Visual novel series, BUSTAFELLOWS, is set to launch its sequel, BUSTAFELLOWS Season 2, in the West on July 17, 2025. The first game is an exciting crime drama, offering an adventurous romantic journey with five good looking, but dangerous men. Teuta, the smart-as-a-whip female protagonist, holds a mysterious power that allows her to dive into the past and control another person’s body. She crosses paths with a dubious lawyer, Limbo (voiced by KENN), when she witnesses his murder and attempts to warn his past self.
Despite the open-and-shut story of the first game, there’s more to explore with the characters in the town of New Sieg in the next season. Asia Blooming discussed the process behind creating BUSTAFELLOWS and its second season and bringing Limbo’s character to life with minetaka (Producer and Scenario Writer at NIPPON CULTURAL BROADCASTING EXTEND INC) and KENN (voice actor for Limbo).
How did you become involved in creating a game like BUSTAFELLOWS where the characters have questionable, and somewhat dark, jobs?
minetaka: For BUSTAFELLOWS, I believe the tagline in English is “The Beautiful Evil Within You.” It was my hope with this work to depict the ‘evils’ that everyone harbors in their hearts. In society, ‘good’ is seen as righteous and proper, while ‘evil’ is seen as immoral and wrong. In many cases, that which is against the law is automatically viewed as ‘evil’. However, so long as humans involve themselves with one another, everyone will inevitably have some evil inside them, thus I wrote a story which depicts the ‘beautiful evil’ that can be found inside people.
What was the international reception to BUSTAFELLOWS like? How long did it take before the decision to localize BUSTAFELLOWS Season 2 was approved?
minetaka: From the start, we never even planned to produce BUSTAFELLOWS Season 2 because we felt like we’d used up just about every idea we had in the first title. Even when we started to make the second game, the COVID pandemic set us back considerably. When the Japanese version of Season 2 finally released, we received a huge amount of support from international fans of the first even though the second wasn’t in a language they could understand.
We would hold collaborations at cafés or do stage shows in Japan, and we found that people came all the way from overseas just to be there. And of course, we received many messages every day via email and social media of support. We decided that we couldn’t leave such supportive people hanging, that we needed to give that love back to the people overseas. So, the decision to produce an English localization of Season 2 was the only natural course.
Please tell us about the updated designs of the characters in BUSTAFELLOWS Season 2. In the promotional material, the characters wear darker clothing than the more colorful clothing in the first BUSTAFELLOWS game.
minetaka: Season 2 carries on after the end of the first game, so the time of year has changed as well. We wanted to reflect not only the changing of the seasons, but also the changing of the character’s internal feelings through their redesigned outfits. Some of these character changes progress as the story of Season 2 progresses as well. It wasn’t a simple case of “let’s give them new clothes and make them look cool” we wanted the character designs to reflect the changes in their heart, their way of thinking and the environment around them.
As a producer, how do you balance the routes of the different characters? For example, making one character more serious and another goofier?
minetaka: We definitely think about superficial aspects to game balance, like the total amount of playtime or unique illustrations per route but balancing a given route’s content has never really been a point of consideration for me. Some of the episodes are heavy on the romance, while others might lean more into criminal or suspense elements. Just as every player of the game must be living different lives, so too do our characters lead different lives. There’s no sense to me in thinking in rigid terms such as balance when it comes to human experiences, so I think it’s more realistic to simply write the stories in a way that feels more natural for each character.
Now and then I’ll get comments like “This character has a ton of romance scenes, and this other one doesn’t. Can’t we have it, so they all have equal opportunity for sweet scenes?” While I understand the complaint, I don’t view my characters as mere objects I created, I view them as people who must be living someplace else. That’s why each character has their own progression and story style, because it’s the individual tale they were born for. If you’re viewing BUSTAFELLOWS purely as a romance visual novel then I can understand why that might leave you feeling unsatisfied, but it’s my fundamental belief that the titles with a more polarized reception often end up being the better ones.
I don’t think it’s possible to create a game that will leave everyone who plays it interested and engaged, but it’s possible to create a game that will leave everyone who played it feeling “not bored.” You can create one by going through a list of unsatisfying aspects to omit, ensuring you tick all the boxes, but in my world that doesn’t make for a truly interesting title.
What was your first impression of Limbo when you initially started voicing him, and did BUSTAFELLOWS Season 2 change your opinion of him in any way?
KENN: My first impression was that he was confident and composed, but he also seemed to be a bit simple and naive in some ways. As I continued to portray him, I began to see some weaknesses in his psyche, but now I feel like he’s someone who has just as many strengths to balance out those weaknesses. BUSTAFELLOWS gets quite serious at times and has some gut-wrenching scenes but watching him and his friends push through them is truly exciting. In Season 2, those bonds grow even stronger, so I’d really like for people to pay attention to how his relationships develop.
What aspect of BUSTAFELLOWS would you recommend to someone who has never played it?
KENN: There are many good points I’d like to recommend, but if I had to choose one thing, I’d say it’s how well it immerses you in its exhilarating story. It’s a crime thriller, so there are some stressful moments, but the excitement you get when overcoming challenges together with the other characters or even witnessing the bad endings with unfortunate results will really leave a strong impression on you. That’s the thing I really like about this game, so I hope everyone else can experience it too.
Since the character you’re portraying is a lawyer, did you do anything special to prepare for the role?
KENN: I had already played a lawyer in another game, so I had a strong idea about the work they do. I also really like foreign dramas and movies, and crime thrillers are one of my favorite genres, so I had an image in my mind about what legal cases and trials entail. I think that all of that helped me while I was portraying Limbo.
Set to launch on Nintendo Switch and PC on July 17, BUSTAFELLOWS Season 2 in English is now available for preorder. For those who want to try out the game first, a free PC demo is available on Steam.
