Grancrest War Creator Talks About Bonds And His Quartet Conflict Input

Creating a fantasy world that people can get invested in is no easy feat, but creator Ryo Mizuno is no newcomer. Mizuno created both Record of Grancrest War and Lodoss War. Siliconera recently spoke with Mizuno about the worldbuilding present in Grancrest War, as well as Record of Grancrest War: Quartet Conflict Producer Yurika Tsukita on how the mobile game was influenced by the world.

Siliconera: How does Record of Lodoss War connect to Grancrest War and how are the themes different between the two stories?

Ryo Mizuno, Grancrest War series creator: In general, they aren’t connected, but collaborations are possible because Grancrest has the same kind of system and feel. Both are war chronicle fantasies, so I think they have some common characteristics, like how they share depictions of people in the middle of war.

What I intentionally focused on in Record of Grancrest War, however, was the bonds between characters. For instance, the bonds between Lords, or between Lords and Artists, or between Lords and Mages. The story is set in a world with incredibly strong ties between people. In general, it is not easy to betray others, as there are vows between people. Subservient relationships, like those between masters and servants, are enforced with the presence of the crests, so it’s not easy to betray others.

However, that’s not the reason why betrayal doesn’t happen; the characters build relationships and create pacts because they trust each other, and because they have pacts, they don’t betray each other, or rather, they are loyal to their role or their relationship. In reality, I think it’s difficult for people to trust each other that much, but in Grancrest, I feel that the relationships of trust have created a robust world and have developed the story nicely. Next up, we’ll have character scenarios from Record of Lodoss War, so be sure to check it out!

Siliconera: How do you think anime has evolved from when the Record of Lodoss War OVA was created and how do you think it will evolve in the future?

Mizuno: The anime isn’t something I can create myself, and I’m only involved occasionally for the original story, so I enjoy watching the anime as a fan. Japanese animation used to be unique to Japan, but now I feel you find a lot of Japanese-style animation overseas, as well as things influenced or inspired by it. As a fan, I want Japan, as the originator of anime, to keep up so that it doesn’t fall behind the rest of the world. But there is an outpouring of great animations being created, so I enjoy them as a fan while giving my all with my own work.

Siliconera: How has your experience as a world creator and dungeon master shaped the gameplay of Record of Grancrest War: Quartet Conflict?

Mizuno: Well, I let other people handle that this time, so I only saw the finished product. When it was done, I tried it out and enjoyed it. *laughs* I did pass on some requests I had for things I wanted to see afterwards, though. I don’t know if I’m really good at creating dungeons, but I am good at creating scenarios, so I’m prepared to provide scenario plots or ideas if the opportunity should arise.

Siliconera: As a mobile game, Quartet Conflict looks like it’s designed for short burst play while tabletop games are games you have full focus on for a longer duration. How did you write the story and design missions so they’re compact and so players want to come back to the world of Grancrest?

Yurika Tsukita, Record of Grancrest War: Quartet Conflict Producer: The biggest feature of smartphone games is that they can be played casually and for short amounts of time, so we created the game with the aim of having simple controls that allow users to easily create awesome moves. The original story has a very rich world, so we struggled a little with integrating it into the game. I think in the end, though, we were able to balance things out nicely.

Changing between the four party members lets users decide how they will fight, so I think in that sense it feels much like a tabletop role-playing game.

Siliconera: How did you capture the big battles in Grancrest War anime series for the game?

Tsukita: After exploring how to express the epic battles, we settled on the idea of having guild battles. Having users join factions and participate in a large-scale war would really intensify things, and it matched the feel of the anime, so we decided to make guild battles the main feature of the game.

Siliconera: How can players team up with each other in the game?

Tsukita: Players appear as the fourth character in the deck, the helper. There is a high chance of members of the same guild being displayed as helpers, and they can assist other players in winning the battle.

Siliconera: There are original storylines made for the game too. How did you develop these with Mizuno-san?

Tsukita: Mizuno-sensei, and Yano-sensei who writes Grancrest Replay (and is also in charge of series composition), assisted as scenario supervisors. Actually, they oversaw the design of characters that only appeared in the original story and didn’t even have character specification sheets. These characters will be making their first appearances in this game.

Bandai Namco Entertainment will showcase Record of Grancrest War: Quartet Conflict at Anime NYC 2018. The company’s booth will have tablets running the game and an interactive photo booth with Union and Alliance frames. Also, players that log into Record of Grancrest War: Quartet Conflict between November 16 and December 25, 2018 will receive a 4 Star Aishela, ten 2 Star Power Stones, ten 2 Star Accessory Ingots and 25 Crest Stones.

Record of Grancrest War: Quartet Conflict is available on Apple iOS and Android devices.