What's interesting because you've got the two characters, Lucifel and Enoch, and it's a personal relationship, which is something that you wouldn't typically associate with a religious theme, I think.

TS: The main character, his name is Enoch, and he used to be a human, but he was very pure, so he was brought to heaven to work for God. And Lucifel, he is one of the strongest archangels. I think that's very interesting -- those two people working together with one purpose. So players might think "What is God is thinking about, to let those two people work together?"

In the story, you talk about how Enoch is a human whereas Lucifel is an angel. So, you think about how those two people would feel in that situation. Where one was "promoted", I guess, is the word. In a weird way, you can compare it to like a workplace scenario at your job or something like that.

TS: Well, the relationship between those people... For example, Enoch is very proud the fact that he is protected by one of the very strongest archangels, but Lucifel thinks that he was ordered by God to follow Enoch, and he thinks, "Why do I have to do that kind of thing?" So, it's very interesting.

How much did you read any source material? Did you read any other stories like from other creators that had these characters? Or did you just sort of get the basis and go in your own direction?

TS: Well, I read, of course, the Book of Enoch, and I also read a lot of other people's books dealing with those two characters. I think all of those books were boring. I think my image of Enoch is closer to the original Enoch. Because I read a lot of information, and based on that, I drew this Enoch.

Is the entire game set in a spiritual realm, or heaven, or something like that? It completely doesn't look like the real world at all.

TS: Well, this setting, the world... You know, those seven fallen angels, they made their own ideal world, so I'm working within those worlds. It looks very different from reality.

There's one part of the game where you're running down a long path, and it's shining, or glowing. It's hard to even describe the effect. How did you achieve that graphical effect?

TS: I just ordered the creators to make it. [laughs] Those people were like, "We don't know how!" or "We don't know what to do," but I just said, "Do it."

Do you have graphics programmers working on all the special effects?

TS: Yeah, they work on it.

Are they completely dedicated to just doing those kinds of effects? Or do they have other responsibilities as well?

TS: It depends on the creators. One, for example, said he only wants to focus on one thing, but another one just wants to do several things.

Did you build all the technology for this game in your studio? Or was any of it like licensed?

TS: Well, we used different companies' technology. For example, Gamebryo, or other things.

How did you decide to choose Gamebryo, for example?

TS: First of all, because we started from zero, so we didn't have any technology, so we had to look for one to use. The reason we decided to use Gamebryo is we thought Gamebryo has the potential for us to arrange it the way we like.

Has it changed the way you worked? I'm assuming the games you worked on at Capcom were all like internal engine technology. So, I'm wondering if it's changed the way you work since your previous job.

TS: Well, when it comes to the middleware -- the technology from the different companies -- when we started using that, we had a lot of complications to understand it, so that was very hard.

Now, this is the first game you worked on as the director, right?

TS: Yes.

I know you previously worked on Okami.

TS: Not as a director. I worked as a monster designer, and also I did a lot of the illustrations in the game.

Do you pay attention to what's going on in other games, or do you just make the decisions you want to make based on your inspiration?

TS: I have a very long experience of making action games. And also I used to work on Devil May Cry, and I thought Devil May Cry was kind of the pioneer at that point. As I have seen the history of action games, now I have a solid idea of what the action game should be, or how it should evolve. I based my ideas on that, and I am making this game.