Interview – Sohei Niikawa talks Etrange Overlord

NISA Europe recently invited us out to try out SuperNiche’s upcoming action RPG Etrange Overlord, which features an executed villainess as she tears her way through hell. At the same event, we also had the chance to chat with Sohei Niikawa, SuperNiche founder and previous president of NIS. He told us more about Etrange Overlord and how things have changed since leaving NIS and starting his own company.

For a look at Etrange Overlord, check out our preview.

Rice Digital: Could you please introduce yourself for our readers.

Sohei Niikawa: So, I’m Sohei Niikawa, former president of Nippon Ichi Software. Three years ago I went independent and created my own company called SuperNiche. The big difference between Nippon Ichi Software and my new company SuperNiche is that Nippon Ichi Software is mainly focused on video games, whereas this company is going to be games, it’s going to be movies or comics or light novels, web novels, just entertainment in general. 

So I’m really trying to do all the different all the different types of entertainment that I was never able to really do when I was working with NIS before.

Regarding SuperNiche, while it was set up as a one-man company under your own name, you’ve done a lot under your pen name (Roman Kitayama) as well. Was there a reason to differentiate the two?

Well, there’s two main reasons why I did that. The first was that I didn’t really want to cause any issues for my former company, especially as I was previously its president. So when I formed my own company, I thought, well, okay, I’ll start it under a different name.

The other thing was kind of a more of a personal challenge where I wanted to see if, without the name Sohei Niikawa out there, under Roman Kitayama, would I still be able to have as much impact with the new titles that I was putting out into the world. 

You revealed yourself as the man behind Roman Kitayama relatively recently. Was there a reason why you did so now?

Really, the reason was for today. Being able to differentiate between those two names, Sohei Niikawa and Roman Kitayama, in Japan worked out really well.

But if I go abroad, and you say Roman Kitayama, who’s going to know who that is? And trying to explain to people the whole situation and the background of that would just take a long time, and so I just realised that there wasn’t a whole lot of point in it.

And I was on a live broadcast as part of Tokyo Game Show, and it just seemed like a good opportunity, so I went ahead and let the secret out there. I think it was the right choice.

With Etrange Overlord existing as a web novel under your penname, was it always envisioned as just a web novel, or was it intended to be a game later down the line?

Yeah, everything has gone according to plan [laughter]. 

We were actually planning to make it a game as well as a manga, eventually. Even from the outset, when I was working on the web novel, I was already in communication with Broccoli, getting the funding from them so that I could then go to Gemdrops and ask them to start working on developing the game.

So essentially that’s why I have the dual role of both scenario writer for the web novel, and securing funding as the producer for the game

What has it been like moving from being a director at NIS, to starting SuperNiche and having to work with other companies to try and fund your games in a different way?

Honestly, it’s very freeing and makes it easy on me. In particular because it’s a single person company, so I get to make all the decisions. When you’re working inside of a company framework, of course you always have to get certain authorisations, you have to get some signatures on certain things, and it has to go through a typically bureaucratic process of some kind.

But when it’s just me, I can make all those decisions on my own so it just makes everything faster. But I definitely did have some concerns about whether or not, once I had left the umbrella of NIS, if companies like Broccoli and Gemdrops would be willing to work with me or not.

But everyone believed in my creativity and wanted to work with me, so I’m very grateful.

While you have left NIS, Etrange Overlord still has a familiar feeling to it – there’s a little bit of Disgaea, a little bit of Rhapsody here and there. Was that intentional, or is it just something that sort of happened naturally?

Like you mentioned, I was a scenario writer on Rhapsody and Disgaea, so there was going to be some overlap no matter what.

But I don’t really want to make the same thing over again, so I was looking to evolve in some way. So I wanted to make something new that would be different from not only what other companies were making, but also Disgaea and Rhapsody, so it could stand apart from those.

I noticed that Etrange Overlord features light novel tropes like in-universe status windows and obviously the villainess protagonist. Was there any main inspiration for this?

So it just so happened basically that when I was leaving NIS that I was really wrapped up in this kind of villainous genre. AndI also really like manga, and particularly I like the Isekai genre as well. I read Jump, and I read Shonen Magazine, things like that. 

So when I’m going to create a story, I do sort of look at some of those manga and other things that I’ve read for inspiration, but I’m also looking to find what kind of characters are not present that I can bring to the spotlight.

I think about what kind of characters would be interesting, or what kind of story would be good, and if there’s nothing else, I’ll make it. If other people make it for me, I just have to play with it, so I don’t make it. I don’t have any interest in creating something someone else has already done, that’s my style.

So a villainess was naturally going to happen, pretty much, because of your own interests?

Yes, and the only discrepancy there is that, in terms of being a villainess, I wanted to make it so that she wasn’t like the other villainesses that you would see in stories typically. And I think I achieved that.

As a villainess, Étrange is quite proud of herself and takes what she wants. Does it allow for more comedic writing, having a character like that at the forefront?

It’s very interesting because to her, she’s not trying to do anything funny, but everyone around her sees her behaviour as so unusual, that’s where the humour comes from

During the demo, there was a scene that plays around with the fact that the in-game universe is kind of like an RPG, showing that Étrange took 0 damage from an attack. Is parodying RPG mechanics also an aspect of the writing?

Yeah, I’m a fan of those kinds of comedic parodies myself, so it just sort of ends up finding its way naturally into the games I make. That’s basically kind of the way that I end up writing, no matter what, and it’s been that way every since Rhapsody and Disgaea.

I’ll be trying to go along and write it pretty seriously in some places, and then I’ll just be like, “Oh, that’s too funny, I’ve got to write it this way!”

Would you say it’s actually hard to write serious scenes with a character like Étrange, or is it still manageable?

Actually I find it pretty easy to do. I look at the flow of the story and everything goes in waves, where there a very manic sense to all the goings on. But at the same time it can very quickly turn into a serious moment. I think that’s really important for developing the characters.

I fend it very fun because I not only get to develop what this character is like on the inside, but also what their backstory is and how they express that outwardly. 

Does having a distinct protagonist like Étrange also influence how you design the supporting cast?

Yes, that does influence it. There are a couple of different scenarios when it comes to designing characters.

You can have a particular type of character, and so then I have to have these other characters around them. And then there are also cases where, because this is the story’s through line, a specific character then becomes a necessity. 

That’s pretty much the way that I come up with characters. It’s either one of those two paths.

Moving more into the gameplay side of things, Etrange Overlord is an action game rather than turn-based like in Disgaea and Rhapsody. How did this choice come about?

There’s a couple of reasons why that happened. One of them is because Gemdrops is particularly good at developing action games. Also, given where we are in this current era of gaming, I was starting to feel like maybe people are starting to get a little tired of the SRPG formula. You know, moving characters tile by tile because it’s so time consuming. 

And so with Etrange in particular, and also the other projects I’m developing — I’m actually working an about 10 things at the same time right now — I was really cognizant of wanting to make sure that it felt like it was easy to get in and out when playing. 

One of these projects is a kind of game that has some of those elements like Disgaea on the surface level, but in terms of the tempo of how quickly the game moves it’s quite a bit different [referring to Demon’s Night Fever, an upcoming game published by Arc System Works]

When it came to designing an action game, was there anything you wanted to implement, other than just aiming for faster gameplay?

So for action games I tend to think of them as a sequence of constant action and reaction. So when I’m thinking of action games I’m thinking of something that moves at a very fast pace.

From a customer perspective, I tend to think people are looking for something thats both fast and feels good to play, where if you put in the effort, you’ll be able to get better at it. I think those are the fundamental aspects of an action game that you have to get right in order to be successful.

And so we’ve added this new element of the revolving lanes [Niikawa refers to them specifically as sushi lanes] that are in the game, but outside of that it’s not all that different from other action games. I think people will find some ways to challenge themselves, such as not relying on items to clear missions if they’re particularly good at action games.

To be honest with you, I’m not great at action games. But, I can utilise the customisable features withing the game and make myself stronger that way. So we tried to make it kind of even-handed in that sense, where both people who are experienced with action games and good at them, versus people who may not handle them as well can be able to feel like they can jump in and be comfortable with it.

Would you player skill ties into how characters are designed when it comes to their movesets? For example, while there’s relatively few buttons used in Etrange Overlord, basic combos and special attacks are different per character.

There are a couple different patterns we take when it comes to designing characters from a gameplay perspective. One is where the character determines the abilities, and the other is that we need this ability therefore we need this kind of character.

Because in our case we already have the web novel to work from, we essentially went from that blueprint and designed abilities around the characters.

Speaking of the web novel, while it makes use of elements like levels and MP, the game doesn’t actually feature these as mechanics.

At the beginning we were actually a little more focused on making it an action RPG very specifically. But as we kept going along with the development process and focusing on the idea of using the revolving lanes as a gameplay mechanic, we pulled back on the RPG elements a little and went more in a direction of being more action focused. 

There’s a lot of RPGs these days that are trying to, whether it be action RPGs or SRPGs, they’re taking their genres and trying to find ways to make it more inviting to people that wouldn’t normally play them.

So rather than trying to cram in as much as possible, it’s better to be more picky?

Yeah, in terms of the concept, if it doesn’t fit in with the initial concept, those are the kinds of things that I would look at leaving out. But honestly, my stance is that if it’s interesting, and it does fit with the concept, then I’m okay with putting as much of it in as possible.

Very much like how the story and characters are designed

Yeah, as well as the game concept itself, particularly the revolving lane mechanic.

How exactly did the revolving lane system come about? Was it always a main mechanic, or one that was added later in development?

It was at the very beginning. We had three different concepts for how we wanted to approach the game mechanics, and one of them was the revolving lane mechanic.

To be honest with you, I have no recollection of what the other two concepts were going to be. The revolving lane concept had so much possibility that we knew we wanted to go with that one from the very beginning. 

With you referring to them as sushi lanes, along with Étrange’s own love for sweets, I see that you like adding food into your games.

Yeah, honestly, I’m a foodie myself [laughs]. So in any game that I make, essentially you’re probably going to see some kind of foodie elements show up. So you’ll see as you’re able to play more of the game that there’s a lot of meal sequences.

I think of mealtime as entertainment [laughs].

Moving back to Etrange Overlord’s origins, did you have the non-text elements already planned out ahead of the adaptions? Things like who you’d like to handle the art and voices for each character.

Yeah, to be honest with you, it was actually all pretty much decided at the point where I was already working on the web novel. Like the illustrations, they were done almost immediately after I had started. 

Including in the web novel, those mealtime scenes. I actually made the recipes so that they could be recreated for the game [laughs].

You mentioned that most of it was already designed well in advance of the game. Did you have any difficulties translating the setting over to a game.

The biggest discrepancy between the web novel and the game are the game mechanics. The web novel didn’t included the revolving lanes at all.

But I do think maybe Gemdrops may have struggled a little bit, because they were perhaps having to pick and choose some elements of the web novel to adapt. They couldn’t do absolutely everything, instead determining what to bring over.

For the western audience that doesn’t have access to a native web novel or manga version, how much would you say has been carried over into the game?

As far as all the essentials, 100% of everything that was in the web novel is in the game as well. It actually worked out really well in terms of compressing the narrative because, of course in a web novel you have to describe a lot of things. There’s a lot of descriptions that can just be shown through stage direction in a game.

Speaking of stage direction, Etrange Overlord features a lot of musical numbers. Did you always want this to be an element of the game?

No, I actually hadn’t even thought about it at the outset. But Kitao-san [Yuichiro Kitao] who worked at Gemdrops, he and I worked together on Rhapsody back at NIS. Once the game started together and you could start to see that it was really coalescing, we started talking and thought “maybe we should make this a musical.” And then we ended up doing it.

I noticed that the revolving lanes have a musical note design to them as well. 

The lane itself was actually in a different form. It actually didn’t become like a musical staff [the vertical lines you see denoting pitch on a music sheet] until after we made the decision to turn it into a musical.

We thought of several different ways to implement the lanes, before we landed on the idea that it was probably best to have the characters be able to walk through the lanes. One of the things I like about it is that just by modifying the shape or the orientation of the lanes as well as the items or gimmicks that they bring to the field, it actually changes the mechanics of the game considerably.

Does adding in the musical element make it harder for choosing voice actors? Voice acting and singing are naturally two different skillsets.

Yeah, we had to pick people who were capable of singing out of the voice pool. So the actors that we picked, it was a prerequisite for them that they’d be able to sing.

And Kaori Mizuhashi, who plays our lead, she initially was not terribly fond of the idea, but she went along with it anyway [laughs]. She doesn’t usually sing.

But you managed to convince her anyway [laughs]

She and I have been friends since Rhapsody, so she was willing to go along with it.

Were there any other criteria for which voice actors were chosen? You have multiple Hololive vtubers in the voice cast, so did that factor in at all?

So essentially I had picked Watame Tsunomaki specifically because I wanted her to sing the opening and ending theme and I knew she was capable of doing it. She was a VTuber who was growing in popularity. She also had a really nice personality and this ability to sing.  So I thought, well, I’d like to include her in this game.

Initially it was just going to be the theme songs, but then after that she also told me that she wanted to act as a character in a game. We had this opportunity so we’ll go ahead and let her voice one of the characters as well.

For the western playable who will be exposed to Etrange Overlord for the first time, is there anything you want them to think about after they’ve come away from the game?

I guess in that regard, one of the things that I want to say is that human beings, whoever it may be, everybody goes through hard times, and sometimes we have to do things that we don’t want to do.

But with Étrange, she does exactly the opposite, she does exactly what she wants to do. If you tried to live like her in the real world, obviously it would be impossible. But my thought process is that it would make me really happy if people look at this character, they see the way that she acts and carries herself, and think “Maybe I don’t have to hold back all the time. Maybe I can be a little bit more like myself.”

Me, myself, I’ve also kind of started a second life of sorts, having left my own company and starting my own. So a lot of my own feelings about that experience have been transferred into Étrange, really, as a character. There’s a part of me, those feelings that I have wanting to do things more my own way and be able to live my life the way that I want to, that come out in her personality. 

What I’m really feeling is that I hope it will be a source of support to people who want to be able to live a little bit more like themselves. 

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The interview took place during an event hosted by NISA Europe, with interpretation handled by Shawn Cox from NIS America. Etrange Overlord launches early 2026 for PS4, PS5, Switch, and PC.

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