So, I recently returned from a ten day trip to Tokyo, Japan. While there, I managed to spend an afternoon at several of Tecmo's offices with people I had met previously at E3 over the years: Mr Yamaguchi current producer of the Monster Rancher/Farm games, Mr. Tsutsumi Deputy General Manager of the International Division, and Mr. Tani Manager of the International Division.

The Tecmo regular office building is being remodeled, which you can sort of see on Google Streets, so we met in several offices in different buildings in the Ichigaya area.

In addition to meetings, I was also privileged to get a tour of Team Tachyon's studio (no one outside of Tecmo employees has ever seen this) where several games were in development -one of which was an update to MF:O!

I was able to exchange gifts and let them know that they have a strong group of fans in the west.

The good news is that they are keeping the MF/R series alive, but are looking for a publisher for the DS games in the North American region. No word on a console game. Obviously, more will become clear once the merger details have been made public, too.

One bit of trivia I was able to get a definitive answer to is that Koji Takamiya was the person who thought up the whole monsters from CD part of the original games. Unfortunately he recently left the company and works for Sony now. He also created the arcade game Ganbare Gincun, and the Doodle monster is a direct reference to that game.

Mr. Yamaguchi mentioned that they worked really hard to improve MF:DS2, to improve flaws in the first DS game and make it more playable. -And, Mr. TsuTsumi's kids play the MF games a lot, so he knows quite a bit about playing, too.

I told them about the online tourneys, which they thought were a great idea. I stressed that any console game needs to have 2P computer control for both monsters, something lacking in MR5, to keep tourneys alive.

One odd thing is, they didn't know about us having to use VPN to play MF:O, they kept insisting that play was open to anyone. So, I dunno.

Well, anyway, let the questions begin!

Here's some pics:
Adminstrative Offices

Tecmo Signs

View from my balcony...

Yay, news! Just the idea that they are still in development on an MR game is massively good tidings. Now who do I know that I can pester to publish the things in North America?

While I think of a good question on the games, the street outside your room looked eerily empty. Were you in an industrial area or was it just the time of week when the shot was taken?

same here, im happy to know that MR is still going strong, i also liked how u mentioned the strong group of fans in the west =D

John: take that yellow slip to the PO!

And, the area we stayed in was a mostly residential area called Gotanda. That's Gotanda Station, on the JR Yamanote line, in the left of the picture. (short white building with the train running through it)

One other thing you can see is how common it is to have retail businesses on any level of a building. The signs on several of the buildings are on different levels because they advertise what's on that level.

The picture was taken on my first morning there, right around sunrise, on a rainy day. The flight over was long (14+ hours) and I slept during most of it, but my husband did not. So, we arrived, and got to the room at about 6PM and he went to sleep. I stayed up, on my computer, but got tired of trying to keep quiet and went to bed a couple hours later, so on that first morning I was pretty awake at dawn.

By the time 8 AM rolled around, the street would be filled with cars and trucks, and the sidewalks filled with people headed to work.

I also got some cool pictures (but I don't want to put them online) of a totally empty train station. Got those pics late at night when we went to visit a friend's apartment.

The people to pester are the people at AgeTec, the company formerly known as ASCII.

I visited Agetec's offices in Sunnyvale, CA during the summer (as a member of the RPG Maker community, I was given an open invitation), and spoke to VP Mark Johnson at length about Monster Rancher, the community, and the current state of the series. I also gave him a copy of MFDS2, and MR1-4 and MRA2 to help give them a clear idea of what the games are like and how they've changed over the years.

While he isn't making any promises due to the DS publishing climate today (tons of titles being released makes retailers apprehensive about stocking their shelves with games that aren't guaranteed to sell), he finds the series to be interesting and plans on talking to Tecmo about it.

Let me find an email you can all use to contact Agetec and let them know how much you want MFDS2!

Ah, here we go. Here are three ways to contact Agetec:

Web-based email form

Mark's public email address (don't worry, he posted this himself on the Agetec community forum. Some mails might not reach him because of his fickle spam filter, though): mark@agetec.com

Snail Mail:

Agetec, Inc.
1070 Stewart Drive, Suite 4
Sunnyvale, CA
94085
USA

You can also head over to Agetec's online community, which Mark checks regularly, and let them know how much you want MRDS via the Upcoming Releases forum.

No yellow slip here. I have a big mailbox and it hit here Saturday. Many thanks!

Whew! Online tracking lied!

In case you didn;t get my email - thanks from me as well!!!

BTW, Lisa, take a look at the new addition to my home - Sirius

"It's like trying to catch smoke.... Trying to catch smoke with your bare hands" (Cute cat, and grats on the adoption)

Awesome news Lisa! I've been waiting for this post for weeks!
I am going to have to view the pics later, however, as all file sharing sites are blocked at work.
Glad you have a safe trip there and back!

One surprising thing for me was that there weren't as many licensed toys and books around as I expected. I saw things for games being released that week and that's it.

I got one strat guide at a used book store, and I searched through 6 of those stores.

Everything is about what is right now and new. I didn't see a copy of the MF:DS2 game anyplace, and I looked all over, from a big Toys R Us in a mall to small shops in Akihabara.

Toys R Us was really different. About a quarter of the store was a Pokemon Center. Another quarter was model kits, with a whole aisle of nothing but ScopeDog kits! The little kids area was dominated by a ton of Anpanman toys. There were also some cool kits for older kids that let you learn cake decorating, or make real foods like gummies, soba noodles, etc. Some of these kits looked like they required a really high level of hand-eye coordination, like I might have trouble with it....

Oh, and cool kitty! I hope that your household survives! I recently discovered that my bengal likes to walk around on the shoulders of clothes in the closet. The problem is, she isn't very accurate or careful. So, I wound up tossing all of my good suits and fancy clothes I rarely wear from the back of the closet because the shoulders were all slashed up. It looked like I'd been fighting someone who had a small pair of scissors as a weapon! (and, we do trim her claws -she just pushes harder into things when they are trimmed!)

That is an absolutely beautiful cat. I love it.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to keep him. We are fostering him indefinitely while we search for the right home.

Sirius is FLV positive. He needs to be in a home where he can get the care he needs. He needs a low-stress environment where he is going to be the only cat and he will get the personal attention he needs.

I truly wish the test came back negative. THis cat is simply the most amazing cat I have ever seen/owned. His personality is perfect. His beauty is unsurpassed.

Oh well.

Thorr, I understand where you are with him. My cat is FIV positive. They do not need to be the only cat in the house as long as they other cat is already positive as well. Thankfully Jack (our cat) is not showing any signs of his illness but we also know it could start at any time. We just do our best to give him the best life we can. The kids absolutly love him and he them.

I hope all goes well for your pretty little kitty.