[Note: I had to reconstruct this question from memory since we didn't tape this part - ATG]
Hardedge:
Arcsystem Works is famous for their well-balanced games. Can you tell us how the balancing process works, in general? There are of course the location tests in Japanese arcades, and your own debug testers. But who is the first person to make balance decisions?

Tomo Ohno:

As i mentioned before (he is talking about his introductory speech here), whenever somebody is needed in some position at Arcsystem Works, he just fills in, there is a sense of making decisions together. It's the same when it comes to balance - we usually meet and discuss important topics together. Everybody has the right to say or present something, including all the testers. In fact, in one of those meetings, the producer of BlazBlue introduced Noel, which was his own design, and it actually dates back 10 years. He really likes that character, that's why there are almost no panty shots of her (laughs). About the location tests: Not many people know this, but we actually taped every single match that was played at the location tests, and later evaluated them. It was over 40 hours of video.