ARM Backup/Ar Portal translation/Dokkoi Festival/01-11

Q.まずは名前と性別をどうぞ。	Q. Please tell us your name and gender.
A.土屋　暁　　音子。	A. Tsuchiya Akira, soundmale.

Q.アルトネリコ」の世界に何で関わっていますか？	Q. Which was your role in the [Ar tonelico] world?
A.肩書きとしてはディレクターですが、その実雑用とサンドバッグ役です。 後は、企画、システム仕様、シナリオ、作曲、ムービーなどなど。 ワガママ言って、やりたい事一通りやらせていただいた感じです。 寛大なる社内スタッフに大感謝m(__)m。	A. Though my title is director, I actually was in charge of the chores and serving as a sandbag. For the rest, I was in charge of the planning, system specifications, scenario, music composition, and movies, among others. I may sound selfish for saying this, but I generally could do whatever I wanted. Therefore, I'm truly grateful to the company staff for being so tolerant of me m(__)m.

Q.「アルトネリコ」のキャラで個人的に思い入れのあるキャラは？

Q. Are there any characters you personally got attached to from the ones in [Ar tonelico]?

A.自分で産んだ子はみんな等しく可愛いモノですが、特に思い入れの有るキャラと言えばシュレリアでしょうか。 実はシュレリアというキャラは、この企画を立ち上げた２００４年をさかのぼること遙か昔、１９９３年生まれなのです。それは、この世界が生まれるよりも前の誕生でした。 シュレリアはその昔、私の創ったもう一つの仮想世界「エルカドー ル」の魔法神という肩書きで誕生しました。今となってはアルトネリコの世界「ソルシエール」の管理者ですが、昔は本当にファンタジー世界の神だったんですよね。当時とは容姿は変わりましたが、「アレ」な性格は殆ど変わっていません。どんな性格なのかはゲームをプレイして自分の目で確かめてみてくださいませ。そういう意味でもシュレリアは本当に長年連れ添った仲のような、そんな不思議な想いを持っています。 余談ですが、アイテムに「フェベスの実」というものがありまして、これは更に昔、１９９０年生まれです。まだ当時私は高校生でしたよ。

A. They're all the beloved children I've given birth to, but if I had to say which one I've got the greatest emotional attachment to, I think it's Shurelia. To be frank, Shurelia's character can be traced back to long before we came up with this project in 2004, as she was actually born in 1993. In other words, she was born before this world was created. Back then, Shurelia was born as the Goddess of Magic for another fantasy world I had made called "El Kador". She has now become the Administrator of the Ar tonelico world "Sol Ciel", but back then she truly was the Goddess of a fantasy world. Her appearance has changed from back then, but "that" characteristic personality of her hasn't changed much. I hope you'll be looking forward to playing the game and finding out by yourself what kind of personality she has. And while this is kind of a digression, we have an item in the game called the "Seed of Phebes", which I initially created in 1990. That was back when I was still in high school.

Q.「アルトネリコ」のキャラでお嫁さんもしくはお婿さんにしたいキャラは？

Do you have any characters you would like to have as your wife or husband from the ones in [Ar tonelico]?

A.微妙…。と言ったらマズイか（汗 彼女とかではなく「お嫁さん」ですか…。むむむ…人生設計は慎重な方なので、 めちゃくちゃ悩みます（優柔不断なだけ）。彼女にするならオリカなんだろうけどなぁ 。 アホアホなセンス炸裂して楽しそう。まあでも、つき合ったら多分そのまま結婚してしまいそうです。ずっと愛し続けてくれそうだし。とりあえず、ネーミングセンスだけは気をつけておかないとだけどね。 お婿さんならアヤタネ！（…） 炊事洗濯家事掃除全部やってくれそうだし。

A. That's hard... but it'd be in poor taste if I answered that, right? (*sweatdrops* If it's not going to be a girlfriend, but a "wife"... Hmmm... That's really important in one's life plan, so that's really troubling for me (because I'm so indecisive). But if it's a girlfriend, I think I'd pick Aurica. She's brimming with an absurd sense of humor, so it'd be fun. But well, most likely we'd end up marrying if we started dating, and I think we'd continue being in love for a long time. I'd have to watch out for her naming sense though. As for a husband, it's Ayatane! (...) It looks like I'd be able to ask him to do everything in the house, from cooking to laundry, housechores and cleaning.

Q.「アルトネリコ」のキャラに自分を例えると誰？

Q. Which [Ar tonelico] character would you liken yourself to?

A.いや、ライナー以外あり得ないです。 私の地でそのまんま書かせていただいたような。 特に「決められないところ」とか、優柔不断なところとか。 ただ、真面目な話をしますと、お話の書き手としては、最低限自分自身は共感できる発言や行動で物語を書いていかないと、出来上がるモノは薄っぺらいものになってしまうと思うわけです。ですから、良くも悪くも主人公は私自身の経験やら思想理念などを行動の基準に置いているのは確かです。

A. Anybody but Lyner's unthinkable to me. Especially when it comes to "not being able to make my mind up", as I'm kind of indecisive. But speaking seriously, I thought that as a writer, anything I made would seem shallow if I didn't write a story where I couldn't empathize at minimum with his words and actions. Therefore, for better or worse, we can accurately say that I drew upon my own experiences and ideals to make the standards for the actions of our protagonist.

Q.このキャラになってみたい！男女一人ずつなってみたいキャラを挙げてもいいですか？

Q. I want to be this character! Please tell us one female and one male character you'd like to be.

A.んー…みんな何かと辛そうなのでちょっと…（爆弾発言）。 やっぱり平和な世界でのんびり暮らせるのが一番です。 で、自分がなりたいキャラですが…タスティエーラかな。 ちょっとカッコイイ。 でも、実はゲーム中でも明かされないタスティエーラの秘密があって、これはちょっとかっこわるい…。飢え死にしそうになってるところでシュレリアにお弁当をわけてもらって一命を取り留めました。 いや、本当です。もしかしたら設定資料本とかに載るかもしれませんが、ゲーム内では一生明かされないと思うので、ここで暴露しておきます。

A. Hmm... everybody seems to be suffering so much somehow... (bombshell statement)... Yes, being able to live at ease in a peaceful world is the best. But if I had to choose a character I'd like to become... I think it'd be Tastiella. She's kind of cool. But actually, Tastiella has some secrets that aren't unveiled even in the game, which are kind of uncool... for example, there was a time when she narrowly escaped death because Shurelia shared her lunch with her when Tastiella was about to die from starvation. Yes, it's true. It's possible we'll end up writing that episode in the setting encyclopedia or somewhere else, but as I don't think it gets explained at all in the game, I'm unveiling it here.

Q.このキャラ一回殴ってやりたい。	Q. Please tell us which character you'd like to punch once.
A.ボルド。 殴りやすそうじゃない。	A. Bourd. He wouldn't be easy to punch though.

Q.「アルトネリコ」の世界に観光旅行！　どこに行きたい？

Q. You can go on a sightseeing trip to the [Ar tonelico world! Where would you like to go?

A.天文台！…人住めませんが…。 私は人外魔境大好き人間です。 一面地の果てまで草原の中に、ぽつんと巨大なモノリスや木、あるいは扉だけが有るような風景が大好きだったり、ヒューマンスケールを超越した世界（例えば座礁したタンカーの近くとか）に身震いしたりします。変なヤツですみません。 なので、きわどそうなポイントにある天文台は最高です。更に余談です が、この辺でかかるBGMは個人的に最高です。 ものすごく人外魔境っぷりが発揮されていて、「凄いところまで来ちゃったなぁ…」という雰囲気がヒシヒシと伝わってくるためです。

A. The Observatory! ...Even though no people live there... It's because I'm a guy who likes uninhabited areas. I like sights such as an enormous, isolated monolith or tree that's standing at the very end of a flat grass field, or a place that only has a door standing, which are worlds that transcend human scales (like for example, the areas around a stranded tanker), which really make me giddy with excitement. I'm sorry for being such a weird guy. So, the dangerous points the Observatory has are why it's the best place for me. The BGM that plays around that place is personally my favorite too, but I digress. It's because we acutely made it to demonstrate it's an amazing uninhabited area, and to make it convey an atmosphere of "We reached such an amazing place...".

Q.使ってみたい詩魔法は？	Q. Which Song Magic would you like to try using?
A.えと、本当に使ってみたい詩魔法はネタバレ圏内だそうですので、次点として「ライフウォーム」とか。癒されます。 そういえば、ライフウォームの詩曲を創っています（今、リアルタイムでですよ！）。 OVAに封入されますので、是非聞いてみてくださいね。	A. Um, the Song Magic I'd really like to try using is within the realm of spoilers, so I'll just say the runner up is "Life Warmth". It truly heals me. That reminds me, I'm currently working on composing the Song for Life Warmth (as in now, in real time!) It will be included in the OVA, so please make sure to give it a watch!

Q.食べてみたいアルトネリコ名産品は？

Are there any famous specialties from Ar tonelico you'd like to eat?

A.えと…ドッコイ定食。と銘菓オボンヌ。 銘菓オボンヌは、うちのデザイナー（こういうのを描かせたら一番！）が 是非描きたい！是非描かせてくれ！といって描いてくれたものです。ゲーム中に見られるアイテム絵はとても小さく潰れているので某東京銘菓のように見えます。 しかし実は顔が全然違っていて、超イケてない感じが素晴らしい一品に仕上がっています。彼女は他にも魔法デザインをやっていて、今回のアルトネリコの世界に素敵なイケてない感を沢山注入してくれてます（誉め言葉です）。 是非その素敵な妄想魔法の世界を堪能してください。

A. Hmm... the Dokkoi Set. And the Funbuns. The Funbuns were something that our designer asked us to draw (as in "I want to draw this the most"), and she went all "I wanna draw this!" "Please let me draw this!" The item picture in the game itself is rather small and smudged, but it looks like a certain famous confectionery from Tokyo. But the face is completely different, with the lack of a super stylish feeling to it being what makes it such a wonderful product. She also designed several of the magics in addition to it, so she definitely added a lack of a super stylish feeling in heaps to the world of Ar tonelico (and I mean it as a compliment). Therefore, I hope you all enjoy that wonderful and absurd magical world!

Q.「ここが好き！」っていう場面をちょこっとだけ。	Q. Please tell us a bit about a scene that made you go "I love this!"
オリカ、ミシャの精神世界の深部…です。 精神世界という概念自体にあまり前例がないので「試行錯誤しながら自分で創っ たもの」という達成感も思い入れの元かもしれません。 とにかく、精神世界レベル６以降まで、頑張って進めてみてください。彼女たちの精一杯がそこにはあります。	It'd be... the deepest layers of Aurica's and Misha's Soulspaces. The Soulspace itself is a concept that has next to no precedent, so I may have a sense of accomplishment and attachment to it as being "something we made on our own through trial and error". Anyway, please do your best to keep advancing beyond Soulspace Level 6. The greatest efforts for them both are there.

Q.自分が担当した部分で「ここに注目！」なとこを教えて下さい。

Q. Please tell us if there was any point in the work you were in charge of where you got all "Pay attention to this!"

A.えと、エンディングに繋がるところと、エンディングテーマソングです。 私自身RPG大好きで、結構プレイしたりするのですが、とにかくしっかりと完結するお話が好きだったりします。その為、エンディング周りはかなり重点的にじっくりとシナリオを作成しました。プレイし終わったときには、一本の大長編を完結したような満足感と、心地良い名残惜しさを得るのではと思います。 一足先にサントラでＥＤ曲を聴いてしまった方も、どうしてあのような曲になっているのか、プレイすればまた新鮮な気持ちで聴くことが出来ます。全てに意味がありますから、是非エンディングを迎えて、その意味を確かめてみてくださいね。

A. Umm, it'd be everything related to the ending, and the ending theme song. I love RPGs myself and I have played many of them, but I really love stories that have a proper conclusion to them. That's why I wrote the scenario while giving a special importance to everything related to the ending. When you reach the end of your playthrough, I think you'll have a sense of finality and also comfortable reluctance to it all ending like the one you'd have from finishing a long novel. Even those players that went a step further and listened to the ED song in the soundtrack will be able to listen to it once again with fresh feelings once they have played through the game and find out why that song has the sound it has. Everything has a meaning, so please make sure to reach the ending and find out the meaning by yourself.

Q.制作期間にあった笑えるエピソードをひとつ暴露して下さい。

Q. Please reveal to us a funny episode that happened during production.

A.ウチの社内には、トンデモなデザイナーが一人生息しています。 この話は、そのデザイナーが敵キャラのアニメデータを制作していたときのことです。 今回、いわゆるスライム系に当たるモンスターで「ポム」というのがいます。このモンスターのバリエーション（例えば色違いなど）を創っている最中に、その事件は起こりました。「色変えるだけじゃつまらないですよね」と言うデザイナー に、私は「おおっ！そうだなっ！」と気楽に相づちを打ってしまいました。しかしこれがこんな事になろうとは。 ある日、それとなくデザイナーの作業をしている後ろに回り込んでみました。 「！！」 そこには３段に重なった、まるでダンゴ●兄弟のようなポムが！「な、何をやってるんだこの子は！」と思いましたが、感性に任せることにしてその場はスルーしました。 そして次の日、何だか胸騒ぎがしたので、またそれとなくデザイナーの作業を覗 いてみたのです。 すると… 「！！！！」 ３段に重なったポムに手足が生えてるじゃありませんか！ しかも不気味に無表情で走ってる！！ 「ま、待て待て待て！」 思わず吹き出し、作業を止める私。 「えっ！？」 真顔できょとんとしてるデザイナー。この人はマジだった…。 その後、社員全員で集まり（笑）、存分に笑い転げた後、この不気味なポム達を採用するか否かが話し合われました。結果的には当たり前のようにボツになってしまいましたが（チッ…）、実は辛くも生き残ったトンデモ種もいるみたいです。 それは何なのか、口に出しては言えませんが、是非とも自分の目で確かめてみて ください。

A. Our company is inhabited by an absurd designer. Back when this happened, this designer was making the animation data for the enemy characters. These enemies were the monsters equivalent to slimes, which we call "Poms". While they were making the variations (like palette swaps) for these monsters, this happened: the designer said "just palette swapping them is boring, don't you think?", to which I replied half-heartedly with a "Yes! That's right!" But that's what led to this happening. A certain day, I accidentally looked above the shoulder of the designer to see what they were doing. "!!" What I saw were 3 Poms stacked upon each other, as if they were part of a Dango●Kyodai! I thought "w-what are you doing!?", but feeling sensitive, I ignored it. And the next day, feeling something was wrong in my chest, I decided to check up again on what that designer was doing. "!!!!" The 3 stacked Poms now had hands and feet! And what's more, they were eerily running around with inexpressive faces! I blurted out "W-wait wait wait there!", causing them to stop working. The designer then looked at me with a serious face while shouting "Eh!?". This person was serious... Afterward, we convened a full company meeting (lol), and after rolling on the floor while roaring with laughter, we decided to discuss whether these eerie Poms would be used or not. The final result, naturally, is that they were rejected (phew...), although actually it seems there were some absurd species that managed to narrowly avoid that fate. As for what these species are, I won't be saying it myself, so please look forward to seeing them with your own eyes.

Q.制作中で楽しかったことは？

Q. Did you have fun during production?

A.初の試みとなる「詩魔法による戦闘」が、徐々に形になっていくのを見てるのがとても楽しかった。今回、戦闘を担当した企画とプログラマーがとても頑張ってくれて、私の企画にあった穴を埋めてくれたり、より面白くしてくれたりしてくれ、かなり完成度の高いものに仕上がりました。 その課程で何度となく試行錯誤があり、失敗したり上手くいったり…とにかくその殆どに立ち会い、その場でプレイしては感想を言うのが私の仕事でした。そして毎回新鮮な何かを創りだしてくれていて、開発中は本当にその試しプレイをするのが楽しみでした。 最初リアルタイム戦闘だった詩魔法戦闘ですが、最終的にはコストターン制に落ち着きました。しかし、今回のコストターンは普通の戦闘とはひと味もふた味も違います。私はＲＰＧ好きですが、どちらかというと戦闘は苦手な人で、それより早く先の展開を見たい方の人です。しかし、その私ですらアルトネリコは、デバッグ中も戦闘にハマってしまったくらい楽しかったのです。早くこの戦闘を皆さんにご披露したい！という気持ちで一杯です。 そんなわけで、この新しい戦闘システムの制作を見るのが開発期間中の楽しみだったという感じです。

A. I had a lot of fun with the initial trials we had for making a "Song Magic combat" system, and seeing the battle system slowly take shape. The planners and programmers in charge of the battles really worked hard, filling the holes in my plans as we went, and allowing things to become more interesting, with the final result feeling quite complete and realized. We had to engage countless times in trial and error for this to happen, and thus were a lot of failures... I was there most of the time, so it was my job to play through these trials and give my impressions on the matter. We managed to make something fresh every time, so doing the test playing on all of these mid-development builds was really fun. Our Song Magic combat was initially done through a real time battle system, but we ultimately decided to use cost-turn system. However, this cost-turn system has one or two things that give it a different flavor from normal battles. I love RPGs, but if I had to say what kind of player I am, I'm one that isn't really that good at fighting and who prefers to get to the next story development as soon as possible. But even for someone like me, getting engrossed in the Ar tonelico battles even while I was doing the debugging work was really fun. I was filled with feelings of the type "I want to show everyone these battles now!" So we could say that overseeing the development of this novel battle system during the time we were working on the game was really fun.

Q.皆様にメッセージを一言。

Q. Please leave here a message for everyone.

A.私は音屋です。アルトネリコを始める前は、肩書きも一番上はサウンドデザイナーでした。そんな事もあり、今回のプロモーションは得意な「音」という分野でやらせていただきました。それ故、話題も音関係に集中しがちですが、ゲーム本体の方もそれ以上に力を入れて創っています。 正直なお話をしますと、究極の選択が有りました。当初私は、歌曲を５曲創る予定でいました。しかし、ディレクターという仕事は思いの外過酷で、作曲とゲー ム制作を両立出来なくなっていたのです。私が作曲に没頭してしまうと、ゲームの統一を取る船頭がいなくなってしまいます。完成度の高いゲームを創るには船頭は必要不可欠、更には今回の企画は初めてということもあり、私の頭の中にしか無いこともたくさんありました。開発も終盤に向かえば向かうほど、その仕事は大変になっていきました。 「いくら音楽に力を入れても、ゲームがクソでは本末転倒」なのです。私は自分担当のうち３曲を他のスタッフにお願いし、企画と進行に回りました。そして、 スタッフに多大な迷惑を掛けながらも、納得いくゲームに完成仕上げることが出来ました。社員が一丸となって創った作品がアルトネリコです。先の戦闘システムの話にかかわらず、全員が意欲的に制作してくれました。制作終了後に社員同士でキャラ話やアイテム話で盛り上がった事もありました。本当に、これほどスタッフ内で盛り上がったソフトも、近年では無かったかも知れません。 いろんな先入観があるかも知れませんが、このゲームは本当に、沢山の愛情を受 けて生まれてきた「いい作品」だと私は思っています。 音楽がいい！と、大変嬉しい感想を沢山頂いております。とても幸せです。だからこそ、音楽を好きになってくれた皆さんに、このゲームをプレイして欲しいと 思っています。その音楽は、ただの無意味な挿入歌では無いのだから。ゲーム内 で歌うシーンを見て、初めてその込められた意味はわかります。だから、皆さん にもその「詩」の真の意味を共有して欲しいと思っています。 出来る限りの事をやりました。一切手抜き無しです。 私が伝えたいことは、ただそれだけです。 長文、お付き合いいただきましてありがとうございました。

A. I am a sound creative. Before I started working on Ar tonelico, my title was Chief Sound Designer. Therefore, I decided to do the promotion for it based on my forte, which is "sounds". Therefore, while I focused mostly on the sound-related topics, we also made even greater efforts into the creation of the game itself. Honestly speaking, I had the final choice on everything. I initially had planned to make 5 songs for the game. However, the duties of a director are truly hard, which is why I couldn't compose and work on the game systems at the same time. If I immersed myself in composing music, the ship in charge of unifying the game would have been left without a captain, and a captain is essential for the game to come out as complete as possible, especially due to this being the first time I was in charge of a project like this one, as there were various elements and ideas that didn't exist outside my head. And the closer we got to the end of development, the harder the work became. It'd have been a case of "getting my priorities backward because of the game turning out to be shit despite how much effort we put into the music". I asked other members of the staff to write 3 of the songs that had been assigned to me, and we proceeded with the project. This caused the rest of the staff a lot of trouble, but it was thanks to their consent that the game came out as complete as it did. Ar tonelico is a work that all the staff members made by joining forces. This isn't any different for the battle system either, as all the staff members worked enthusiastically on it too. After we finished working on the systems, we had staff members get excited talking about the characters and the items. Honestly, this may have been the game that caused the most excitement among the staff members in recent years. This may sound biased in multiple ways, but I think this game is truly a "nice work" that was born while receiving plenty of love from its makers. We've received many impressions filled with happiness that state "the music is great!" It made me really happy. That's precisely why I want everyone who has liked the music to the game to actually play through it. These songs are no mere meaningless insert songs after all, and you will understand the meaning they hold for the first time once you see the scenes where they are sung in the game. Therefore, I wish for everyone to share the true meaning these "Songs" hold with each other. I have done everything I could. I did not leave anything half-done. That's all I wanted to convey to everyone. Thank you very much for reading these long responses!