Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP reveal interview with Dragami Games CEO Yoshimi Yasuda

gematsu.com:

Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP will officially launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC via Steam on September 26, and to commemorate the announcement, Gematsu interviewed Dragami Games CEO Yoshimi Yasuda to discuss the company’s motivations behind bringing back the 2012 action adventure game, soundtrack changes and gameplay adjustments, the original staff’s involvement, and more.

Get the full interview below.

Gematsu: What was the motivation behind bringing back Lollipop Chainsaw for modern consoles and PC, and how did you approach preserving its charm while updating it for modern audiences?

Yasuda: “The licensing contracts for the music in Lollipop Chainsaw were not renewed five years after its released, meaning that sales of it had to be discontinued. Players were no longer able to purchase the game, and we started getting requests from fans to bring it back. We also received several proposals from companies overseas saying they would like to develop a remake, and these are what led me to start considering developing RePOP. Eventually, we decided that we wanted to answer fans’ expectations ourselves. At the time, though, we were in discussions with Kadokawa about going independent, and so we had to wait to confirm that all rights to Lollipop Chainsaw had been transferred to the new company, Dragami Games, before starting on development.”

The original Lollipop Chainsaw sold over a million copies worldwide and has something of a cult following. How did you balance meeting the expectations of existing fans while also attracting first-time players?

Yasuda: “I had always felt that the original game could have been more user-friendly, and overall a more fun experience for the player, and there were also some balance issues, and in RePOP, we acted on these. To elaborate, we improved the controls of the camera and controller in order to have the player feel that they are in control of Juliet’s actions more.

“Furthermore, considering the sensibilities of modern