During NYCC this year, I was able to sit down for a bit with Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth producer Kazumasa Habu and talk about the upcoming Digimon Story title heading for the west.

When asked about the localized game coming for both PS4 and PS Vita, a stark difference from the PS Vita only release in Japan, Habu-san stated:

Relating to PS4 version, we had decided on it when we decided to create the localized version. As such it was not planned from the beginning.

So one of the reasons for this is because of the differential gaming market in Japan and Western. Of course in Japan they prefer the PS Vita, compared to the US and West where there are more sales for PS4 rather than the handheld. Maybe in the future, with more sales from the localized [version] we can consider a PS4 version for Japan.

The producer also revealed the differences found between the PS4 and PS Vita versions of the game including improvements to graphics, textures, resolution and the user-interface changes between the two systems.

Habu-san then discussed a few key differences between the Japanese and Western releases of the game. Thanks to feedback on balancing issues in normal gameplay and boss battles from Japanese players, those blemishes were all cleaned up for the Western version.

He then delved into a larger addition: a New Game Plus option that allows for players to retain their levels, items, money and more when restarting a new game.

The full interview with Producer Kazumasa Habu will be posted later on this week, so stayed tuned for that.