Disaster Report 4 Plus: Summer Memories director discusses recent delay

Disaster Report 4 Plus: Summer Memories game designer and director Kazuma Kujo discussed the game’s recent delay from October 25 to November 22 in Japan in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu.

Kujo stated that the game was delayed because “there were some bugs that we had to remove at all costs,” but the biggest reason was that “the creation of a specific areas were still rough.” He said that some areas had an extremely low level of perfection, so the main goal was to increase their quality. “Rather than everyone getting their hands on it, we wanted to polish it even further to improve the feel and have it live up to its usual quality. So we needed a month.”

The designer also touched upon the original Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, which was a PlayStation 3 title once planned for release in 2011, but cancelled in wake of the Touhoku earthquake and tsunami. In September 2011, Kujo tweeted that Disaster Report 4‘s cancellation was not due to the earthquake, but due to the fact that the game was not going to be completed by their target release date. He further iterated that he did not blame the earthquake or management at the time, but rather he did not believe that the development team had the power to complete the game. In 2012, Kujo said that when the game was canelled the scenarios were only “about half way done.”

Here are Kujo’s new comments from Weekly Famitsu:

• “If I were to say that Disaster Report 4‘s cancellation was completely unrelated to the earthquake, that would be a lie, but [the earthquake] didn’t have much to do with it. The main reason is that development was difficult.”
• “It wasn’t that the developer was bad, it was me who initiated the discussion with management about cancelling the release. Though at the same time I was recommending cancellation, I was thinking about a way to revive it.”
• “I am grateful for everyone who has been waiting for this game, including Irem who gave us the rights for it, and all those involved.”

Disaster Report 4 Plus: Summer Memories will be released for PlayStation 4.

Thanks, Ryokutya2089.