Arc System Works was reluctant to publish The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories due to its gory nature

Those who haven't been paying attention to The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories might not know that it's an extremely gory. As a matter of fact, that aspect of the game was almost enough for Arc System Works to bow out of the project. In an interview with Gamasutra, creator Swery talks about how he wooed Arc back.

“At first, when I showed it to the people at Arc, they were very taken aback. ‘Oh no, we can't do anything like this.’ But after explaining to them the essential theme and concept and idea behind this game, they finally gave me the opportunity to go ahead with the production and publishing. Arc has a very big fanbase in Asia, their domestic market. So I feel like we cover that, but at the same time I feel like my fanbase is very international, so I think we're able to hit both sides.”

The Missing sounds like a very important game for Swery. It not only is a Swery project through and through, it might be the most distilled Swery experience we've gotten yet. It also happens to be a game where Swery set out to break from conventions and deliver something different from what fans might expect.

“This game was made all in-house at White Owls, and so a lot of my vision, my ideas, have materialized in this game very accurately. ...I wanted to show my fans I'm not just all about the story, I'm not just all about the characters. I can create good game mechanics that are engaging...this is my attempt at breaking that shell and expanding, and showing a side of Swery that no one's ever seen before."