Escape from the death trap with the mysterious girl "Katia". Special fan meeting for the VR game "Last Labyrinth" where the secret story of its production was told.

A SPECIAL fan meeting for "Last Labyrinth," a VR adventure game about escaping from being strapped into a wheelchair with the help of a mysterious girl named Katia, was held in Tokyo on December 1, 2019. This was scheduled as a benefit for achieving the Kickstarter backer mission for the game, and lucky fans selected by lottery enjoyed a mini-live and talk session.

Last Labyrinth" is a VR adventure game for PC, PS4, and Oculus Quest. The player is strapped into a wheelchair, and with the help of a mysterious girl named Katia, he tries to escape. Katia does not speak the language and is unable to move herself, but the player solves the mystery by giving Katia instructions with a laser pointer in her hand. After attracting attention by exhibiting at the 2016 Tokyo Game Show, the game finally began distribution on November 13, 2019.

The fan meeting started with a mini live performance by Stephanie Joosten, who plays Katia, singing the theme song "Last Labyrinth". Ms. Joosten is a Dutch model, actress, voice actress, and singer. She is famous for her role as the live-action model, voice actress, and motion actor for "Quiet" in "METAL GEAR SOLID V THE PHANTOM PAIN. The theme song was composed by Hiroki Kikuta, who has composed music for such masterpieces as "Secret of Mana," "Trials of Mana," and "Soul Calibur V. The theme music for "Last Labyrinth" is a fusion of top-notch talents. Fans in attendance listened intently to the beautiful vocals in the fictional language used in the game.

Next, the talk show began. First, Ms. Joosten was joined by "Last Labyrinth" director/producer Hironori Takahashi, Mr. Kikuta, and sound designer Takuya Hanaoka, who revealed the secret story behind the music development. It was decided to ask Mr. Kikuta to write the theme song for this title because Mr. Takahashi was a personal fan of Mr. Kikuta. When Mr. Kikuta heard the outline of the game at the first meeting, he immediately "came up with the melody," as one would expect from a veteran. The theme song was a perfect fit for the image that Mr. Takahashi had in mind, and he praised Mr. Kikuta, saying, "Mr. Kikuta is a psychic.

The theme song uses a fictional language, which was so difficult for Ms. Joosten to sing. He started with the question of how to pronounce the language, and then added the atmosphere of the Dutch sound, which is Josten's native language, and came up with the current form. As for the meaning of the lyrics, the developers have the correct answer, but they will not reveal it. Mr. Takahashi said, "Let it be a mystery," and left the interpretation to the players. Mr. Hanaoka created a variety of sound effects, but said that he worked on the trap sounds based on his understanding of their materials, mechanisms, and sizes. It is interesting to note that some of the trap sounds were processed from the sounds of electrical appliances. The theme was to create physiologically unpleasant sounds that would upset the player's emotions, and Mr. Hanaoka said that he did not want to create such scary sounds himself.

Next, Takahashi, Joosten, lead environment artist Michiko Kusaba, and level designers Azusa Amemori and Daegon Park talked about the game's components under the theme of "House of Death.

The house in which the game takes place is filled with many terrible traps. The offer from Mr. Takahashi to the level designers was quite a challenge, as he said, "It looks easy, but I got stuck. Since it was the first time for the members to develop a VR game, there were cases where "traps created on the desk were surprisingly boring when turned into VR. It is interesting to note that after repeating the process of making and adjusting the traps, everyone got better at working with the HMD (head-mounted display) on their foreheads.

The traps were created both by first creating the mechanism of the puzzle part and by creating the way the player dies if he or she fails. For example, in a scene where a blade pierces the player's body, the members of the team were very particular about the angle at which the blade pierces the player's body: "The angle is too shallow, so the player will not die! The blade must go through the player's chest so that he cannot avoid it! The player was so persistent that he had to stab the blade into his chest so that he could not avoid the scene. One of his ideas was to have the player look up at his torso after being decapitated by a guillotine, but the idea was rejected due to rating issues. When Mr. Joosten visited the development site, he was surprised to hear that the staff members were so happy to explain the method of death.

Amemori spoke vividly on the topic of how to die, passionately saying that the aforementioned guillotine was his "dream way to die" and that the blade was his "favorite way to die. On the other hand, Amemori's favorite point was the cute movement of Katia when she was left alone. Both the way she dies and the cuteness of Katia are important to improve the game, and in other words, they are the result of a craftsman's spirit.

Incidentally, in the initial "Last Labyrinth," Katia, with her seven tools, worked with the player to solve the riddles, and the death by failure was an element added later. The horror elements are not the main focus of the game, and Josten said, "It's a horror game for people who don't like horror," so it may be possible to play it for Katia's cuteness.

The final theme was "the existence of Katia. Takahashi and Joosten, as well as technical artist Tatsuma Tanaka, who designed Katia's character, character artist Tabari Kimia, who designed the mysterious man "Phantom," lead animator Atsuko Fukuyama, and animator and technical artist Broadhead Alexis Jasmin, lead animator, and animator/technical artist, discussed the characters of "Last Labyrinth" with the group.

Katia's design was chosen through an in-house competition. Normally, the illustrations are drawn in 2D, but this time, the emphasis was on the presence of the character in the VR space, and the team suddenly began working on a 3D character. It was Josten's performance that brought Katia to life. She says that it was more difficult to maintain tension when recording Katia's screams, in which she was badly injured, than when speaking in a fictitious language, and she began to feel sorry for the character.

The phantom is the one who gets involved with Katia. Regarding this mysterious man, although many players who have actually played with him have said that he is terrifying, it is surprising that he was not designed with an emphasis on horror or terror. Its concept is "a man of mystery" and "a feeling that anyone can be a phantom. The design was created to match the dark scenery of the pavilion. Even though the design looked fine on the production tools, it often turned out to be different from the image when placed in the VR space, so they repeated making and adjusting the design. Josten also commented, "The phantom's presence is so strong that it is scary just to see it approaching. （It is scarier than the scene where Katya dies.

When asked about their favorite scene in the film, the staff members were unanimous in saying that the scene where they collaborated to play "Animal Shogi" was their favorite part of the film. The frustrated phantom is given a fine performance, so it would be good to check it out again when you play the game.

After the event, a joint interview was conducted with Takahashi, Kikuta, and Josten. The following is the content of the interview.

--First of all, please tell us how you felt after the event.

Takahashi: I thought the fans were very warm.

Josten: Everyone seems to be playing the game thoroughly, and I was happy to hear their various impressions.

Kikuta: The distance between the game and the players is very close, a bit like the old days. I think it's great that we can talk face to face, because it feels very close.

--Kikuta: I think it's great that you can talk to the players face to face.

Takahashi: I'm glad to hear that people are more attached to Katia and Phantom than we thought they would be.

Josten: I could feel that the staff put a lot of love into the game. I was very happy to hear that "even though we don't understand each other's language, we seem to be able to communicate with Katia.

Kikuta: I thought this game would be more bloodless and tearless. I was glad that we didn't make it bloodless and tearless because both the players and the staff treated the game with so much love (and the music) (laughs). VR is a new medium, and I am glad that I was able to help shorten the distance between the players and the game by creating music for it.

Takahashi: Mr. Kikuta gave me notes on the directional intent of the music, and I sometimes reflected those notes in the ending of the game. I think that Kikuta-san's music made the world of the game clearer.

--The collaboration with "Doubutsu Shogi" drew a lot of attention.

Takahashi: Originally, we were thinking of including an original game, but we decided on "Doubutsu Shogi" because we wanted something simple but profound that could be used in a game. We thought that as long as players understood the basics of "move pieces to get the king (lion)," they would be able to understand the rules as they played the game.

--The game is open to players' interpretation, so there has been a lot of discussion on SNS and other social networking sites. What are your impressions of this kind of thing?

Takahashi: I watch them with a grin on my face (laughs). (Laughs.) As the creator, I have a set of settings and intentions, but I think it is okay for each user to feel differently about it. That is the meaning of what I proposed in the video. This may be my ego as a creator, but I want everyone to think about it.

--If you were to enter the world of "Last Labyrinth," who would you like to be: the main character, Katia, or the phantom?

Takahashi: I wouldn't want to be any of them (laughs). ......If I had to say, I would say the main character. Because you can escape if you work hard under your own responsibility.

Joosten That's very difficult. The protagonist has to make a lot of tough choices.

Kikuta I think I would like Katia. Katia in the game is a very nice girl, but I want to be a bad Katia (laughs). She lies without hesitation, smiles with a cold face, and dies together with the main character. She also wears different colors of clothes.

Takahashi: A fake Katia.

Josten: If there were such a Katia, I would hate playing games (laughs).

(laughs) -- Will there be opportunities to experience the game in the future?

Takahashi: We are planning to hold a trial session or two before the end of the year. We also plan to distribute the trial version on platforms other than Steam. In addition to this, we will also continue to offer trial games at TSUKUMO, and if they have VR equipment, you can play the game if you request it.

--Thank you very much.

The theme song "Last Labyrinth" composed by Mr. Kikuta and sung by Joosten is available on major streaming and download sites from November 29, 2019. Those who are interested should download it.

（For more information, please contact)

• Distribution information
• Song title: "Last Labyrinth" / Stefanie Joosten/Hiroki Kikuta
• Available on major streaming and download services

• Major download services: iTunes Store, Recochoku, mora, etc.
• Major streaming services: Apple Music, Spotify, LINE MUSIC, Amazon Music Unlimited, AWA, KKBOX, Rakuten Music, RecMusic, YouTube Music, etc.

↓You can download and listen to the song from each distribution site at the URL below.

#

• Last Labyrinth" Game Outline
• Title: Last Labyrinth Genre: VR escape adventure game
• Compatible HMDs: PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, HTC Vive Pro, HTC Vive Cosmos, Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, Oculus Quest, Windows Mixed Reality Headset, Valve Index
• Compatibility: PlayStation 4, PC equivalent to the above HMD recommendations (Intel Core i5 4590/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or higher)
• Distribution stores (download only): PlayStation Store, Steam, Oculus Store, Microsoft Store (to be released at a later date)
• Players: 1 player Online mode: not supported
• Now on sale
• CERO: D
• Price: 3,980 yen (excluding tax) - *Depends on the distribution store.
• Official website: https://lastlabyrinth.jp
• Copyright Notice: (C) 2016 AMATA K.K. / LL Project