Kill la Kill the Game: IF Plans to Feel Like "Watching the Anime"

Kill la Kill the Game: IF adapts the world of Kill la Kill to an arena fighting game, but if the vision for the project goes as planned, players will feel like they've been watching the anime themselves, Studio Trigger says.

The game was announced in mid-June with a reveal trailer, but a more recent look at the game was shared during Anime Expo 2018. Published by well-known fighting game creator Arc System Works and developed by APLUS of Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time fame, the two are working closely with Studio Trigger, the anime's creators, to get the game exactly right. IGN spoke to Studio Trigger's Hiromi Wakabayashi, the anime studio said that players have big things to look forward to since the game's story is being written by the original Kill la Kill scriptwriter Kazuki Nakashima.

"I think there can be a lot fans can expect from the story," Wakabayashi told IGN at Anime Expo 2018. "It's not a continuation of the anime or a new anime by any means, but it is a very deep look into the story that's done by Nakashima-san himself."

Sushio, an animator at Studio Trigger and a Kill la Kill character designer, echoed Wakabayashi's thoughts and said that once people are done playing the game, it should feel as though they just got done watching the anime itself.

"What I look forward to is I hope the fans, when they finish playing this game, that they will feel as though they had finished watching the anime," Sushio said. "That's the feeling I'm really hoping the game [conveys]."

To assist with that anime-style experience, Studio Trigger says that it's working closely with the developers to provide input on what APLUS does and how things should work. Wakabayashi expanded on his comments to say that the work being done to port the anime characters into the game should indeed feel "very anime in nature."

"We as Trigger have made a lot of requests to APLUS, especially with the models," Wakabayashi said. "I think what Sushio-san has created is being created as a 3D model, and it almost feels very anime in nature. I think fans, once they pick up the controller and move these characters around, it is going to feel like are moving the characters in this anime space. That's something that I'm really looking forward to."

Kill la Kill the Game: IF is currently scheduled to release for the PlayStation 4 and Steam in 2019.