archipel

Patron Update

Hi everyone,

We hope everyone is staying well and healthy. There are a few projects that we have in the pipe that we thought we would shed some light on:

- Indie Manga Artist documentary: We've seen positive reactions on the teaser we've shared on the channel a few weeks back. Editing is in progress, this will be a long one (looking at around the 1 hour mark) that we target to release in October.

- Hideki Kamiya: We sat down with Hideki Kami...

NEW | Yoshitaka Amano, Kazuko Shibuya - from paper to pixel

Hello everyone, 

We've just released a new video on the Cutscenes channel, focusing on the work of Yoshitaka Amano and Kazuko Shibuya, who was assigned the daunting task to translate his work into pixels. 

The collaboration between the two started 35 years ago, at the very beginning of the Final Fantasy series, reaching a peak with Final Fantasy VI, the last numbered title of the pixel era.

More content for Cutscenes is on the way, we hope you'll enjoy.

Thank...

Outside the Manga Standards | Teaser

Hi everyone,

Today we just released a short teaser to our next documentary on the main Archipel channel, exploring the universe of alternative manga artists Yuriko Akase and Junichiro Saito, looking at their diametrically opposed styles.

As we've shared in previous posts, we wanted to shed more light on non-mainstream manga artists, how they break the established manga codes and how they position themselves in the industry.

Hope you'll enjoy and please look forward to the fu...

NEW | Daisuke Ishiwatari, Striving

Hello everyone,

Today we are sharing a new video on Cutscenes: our interview with Guilty Gear series creator Daisuke Ishiwatari, who shed more light on the approach behind the Guilty Gear -Strive-, the latest addition to the series.

Standing as a legend of the 2D vs. fighting game genre, Ishiwatari takes part in each step of the creation process, from music to character design or scenario for the game's story. He also shared more on his perspectives on current game development and...

Patron Update | May 2021

Hello everyone,

Quick update on what you can expect from us in the next few weeks.

Archipel Main Channel:

We had already shared a bit on this, but we are working on a small series with non-mainstream manga artists, hoping to shed a new light on mangaka minds. We have shot our first portait the other day, which we will start working on to share in the next weeks/months.

2021-05-31 08:36:44 +0000 UTC View Post

NEW | Shun Harada, the game goods maker

Hello everyone,

We released today a new video on the Cutscenes channel: a portrait of Shun Harada, who created TORCH TORCH, a brand specializing in apparel and accessories inspired by FromSoftware's universe, among many others.

Now on the frontlines of Japan's merchandising industry, he explains on the production process of accessories such as the Chloranthy Ring from the Dark Souls series or his most recent work on a figure of Joel and Ellie from The Last of Us.

Regarding o...

Patron Update | April 2021

Hello everyone,

We wanted to make a post to share a few updates on our upcoming content and what we currently have in the pipe.

As some of you may have seen on Twitter, our next content will shed more light on the goods world with Shun Harada, who created TorchTorch, a brand specializing in accessories and apparel centered around From Software's universe, among others, after spending years working at Mamegyorai, an institution in Tokyo for pop culture merch. This content will be r...

[Interview Log | $5+ Patrons] Toshihiro Nagoshi, the Yakuza years

Hello everyone, 

This has been in the past list of benefits for the $5 tier and we had promised we would share one interview log - today we are posting a transcript for $5+ patrons from our discussion with SEGA's Toshihiro Nagoshi, who's behind the Yakuza series.

Here's a link back to the video, that we had released as part of our "Caravan" series: https://youtu.be/MTI7BUZ4rgc

As we have mentioned on o...

Patreon Renewal

Hi everyone,

We're excited to launch today our renewed Patreon and our plan for the future of our channel and our content. Before we jump into the changes, we feel we need to provide a bit more context and what led us to this renewal.

Simply put, our current funding does not allow us to create regular content for Archipel. We've been balancing with our side jobs, but when we take into account the time we want to spend in order to create our content, the math simply doesn't add up....

NEW | Ikumi Nakamura - Remnant Tour

Hello everyone,

As briefly announced last week, we are releasing a new video today with game creative director Ikumi Nakamura, where we wandered with her through "haikyo", which designates abandoned locations in Japanese.

She tells us about her beginnings in the industry, her famous appearance at E3 2019 and her current projects after leaving Tango Gameworks in September that year.

As you will notice, this video is not uploaded on the Archipel channel, but on "Cutscenes", a ...

By the way.

Our next video will be with Ikumi Nakamura.

The renewed Patreon will be up by this month.

Really, thank you for your support.

- Alex

What's next for Archipel (Prologue)

Hello everyone,

You may have seen our call for suggestions on Discord, mentioning that we will be renewing our Patreon. Before our "official" renewal announcement, which we will share publicly in the next few days, we wanted to give you an initial glimpse of what's coming next.

- Patreon tiers: we will change the $5 tier, as we've mentioned the logs are taking more than time than expected to get the necessary confirmations (although we'll be sharing the one for ou...

Three Minutes, Three Years: Making Puparia - Shingo Tamagawa portrait

Hello everyone,

We're releasing today our portrait of Shingo Tamagawa, the animator behind the mesmerizing short film "PUPARIA", a fully independent work that he released last November after spending one year on preparation and more than two years on production.

Looking back at his motivations and emotions that triggered the project, we dived into his daunting process of production and his message for the industr...

Happy New Year!

Hello and happy new year!

We're wishing everyone all the best and a much, much better year.

With the "Caravan" series now behind us, we would like to use this opportunity to do a quick announcement for one of our first videos of the year: a portrait of Shingo Tamagawa, the talented animator who single-handedly created the mysterious and unique short film "PUPARIA". 

Thank you again for your support, we...

NEW | Isamu Kamikokuryo, Art directing Final Fantasy - Archipel Caravan

Hello everyone,

The Archipel "Caravan" series finishes today with our portrait of Isamu Kamikokuryo, veteran art director who has worked on the Final Fantasy series for close to two decades, starting on Final Fantasy X all the way to Final Fantasy XV.

He looked back at his career, his work process and position as an art director in the game industry, as we went and explored the Kawasaki Industrial Zone and Izu Oshima, two locations that inspired him during his career, a reminder t...

Archipel AMA - Max Watanabe, December 21st

Hello everyone,

Following up our first AMA from last month with Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, we'll have our 2nd session, patron-only this time, with veteran modeler and figma creator Max Watanabe.

As the founder of Max Factory, Max has been on the forefront of the figure industry for more than 30 years, with constant efforts of bringing figures to a larger audience. All patrons will be able to ask their questions, which can of course go beyond the scope of the figures, fi...

Update | Isamu Kamikokuryo Delay

Hi everyone,

As we've previously announced, our final long content for the "Caravan" series will be our portrait of Square Enix veteran art director Isamu Kamikokuryo, where we'll learn more about his work on Final Fantasy (X to XV), while visiting some unique places that inspire him.

While we had originally planned to release this content on the 17th, we had to spend a bit more time than expected on some client work - accordingly we would like to work some more on the edit and as...

NEW | Naoki Yoshida, Helming the realm of FFXIV - Archipel Caravan

Hello everyone,

We're launching today another long interview of our "Caravan" series, this time with Naoki Yoshida, director and producer of Final Fantasy XIV, a game that stands at the top of the MMORPG genre, "saved" with a full reboot after difficult beginnings.

He recollected on his career, his work at Square Enix and the highlights of his path on FFXIV, ten years after he joined the project.

Yoshida also told us about his admiration for Yasumi Matsuno, creator of Tactic...

Patreon Update - November 2020

Hello everyone,

It's been now almost close to two months since we started our Archipel "Caravan" series, we thought it was a good moment to do a quick look back and update on what we've done so far and what's coming up next on Archipel.

Content-wise, here's a list of what we've released:

- Writing a death game - an interview with Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka, for the 10th anniversary of the series: 2020-11-30 13:36:58 +0000 UTC View Post

NEW | Saori Kobayashi Interlude #4 - Sona mi areru ec sancitu

Hello everyone,

Before our upcoming interview with Final Fantasy XIV producer & director Naoki Yoshida (coming out December 3rd),  we are now releasing a new musical interlude with Panzer Dragoon composer Saori Kobayashi performing a piano arrangement of "Sona mi areru ec sancitu", the ending theme of Panzer Dragoon Saga.

We're posting slightly earlier than usual, as we wanted to check this time slot as it -apparently- fits many time zones.

We hope you'll like it an...

New Patreon Goal - Multilingual subtitles

Hello everyone,

In an effort to provide our content to our international audience in a more systematic and regular manner, we are launching a new patron goal.

We’ve received the help for global subtitles so far via Community Contributions, however YouTube disabled the feature a few months ago. Additionally, we want to be able to pay translators who help us with subtitles, which is why we’re launching this new goal. If we reach 1,000 patrons, we will provide subtitles in Spanis...

Archipel AMA - Fumihiko Yasuda, November 23rd

Hello everyone,

Tomorrow we will be holding our first AMA session on our Discord with Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda. From the state of the industry to the creative process behind a game in Japan, everyone will be able to ask their questions, as this first AMA will be held on our open channel.

If you're a Patreon and haven't joined our Discord, you can use Patreon's Discord integration feature in order to join directly with your tier status.

If you're not a Patron, you...

NEW | Toshihiro Nagoshi, the Yakuza years - Archipel Caravan

Hello everyone,

As the latest content of the "Caravan" series, we're releasing our interview with Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of the Yakuza series, one of SEGA's top ongoing IPs, celebrating this year its 15th anniversary.

From its beginnings during the PlayStation 2 days, Nagoshi recollects on the birth and evolution of the series, its recent shift to the RPG genre and his perspectives towards the future.

We hope you'll enjoy and stay tuned every Thursday for new "Caravan" c...

NEW | Saori Kobayashi Interlude #3 - Village of Zoah

Hello everyone,

Thank you for all the positive reactions on our recent Shinji Mikami portrait and our interview & live session with Takenobu Mitsuyoshi.

Today we're releasing our third short musical interlude with Panzer Dragoon Saga & Orta composer Saori Kobayashi, who plays an arrangement of "Village of Zoah", from the Panzer Dragoon Saga soundtrack.

Following up in the "Caravan" series, an interview for the 15th anniversary of the "Yakuza" series, with its creator...

NEW | Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, the voice of SEGA - Archipel Caravan

Hello everyone,

It's been one month since we started the Archipel Caravan series, thanks to all the newcomers on Patreon and for your comments on the Discord channels.

Today we're releasing our latest content of the series, a piece about Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, a unique character of SEGA's history, as the voice behind titles such as Daytona USA and Burning Rangers. 

We asked about his career, before witnessing a unique spectacular performance in SEGA's studio, further expa...

NEW | Shinji Mikami - Part 2, Archipel Caravan

Hello everyone,

We are releasing today the second part to our long portrait on the iconic Shinji Mikami, who celebrates this year his 30th career anniversary.

After leaving off Part 1 on Resident Evil 4 and his visions on the horror genre, we focus on Mikami's career as he gradually distances himself from Capcom, starting with God Hand, a unique action title and his ambitions behind it. We'll also dive into some unheard stories of Mikami's project ideas on the way to Vanquish, in ...

NEW | Saori Kobayashi - Nomad

Hello everyone,

Archipel "Caravan" continues with our second interlude with Panzer Dragoon composer Saori Kobayashi.

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Panzer Dragoon series, she performed an acoustic piano session of some of the games’ soundtrack. This is track two: Nomad, from the Panzer Dragoon Saga soundtrack.

Next week, we will be releasing the second part to our Shinji Mikami long portrait, focusing on God Hand, Vanquish, Mikami's colloaboration with SUDA51, up ...

[Update] Patron-only AMA - Discord | Next month

Hello everyone,

As previously announced, we will be starting monthly AMA sessions with Japanese creators on our Patron-only Discord Channel.

Our first AMA will be held on October 23rd, 11pm JST / 10 am EST / 7 am PST /  4 pm CET [Update: see footnote addendum]. Our guest will be Team NINJA's Fumihiko Yasuda, director of the Nioh series.

This is our first session so everything is a bit new to us, but here are some simple rules we would like to set up.

- All patrons...

NEW | Shinji Mikami, Archipel Caravan

Hello everyone,

Today we're launching our first long content of the Archipel Caravan series, the first part to our portrait of industry veteran Shinji Mikami.

Mikami is celebrating his 30th career anniversary this year and stands as one of the biggest contributors to the industry as the creator of the Resident Evil series and titles such as Dino Crisis, God Hand, Vanquish or more recently The Evil Within.

In the first, we'll look back at Mikami's beginnings and the birth of ...

NEW | Saori Kobayashi, Archipel Caravan

Hello everyone,

Following our interview with Kazutaka Kodaka, Archipel Caravan continues with a musical interlude. 

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Panzer Dragoon series, Saori Kobayashi, composer on the Saga and Orta titles, performed an acoustic piano session of some of the games’ soundtrack, after a brief introduction to her creative approach. We will be releasing these short interludes regularly during Archipel Caravan, one track at a time.

This is track o...