Source of translation are here.
On why they made the game:
On differences between this and original OT game:
On next console game:
My personal opinion: I'm happy they are working with the full Asano team (although employees probably shift between teams) on the next console entry. I'm not an avid mobile gamer, but if they can keep the gameplay intact, it could be a good game. I would miss the exploration, which seems to have been attenuated.
Lock if old.
On why they made the game:
Nintendo Everything/Famitsu said:First off, could you tell us what inspired the development of this title?
Asano: When we announced Octopath Traveler and were advertising it, we heard a lot of people say that the game "looked fun," but they "didn't have a Switch." So, we wondered: "If we developed an Octopath game for smartphones, would more people be able to play it?" That was our impetus.
On differences between this and original OT game:
Nintendo Everything/Famitsu said:Is there any way you can concretely tell us how this game differs from the Switch title?
Yokoyama: The biggest thing would probably be how the characters themselves move. In Octopath, the player could enjoy travelling around the vast continent of Orsterra; in moving that world to smartphones, though, our goal was to eliminate any movement-related stress as much as possible. In order to achieve that, we essentially added "rails" to the game – you can move the characters by simply flicking your finger across the screen. What came from that was a much simpler movement system, while maintaining the sense of adventure that came from travelling in Octopath.
On next console game:
Nintendo Everything/Famitsu said:Asano: We're just happy we're giving even more people a chance to explore the world of Orsterra. Also, there are probably fans that are reading this that are expecting a new console game as well; us on the Asano team have to take care of that, so we're leaving the smartphone game's development to the ever-reliable Yokoyama team! I hope that's good news to some of you.
My personal opinion: I'm happy they are working with the full Asano team (although employees probably shift between teams) on the next console entry. I'm not an avid mobile gamer, but if they can keep the gameplay intact, it could be a good game. I would miss the exploration, which seems to have been attenuated.
Lock if old.