"In the end, I hope that players can experience the world with fresh eyes, enjoying curiosity" - Analgesic Productions on developing Angeline Era, console ports, the next game, and more
A few days ago, Angeline Era from Analgesic Productions launched for consoles worldwide following its PC debut. I had a chance to catch up with both Melos Han-Tani and Marina Kittaka, who form Analgesic Productions, to discuss Angeline Era's design, narrative, discoverability, Falcom, Ys, the console ports, their next game, learning from past releases, and much more.
RPG Site: For those unaware, tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
Melos: We're Analgesic Productions, which is just Marina Kittaka and I (Melos Han-Tani). We've been making games together for over a decade - Anodyne 1+2, Even the Ocean, Sephonie. We collaborate on game design, while I handle music/coding and Marina the art. The story sort of changes hands depending on which game we work on, for Angeline Era, Marina worked on that.
Melos: We're Analgesic Productions, which is just Marina Kittaka and I (Melos Han-Tani). We've been making games together for over a decade - Anodyne 1+2, Even the Ocean, Sephonie. We collaborate on game design, while I handle music/coding and Marina the art. The story sort of changes hands depending on which game we work on, for Angeline Era, Marina worked on that.
RPG Site: I first discovered you through Anodyne back when it came to mobile. I've still not played Anodyne 2. Can you discuss how things have changed for Analgesic Productions since the first Anodyne to today?
Melos: We're still a team of 2, and we also know a lot more about marketing and game production than we did back then, which is helpful! We're also older too, which gives a different vibe to being in the indie games world compared to being in our 20s. I think we are more into the idea of research as one of the pillars of making new games, so we've been making more active efforts to research and learn as needed, be that books, life experience, games, etc.
Melos: We're still a team of 2, and we also know a lot more about marketing and game production than we did back then, which is helpful! We're also older too, which gives a different vibe to being in the indie games world compared to being in our 20s. I think we are more into the idea of research as one of the pillars of making new games, so we've been making more active efforts to research and learn as needed, be that books, life experience, games, etc.
RPG Site: When my colleague James started talking about Angeline Era, I didn't even realize it was from you both until I checked the Steam page. The reception has been fantastic and I loved it last year. What made you want to do a game that some consider the best homage to classic Ys?
Marina: Many action games make my hands hurt from mashing the attack button. I wanted to make a game that felt conceptually simple and physically untaxing, but still full of intensity.
Melos: I wanted to make an adventure that could also carry a story, but also stay fresh in the combat aspect of things as I felt like something more around the pace of Anodyne 1 or 2's combat was a bit too slow and Zelda-y. I had been playing Ys in the years leading up to starting Angeline Era and always thought its fast pace was really cool, and was sad that most action games had moved away from its simplicity towards a focus on RPG stat-building or complicated inputs. I had done a lot of level design for past games but they tended to be applied more to a puzzly context (e.g. a room in Anodyne 1 or 2), so I wanted to see what I could do in a different context. Now I like action games a lot more!
Marina: Many action games make my hands hurt from mashing the attack button. I wanted to make a game that felt conceptually simple and physically untaxing, but still full of intensity.
Melos: I wanted to make an adventure that could also carry a story, but also stay fresh in the combat aspect of things as I felt like something more around the pace of Anodyne 1 or 2's combat was a bit too slow and Zelda-y. I had been playing Ys in the years leading up to starting Angeline Era and always thought its fast pace was really cool, and was sad that most action games had moved away from its simplicity towards a focus on RPG stat-building or complicated inputs. I had done a lot of level design for past games but they tended to be applied more to a puzzly context (e.g. a room in Anodyne 1 or 2), so I wanted to see what I could do in a different context. Now I like action games a lot more!
RPG Site: What were your inspirations for the narrative? A lot of folks write off stories in games like this, but Angeline Era is special.
Marina: One way of describing it is that the writing process began with contemporary ideas and feelings (e.g. the modern ‘tradwife’, romantic notions of Ireland’s past, or Evangelical Christianity’s push/pull relationship with science). Characters are developed who represent clusters of different themes, and research complicates and contextualizes those themes. In the end, I hope that players can experience the world with fresh eyes, enjoying curiosity.
Marina: One way of describing it is that the writing process began with contemporary ideas and feelings (e.g. the modern ‘tradwife’, romantic notions of Ireland’s past, or Evangelical Christianity’s push/pull relationship with science). Characters are developed who represent clusters of different themes, and research complicates and contextualizes those themes. In the end, I hope that players can experience the world with fresh eyes, enjoying curiosity.
RPG Site: Can you discuss your trip to Ireland and how it helped Angeline Era?
Marina: I think it helped us achieve a certain subtlety to the environments and world layout. Games tend to have visually exaggerated biomes to create interest and a feeling of progression throughout the game. With Angeline Era, we wanted to create something a bit more grounded, where the differentiation between spaces is based on level design concepts, narrative, atmospheric qualities, relative prevalence of different plants and creatures, etc.
Marina: I think it helped us achieve a certain subtlety to the environments and world layout. Games tend to have visually exaggerated biomes to create interest and a feeling of progression throughout the game. With Angeline Era, we wanted to create something a bit more grounded, where the differentiation between spaces is based on level design concepts, narrative, atmospheric qualities, relative prevalence of different plants and creatures, etc.
RPG Site: When did you write Tets Kinoshta's character?
Marina: Tets was refined throughout the whole course of development, and he was difficult to get right. Earlier drafts of Tets were more immediately morose and questioning. But even though things get complex and difficult for Tets, I think it was important to also show a side of him that is highly driven, caring, and straightforward.
Marina: Tets was refined throughout the whole course of development, and he was difficult to get right. Earlier drafts of Tets were more immediately morose and questioning. But even though things get complex and difficult for Tets, I think it was important to also show a side of him that is highly driven, caring, and straightforward.
RPG Site: I very much appreciate how you trust the players in Angeline Era. What learnings from the Anodyne games and their reception did you take with you when planning Angeline Era's structure?
Marina: There is a lot of room for flexibility in game narrative. By creating zones of mood, theme, and emotion, players can experience a story by navigating a map.
Melos: Once someone knows the base rules, as long as they generally know how to progress the story (if there is one), you're pretty free to have the player do anything else, which is how the wide-open structure of Angeline Era manages to work.
Marina: There is a lot of room for flexibility in game narrative. By creating zones of mood, theme, and emotion, players can experience a story by navigating a map.
Melos: Once someone knows the base rules, as long as they generally know how to progress the story (if there is one), you're pretty free to have the player do anything else, which is how the wide-open structure of Angeline Era manages to work.
RPG Site: I also want to know how you discovered and worked with Setpoems.
Melos: In early 2023 I was getting more into level design/boss design for Angeline Era and was watching people play and see what was working well. At some point I connected this to the way humor and expression in Dark Souls works, which is a point that is often overlooked by reviews. Enemy placement in that game often carries meaning, akin to placing dolls in a dollhouse. That attention to detail was something I wanted to think about evoking with my levels, and after chatting with Marina for a bit we came up with the idea.
Nowadays I would view "Setpoems" less as concrete concept, and more as a word that is related to the idea that if you're careful with how you design a game's mechanics, you can use those mechanics to "write" different feelings into the world like you would with art or visuals or words. So the enemy placement and level design in Angeline Era is done in all sorts of ways to create different emotions and feelings, rather than just be an obstacle to overcome.
Melos: In early 2023 I was getting more into level design/boss design for Angeline Era and was watching people play and see what was working well. At some point I connected this to the way humor and expression in Dark Souls works, which is a point that is often overlooked by reviews. Enemy placement in that game often carries meaning, akin to placing dolls in a dollhouse. That attention to detail was something I wanted to think about evoking with my levels, and after chatting with Marina for a bit we came up with the idea.
Nowadays I would view "Setpoems" less as concrete concept, and more as a word that is related to the idea that if you're careful with how you design a game's mechanics, you can use those mechanics to "write" different feelings into the world like you would with art or visuals or words. So the enemy placement and level design in Angeline Era is done in all sorts of ways to create different emotions and feelings, rather than just be an obstacle to overcome.
RPG Site: I often see people call Angeline Era a game that "isn't for everyone". I feel like games that try to be for everyone end up being for no one. Angeline Era feels very much like a game that delivered on what you wanted and it shows. What are your thoughts on accessibility versus design philosophy?
Melos: For me accessibility tends to be more about the intersection of disability. We try to include options like rebinding controls and be aware of color blindness and text size, but there's only so much we can do as a small team. In the past some features I've included (e.g. unlimited jumping in Sephonie, a 3D platformer) - I think there's room to have designed something that didn't break the game so badly.
For action games and design philosophy it's trickier. If you go with only one difficulty mode - Silksong, Dark Souls - what ends up happening is the players will focus more on buildcrafting, which is fine if the game is more about roleplaying anyways.
As a designer I'm not as interested in this - I want people to be experiencing a more consistent version of the action, so we went with difficulty modes, which allow for more curation of the difficulty for players, but less cheesing.
Of course, Angeline Era still has leveling up and subweapons which can unbalance things. Ultimately it is an action-adventure so those things do help with the sense of adventure, but in terms of "pure action fun" my personal preference would be for no level ups or subweapons lol. Something like Angeline Era on Han-Tani's Challenge but a little less busted at the later levels/bosses might be my ideal version of a hard mode for the game.
Melos: For me accessibility tends to be more about the intersection of disability. We try to include options like rebinding controls and be aware of color blindness and text size, but there's only so much we can do as a small team. In the past some features I've included (e.g. unlimited jumping in Sephonie, a 3D platformer) - I think there's room to have designed something that didn't break the game so badly.
For action games and design philosophy it's trickier. If you go with only one difficulty mode - Silksong, Dark Souls - what ends up happening is the players will focus more on buildcrafting, which is fine if the game is more about roleplaying anyways.
As a designer I'm not as interested in this - I want people to be experiencing a more consistent version of the action, so we went with difficulty modes, which allow for more curation of the difficulty for players, but less cheesing.
Of course, Angeline Era still has leveling up and subweapons which can unbalance things. Ultimately it is an action-adventure so those things do help with the sense of adventure, but in terms of "pure action fun" my personal preference would be for no level ups or subweapons lol. Something like Angeline Era on Han-Tani's Challenge but a little less busted at the later levels/bosses might be my ideal version of a hard mode for the game.
RPG Site: You obviously had a lot of requests for a console port back when Angeline Era came to PC. When did work begin with Ratalaika Games on the ports?
Melos: End of 2025, but porting started at the start of 2026 and concluded around May/June.
Melos: End of 2025, but porting started at the start of 2026 and concluded around May/June.
RPG Site: How involved were you in the console ports?
Melos: Ratalaika did all the technical porting work, but I helped with debugging a few graphical and control issues as well as doing QA and platform submission/marketing.
Melos: Ratalaika did all the technical porting work, but I helped with debugging a few graphical and control issues as well as doing QA and platform submission/marketing.
RPG Site: Are there plans to add 120fps support on PS5/XSX and Xbox Play Anywhere support on Xbox for those who play on those consoles + Windows 11 handhelds?
Melos: Not at the moment.
Melos: Not at the moment.
RPG Site: Are there plans for Switch 2 enhancements?
Melos: Not at the moment.
Melos: Not at the moment.
RPG Site: Physical releases are even more important right now. Are there plans for PS5/Switch/Xbox physicals and potentially a big box PC release for Angeline Era's GOG version?
Melos: This would be cool, but it depends on how well it sells on consoles!
Melos: This would be cool, but it depends on how well it sells on consoles!
RPG Site: What's next for Angeline Era after console ports? Do you want to do more updates/paid DLC or move to the next game?
Melos: No updates planned, we've already started planning our next game together.
Melos: No updates planned, we've already started planning our next game together.
RPG Site: What do you think of the current state of action games and the Ys franchise?
Melos: I wrote a very brief rant here on "animation-focused" action. I think overall action games are a bit stale right now, too focused on feeling like action movies or cinema, which is why pretty much every AAA action game trailer coming out now looks the same - it's all just quick dodging/fast movement/parrying with skill trees and equipment. Or like some kind of cover shooter or FPS. That's not to say these kinds of gameplay are no good and there's no innovation or artistry happening, but as I get older I have to be more careful with my time and I am less interested in overcoming the same challenges in a slightly different skin over and over again.
I'd like action games to draw more on actions we take in everyday life, like playing sports or walking around or something. For example Angeline Era drew on a lot of my experience walking or playing tennis - the way you quickly whip around to hit enemies, or have to watch your footing in fights…
As much as I like Falcom I don't think their action work has been very inspired lately. Ys X and Kyoto Xanadu were very heavily focused on skill trees and perfect dodges/parries which feels a bit flat… sometimes the fights had some fun when you needed to run around more, but a lot of fights felt like memorizing some timings and then mashing the "big attack" button to win. It feels less like an organic encounter and more like a video I have to memorize the timings for.
Melos: I wrote a very brief rant here on "animation-focused" action. I think overall action games are a bit stale right now, too focused on feeling like action movies or cinema, which is why pretty much every AAA action game trailer coming out now looks the same - it's all just quick dodging/fast movement/parrying with skill trees and equipment. Or like some kind of cover shooter or FPS. That's not to say these kinds of gameplay are no good and there's no innovation or artistry happening, but as I get older I have to be more careful with my time and I am less interested in overcoming the same challenges in a slightly different skin over and over again.
I'd like action games to draw more on actions we take in everyday life, like playing sports or walking around or something. For example Angeline Era drew on a lot of my experience walking or playing tennis - the way you quickly whip around to hit enemies, or have to watch your footing in fights…
As much as I like Falcom I don't think their action work has been very inspired lately. Ys X and Kyoto Xanadu were very heavily focused on skill trees and perfect dodges/parries which feels a bit flat… sometimes the fights had some fun when you needed to run around more, but a lot of fights felt like memorizing some timings and then mashing the "big attack" button to win. It feels less like an organic encounter and more like a video I have to memorize the timings for.
RPG Site: What games from the last year have you enjoyed playing?
Melos: In terms of new releases: Sylvie's "Discover the World", Perfect Tides Station to Station were nice. Older releases, I quite liked Road Trip Adventure (PS2).
Melos: In terms of new releases: Sylvie's "Discover the World", Perfect Tides Station to Station were nice. Older releases, I quite liked Road Trip Adventure (PS2).
RPG Site: What are your thoughts on Steam's discoverability and the state of PC storefronts right now?
Melos: There's a lot of competition with games nowadays, but relative to other e.g. console storefronts, the way Steam does discoverability is more reliable and transparent. Nowadays you really can't rely on just Steam to show the game to fans though, you have to be doing a ton more marketing work on your own.
Melos: There's a lot of competition with games nowadays, but relative to other e.g. console storefronts, the way Steam does discoverability is more reliable and transparent. Nowadays you really can't rely on just Steam to show the game to fans though, you have to be doing a ton more marketing work on your own.
RPG Site: Final question. How do you like your coffee? Go into as much detail as possible.
Melos: I rarely drink coffee because it contains too much caffeine, but I do like coffee. A black pourover or espresso is good if it's been brewed well, but otherwise I think lattes or cafe au lait are both great. My favorite bottled milk coffee is either Japan's boxed Glico "delicious coffee milk" or Bernachon coffee milk bottles from Taiwan.
Marina: I also can’t really drink coffee for health reasons, but for a while I was into making pour-overs. The physical act is very simple and activates the senses. I enjoyed it black or with a hazelnut flavored creamer.
Melos: I rarely drink coffee because it contains too much caffeine, but I do like coffee. A black pourover or espresso is good if it's been brewed well, but otherwise I think lattes or cafe au lait are both great. My favorite bottled milk coffee is either Japan's boxed Glico "delicious coffee milk" or Bernachon coffee milk bottles from Taiwan.
Marina: I also can’t really drink coffee for health reasons, but for a while I was into making pour-overs. The physical act is very simple and activates the senses. I enjoyed it black or with a hazelnut flavored creamer.