Aquaplus and Yuke’s show interest in bringing Dungeon Travelers and Tears to Tiara to current platforms

by

So, DenFamiNico Gamer just dropped a new interview with Naoya Shimokawa from Aquaplus and Yukinori Taniguchi, the president of Yuke’s. They mostly talked about what’s next for both companies now that Yuke’s bought Aquaplus last year. It’s interesting to hear their plans!

The most exciting news from this interview is that both companies are interested in bringing older Aquaplus games to modern platforms. While Aquaplus is currently famous for visual novels like ToHeart and the Utawararerumono series (which will pause after the release of Past and Present Rediscovered), they also expressed a desire to remake classic RPGs such as Dungeon Travelers and Tears to Tiara.

This interview jumps right into the main point. Here’s our translation of that section below:

It’s been several months since Aquaplus was announced as a subsidiary of Yuke’s back in August 2025. Has anything concrete come of that announcement yet in terms of actual projects?

Okay, so things are moving forward with the financial side of things, and we’re still figuring out exactly what our next steps will be as a team. But it’s not like we haven’t been working on anything! I’m super happy to say that we were able to get a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Utawarerumono: Past and Present Rediscovered out, and that’s all thanks to Yuke’s! Honestly, we didn’t originally plan for a Switch 2 edition when we first started developing, but when we asked Yuke’s if it was even possible, they were immediately on board and said they could make it happen.

Yukinori Taniguchi explains that Yuke’s has a history of releasing games on various systems, including the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2. They also plan to bring older games to modern consoles and devices.

Naoya Shimokawa says that Yuke’s has the technical ability to port older games, so if they decide to do so, releases wouldn’t be far off. While nothing is confirmed yet, he’d like to bring titles like Routes and the Dungeon Travelers series to some kind of platform. He also notes that porting the PS3 version of Tears to Tiara was previously difficult for Aquaplus, but now someone involved in the original production is at Yuke’s, offering a hopeful outlook. He encourages fans to share which older titles they’d most like to see ported.

During the interview, leaders from Aquaplus and Yuke’s suggested that if they collaborated on new games, they’d likely create a fighting game similar to Aquapazza, or a strategy RPG. Shimokawa explained that for a strategy RPG, he envisions a seamless blend of gameplay, characters, and story. He also believes this genre is perfect for games with multiple main characters, allowing for a large cast without the high development costs of a traditional RPG.

A later part of the interview also went more in-depth about a possible Dungeon Travelers sequel:

DenFamiNico Gamer asked if there were any plans for a new installment in the Dungeon Travelers series, following a question about a potential sequel to ToHeart.

As a big fan, I always loved how deep the gameplay was in that dungeon RPG! But I recently heard from Naoya Shimokawa that making a sequel could be really tricky. Apparently, there were so many characters, and they all got redesigned when you changed their class. He said it took a huge amount of time just on the art side! I’m really curious to see how they’d handle that if they ever decided to make a new one – it sounds like a massive undertaking.

Taniguchi and Shimokawa often discussed whether to portray characters in 2D or 3D. Although Aquaplus has been focusing more on 3D graphics lately, Shimokawa pointed out that many longtime fans who grew up with their 2D games still prefer that style, a sentiment reflected in feedback on the recent ToHeart remake. The two presidents then brainstormed ideas, such as designing characters specifically for 3D or using toon shading to create a more stylized look.

Read More

2026-04-02 18:57