#Earth Defense Force 6 interview with producer Nobuyuki Okajima at NYCC 2023

During our discussion, Okajima discussed why it takes so long to release an Earth Defense Force game in the west as opposed to D3 Publisher‘s other titles, downloadable content, when to introduce new classes to the series, and more.

Get the full interview below.

Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain was the first game in the Earth Defense Force series with a simultaneous worldwide release. And recently, D3 Publisher has been doing simultaneous worldwide releases for games like SAMURAI MAIDEN, Ed-0: Zombie Uprising, and even Custom Mech Wars, which is launching in December. Given that it’s your flagship franchise, why is there such a delay between the western and Japanese releases for the mainline Earth Defense Force games?

Nobuyuki Okajima, Producer: “For the titles that you mentioned, like SAMURAI MAIDEN and Ed-0: Zombie Uprising, their localization is strictly text. In that aspect alone, localization is much easier to do. Regarding Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain, another title you mentioned, we had plans to release it worldwide from the get-go. That’s why we were able to release it at the same time. For the mainline Earth Defense Force series—Earth Defense Force 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6—development takes a long time. Usually what happens is we develop the game, and then the development staff shift over to working on the downloadable content. After everything is completely done, the whole package is ready to be localized, and that’s when we start to localize it. So due to that process, it takes a little longer.

“Of course, we could potentially release the Japanese version a little later to accommodate a simultaneous worldwide release. But from a financial standpoint, it just makes more sense to release it in Japan first—that way it’s out there. And then we work on the localization, make sure it’s really good, and release it in the west. Another thing is, for Earth Defense Force especially, amongst all the D3 Publisher titles, our development time usually takes quite a long time. Even for Earth Defense Force 6, we actually had to extend it a few times. The reason for that is because we want to maintain a certain level of high quality, that way the game sells and is received well by the fans. So that’s another factor we think about for Earth Defense Force. So in regards to your question, that’s one of the reasons why it gets pushed back and is not a simultaneous worldwide release.

“We do feel for our overseas audience—‘why does Japan get it first?’ That’s something that gets brought up, but there is some good in releasing the game later for our western audience. For example, in the last year since the game was released in Japan, Earth Defense Force 6 received a Japan Game Awards ‘Award for Excellence,’ which gives our western fans more confidence in buying the game. So we don’t think it’s all bad, and hopefully that sort of thing only helps us reach even more players overseas.”

You mentioned localizing Earth Defense Force 6 when everything was ready—when all the downloadable content was already released in Japan. Does that mean the downloadable content is going to ship with the game here, or is it still going to be a separate release?

Okajima: “How the two downloadable contents work in this game is like, once you cleared the game and are itching for more, that’s when we expect players to play the downloadable content. So will it be ready for launch? Probably. But we don’t want players to buy it at launch, because if you’re a brand-new player and immediately try to jump into the downloadable content, you’ll get destroyed, so we want to make sure you build up to the downloadable content. This isn’t set in stone, but just as an example, we might sell the first downloadable content a month after release, and then the next one another month after that.

“Furthermore, with the first downloadable content, it’s actually like a prequel to the story of Earth Defense Force 6 and 5, so if you don’t play the main game and go straight into that, you’ll be like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on here!’ So that’s another reason we wouldn’t want to sell the downloadable content at launch. The same basically goes for the second downloadable content. Once you play through the whole story, the downloadable content makes more sense. In order for the players to enjoy the downloadable content to its fullest, we’ll look at the data, see how many players are doing what, and then use that information to determine a release date for the downloadable content.”

Going back to my earlier question—whenever an Earth Defense Force game comes out in Japan, for the next year or so, all you see from fans in the west are comments like, “When is this game coming west?,” “I’m starting to lose hope,” and so on. Being a subsidiary, does D3 Publisher not receive any support from Bandai Namco when it comes to global releases? I know you said English voice recording is a big factor, but Bandai Namco releases games globally with English voices all the time…

Okajima: “Do you want D3 Publisher’s games to become like Bandai Namco’s games?”

You’re asking me? (Laughs.) Admittedly, I’m not one of those hardcore Earth Defense Force fans… (Laughs.) What do you mean by “become like Bandai Namco’s games?”

Okajima: “No comment. (Laughs.)”

Well then I’ll gather some comments and send them over. (Laughs.) Going back to downloadable content, are there plans for any additional downloadable content beyond what’s already been released in Japan?

Okajima: “Going back to what I said earlier, we wanted to finish the downloadable content and localize the whole package at once. If we were to do a third and fourth downloadable content, it would have been a bigger first package, meaning localization would have taken longer. We have it set for spring 2024 right now, but if we had done more downloadable content, then it may have become summer. We wanted to balance it out and make sure we got the game to our western audience as soon as possible.”

Can you talk a bit about how the on-screen action has evolved to accommodate new hardware, but still be playable on PlayStation 4? I’ve seen some complaints about frame rate for the PlayStation 4 titles. With Earth Defense Force 6, I’m sure there is even more on-screen action, especially with it also being on PlayStation 5, so how did you accommodate PlayStation 4 in development for that?

Okajima: “For Earth Defense Force 5 on PlayStation 4, there shouldn’t be too bad of a frame rate issue… I won’t lie, Earth Defense Force 4 on PlayStation 3 had those issues. Earth Defense Force 4 played really well on Xbox 360, but the PlayStation 3 version had terrible load times. On PlayStation 4, we didn’t have too many frame rate issues… Maybe split-screen… The explosions require a lot of processing, so if you’re playing split-screen and you’re both looking at an explosion, or 10 explosions, on both of your screens, that’s when you might experience something like that.

“As for Earth Defense Force 6, there aren’t too many upgrades for the PlayStation 5 version, because, like you said, we still need it to run on PlayStation 4. Which is also another reason why the PlayStation 4 version comes with a free upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version. We do have the obvious upgrades for the PlayStation 5 version, like faster load times with the SSD and 4K support. Unfortunately, this TV is a 1080p TV [that we just showed you the game on], so it’s actually not 4K, but it would potentially look four times better. If you do a side-by-side with 1080p and 4K, you can actually see it.”

You have four classes in Earth Defense Force 6, and new classes are rarely introduced in the series overall. What goes into determining when to introduce a new class?

Okajima: “Earth Defense Force 4 was the first time we went from two units to four units. And the reason we went from two to four is Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, which was an American-made spin-off title. From that point on, we didn’t want the mainline games to only have two units. That’s another reason we went from two to four. Also around that same time we started working on online play, and we wanted to separate the roles a bit when you’re playing online. Obviously you can play as the same units with your friends, but it’s nice to have all four players as different characters.

“We do talk about it a lot during the development for a new mainline Earth Defense Force title. The idea of whether we should add a new unit gets brought up, but it’s not as simple as just adding a new class and giving them new weapons. You have to think about the game balance—like making sure the enemies are able to react to that new character. It’s a very complex and difficult thing to do, and very hard to balance. That’s why it’s always tough. In regards to Earth Defense Force 7, we haven’t even started working on it, so obviously this could all change in the future, but that’s the gist of it.”

Thank you for your time, Okajima-san!

Earth Defense Force 6 is due out for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam in spring 2024 worldwide.