My Next Life as a Villainess otome director on adapting the original series

There is the completed novel, manga and light novel currently in production, and the anime available so far. How much of each affected the story and development of the game?

Haruse: This project wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the original story. So, we made sure to honor the original world and character traits. From the beginning, we anticipated releasing the game after Season 1 of the anime had streamed. So we based the world’s setting on Season 1 in hopes that it would be easier for fans of the anime to follow the characters into the game’s world. We wanted to do our best to ensure the game didn’t impact the original story too much, so we treated it as an “alternate timeline” of the original story. Since the original story was still ongoing, we wanted to utilize that world, the characters, and the original setting, while creating a foundation with the new game characters for the new plot.

How difficult was it to integrate the otome game original characters into the cast of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom? What measures did you take to ensure they remained consistent?

Haruse: In terms of the game’s new characters, since we had already obtained approval from the IP holders during the concept approval stage, integrating them into the game was straightforward. While developing the game’s main scenario, I revisited all the novel content from the beginning to the most recent publication to ensure I was familiar with the original settings. I was cautious not to disrupt any aspect of that world while progressing with the game plot. Nevertheless, we left a few Easter eggs for both the original novel and anime fans, and hope it adds an extra layer of enjoyment to the game.