Roughly seventeen years ago, when .hack//G.U. Vol.3 was still in development, the CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi “Piroshi” Matsuyama received word about a boy, “Hiroshi-kun”, who was scheduled to have surgery to remove his eyes due to cancer. When asked what he’d like to experience before the procedure, the boy responded that he wanted the chance to play the new .hack game, and so Matsuyama pulled out all the stops to make the boy’s wish come true. This story became the narrative for the novel “Medicine Called Entertainment” which Matsuyama wrote in 2017. A year later, Hiroshi-kun wrote a 5-chapter follow-up piece called “Strong Medicine: The Truth Behind Medicine Called Entertainment” (劇薬 -エンターテインメントという薬の真実- “Gekiyaku”), published online by Famitsu.

▲ CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama receives a phone call from a producer at Bandai Namco who informs him of a child who wanted to play the last .hack//G.U. game before his scheduled eye surgery.

Now, six years later, Famitsu held an new interview to catch up with both of the Hiroshis now and reminisce over the power of entertainment.

The following is an English translation of the interview.

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ーIt’s been 6 years since the release of “Gekiyaku,” could you tell us how things are going for you now?

Hiroshi: I am mainly a stay-at-home dad while my wife has an outside job. Our daughter is in the second grade now. We live in a relatively residential area with very few shops, so I’m worried if we could get help should anything happen. We’ve spoken with the local government and schools, so I feel like more people are aware and considerate of our situation. I hope there will continue to be further improvements to the area. My mother also appeared in “Gekiyaku,” but we’re getting along fine now.

ーSince your daughter is in elementary school now, is she able to help at all?

Hiroshi: Typically, I do the cooking, but she helps me out if I can’t read what’s written on something in the fridge, like whether it’s ginger or garlic.

ーSometimes, even if you’re aware of what’s in something when you buy from the store, it can be challenging to remember what’s inside once you’re at home. For instance, I’ve heard that it’s tricky to know what’s in a retort pouch without opening and tasting it. You either have to use a helpful applications like “Be My Eyes” designed to read printed text or ask someone to read it for you.

Hiroshi: If no one who can see is in the house, we generally don’t turn the lights on. My wife started raising a guide dog, so we turn the lights on for him, but sometimes she’ll turn the lights on without me noticing, and I’ll ask my daughter, “Why’s the light on in that room?”

ーMany people are amazed how you use a computer without a monitor. Physical books are difficult for the visually impaired to read, but with digital books, you’re able to display the text in different sizes and colors to make it easier to read, or have it be read out loud. I’ve heard that only 10% of the visually impaired can read Braille. Are you able to read it?

Hiroshi: I received training after my surgery at the Visual Impairment Center in Hakodate, but hardly anyone could read or write Braille. It’s difficult to learn Braille from scratch when you have a disability. Due to my treatments, my fingertips have become numb, so I couldn’t read it even if I tried.

After the surgery, I was killing time by trying to figure out how to create a simple webpage with the “Rakuraku” phone that I was given which also has audio output. The service for the flip phone was being discontinued, so I switched to an iPhone about two years ago. A member of the same visually impaired association taught me how to use it. It’s quite convenient.

ーApple has been very good with offering accessibility options for a long time, so my impression is that nearly all visually impaired people use iPhones. What about you?

Hiroshi: When I have some free time, I watch YouTube or play a game called “Adventurer Guild Story“. It’s a game where you set up a party and go on adventures, but it’s mostly text-based, so even those who are completely blind can play it. As long as there’s text, the iPhone voiceover feature can read it out loud for you, but games that use a lot of illustrations are difficult to understand because there’s do verbal description of what’s going on.

ーWhat other games did you like to play?

I used to like simulation games like Nobunaga’s Ambition, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and SimCity. I also liked adventure games, so I enjoyed playing things like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and the Tales series. I hear people talking about Minecraft a lot and I don’t know anything more about it, but I’d like to try it sometime.

Besides the .hack//G.U. game that I was given, I played other Nintendo64 titles such as Perfect Dark, Super Smash Bros. and Animal Crossing to pass the time before my surgery.

ーI was really anxious as I read “Medicine Called Entertainment”, wondering if you’d be able to finish .hack//G.U. before your surgery.

Hiroshi: I thought it would take me up until the last minute to finish the game, and I wondered what would happen if I couldn’t finish it, so there were days I played all day. I actually finished pretty quickly in the end.

It’s crazy how 21 years have already passed since the first .hack game. If it’s at all possible for the series to continue, I sincerely hope that someone could direct the next installment who has a deep understanding of the production like those at Bandai Namco or President Matsuyama.

ーIn that case, they’ll have to develop it with the necessary accessibility features.

Hiroshi: I wonder how they’d be able to do that with .hack. It might be a difficult to pull off, but it’d be nice to have a Blind Mode where President Piroshi stands next to you, saying things like, “I’ll help you.” Plus, if they made a 2D map like in Dragon Quest III, they could potentially create a version for the blind.

ーThe graphics in the earlier Dragon Quest games were quite basic. We can still enjoy playing it if the text is read aloud. Thanks to technological advancements like text-to-speech and OCR (Optical Character Recognition, a technology that uses a camera to read printed or handwritten text), we might still be able to play it even if the game wasn’t initially designed with accessibility in mind. On the other hand, it’s not unheard of for some games getting a 3D upgrade from 2D are actually difficult to navigate, which renders it nearly unplayable.

Hiroshi: Actually, I once asked President Matsuyama to make a game for the visually impaired that works on brain waves, so that we can actually see once we enter the game. He said that he couldn’t promise anything, but would look into it, so I have high hopes for something like that someday. I haven’t mentioned anything about it since then because I didn’t want to seem repetitious or overly assertive, but I’d really be happy if we had something like that in the future.

ーThat’d be a dream come true! It would be nice for more people to be aware of these circumstances, then I’d like accessibility functions to become the norm so that no one is left behind. It seems more common to see games with various accessibility functions, so I’d like to continue encouraging President Matsuyama in this regard.

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At the time of this interview, CyberConnect2 President Matsuyama was also present, and he gave us this comment regarding the future of the .hack franchise:

“While no decisions have been made regarding the next installment of the .hack series, your voices of support and hopes for a continuation could be the catalyst we need for a new entry.”

Hiroshi Matsuyama, Cyberconnect2 president

If every fan of the .hack series can show their support, there may come a day when we can once again enjoy the latest addition to the .hack franchise, for all those who love it.

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『.hack』が生んだ実話『エンタメ薬』ヒロシくんインタビュー

「発売前の『.hack//G.U.』最終作を遊びたい」
眼球摘出手術を受ける少年ヒロシくんからの1本の電話から始まった実話。

それから17年。ヒロシくんのいまを追った。

https://t.co/2vr9y3QSAv pic.twitter.com/PYLpSWIW32

— ファミ通.com (@famitsu) November 6, 2023

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Thanks, Famitsu.