At a time when Japan’s ever-shrinking population has spooked many of the country’s major businesses into turning their development attentions overseas, Super Robot Wars developer Bandai Namco Forge Digitals Inc. has assured fans that the popular mecha RPG series still considers local Japanese audiences to be their “primary target market”.
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Originally formed in 1994 as a subsidiary of Banpresto, acquired by Bandai Namco in 2008, and merged with the company’s own BEC division in 2011, the history of Bandai Namco Forge Digitals Inc. – or BEC Co. Ltd., or Banpre Kikkau Co., or Banpresoft, depending on the era – may be marred by shake-ups and changes, but it is perhaps defined by a single constant: Their work on creating and developing the Super Robot War series (JP: Super Robot Taisen).
Built around the twin premises of ‘tactical RPG gameplay’ and ‘crossing over any popular mecha anime series that will let us use their IP’, the series made its debut in 1991 with the Game Boy exclusive Super Robots Wars, its featured series consisting of just Mobile Suit Gundam, Mazinger, and Getter Robo.
In the more than three decades since, the series has produced more than 90 mainline and spin-off titles, in doing so managing to crossover at some point with nearly every Japanese mecha anime ever produced, as well as any Japanese IP that’s even remotely related to robots, with more ‘out there’ collaborators including Capcom’s Mega Man, Gainax’s FLCL, and each of the tokusatsu genre’s heavy hitters – Godzilla, Ultraman, Super Sentai, and with the Super Robot Wars Y’s recent release, Kamen Rider (interestingly enough by way of the Kamen Rider anime series Fuuto PI rather than any live-action series).
But while massively popular in Japan, the Super Robot Wars would spend most of its life as a relative unknown among international audiences, as a lack of overseas releases for most of its featured IPs sparked fears that any localization efforts would ultimately fail to recoup its costs, thus leading Bandai Namco to avoid ever localizing any of its entries.
However, baby steps would be made in 2006 when Atlus localized the Game Boy Advance entry Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation and its sequel, the aptly-named Original Generation 2 were released in North America, with the DS sequel Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier
A perfect test case for the the series’ international potential thanks to its plot revolving entirely around the franchise’s various original mecha and featuring zero third-party IPs – the only exceptions being the appearance of Xenosaga’s KOS-MOS and Namco x Capcom original protagonists Reiji and Xiomu as recruitable party members in Endless Frontier) the relative sccess of both titles would eventually prompt Bandai Namco to swing for the fences in 2021 and provide an official worldwide release for the series’ landmark Super Robots Wars 30.
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And while official sales numbers for the 30th anniversary title have not been made public, it seems they were well-enough to Bandai Namco’s liking that they would green-light a similar worldwide release for the recent Super Robot Wars Y, which officially debuted on August 28th for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch platforms.
In light of the series’ apparent popularity among overseas audiences, a recent post-Super Robot Wars Y release series of interviews given by Bandai Namco Forge Details CEO Hirofumi Inagaki, long-time series director Masahiro Nagura, and veteran series producer Ayumi Uta, to Japanese video game news outlet Famitsu saw the devs pressed as to what effect, if any, their newfound international success would have on future entries – and in turn, all three confirmed that while they were ecstatic to have found fans in new markets, their creative attentions were still solely focused on Japan.
Looking ahead, as machine translated by DeepL, Inagaki asserted:
“Our greatest strength lies in handling character IP, so we want to continue working closely with the rights holders of those works, as well as Bandai Namco Entertainment — the publisher of Super Robot Wars and [Mobile Suit Gundam] Battle Operation, and my former employer — to create content that delights fans of those properties.
“For us, Japan remains our primary target market. However, playing the game provides an opportunity to discover character IPs, so we very much want many overseas fans to play it.”
Answering jointly, Nagura and Uta both echoed Inagaki’s sentiment:
Uda: “While gaining overseas fans is important, we also aim to attract new domestic fans to sustain the Super Robot Wars series going forward. We want to preserve the core appeal of the games while incorporating contemporary gameplay elements, striving to create a Super Robot Wars experience uniquely possible through Bandai Namco Forge Digital.”
“Our team-wide slogan is to preserve what must be preserved while changing what needs changing, constantly developing a fresh and captivating Super Robot Wars. We anticipate many changes to sustain the series for another 40 or 50 years. As we move forward, our entire team will continue developing with the goal of remaining a cornerstone of robot anime culture alongside our users.”
As noted above, the series’ newest entry, the less-than-a-month-old Super Robot Wars Y, is now available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch platforms.
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