Harvest Moon Creator Explains Why He Wants to Make a Little Dragons Cafe Sequel | Gaming News

By Miranda Sanchez

Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada plays a lot of Monster Hunter, and of all the series beasts, Rathalos is his favorite. Rathalos’ cool, aggressive nature makes it all the more exciting to hunt. In an interview with Tech, Wada said that with Little Dragons Cafe, Wada wanted to create a game where instead of dragons being the antagonist, players could be friends with a dragon they could admire. Little Dragons Cafe has only been out in the world for a few weeks, but Wada is already looking forward to potentially developing a sequel, and for good reason.

About 70 percent of what Wada originally had planned for Little Dragons Cafe was cut from the final version, he told Tech.

“There were lots of elements that were cut out of Little Dragons Cafe, and that of course goes will all the other games [I’ve] made so far,” Wada said. “But in particular with Little Dragons Cafe, there are parts that were cut out that feel like a waste to cut out from the game.”

Wada explained that some of the cut features require entire systems that currently don’t exist in the game. Because of this, they couldn’t be implemented easily to Little Dragons Cafe through updates or DLC. One of those elements was customization. If Wada were able to make a sequel, he said player and cafe customization would be a big priority. He’d also want to make it so that the dragon has more customizable features too.

“Right now [in Little Dragons Cafe] the dragon’s color changes, however, the dragon’s shape does not change. It’s the same amongst all players,” Wada said. “In a sequel, [I’d] like it so that the dragon does changes in other ways, such as with new abilities. Maybe some will be better at swimming, and maybe some will be better at fighting [or] other things. [I’d] like to make it different for players depending on how you raise the dragon. It’d be great if players could make their one very own individual dragon just for them.”

There were also supposed to be more theatrics when playing the cooking minigame. The final version of Little Dragons Cafe features a rhythm game with a lovely border of bouncing ingredients as the character cooks in the background. During development, though, Wada created a version of the minigame where the people in the cafe would dance along to the music. As new characters came to the cafe, they’d gradually join in the festivities. Wada said the dancing didn’t make an impact on gameplay, but he enjoyed it and wanted it in Little Dragons Cafe.

In addition to utilizing all the customization systems and dancing in a sequel, Wada said there’s still much of Little Dragons Cafe’s story he’d like to explore too. Unlike his last game, Birthdays the Beginning, where development started with the gameplay, Wada began Little Dragons Cafe’s development with its story. Many characters designed for Little Dragons Cafe were cut with the aforementioned features too, and there are other plot points Wada said he’d like to see in a sequel.

Some features were intentionally cut, though, like a world map. Wada said he had wanted a map to better help players navigate the world, but another member on the development team thought the lack of a map encouraged more exploration. A monetary system was also cut from Little Dragons Cafe, something Tech’s reviewer was actually interested in having in the game. Wada explained that, when implemented, the monetary system moved the player’s focus away from raising the dragon and cooking to instead worrying about saving and spending money. Instead, all items needed can be found for free throughout the world.

While Wada is already working on another mystery game, his goal for another Little Dragons Cafe is clear. Crowdfunding, though interesting, isn’t quite an option to get a sequel started for his team since they’re working with Aksys Games, and Wada said Aksys would probably want to be the party responsible for funding a potential sequel. Ultimately, though, Wada said he hopes many people can enjoy Little Dragons Cafe.

Miranda Sanchez is a senior editor at Tech. You can chat with her about video games and anime on Twitter.