EXE 15th Ann. Special Staff Discussion! (Part 2)

Part 2 of an English translation of the 2016 EXE developers’ interview from inside-games.

Why did Rockman EXE end with 6?

Did you plan on having EXE6 wrap up the series from the start?

Eguchi: Actually, it was decided during development.

Ah, so that’s why the graphics were revamped?

Ishihara: That was the efforts of a new leader for EXE6. They put in a lot of work to redo the PET screen and such, and were trying to make everything feel fresh, but before long it was decided that the series would end. As a result, everything ended up only being used for one game.

EXE1/EXE6

So did the decision to end the series cause the story to be changed?

Ishihara: Did we decide to have the moving thing happen after it was decided that this would be the end?

Eguchi: It was decided from the start that we wanted to change the environment. We wanted to have you get involved in the new environment, then return and meet up with everyone again to wrap things up.

By the way, when we’re making a new title, we think about what we’re going to do next. However with EXE6 we thought, “there might not be another one”.

So under what circumstances was the end decided?

Eguchi: The EXE series had walked hand-in-hand with the Game Boy Advance. So before we made EXE6, there were talks of “if the hardware changes, let’s make a new Rockman”. So the announcement of the DS served as our cue.

By the way, EXE6 was number one in our reader poll for “numbered game with the best system”. Personally, I think it was perfectly fitting for the final game.

Eguchi: EXE6 sure was amazing. I’m usually commentating at the tournament but when it came time for EXE6, things that I never imagined happened and I couldn’t keep up. “You’re doing that!?”, I thought.

What the developers were thinking when they wove Rockman EXE’s story

This came up briefly earlier, but what kind of themes did you depicit in the story?

Eguchi: There’s a lot but to start with, there was “the story of the hero of justice, Rockman”. For example in EXE1, there was the exhilarating experience of a boy who seemed like he’d be in the same class as you stand up against the absolute evil, Wily.

Throughout the series, there are moments that place focus on familial and brotherly love. I wanted to depict dependable adults that were close by. And then there’s net literacy. I guess back then we called it netiquette, though. (laugh)

Eguchi: Things like “don’t vandalize message boards”.

Matsuda: Things like “there are lots of scary people on the net”, right. (laugh)

In our reader poll, EXE3 was chosen as the numbered title with the best story, so I’d like to ask where the concept for that came from. [1]

Eguchi: Basically, it was to bring the battle with WWW (World Three) to an end and to settle Forte’s story for the time being.

Regarding the system, we improved the “Style Change” introduced in EXE2. To polish EXE3 more or rather, to strengthen the feeling of making Rockman your own, we added the Navi Customizer.

Personally, I strived for a feeling of “with this, EXE is complete”. So as a result, we ended up taking a different approach with EXE4 and onward.

By the way, there were plenty of comments saying, “I cried” or “I was moved”.

Eguchi: Recently I looked back on the story, and it certainly can make you cry. (laugh) At the time, I was young, so I took all of the passionate thoughts I wanted to convey to children and threw them into the game.

Kaji: The staff was moved and said “Meijin writes a good scenario!”.

Eguchi: There was some magazine back then that had a ranking of games that could make you cry, and I thought “oh, what’s this?”, and it was tied for first with Mother 2.

This is stepping away from the conversation of the story a little, but there sure were a ton of Program-kun.

Eguchi: Up until EXE3, I had written most of what was there, but that one was my life’s work. (laugh) I guess it’s like I didn’t want to give up the Program-kun to anyone else… Program-kun do a lot in the world of EXE you know. For example, in a train’s cyberspace, you’ve got a Program-kun in charge of acceleration and a Program-kun in charge of brakes. Working together with their own duties paints a picture of “the world goes round due to someone’s work”.

So I like thinking, “this appliance just happens to have a Program-kun in it”. If you think that way, there’s plenty of times you’ve experienced it.

Back during the development of EXE2, I was really busy working from one morning to the next, so I left my monitor on for about half a year straight. Halfway through or so, it started performing worse and I was thinking “this is going to be a problem soon”. But I was busy, so I kept working without swapping it out. But the instant I handed things over to the manager and said “it’s done!”, the monitor went “bzzt-woop” and stopped working! Right then, I cried “you did your best right until the end!”. So Program-kun really do exist.

All of their faces are the same but each and every one of them has a different job, don’t they?

Eguchi: You can tell where a Program-kun is from if you look at their face. Originally, Program-kun were characters made to make cyberspace more interesting. Wouldn’t you feel bad if a player went into your train’s cyberspace and there was nothing there?

Ishihara: Checking all of the Program-kun text when debugging was fun, wasn’t it?

Eguchi: I thought of it like a challenge from the environment designers. They filled the maps with so many details and left all sorts of silly things around. It was like they were asking me, “what kind of message will you think up here?”. (laugh) So I made use of that content and made plenty of funny little messages for players to enjoy.

Matsuda: The English release sure was rough, though… With not being able to fit the characters in and such. (laugh)

By the way, about how many of them are in one title?

Eguchi: …Huh?