Patapon and Ore no Shikabane o Koete Yuke‘s Shoji Masuda was once working on Namco Bandai and Imageepoch’s new PlayStation 3 RPG, Toki to Towa, the Japanese developer has revealed on Twitter.
“I had been involved in the planning of this project, and then I heard due to various circumstances that development was suspended,” said Masuda in a tweet. “Then I didn’t hear anything for so long, I was certain it got shelved. That title suddenly got announced in a gaming magazine so on my 52nd birthday, January 22nd, I’m feeling a little down.”
According to Masuda (in a separate, now deleted tweet), when Toki to Towa was still early in development, it had no title. Masuda felt it was bothersome to work on a game with no name, so he suggested the name Toki to Towa as the working title. The name, he admits, was taken from a 1943 Seiichi Hatano book of the same title (Time and Eternity).
“I was borrowing the title of the Seiichi Hatano book I was reading at the time,” he said, “but it seems like they used it straight up. I wonder if that is ok – no idea! lol.”
By the sound of it, it’s possible Imageepoch thought he, himself, created the title, and never bothered changing it.
Thanks, Hachimaki.