―What do you think of each other?
Uemura: My first impression of Mr. Nagoshi was, "Chrome Hearts demon!"
Nagoshi: Really? (laughs)
Uemura: I knew you wore a lot of stuff from Chrome Hearts, but when I met you in person you were absolutely decked out in it (laughs). In a way you were kind of a strange person.
Nagoshi: To be honest, when I first met you I thought, "Is it really okay to have him do this?" You've been in charge since RGG2... But at first I thought that since Ryu ga Gotoku took such hard work to get off the ground, I wasn't sure if a guy with no experience would do okay.
Uemura: RGG1 was handled by my predecessor Mr. Kiyomizu, but we started promotion over from scratch.
Nagoshi: But after Kiyomizu left due to the staff shuffle, we had to give the job to someone else. Around that time, I heard whispers saying, "Uemura has no career experience, but he really loves Ryu ga Gotoku." That's when I thought, Let's give him a go.
Uemura: Despite not really mentioning my Ryu ga Gotoku obsession to anyone else (strained laugh).
Nagoshi: Now, I know that letting you handle it was the right decision. You had no experience, but that in itself made your promotion for RGG2 even more frenzied.
―What is something you think is amazing about each other?
Uemura: At his core, Mr. Nagoshi is the kind of man who makes unreasonable demands of the staff.
Nagoshi: Out of all of the things I come up with, I like to start with the one that looks most difficult (laughs).
Uemura: Seriously? (laughs) But he doesn't just tell you to do these unbelievable things; the way he makes the staff think "we'll regret if it we don't accomplish this unreasonable demand" is amazing to me. Around the time of RGG3, I managed to secure about 20 tie-ups. Thinking this was enough and reporting to Nagoshi he said, "Hmm, we've had more than this before. I think we should probably go for more than ever..."
Nagoshi: That's because whether it's to do with tie-ups or something else, I always want to make it a record number.
Uemura: If you say that to the staff, they have no choice but to do it. They can't just brush it off as excessive and give up. I think having the leadership to make them think that is amazing.
Nagoshi: What I think is amazing about Uemura is the way he will talk about whatever and say, "We're going to overcome these hurdles." Due to the very fact that he knew nothing about promotion, he was the one who worked most aggressively. It's definitely because of him that we were able to make this game as solid as it is, on the promotional side as well.
―What do you aim for when you start a new project?
Nagoshi: For the time being, I want our next project to have tie-ups in the triple digits! (laughs)
Uemura: What!? A hundred? We'd have go through an agency for that... (sweat) I might be able to do something if there were two of me, but...
Nagoshi: Yeah; I think if we wanted to go for three digits we'd have to go through an agency or something, think of some new way to do things. But with you, from Sega, I'm sure we've managed to go through with tie-ups that really convey the interesting parts of Ryu ga Gotoku. I don't want to interfere with that if I don't have to.
Uemura: Yeah. Honestly, Ryu ga Gotoku was the first game I saw that properly bridged the gap between project and tie-ups. No one who is closely involved with the creation area has had any tie-ups that really convey the fun of the game. Ryu ga Gotoku was the first title to break through that, and you have to be proud of that.
Nagoshi: Rather than tie-ups, I think they're "bonds". Rather than going through an agency, the creators have taken full responsibility to show why it's interesting, and used it to strengthen the project. We've created bonds. I want to keep that going in future projects, too.