Ace Angler Fishing Spirits with Yayoi Tomidokoro – The Fish Were the Friends We Made Along the Way

Knowing what you want to do can be quite enviable. Yayoi Tomidokoro, Producer for Ace Angler Fishing Spirits, has been a console game producer for at least 12 years, with mostly kid-friendly games in her repertoire. That, and making fun games in general, has been what she’s aiming for. She’s also Producer for the initial Ace Angler Nintendo Switch version, returning to the series for more reel action.

Now that we’ve got her on the line, we had to ask her some questions about her work. Interview has been edited for clarity.

THE FISH OF YORE

What are the key improvements you’ve made from the first game, the lessons you learnt that you applied here?

The first Ace Angler game was more to individual, separate modes of content – medal, story and party mode – but for Fishing Spirits, it has now become a gigantic theme park where all five ‘attractions’ lead to all five modes. It is now all linked together, with the goal of the game being making your theme park as big as possible.

One of the main points of change is the controls. While the previous title was regularly updated, there wasn’t actually much to the controls. The original goal was to get people to enjoy the fun of fishing. Now, instead of two controllers, it’s a single one to make it more convenient, and you can change the buttons as well.

How do you keep the game fresh for players who enjoyed the original?

Fishing Spirits has different goals to the previous title. This time, the focus is on making your aquarium as big as possible. There’s also a summoning system that works like an “ultimate attack” where you can summon a gigantic fish or monster to help deal damage, or fish things up.

Additionally, there is a save data bonus if you have a save from the first title. It gets you more floors than those without.

WELCOME TO SEA WORLD

Since Ace Angler Fishing Spirits is like an aquarium, is there a backstory to that?

We’re trying to emphasize you catching these huge fish, monsters, out there, and make them stand out compared to your character.

The Story Mode for Ace Angler Fishing Spirits involves protecting the world’s oceans from pollution. How important was it to include this environmental message during development?

There are five modes in the game, with the pollution docks being one of them. The sea is poisoned, and you’re trying to save the fish. I thought it would be great to educate people about the averse environmental effects through the game.

What can you tell us about the story mode?

The sea is very polluted because of the poisoned docks. Everybody is in trouble, from the fish to the humans. The storyline basically revolves around everyone working together to solve the problem: researching where the poison came from, what poison it is, until you find the final boss to defeat him and save the sea.

What are some of your favourite features in the game?

I really like the Shark Fever mode in the medal mode. Instead of a regular jackpot, you have a giant shark where you can get tons of medals from.

Will there be more monsters than those featured in the trailer?

Yes. We’re currently in the planning phase to implement more of those in future updates.

The game is sold with a fishing rod controller. Is this the optimal way to play the game?

It’s specially made by Bandai for this title. It’s meant to make the game feel more realistic; as you reel in, you can hear the sound effects, for one, so yes.

We understand you worked with the Prince of Fish, Karibu Suzuki, to verify the facts, quizzes and all that. What was it like working with him and how much input did he give towards the game’s development?

We got a lot from his very extensive knowledge of the fish and the sea. As we mentioned, we have the story mode about pollution, and it teaches a lot about how everything in the ocean relates to each other. The development team actually did learn a lot about the lifecycle of the fishes. It wasn’t entirely implemented in the game, but because it was so informative, we tried to at least include some of them.

He also taught us about the workings of the aquarium, being involved in the game across the storyline, theme park and the NPCs. As a whole, the story was made to be more appealing to the audience while being more realistic and informative.

M. I. L. F. F. (MAN I LOVE FISHING with FRIENDS)

Are the party games and battles exclusively online or will there be local co-op?

They are both online exclusive.

How did you come up with the different party games?

In the 12 mini games we made, we basically had them relate to both being theme park attractions, as well as to fish.

What about the online leaderboards?

It’s more like a board that shows how many people are online, rather than showing who’s first, second and so forth.

Will online multiplayer get regular updates?

Yes. It’s an online, 4-player mode where players will compete to rank up. There are 10 levels of ranks with the highest being S-Rank. The goal of the online mode is to get the highest rank, becoming the God Angler, and gain medals. Even when you eventually hit the top rank, you will still continue to get medals.

We’re trying to make the online play experience fun so that people who are new or don’t really like competitive play can still enjoy it. The entry level has been lowered and there’s no demoting system, simply that when you win you get more, and less if you lose.

SO LONG AND THANKS FOR THE FISH

What are the future DLC plans for the Nintendo Switch version?

There will be regular updates as with the first game. Whether it’s going to be paid DLC or not, please wait for more details in the future.

How much can we expand the aquarium? How about outside of it?

Currently, the aquarium goes up to12 floors, each with its own theme. Outside of that, we can’t really say much about future expansions.

Any plans on releasing the game to other platforms in the future besides the Nintendo Switch?

It’s not just for the Switch in Japan, with arcade versions, though there’s not a lot of them. We’d like to be able to make the game available on more platforms, and we’re doing our best to facilitate that.

Fishing is not normally everyone’s bucket of chum, but there’s no denying that there is some kind of charm to at least virtual fishing. Thanks to Yayoi Tomidokoro for answering our questions, and we’ll see you in the aquarium!

Ace Angler: Fishing Spirits launches 27 October 2022 for the Nintendo Switch worldwide.