Touhou LostWord Pre-Release Interview with Community Manager Phantasma!

Self Introduction: Let's hear your name and what you do for NextNinja. 

• Hey everyone! My name is Phantasma and I work at NextNinja where I deal heavily in the direction of community management, marketing, and game planning for Touhou LostWord. If you’d like to know more you can always find me on our Discord server as well! (Link below!)

What is your favorite part about working on LostWord?

• It’s amazing to be able to be part of a project that aims to bring an IP that has 25 years of history behind it to the rest of the world. The amount of musicians, artists, and other creators we collaborate with is overwhelming and there’s never a boring moment with so much going on. 

Tell us about your favorite feature of the game.  

• I would have to say my favorite part of the game would be the story. The story of Touhou LostWord is completely different than what you may think if you only read the story in the tutorial, so I really recommend not skipping the story because once you get into the main plot things get really exciting. I’m sure existing fans of Touhou and anime in general will love the homages that are scattered throughout the story as well!

Do you have any fun stories about what it took to get the game localized?

• So much has happened in such a short period of time that it’s tough to recall. Maybe one “fun” moment was when we suddenly decided to change the name of game. We went around rushing for an entire day changing the name from Touhou Lost Word to Touhou LostWord. Yes, there’s no space.

What state will the game be launched in, and will we get the QoL from JP on launch?

• The game will launch with a variety of QoL updates from the JP version such as full auto combat, 2x combat speed, buffed Reimu Hakurei, interface changes, and many more things! We’ll be pushing to catch up with the JP version while doing our best to create an interesting experience while not burning everyone out.

Why is Touhou LostWord a turn-based RPG instead of a danmaku (bullet hell) game?

• One of the biggest reasons for creating Touhou LostWord as a turn-based RPG was to create an easily accessible game that anyone could play at any time and anywhere. While being a turn-based RPG, we’ve done our best to bring to life the feeling of Danmaku with Touhou LostWord.  Many of the bullet variations take inspiration from the original games and all skills have various bullets attached to them with a variety of effects.

What inspired NextNinja to Bring Touhou LostWord to English?

• At NextNinja one of our goals is to bring our games to the rest of the world, so from the get-go Touhou LostWord was something we wanted to bring to everyone. Of course, another reason is that we want to introduce the world of Touhou to those who have yet to discover it in hopes of empowering an already great fandom. We really look forward to bringing Touhou LostWord to more people around the world in English and hope everyone enjoys the ride with us!

Are the collaborations intended in the future of the game?

• There are currently no collaborations planned. 

Are there going to be any EN specific/unique events/campaigns?

• It’s tough to create unique in-game events only for the EN version, but we do hope to have some unique campaigns and community events!

Will we be able to transfer our JP accounts to EN?

• Regretfully it won’t be possible to transfer between the two versions of the game.

Will we get more ways to bind our account?  I.e. Google, etc.

• We’re looking at adding more binding methods in the future, so if there’s one you would like please let us know via Discord!

Who is your favorite team?

• I don’t have a favorite team, I use a variety of characters in various formations! I try to make use of all my characters as much as possible, especially with all of the element bonuses and resists that are in Touhou LostWord.

Will there be merchandise related to Touhou LostWord since GoodSmile is publishing the game?

• We’ve already released a lot of Touhou LostWord merchandise in Japan, and we have lots more on the way! Most recently we announced the production of a scale figure of Youmu Konpaku!