Within the fall of 2025, I had the good pleasure of attending Tokyo Recreation Present, a visit that additionally naturally included a number of pit stops to satisfy native builders and see what they had been as much as. On the final day of my journey, within the closing hours simply earlier than I went to the airport, I arrived at what I desperately hoped was the Onion Video games workplace. I used to be overburdened with two big suitcases, in another country, and uncertain of precisely the place it was. As I glanced up on the constructing the place I assumed I’d been directed to go, I caught a glimpse via a window of a silly-looking determine plastered on a wall: a person in an asparagus swimsuit.
Yeah, that was it.
I lugged up a flight of stairs to a non-descript door the place I tentatively knocked, and was shortly after greeted by James Wragg and Yoshiro Kimura. They welcomed me inside, and gracious invited me to sit down down at somewhat spherical desk coated in a pink and white checked tablecloth. Kimura supplied me some inexperienced tea from a big bottle. I used to be surrounded on all sides by bookcases of manga and a deluge of Onion Video games memorabilia, greater than I ever imagined existed for such a small studio.
What adopted was genuinely some of the heat and nice interviews I’ve ever carried out, however I’m going to want you to buckle up and bear with me for a bit to grasp why. Kimura is a real business veteran, a developer on video games reminiscent of Romancing Saga 2 and three, No Extra Heroes, and Little King’s Story, co-creator of Moon: Remix RPG Journey, and now-head of Onion Video games, which has created a protracted line of very foolish video games reminiscent of Million Onion Resort and Black Chicken, gained somewhat little bit of fame globally for its Western localization of the basic Moon a number of years in the past, and simply launched somewhat RPG referred to as Stray Youngsters this yr.
Stray Youngsters is a recreation constructed upon some very, very particular DNA. To grasp it, I actually suppose you want to perceive Moon, which initially got here out in 1997 for the PlayStation 1, however solely in Japan on the time. Moon is a goofy, esoteric RPG (Kimura will seek advice from it later within the interview as an “oddball” RPG) a few child who will get sucked right into a Dragon Quest-like online game, solely to find that the “hero” of the sport is definitely murdering harmless monsters. What follows is an the wrong way up journey the place you observe the “hero” round, rescuing the souls of these monsters and doing good deeds to place the world proper, elevating your “Lv” or “Love” as you go.
Moon was a really unusual recreation each for its time and even now, as I found after I performed its English localization for Nintendo Change in 2020. Its characters observe a full seven-day-long Majora’s Masks like time schedule, as a substitute of a soundtrack it has an in-game music participant with tracks from varied 90s Japanese underground bands, and its puzzles and ending are extraordinarily troublesome to sus out, even for a 90s recreation. It’s so on the market, that Onion Video games translated and printed the unique guide that got here with Moon and launched it on-line, so new gamers wouldn’t be completely misplaced as to why there was a timer within the prime nook of the display screen and why they stored collapsing for seemingly no motive.
However unusual as it’s, I feel Moon is really fantastic, and I’m not the one one who cherished it. Toby Fox helped bolster the sport’s profile a bit when he cited it as a significant inspiration for Undertale, and having performed each video games it’s extraordinarily simple to see the crossover. Kimura and Fox have since met and talked about their respective video games, a friendship that in flip appears to have impressed Kimura to make one other RPG, which takes us to Stray Youngsters.
On the time I carried out this interview, Kimura had simply let me play the primary, oh, 5 minutes of the sport earlier than its launch. In these jiffy, a younger boy with a dog-like face is visited at house by an older man, a stranger, who mainly convinces him to depart his home at evening and observe him to a subway station, via a secret passage, and right into a room stuffed with laptop displays. And that’s the place we stopped.
Having since performed the total recreation, I do know Stray Youngsters is about that boy getting sucked right into a online game world, identical to in Moon, and what follows is a very unbelievable subversion of Moon, which was itself a subversion of RPG tropes. Whereas it can stand alone, I suppose, so a lot of Stray Youngsters’s finest moments are predicated on understanding Moon, which results in it being a very area of interest expertise that can in all probability confuse some individuals who stumble into it. Nevertheless it’s the sport Kimura needed to make, with out compromise, even within the moments the place that lack of compromise turned irritating.
So with that background, right here’s my interview with Yoshiro Kimura, carried out over inexperienced tea and surrounded by little decals of the asparagus man and cows and varied different Onion Video games mascots. This was principally carried out in translation courtesy of Wragg, although there have been a number of factors the place Kimura stepped in and gave his solutions instantly in English. The interview has been very evenly edited for readability.
Yoshiro Kimura: My identify is Yoshiro Kimura, the Japanese recreation designer. I’ve been creating video games for greater than 25 years. If I calculate from after I was 12 years previous, I used to be making loads of video games for myself additionally. And now I am the boss of the corporate referred to as Onion Video games and Onion Video games is already 10 years previous, and I spend time making indie video games.
So Stray Youngsters clearly follows from Moon, and I do know you’ve got instructed the story of the way you ended up revisiting Moon and bringing it to Change and bringing it to English and the remainder of the world for the primary time. However what impressed you to start out making Stray Youngsters?
Kimura: I needed to make an RPG. I used to be occupied with making an RPG from the day we began Onion Video games, however creating an RPG requires loads of hit factors, loads of expertise. And once we began the corporate up, I did think about doing a Kickstarter to fund it, however I am not that well-known of a recreation creator, so I did not suppose I might get the assist. So as a substitute we went the route of constructing smaller video games first, like Million Onion Resort, Dandy Dungeon, Black Chicken. And we gained expertise, leveled as much as the purpose the place I felt comfy that we would be able to, not simply myself, however the staff would have the ability to deal with an RPG.
So regards to motivation for really making Stray Youngsters, there are a number of issues that kickstarted the thought in my thoughts. Clearly one among them is Moon, however anybody who’s performed Moon would know a sequel to Moon is not one thing that may be performed. And I actually like Moon myself as nicely, so I spent a very long time considering, “How can I make a recreation that has the identical type of really feel, ambiance, however with out being instantly linked to that recreation?” So as soon as I obtained to the purpose the place I may envisage the beginning and the tip of this new story, that was after I knew we had been prepared to start.
Even simply from the primary jiffy of Stray Youngsters, it looks like you are exploring a few of the identical themes: like childhood, disconnection from adults and possibly the character of what a online game really is or could be. Is that truthful to say?
Kimura: To reply that query, I am going again to the motivation for making an RPG within the first place. A part of that was desirous to make an RPG, a part of it was desirous to make one thing with the identical feeling as Moon. So it goes again to recollections of the video games I performed, my era performed, so the ‘80s, the ‘90s. Again then video games that I performed had a very sturdy affect on me. And seeing and listening to about new releases was a very thrilling factor again then. That have that I had up to now from video games, I needed to place that into Stray Youngsters for the participant to expertise anew.
So for me, these video games, they weren’t console video games a lot again then, partly they had been, but it surely was PC as nicely and a few arcade. However should you think about, again after I was a child, I used to be dwelling within the countryside. Someday I got here throughout this man who lived regionally and he had a C64 and PC, I do not know, ’88, ’98, no matter. So I am seeing video games like Ultima, Wizardry, some video games on the C64, and it is simply wonderful seeing… It is so new to me. And likewise within the arcade I am seeing Xevious from Namco, Mappy, that type of stuff. And I cherished these video games and I needed to place the sensation that I had again then into the sport so the participant can expertise it via it.
You made Moon, oh my gosh, what, 25… Extra? Nearly 30 years in the past?
Kimura: Perhaps 30 years in the past.
RPGs have modified and developed since then, so I am curious if there’s something you’ve got been taking part in within the final couple of years that has impressed you or made you suppose otherwise?
Kimura: It’s kind of of an odd reply I suppose, however first lately, some stuff I have been taking part in anyway and I suppose it has influenced me quite a bit, is I’ve been going via the primary 5 Dragon Quest video games once more on Famicom and Tremendous Famicom.
The unique variations?
Kimura: The unique, very exhausting one. And I do not know whether or not it is an inspiration, however I’ve definitely performed lately, Odencat’s Meg’s Monster.
However after I speak about inspirations, I all the time find yourself with Undertale. However earlier than I speak about that, I need to be sure that there is no misunderstanding. So I am fairly pleasant with Toby Fox and after I reply I am answering actually, however I do not need it to look like I am making an attempt to trip on the coattails, and don’t need the press chasing him for feedback.
However there is a component of affect from that and I feel… So Toby, he performs my video games proper after launch, typically earlier than launch. However I all the time ask him why, why he performs and why’s he having fun with them? He stated, “As a result of I like bizarre, oddball video games,” and I assumed, “Oh, nicely, that is the identical as me.” So after I considered Undertale, Undertale’s type of bizarre in some ways as nicely. And so in speaking to Toby, as a result of we have got this frequent curiosity, I really feel relaxed, a way of reassurance. Safety. I really feel comfortable speaking to him.
One of many issues that has fascinated me about Moon and Undertale and Stray Youngsters is it seems like they’re half of a bigger custom of bizarre, oddball video games which are all impressed by each other and in dialog with each other. I put the Mom video games in there, Contact.
Kimura: Yume Nikki.
Yeah. There is a bunch of them which are all taking part in off a few of the identical themes. And it has been fascinating to see the conversations publicly between you and Toby Fox, the place two completely different generations of recreation builders are inspiring each other forwards and backwards. And that is a very cool factor to see.
Kimura: It is like we’re type of pen mates virtually or diary mates. All these creators.
I feel all recreation creators share this sort of feeling, whether or not they share it with all different recreation creators or there’s simply the oddball recreation creators and the preventing recreation creators and the motion recreation creators, however I feel all people’s inspiring and impressed by their friends.
So who all is Onion Video games? How large is the staff? Is it individuals who have been with you for a very long time? Do you’ve gotten any newer builders?
Kimura: So from the core growth folks, there’s seven together with myself, and we have had some youthful folks be a part of lately, however they have been with us for 3 years, so that is the shortest. Then there’s individuals who’ve been with us from the beginning of Onion Video games, we have been working collectively about 11 years. And there is one of many programmers was the programmer from Chulip, in order that’s a very long time. However even longer than that, there is a coworker from my Sq. days, so I’ve recognized him for 30 years or so.
You talked about earlier you do not use this workplace anymore. Is everybody distant?
Kimura: So I am the individual most ceaselessly right here and one of many youthful staff members is commonly right here as nicely. So I work right here loads. And typically folks will are available in, however typically talking, once we’re all collectively it is once we’re consuming.
Are you working with the identical composers or any of the identical individuals who did the music for Moon?
Kimura: Yeah, mainly it is the identical composers. So Thelonious Monkees, which is comprised of [Hirofumi] Taniguchi-san, [Masanori] Adachi-san, and we have got [Keiichi] Sugiyami-san’s doing the sound results, so mainly the identical.
I interviewed them about how they composed Moon and obtained all these completely different artists collectively to do the Moon discs, the MDs is there something like that in Stray Youngsters?
Kimura: Not this time, we did not do something like that. That was one thing that we had been in a position to do due to the staff make-up of Moon itself. And I did not suppose that doing the identical factor once more with Stray Youngsters would have the identical impression. So I needed to go together with only a straight, new composition to the sport.
However we did use that, I overlook what it was referred to as in English, however the odd voice, the scrambled voice. The way in which we did it this time once more is we obtained the followers of Onion Video games to ship in plenty of… We have got followers all all over the world, so talking of their native languages, they despatched us plenty of voice clips they usually all obtained blended up and put again in. The Japanese model, I wasn’t in a position to get it to a stage that I used to be pleased with. However with the worldwide launch, that can all be type of like a director’s reduce of the odd voices.
So I noticed simply the very starting of the sport, however I’ve watched the trailers and so I’ve somewhat little bit of an image of what I am in for, however what are you able to inform me about the place this recreation goes? Particularly, it looks like you are encountering folks in some type of… There’s battles, but it surely’s not a battle. What are you able to inform me about what’s occurring in Stray Youngsters?
Kimura: That is really the primary time, in reminiscence, that someone’s requested me that. And it is such a mean and correct… Like a standard query, in a great way, that I have not had the chance to reply. So give me somewhat time to get the elevator pitch prepared.
[He thinks for a few moments.]
So it is an RPG, and as you noticed with a participant being sucked into the world of a online game in RPG, and in that world, because the title Stray Youngsters suggests, there is a kingdom constructed by youngsters and out of doors of that kingdom, exterior of that land is the place the adults, we name them The Olders, dwell. And also you talked about the battles, the battles… So underground, once you go away the security of the youngsters’s land, there’s these creatures dwelling underground and that is the place the battles happen. However within the battles, you may battle or you may discuss to the enemy, these creatures. And it is utterly as much as the participant how they method that.
Is that this a recreation the place the outcomes may very well be impacted by the way you work together with these creatures?
Kimura: That’s all the way down to the participant and the way they really feel, how they react to the- So when speaking about video games, the way in which I really feel about it’s, I can let you know concerning the techniques of the sport and possibly how they work, however what happens once you work together with these techniques and the sport’s story, and the way the sport performs out, I might fairly go away that as much as the participant to find, to expertise for themselves. As a result of I feel that not understanding what you are getting once you go into the sport provides a greater expertise to the participant.
Moon’s very humorous and your different video games are very humorous. And I feel humor could be very troublesome in video video games typically, as a result of at occasions video games strive very exhausting to be humorous and it comes off as disingenuous. However I do not know, I am curious the way you method making a recreation that’s cheeky and foolish and can make the participant chuckle? And particularly when it’s a must to then localize it as a result of localizing humor is a complete completely different problem in and of itself.
Kimura: So, it is a troublesome one to reply really. So I am not essentially, after I make video games, I am not seeking to manipulate how the participant’s feeling. I am not essentially seeking to make them chuckle as a result of a few of the humor, it would make some folks chuckle, however for different folks it would make them really feel virtually concern. After which I would make a scene that makes some folks really feel, “Oh, that is so unhappy,” however different folks would suppose, “That is merciless and horrible.” You performed the opening, proper?
Yeah.
Kimura: So it opens with this: The participant meets this man and mainly he takes him away someplace after which the participant will get sucked into this recreation world. It is type of humorous, however on the identical time it is also type of foreboding and the participant’s getting a way of anticipation but additionally, “Look, what is occurring right here?” And that is what I am going for, making an attempt to simply grasp the participant and actually draw their curiosity. And I feel that is frequent to all my video games. I am not essentially going for a sure feeling each time, simply mixing issues up.
So I get to occupied with what’s good, dangerous, black, white, good versus evil, is there even a transparent cut up? And I feel loads of it comes from the experiences I had and the adults I met after I was a child and the way I interpreted these experiences, these conferences. And so my video games, they’re primarily based in fantasy worlds, however there’s undoubtedly a sure ingredient of my previous experiences in them as nicely. I don’t know fairly what these are? I do not know as a result of it is all blended up inside, however I am certain a few of it’s in there. And that is very true of Stray Youngsters.
It is a actually, actually private recreation for you, then?
Kimura: Yeah. Yeah, it is private, but it surely’s additionally a bit of leisure. So it’s a product concurrently being a bit of artwork, I suppose.
What am I not asking you about that you simply want journalists would ask you?
Kimura: Aside from what kind of recreation is that this?
Haha, sure.
Kimura: I do not know, to be trustworthy. And the reason being, after I was at Marvelous Leisure and I used to be a producer, should you requested me about this or should you requested me concerning the recreation, I might have a ready reply. I may let you know what the gross sales factors had been from a advertising and marketing perspective, however I have been engaged on Stray Youngsters for 3 years now and I am unable to say particular factors that I like as a result of I prefer it all a lot. Whenever you requested me that query earlier, I could not reply right away, it is as a result of, A, I have not been requested but additionally, B, I haven’t got that clear reply anymore in my head. Under no circumstances. However should you’ve obtained any questions, I am an open e book proper now for solutions.
I like prompting folks I interview like this on the finish as a result of typically creators have one thing that is of their head that’s preoccupying them or that they are very enthusiastic about or that they consider on a regular basis, but it surely’s not all the time one thing that is been proven or introduced or apparent for somebody to ask about. So it is okay if you do not have a solution, however I like asking simply in case.
Kimura: Really, sure, having answered that, now I feel I understand what I needed to say. Once we dwell our lives, there’s oftentimes once we need to make clear what is correct and what’s incorrect, have every thing black and white. However lately, particularly lately, I have been considering that possibly that is not a good suggestion, and to have issues grey, have that lack of readability, an absence of a transparent dividing line between these two issues is a good suggestion. And I have been making an attempt to, in varied methods, have that ingredient a part of the sport. And I do know I play video games, I have been making for a very long time, I do know what the participant expects what a standard recreation must be, the user-friendly expertise. Perhaps there must be a warning at first, however I ought to express regret, simply that this recreation is not that means and it’s my intent to do this as nicely.
A number of video video games over time have tried to discover morality and as you say, in very black and white phrases, the place should you make sure selections, you get a superb ending and sure selections you get a nasty ending, and that is the way it works. And even Undertale and Moon actually labored that means, although I assumed Moon’s was…nicely, I obtained it incorrect the primary time. However I feel now, particularly on this oddball recreation area, there is a starvation to discover that somewhat extra deeply and with extra nuance. I am experiencing that proper now taking part in Deltarune, the place I feel the correct and the incorrect is rather less clear.
Kimura: It is fairly refreshing to talk about this. It is there, however I have not actually vocalized this stuff. I have been making this recreation for a very long time, like three years, so each day it is like my life’s power is being sucked into this factor that I am making. So on the finish of each day I am actually simply worn out. And such as you say, it’s an odd recreation, so I want to have the ability to specific within the advertising and marketing message from now… When we will launch the English model, I want to have the ability to inform folks all about it, however I simply haven’t got the power. I am like, “It is a little bit of an issue.”
So up till now, with all of the video games we have performed at Onion Video games, as soon as I’ve completed the sport, I shift gears into this advertising and marketing mode, however this time I simply have not been in a position to, so it is a utterly new expertise.
Nicely, I think about the smaller the sport, the extra private it’s to the folks making it. And I think about it’s extremely difficult to should promote what quantities to the contents of your coronary heart.
Kimura: I’ve obtained actually blended emotions about it and it is type of the identical feeling about all of my video games in some methods, and I feel individuals who like my video games would really like this, and those who do not, will not. However this time round, the most important distinction might be… As a result of the sport was on Nintendo Direct, albeit in Japan, much more folks in all probability find out about it, than previous video games. So I feel in all probability much more folks will purchase it, however I have been occupied with how some folks consider video games as a product and once you promote them, the more cash you make the higher. However I’ve lately been occupied with Stray Youngsters that my strongest hope is that the individuals who purchase it and play it would actually find it irresistible. And if that is only some folks, then no matter. I actually need it to succeed in the folks that it ought to attain and the opposite folks, if it does not attain them, then-
It’s actually a fancy collection of a mixture of feelings, however to repeat what I stated, I feel that having it attain the individuals who will prefer it, will actually resonate with, that is what I am actually in search of I feel.
Publish-Japan launch, we have been sharpening like loopy and every thing is way improved, however on the identical time I additionally realized that nevertheless a lot we had been enhance it, I am unable to please the entire folks on a regular basis. It is solely ever going to please the folks it is going to please.
[Translator pauses here and says, “I don’t know how to translate this. Please do your best to make it into a comprehensive whole.”] I have not spoken to… I would not say anyone, or that I have not spoken to the media, however I am half-feeling like once you get a bit tipsy and also you start- So it is in all probability not your typical article that you simply’d write.
Nicely, I feel you are higher at promoting your recreation than you suppose you’re.
I turned off the recorder right here, however I needed to anecdotally embody one final a part of our dialog that occurred earlier than Kimura despatched me off with what turned out to be a wonderful lunch advice, and has caught with me since. As we had been wrapping up, we obtained right into a dialogue about how overwhelming and oppressing the world feels these days, particularly should you’re on-line or tuned into the information.
Kimura shared that in response to this sense, he tries to concentrate on small joys. For example, he says he’s lately found at his native comfort retailer somewhat apple pie, that solely prices a pair hundred yen (a greenback, possibly virtually two in USD). Whereas the apple pie is supposed for one, he’s found out a particular means he likes to slice the pie into a number of items, after which he places only one piece within the oven at house earlier than he eats it in order that the perimeters grow to be golden and crispy.
On this means, he makes this very small pleasure last more, and it tastes even higher. That, he says, is how he’s making an attempt to dwell his life proper now.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Bought a narrative tip? Ship it to [email protected].