TOKYO JUNGLE: Four New Animals Today

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TOKYO JUNGLE: Four New Animals Today

It’s been two weeks since we released TOKYO JUNGLE and we‘re thrilled with the comments we’ve received from players. Thanks to everyone who is enjoying the game!

Today, we are releasing four additional animal characters (Crocodile, Giraffe, Kangaroo, Panda) and giving away more costumes, so please be sure to check out PlayStation Store this afternoon.

In other news, we’ve received many questions about TOKYO JUNGLE’s premise and gameplay, so we asked Game Director Yohei Kataoka from Crispy’s and Producer Masaaki Yamagiwa from Japan Studio to elaborate on the game’s concept and inception.

Crocodile1Crocodile0

Giraffe1Giraffe0

Kangaroo1Kangaroo0

Panda1Panda0

Dais Kawaguchi, Assistant Producer: Can you please explain how you came up with the idea for TOKYO JUNGLE?

Yohei Kataoka, Game Director: The business philosophy for “Crispy’s Corporation,” the studio I established, is to “develop a new product that nobody has ever seen before.”

However, just because it’s new doesn’t mean it will be well received. When I was struggling to figure out how to create something that’s innovative and compelling, I came across an article of famous singer-songwriters in Japan and how they conceive their inspirations when creating lyrics. The method was to first come up with the “nouns” and “adjectives” separately, and then combining them later to create the song titles and lyrics.

For example, you have an adjective, “long,” and a noun, “cat.” Everybody is familiar with each of these words, but when you combine them, you will get, “Long Cat,” which is strange but catchy. When I read that article, I had a theory. If we combine a “common theme” and another “common theme,” would it become something unique and catchy? That’s how it came about.

Just making something new will not sell. I believed that in order to successfully sell a new title, we need to present something new, and something that everybody likes (something catchy). So, we came up with the following combinations: “Animals,” which are in common existence and something that most people like.
Plus, “a city where humans have disappeared,” a popular science fiction theme.

By combining these two themes, we believed that we could create an innovative and universally appealing new game IP.

DK: TOKYO JUNGLE is so unique. What was the most entertaining part about making the game?
YK: The background images are made by processing photo images, and the photo shooting was quite a handful. If there were people in the photo images, we needed to edit them out, so we chose to shoot at dawn when there aren’t any people.

We took the photos by standing on top of the center divider, in the middle of the street, taking side steps as we took photos, one shot per step… we looked like complete psychopaths out there (lol). We took over 500 shots, per photo session and ended up with tens of thousands of pictures.

TOKYO JUNGLE on PSN

DK: Are you nervous about the reaction over in the United States? Do you think the game will translate here?

Masaaki Yamagiwa, Producer: When we saw the smile on everyone’s face when we showcased TOKYO JUNGLE at E3 and Gamescom, we were convinced that it will be accepted overseas as well. Please enjoy TOKYO JUNGLE, a game where we strived to embrace Japanese uniqueness.

How many playable animal characters are there as in the U.S. version? Will you have the same downloadable animal feature?
MY: There will be 52 types of characters available and yes, all the animals available in the Japanese version will be available in the US version.

Are there any animals that you wish you could have included in the game?
YK: I wanted to have a T-Rex because I love monster movies like Godzilla. Our prototype actually had a stage where a T-Rex crashes through the freeway and chases animals.

I know this is a silly question, but if you were an animal in the game which one would you be?
YK: I think it’s important not to get hunted, so a hippopotamus (LOL). In real life and in game, hippos are very strong, so be careful!
MY: Baby chick… because when we announced TOKYO JUNGLE in Japan, the Baby Chick was just as popular as the Pomeranian. (LOL)

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71 Comments

8 Author Replies

  • “I don’t care if youre king of the jungle, Im a world war II flying Ace. COME AT ME BRO!!!” – Beagle in pic.

  • RETRO CITY RAMPAGE!

  • Not the sort of game I’d buy without a demo.

  • Seriously Sony? You couldn’t just leave this in game but “sell DLC” with 4 popular animals from the game? We pay for a 118kb DLC?

  • Dais will these be free for us ps+members? or discounts?
    need to know thanks!

    • Hi Bcrazyman,
      Sorry, we were not able to give away the animal characters :(
      They will be available for $0.99 each or at $2.49 for the bundle.

  • Will the rest of the animal DLC be free for Plus members like the first set was?

  • Looking forward to the new animals. Great game!

  • Spent over 100 hours on the game and only played with 10 animals. Bring it on bro!

  • Where is Dishonored on the PSN!

    This is ridiculous!

    PSN updates way too late for these to be Day 1 purchases.

  • Sony is there any chance that we could play Dishonered anytime soon i mean i pre-ordered this game, paid for it and still can’t play it because you didn’t do a midnight release. And we would like an answer we have been witing for 2 days for a response.

  • @10 it will be available as soon as the store updates. this occurs every tuesday between 12pm-5pm pacific time

  • @11

    Thanks for pandering to us. We KNOW that, and that is the problem. That is way too late for a North American (all time zones) Day 1 big game release.

    The Day 1 program is atrocious. And the communication from Sony about midnight releases, because they said there would be some, has been non existent.

  • Love the game. My only problem with Tokyo Jungle is that items for the Kangaroo were dropping without him being playable.
    I believe that’s very unfair , alas. I don’t think this will be read since people enjoy spamming the comment section with stuff that has nothing to do with the game.

    • Hi ein_nineteenth,
      We’re happy to hear that you’re enjoying the game and thank you for your feedback!
      Every comment we receive is important to us so please keep them coming.

  • @13

    Nah, good luck getting any information from any thread from this poor excuse for a community site and digital delivery service.

  • @12 why are you asking questions you already know the answer to then? regardless this is not the place to be asking about that. however in the original post it said nothing about being added at midnight. its day 1 digital not midnight digital

  • Whaaat?! I am gonna be Kango-Boxing all day this week.

  • This game has quick become a “Cult Classic”…

  • *Quickly

  • @16 lol you got the right idea. But as much as i love the Kangaroo, i’m really psyched to get my hands on the Panda Bear. :P

  • This game its awesome! I already buy it… play it a so much! Everyone must try it, its really good! A PSN exclusive! I just waiting to get it on my PSV too!

  • People need to learn that day 1 doesn’t mean midnight launch. Deal.

    Anyhoo, this game is boss. Hope the remote play patch comes out soon.

  • <3 Tokyo Jungle, but I have a question that I would like from someone here at PS Blog, Japan Studio or Crispy's, and it's this:

    why is this DLC content JUST for the 4 animals as listed (Kangaroo, Giraffe, Crocodile, and Panda) when there's a 5th animal (Sabertooth Tiger it appears)? Shouldn't the Sabertooth be listed as included, or are we going to have to purchase a 3rd DLC just to have access to it? if that's the case, I'd be extremely disappointed in Sony foor allowing that to happen, enough to stop playing the game 100%

    don't get me wrong, it's a great game, but I don't believe consumers should be nickled & dimed for every last piece of content…at least bundle the content together properly. the previous pack came with 5 objects (3 animals, 2 plush for animal styles), so why shouldnt this drop? it's just screwing us over for the last piece of content then…

  • Day 1, begins at midnight. Truly wrong from sony to come up with this cheap scam. You should listen to your ps+ customers.

  • @21 lol and the fanboy comes to defend Sony again. I’m so shocked. :/

  • @22 hopefully we’ll get Sabertooth in the next dlc update, though i would gladly have taken it over the lame Giraffe anyday.

  • I’m loving this game to death! So glad you all brought it over to the States!

    Thank you for this unique and fun experience!

  • to clarify, I don’t mind paying for DLC packs when it offers to “currently” complete the list of usable characters, levels, maps, etc….but I refuse to support a game/dev who will take the opertunity to leave 1 vital characther unpurchasable to the time being to contiue to profit from me later…if you want to profit from myself, and others at a later date, I strongly advise to put out game patches and whole new animal ideas, new areas of play, etc….maybe a swamp area for the Croc, or introduce that T-Rex you had in prototype, maybe turtles, but something that is completely new, not sitting there for 2 weeks, hoping you can buy it, just to find out it’s not included in the new content.

  • Giraffe, and Kangaroo action? Perfect.

  • like c’mon people, we wouldn’t buy COD DLC, or ME3 DLC, if it were incomplete or lacking a characther, game mode or map/mission, would we? of course not, and that’s what I’m getting at, is the attempts to put the vicegrip on the consumer and just sqeueeze what they can from us…again, no problems paying for full content, but 4/5th’s? that’s only 80% complete, not 100%.

  • @ Off topic Dishonored whiners. Here’s an idea. Buy the disc version next time.

  • mmmm more animals, yay!!!

    @27, sabertooth is NOT the last DLC character, there are actually 4 more. Sabertooth, Salaryman, Caveman and a robot dog.

  • I don’t care about the price, but it’s really annoying that the 5 viewable DLC animals aren’t available for purchase at once. Those red locks with visible animals drive my OCD insane. Just release all of them seperately at least! I can’t stand seeing visible locked animals.

    It’s somewhat ok now, as I am still working on unlocking the rest of the normal animals, but t’s annoying to the point where if it takes too much longer for the Smilodon to come out, and I’ve already finished unlocking everything else in the game, I may lose interest all together, since I seriously can’t deal with playing a completed game that has unreleased DLC, and I may not go back to it.

    Same thing happened to Warriors Orochi 3, which I refuse to pick up again until the Others Strikeforce outfits are released. Only then I will buy the DLC stages.

    Please reconsider adding the Smilodon today even if it ups the price a bit. Drawing things out slowly and painfully isn’t going to create more sales, it’s just going to create more annoyed customers, and judging from some of the other comments here, may in fact cause LOST sales in the future.

  • To those defending Sonya and saying that Day 1 doesn’t mean midnight, please go to post #41 in this thread replied by Morgan Haro.

    https://blog.playstation.com/2012/09/25/psn-day-1-digital-get-these-8-ps3-games-digitally-on-release-day/

    The community rep here, Morgan, said that some would be midnight releases and they would provide info for releases as they get it. Now to me that means telling us its midnight or with a PSN update, neither response was given. Some timely info would be great so we can say, no I want to play this all day so ill go into a retailer. Instead we are making purchases with no idea when the release will happen.

  • @RidleysBox

    I certainly hope it’s not “the Last” DLC for this game lol….no, what I’m saying is the game currently shows 5, and only five, that are available for purchase (though technically they aren’t available until later today) and 4 of those 5 are to be dropped today….now if there’s more as you state, great! but then why are they not even listed as available to purchase in game, other than the Sabertooth? that’s either a flaw, and they should introduce the other 3 to the game with the same “Purchase animal on PlayStation Store to unlock” (and really, I hope those were sarcastic responces, as wtf is gonna eat a robot dog? lol), or they should release a game patch to temporarily remove Sabertooth as a option to purchse, as its not available, and is therefore false advertisement here in North America.

  • When will the PlayStation Store update. I want my pre-orderd game already! You know the game that I already paid for!

  • Dais Kawaguchi, thank you for the update. Do you have any news in regards to the Remote Play patch so I can enjoy Tokyo Jungle through my PS Vita? Thank you!

  • Hey, here’s a novel idea; let’s poop up every comment section with off topic gripes and complaints! #SMH

  • Coolio! I loved this game, it’s addicting and very well designed. And I’m getting the crocodile. :-)

  • DaGimp, RidleysBox is serious. The 3 question mark DLC animals are a third robotic dog (yes, THIRD, complete the story mode for the other 2) a caveman (Peking Man) and buisnessman (also referred to as Japanese salaryman)

    Really, they are stupid, but at least aren’t IN YOUR FACE waiting to be unlocked like the Smilodon (saber toothed tiger) is. So I guess SCEA’s strategy is to include the last viewable DLC animal released with the 3 stupid ones in order to boost sales of said stupid ones.

    Well they are wrong, because I hate waiting for something that’s ALREADY THERE, and refuse to support that kind of business strategy. I could somewhat see initially delaying them to see how sales went, but considering how sucessful Tokyo Jungle was here, there’s no reason to not release all 5 viewable DLC animals TODAY.

  • Still have no idea if I am going to get this game. I should probably do some homework, see what reviews say about it. I would like to take advantage of the discount but also want to wait for a demo first. Overdramatic ARGH!

    I am about 50/50 on enjoying games I purchased with out playing a demo first. Which is better than if I just bought a random game though…

    Anyway, at least it sounds like it must have some replayability if they are throwing in more stuff.

  • @39 i wish Sony had a mandatory demo policy for all digital games, similiar to what Microsoft did when i last used XBL years ago.

    There are still games being released on psn that don’t even have screenshots!! >_<

  • Zoidzerg, don’t go by reviews, as most mainstream sites give bad reviews to anything that dosen’t involve guns, zombies, rap, sports or half-naked women and dismiss it as a “niche” game. (I REALLY hate that word)

    If you are open minded and enjoy the concept, the game offers an INSANE amount of replayability. In addition to having to unlock all the animals in survival mode, you have to unlock each chapter of story mode, and there are certain clothing items that can only be unlocked through animal-specific challenges and through random events in survival mode.

    In addition to that, it’s generally not possibly to just blow through all challenges in a single survial run, so re-trying multiple times will add to the amount of time you spend with it.

    So basically if you are looking for a game that will last more then a week, like most short-lived 15 dollar PSN releases, definitely pick this up.

  • @Tarazuma

    Well put. that’s exactly what I was getting at before…it’s like doing your job half-assed, obviously if our employers won’t settle for half-assed work, why should consumers settle for half-assed products as well? you wouldn’t buy a new car if it was barely put together…and we wouldn’t purchase food that is half-rotted, so why would we purchase game content that is incomplete as well? it’s ludicrous for Sony to assume that we’ll accept it. as much as I want these characters, I’m honestly considering just ditching the game now knowing the Sabertooth wont be available for who-knows-how-long now…it’s a huge slap in the face of the consumer to do such tactics, especially considering those other 3 joke-of-animals are unlockable via the story mode as you point out…if I can unlock them as is, why should I have to pay for them at a later date as well? weren’t they already included in the game when I bought it?!? that’s double dipping into our pockets, just to give us a bonus Sabertooth later…pathetic.

    add me if you want, we’re obviously like minded when it comes to situations like these.

  • Really liking the game despite its difficulty, but…

    The graphics are not great, especially considering how good Afrika looked 5 years ago. I really hope they improve the texture and shader quality in a patch. It looks like it started as a PSP game and never got optimized for PS3.

    Really fun and unique, so everyone should snag it while there’s a Plus discount :)

  • really, I think any future DLC for this game, should add “evolution” factors to the game, such as allowing interspecies mating, allowing for (if genetically viable, of course) the evolution of different species…just think it would be much more interesting, seeing where each animal could evolve into which each generation…maybe a flying squirrel and a pomeranian mate to create the flying pomeranian lol.. the game is already set around the premise of life after people, so obviously wouldnt there be evolution too? just saying, if theyre gonna keep trck of stats like flea bites, generations, calories eating, etc, evolution should be just as much of a factor in survival as any other currently.

  • @24 If stating a fact makes me a fanboy, then lol.

    Day 1, means…. day 1. Shocker.

  • I really wish this game had a demo I wanted to try it out before making a purchase. Now I will never know if this would of been a game that I would of liked to play.

  • How much are these new animals?

  • Let me start by saying “I Love this game”. It is a addicting RPG. I do however sit through the 1st year, waiting for the challenges to become active. I have almost unlocked all the animals, but havent lasted over 40 years.

    Please put this on the PS Vita.

  • I’m actually extremely pleased with this game. It’s super addictive, it’s cute, and full of surprises. Time and time again, I’ve hit a survival streak and just wasted three hours in one sitting. The guys who’ve made this deserve props.

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