The character designer for Shin Megami Tensei IV, Masayuki Doi was discussing the rationale behind the design choices he made for the upcoming game in an interview with Siliconera when he was then asked an interesting question about the games setting.

Siliconera: "Do you think you would ever design a Shin Megami Tensei game set in the West or outside Japan? I realize Strange Journey was supposed to be Shin Megami Tensei IV, but to keep the tradition of having the series set in Japan it was renamed Strange Journey."

Masayuki Doi: "Personally, I think setting a SMT game in a location outside Tokyo is a cool idea. It’s true that traditionally all of the SMT games have been based in Tokyo, but if the need arises from the audience… Let’s say we want to have the next game take place in Los Angeles, if there is both requests from the fanbase and within the development side to support that idea it’s possible that the next Shin Megami Tensei game could take place outside Tokyo."

Speaking about the future, there’s another series that Masayuki Doi had worked on previously of which we have not seen a game from in over three years, Trauma Center and it seems that the designer has not forgotten about it either.

Siliconera: "You know there is one series you worked on that I’m always excited to hear about, Trauma Center, but we haven’t heard anything about it since Trauma Team. Will we see a new Trauma ever again?"

Masayuki Doi: "Wonderful! Thank you! I’m passionate about the Trauma Center series too and I want to develop the next game, but right now my focus is on the Shin Megami Tensei series."

It’s nice to know that Masayuki Doi wants to work on Trauma Center once again but right now all his focus is on Shin Megami Tensei IV for the 3DS which will be released in North America on the 16^th of July. Europe has been slated for a 2013 release but a date is yet to be revealed.