Reika exclusively interviews Yoo Hyun-suk, director and dancer of "NIKKE: Goddess of Victory"! Finally, a Fat Pose!

My name is Yoo Hyun-suk, and I am the director and dancer of "Goddess of Victory: NIKKE" at SHIFT UP.

My attitude toward game development has changed dramatically since the release of NIKKE. At first, we focused on "delivering games with excellent technical and visual aspects to users," but now we believe that the most important thing is " love for users," and that the "development side" and the "users" are both involved in the game development process. The most important thing is the emotional exchange between the "developer" and the "user," as the user loves the game. This kind of change in feeling is not possible anywhere else, so I can only thank the users for giving me this valuable experience.

In 2024, when we held our first fan meeting in Japan, we thought "users are not interested in the development side. "I thought they were not interested in the development side," but they welcomed me and even CEO Kim with gratitude. I am grateful for the emotional exchange that we had there, where we felt a sense of mutual familiarity with each other. I performed a dance there, and thanks to that, I have now started my career as a dancer. Originally, I had not planned to dance as part of the program, but after arriving in Japan, I felt so grateful to the users that I hurriedly practiced the dance at the hotel and decided to perform it on the day of the event.

It was the dance of the game NPC Mustang. It is not a cool dance, by the way (laughs).

Japanese users who have played the game until they get a character they like often say, " Thank you for making a game like this. It cheers me up to see the positive comments on SNS. Also, I often visit online communities where fan art, cosplay, and other forms of secondary creation are actively promoted.

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone.

One of the Japanese users who left a strong impression on me was at the fan meeting, and as soon as he saw me and CEO Kim, he started crying and said, "My wish came true. I also realized that "Goddess of Victory: NIKKE" is a game that is loved by so many people.

I am glad that I chose to create games as a developer, and I am glad that I could make people happy through my games.

I was deeply moved when I saw a person cosplaying today (September 28, 2024) with a 3D printer, handcrafting the parts of Tokativ one by one. That person came from the United States.

We look for IPs that are interested in collaborating with us from various angles, and thankfully, some IPs have expressed interest in collaborating with "Goddess of Victory: NIKKE". We decide on the IPs based on the topicality of the title and especially the compatibility with "Goddess of Victory: NIKKE". We are looking to see if the collaboration will highlight the strengths of the two titles and integrate them into one.

There are many titles we would like to collaborate with, and it is difficult to say exactly what we would like to do, but I can tell you one thing: "Stellar Blade" is a possibility.

We would like to hold more events in the future, and would like to increase the opportunities to meet with everyone.

If there is a chance to go to other regions, I would love to do so. I am known as a dancer these days, but I am also a developer, so I would like to visit as many cities as my development schedule allows.

The game I've been into recently is not something I'm proud of, but "Goddess of Victory: NIKKE"! I aim to create stories and battles that I find interesting to play, and I enjoy playing them the way I want to.

The game that inspired me to pursue a career in game development was " The Legend of Heroes 3: The White Witch ". That game taught me how scenarios and sound can affect a game. I learned how scenarios and sound could affect a game from that game, and I started to focus on scenarios and sound with "NIKKE".

I visited three times as a private visitor. This year's TGS was cooler, but the number of visitors was the largest to date, and I could feel the excitement in the air.

I wanted to try out Monster Hunter, but it didn't happen, so I was only able to visit the Level Infinite booth. I'll just have to hold off on playing it in my imagination....

I have played "Monster Hunter: World," "Monster Hunter Frontier," and many others. My main weapon is a bow.

I think the most important thing in a game is the scenario. I believe that everything starts with the scenario. I want the scenario of "NIKKE: Goddess of Victory" to play a central role in the game, so I have already designed the general framework for the next two years. So we want to deliver the main scenario to everyone while also delivering other contents to everyone, and of course we will listen carefully to our users' opinions and respond flexibly.

And while it may sound like a pipe dream, I would like to make "NIKKE: Goddess of Victory" a game that will last for more than 20 years, and I believe that if we create the above structure, the game will continue to be loved for many years to come. We have done our best for the past two years, and we will continue to do so in the future. Thank you very much for your continued support.