“In Zetsu 4, I tried to depict the hope of ‘signs of recovery’ and the ‘shadow’ that the light creates. The emphasis is on the fact that the real difficulty of a disaster is ‘after it’.I thought it would be nice to have such a game in the world, and I still think it is.” – Kazuma Kujo
In creating the Disaster Report franchise, Kazuma Kujo sought not only to entertain but also to educate. In 1995, in the immediate aftermath of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, the Kobe Fire Department contacted Kujo intending to produce a video game that would teach safe practices during earthquakes and other natural disasters. The games are not action-oriented but are about deliberate puzzle-solving and resource gathering, anticipating the Survival game craze that took over in the early 2010s. The franchise is inseparable from its setting, Hisui City’s decimated urban environments populated by civilians who have lost everything and need a helping hand. However, just as Disaster Report was born out of a historically damaging earthquake, the franchise met its foreseeable end as a result of natural catastrophe. Development of the franchise’s latest title, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, ceased entirely three days after the 2011 Touhoku earthquake and tsunami.
