Tomoya Asano talks about the future of Octopath Traveler, Bravely series, and Square Enix's 11th Business Division

It has been almost two months since Octopath Traveler was released worldwide and has, generally, become a critical and commercial hit. The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu magazine has extensive coverage on the new popular RPG, publishing various tidbits from user survey results to an interview with key staff members.

One of the segments in this coverage is an interview with Square Enix's Tomoya Asano and Masashi Takahashi, as well as Keisuke Miyauchi from Acquire. The last section of the interview is particularly interesting, as it delves into the future plans for Asano and Takahashi's team in Square Enix's new 11th Business Division, asking about potential DLC and sequels, and even making some mentions about the Bravely series as well. You can read more of that right after the jump.

In the final section of the interview, Takahashi noted from Famitsu's survey results that Japanese users mainly favored the graphics while international players liked the battle system more. He also reminisced how on the release week they got 100 contact emails. He was initially worried that there could be a major bug in the game, but it instead it turned out that 95 of those were requests to add a Chinese language support.

Famitsu also noted that a lot of people were anticipating DLC and possibly a sequel; and here is what Asano-san had to say in response.

Asano: Regarding paid DLCs, we had decided from the beginning not to create them, so there are no plans right now. And as for a sequel, we still cannot say anything concrete yet, but we’ve just started talks on how it ought to be.

Famitsu: So, let’s say you do release a sequel, is it going to take quite a while?

Asano: I think it's going to be like that. However, our team has also become a division (the 11th Business Division), and we've obtained more staff members. I think we want to release some sort of game that can be enjoyed by everyone every year from here on.

Famitsu wonders if the last response could also hint towards a further sequel to the Bravely series. They also noticed that the congratulatory artwork on Octopath Traveler reaching a million shipments seemingly has a hidden clue within it, resembling artwork from Bravely Default (which is further reinforced by another artwork posted at the Bravely series official Twitter account).

However, Asano-san also has something to say about that image.

Asano: I asked Ikushima (Naoki Ikushima, the character designer for Octopath Traveler) to draw that. It doesn't mean we can release any new information for Bravely though... However, the one thing I want to convey is that the Bravely series is not a title of the past to us and to our company.

Takahashi: We've also recognized that there are many people who "knew of Octopath Traveler precisely because of the Bravely series".

Asano: But we want to take 3~4 years to create a title with about the same volume as Bravely or Octopath Traveler. So if we go with 1 title every year, it still wouldn't be enough just for those two.

Famitsu: Is a further brand-new title also possible...?

Asano: I hope you will anticipate it (laughs). Anyway, I hope from here on you will look forward to games from the 11th Business Division, starting with Octopath Traveler.

Octopath Traveler released for Nintendo Switch simultaneously worldwide on July 13. It has reached 1 million physical shipments and digital sales within a month of release. You can also read our review of this game, and don't forget to check our guides if you have just started playing Octopath Traveler.