Koei Tecmo Interested in Bringing Otome Games West if the “Demand” is There

Koei Tecmo is the home of multiple studios including Team Ninja and Omega Force. However, one studio that you may not hear a lot about is Ruby Party. This team focuses on the otome visual novel genre, but sadly, their titles don’t normally come west.

With the upcoming release of Touken Ranbu Warriors; this will be the first Ruby Party project to be released in the west, even though it was co-developed with Omega Force. We had the chance to interview the General Producer of Touken Ranbu Warriors Mei Erikawa and the Producer of Touken Ranbu Warriors Tomohiko Sho to get a bit more information about the collaboration project.

In anticipation of the title, we asked if there was a chance that the other Ruby Party games could follow. Granted these are very story-heavy visual novels, but he had to know.

Erikawa-san replied, “With Ruby Party titles, in recent years we have expanded into Asia and we felt a good response. We are aiming for an even broader global expansion, so if there is the demand we would definitely like to consider releasing English versions of our games.”

It’s definitely a response we’d expect since the demand is definitely there, but maybe it’s about time fans remind them?

Touken Ranbu Warriors covers an alternative story in which the Saniwa’s base, Honmaru, is attacked. In the midst of the confusion, this leader figure is gone and only a few blades persevere in continuing at that specific point of time waiting for the Saniwa’s return. Those characters are divided into five teams and a new, mysterious blade boy called Omokage is also introduced in the game.

Touken Ranbu Warriors is coming to Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam on May 24, 2022.