Well, Destructoid questions, plus I came up with some questions I wanted to have answered, and I figured I'd share the answers to those with you, as well as the questions you asked.

Nolan asked: "Were there any inspirations for the game's music?"

IronNos responded: "The person who was in charge of the music was a composer who mainly does Hip-hop style music (He was involved in producing an album for the Korean hip-hop group Leessang) and we asked him to create music that felt rhythmically like a mix of Astonishia Story and Final Fantasy. I think that maybe we forced a little bit too much musical influence from Astonishia onto the game's music, and in hindsight, we regret not asking the producer to add some more of his hip-hop forte into the soundtrack to make it really stand out as completely unique."

Manasteel asked: "I've always been curious to know if the original dev's are actually considered in name changes. IE: Garnet Chronicle = Crimson Gem Saga."

Well, here's the answer to that. The Korean version's actually named Crimson Gem Saga. ("Crimsongem Saga", to be precise.) Sega published it in Japan and changed the name to Garnet Chronicle. After asking IronNos and SK Telecom, we just kept the title Crimson Gem Saga. In every case I can think of, the developer is consulted on the name of the game, especially since they have to put the logo with the new name of the game into the code.

As for the rest of the questions for the developers, I just went ahead and asked some of the questions you likely wanted to know the answers to, but didn't know that you wanted to know. :)

What was the motivation for the battle system change from Astonishia Story to this game?

IronNos responded: "We changed the battle system with the intention of speeding up the battles after taking into account the fans' requests for quicker turns. As you know, Astonishia Story's battle system featured SRPG-style strategic battles, so we thought we could offer more dynamic combat by switching to a turn-based system and adding co-op skills, combos and bigger effects for the spells and skills."


One of the aforementioned bigger effects & skills.

Who is the artist who came up with the character designs? What were some of their inspirations for the character designs?

IronNos: The main character was designed by Kim Dong Sook. We wanted Killian to look like he had a clear and strong sense of responsibility as a leader, but still look a little green sometimes.

In Spinel's case, we wanted to make both her personality and her image stand out in light of the events that occur in the second half of the game. So we drew her and designed her to be tomboyish with a touch of sexiness.

Henson's got a complex stemming from certain events that happened with his master. We drew him to reflect that, but, despite his issues, you'll see that he's a person of character who'll work hard to win the approval of others and prove his worth.

Lahduk is a character who's having problems trying to reconcile the events of the past with how he should live in the present. We drew him to appear as dark and grizzled middle-aged man.

In contrast, we drew Gelts to be an immature middle-aged man. There's an interesting contrast between how the two of them let their previous lives determine their present-day personalities.

For Acelora, we wanted to give her the image with of someone cool and cynical to contrast her with Spinel. We designed her to appeal to Asian male players by making her seem like she was difficult to get to know.

Who are your favorite characters in Crimson Gem Saga?

IronNos: "Acelora, of course!! She's got incredible combat power and a great co-op skill. But those are just bonuses... As far as character-type goes, I find ladylike women with long straight hair attractive. ^ ^"

What are some of your favorite RPGs?

IronNos: "ATLUS' Persona series, Square-Enix's Dragon Quest series, and Bandai Namco's Tales series."

How long did it take to make the Korean version of this game from design concept to completion?

IronNos:"It took us about a year and 6 months developing it specifically for the PSP. The entire project from start to finish took a grand total of 2 years and 4 months including the first version of already existing SK TELECOM's GXG platform.

We encountered some mild snafus in the project. The lead programmer, Kim Byung Gyu noticed some issues with the load system and pushed to get them fixed, but that initiative got pushed aside, and in the end it resulted in us taking a lot more time to implement his new system. Every project's going to have its hiccups and all in all, we're happy with Kim Byung Gyu and the rest of the team's hard work."



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