Capcom’s Niitsuma Speaks on “Unknown” Tatsunoko Characters, Compares to Marvel

A common issue taken with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom would be the “Tatsunoko” part of the equation. Some feel that without familiarity, interest in half of the game’s roster would be limited.

However, this is not a concern of Producer Ryota Niitsuma, who actually finds the situation comparable to one faced by the game’s predecessors, the Marvel vs. Capcom titles:

I think if you play the game, and look at the characters and see the way they move the and super moves that they can do, it will be interesting for the players, even if you don’t know them. So they’ll look at these unknown characters, see what they do, and say, ‘Hey, I want to get to know these characters.’

You could say the same about ‘Marvel vs. Capcom 2’ when that came out in Japan, most Japanese people weren’t familiar with Marvel properties, but they knew it was a great fighting game and they played that and said, ‘Oh wow, this is great I want to know more about these characters and they were pretty fun,’ and so from that I think you could say that the Marvel characters gained more recognition in Japan. So I hope to do the same thing in reverse with America.

Niitsuma would also reveal that it was Tatsunoko who approached Capcom with the idea to put their characters in games, rather than the other way around. It’s unclear whether or not they did so with the intent of the game(s) ever being released outside of Japan, but the chance to raise the brand awareness of fourteen of its characters can only be a good thing for the relatively unknown company.

Personally, I never understood the argument over how well known the characters are. Who knew Morrigan before they played DarkStalkers? Who knew Phoenix Wright before they played Ace Attorney? People gave these games a shot, enjoyed them, and wanted more.

With that said, why should the Tatsunoko cast be any different to people around the world, despite their differing origin within their homeland?