: Female role that uses a long spear to attack over a wide range.

Horii: This one too is paid DLC, pay your money and you can download it. The long spear can do some serious damage to big groups. 

Yokoyama: In the encounter battles in town, when you’re fighting weaker enemies the tempo’s really fast, like papapapapa, but this time you do also get a chance to think, like when you’re fighting strong bosses for example. Like, “How am I going to take this guy down?”

Nakaya: So you have to figure out a plan. 

Yokoyama: So work to advance your career! This game encourages changing jobs, it makes you stronger. 

Nakaya: Oh, right! 

Yokoyama: So, we talked about ningenryoku before, and how you can increase your levels. It’s not just conversations, but if you’re in a hurry to raise your skills, you need to study. Have a look at this, this is Ounabara Vocational School.

Horii: It’s like a quiz, so we’ve got sports, for example, or organised crime, and passing the tests raises your ningenryoku. So the organised crime test gives you 100 points for Mental, so that’s quite a lot. 

The qualifications list:

  • Sports 2
  • Sports 1
  • Organised crime studies
  • Isezaki Ijincho certificate
  • Animal expert
  • Sega certificate 2
  • Sega certificate 1
  • Numbers 2
  • Numbers 1
  • Fashion leader
  • Music certificate 2
  • Music certificate 1

Sports 2 ~ A test of your knowledge of the history of sport, as it developed alongside human civilisation. It requires a deeper knowledge than Sports 1. There’s 5 questions, get 3 right to pass. The test costs 50,000 yen, and gives you +50 Passion and +50 Optimism if you pass.

Organised Crime Studies ~ Learning about the dark side of society is sometimes necessary in order to get through life safely. Through taking this test, you’ll acquire knowledge about recent incidents involving antisocial organisations. There’s 5 questions, get 3 right to pass. The test costs 50,000 yen, and gives you +100 Mental if you pass.

Nakaya asks what one of the icons means, and there’s a disagreement between Horii and Yokoyama over whether its Passion or Stylishness. But they had Sega highlighted, and that has both, so I’m not sure who was right.

Nakaya Kazuhiro challenges Organised Crime Studies!

I’m not going to translate the whole of the quizzes. “Organised Crime” is questions about the Ryu ga Gotoku story, including – the ones that Nakaya really struggled with – how to write characters’ names in kanji. One of them was Majima Goro, and I see Majima’s name all the time in RyuOn, but I struggled to figure out which was the right answer. It’s nice to see Japanese people struggling with kanji too though!

Anyway, Nakaya passed, because he got 4/5.

Nakaya: I was nervous! 

Nakamura Yuuichi challenges the Sega certificate!

Two of the five questions here were about Sakura Wars … I didn’t know any of the answers, but I could guess in the question about “which of the below hardware was not released by Sega” that it was the “Sega Pluto”! (I could still be wrong though!!)

Anyway, Nakamura passed, with 3/5.

Yokoyama: So that deals with a lot of issues in one go, I think. When you play things, you’re not just playing them for no reason. Minigames were always fun in themselves, but it’s more than that this time. For example, singing. 

Horii: When you sing at karaoke, that raises your Passion parameter, and also this time you go to karaoke with everyone together, and that deepens the “bonds” between characters too. 

Yokoyama: You’ve seen it, haven’t you? The karaoke? And speaking of which, here: the question of what the setting in Yokohama is like.

To be concluded in the final part! The new setting of Yokohama.

Eri: Oh, wow!

Nakamura: This is another example.

Nakaya: Oh, it’s beautiful. 

Lots of minigames!

And something that shouldn’t have been said!?

Yokoyama: It’s scary, you know. In the series up till now ~ beep ~ 

DON’T MISS IT!

Final Part