Siliconera was able to have a little chit chat with Atlus Co.'s Nich Maragos, who was responsible for localizing Izuna and making this unemployed ninja land on our shores.

Anyhoo, the interview starts with Maragos describing exactly what kind of RPG Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja will be. He says, "this is a roguelike or 'mysterious dungeon' type game, where the dungeons Izuna faces are randomly generated every time she enters."

They then go on to discuss other aspects of the game which we'll try to summarize for you so here goes:

Touch Screen usage: The game will be played entirely on the touch screen but combat and exploration will be "handled" on the lower screen with the top screen acting as the HUD.

Combat and Levelling Up: The game will have basic combat: the A Button is used to attack the space in front of you. And also, "Izuna can use ninja talismans with various effects, as well as ninja tools like shuriken, kunai, and caltrops to thwart enemies from a distance."

As for the level-ups, Maragos says that Izuna will be more "forgiving" as compared to other RPGs because (and I quote): "Though you lose all your money and health and have to start from the beginning of the dungeon, your level doesn’t reset."

On the game's humor and Izuna's "ditziness": Izuna was designed to be funny, but what really gave the devs the opportunity to insert humor was the premise of having an unemployed ninja as a lead character and also the ridiculous curses that affect the townspeople. And with different options for dialogues, you can mix up a little bit of humor yourself when talking to the other game characters.

As for Izuna's alleged ditzy impression, Maragos says,

Ditzy isn’t quite the word I’d use. Izuna isn’t dumb, or at least not in that way...she’s full of herself in the way a modern teenager would be, but she slowly gains the skills to back it up [and]...wins people’s respect, because her absolute persistence gets results.