New Red Steel Artwork and Info

The team at Ubisoft have shown off some more artwork for Red Steel, the upcoming exclusive for Wii. Not only content with artwork Ubisoft has revealed more details about the storyline and characters.

Its great to see Red Steel finally get some personality, the characters and story an integral part of any game. And I have to say the Artwork looks good.

You can check out the new artwork by going to the Gallery and reading more about the game by clicking “”Continue Reading””

Source: Advanced MN How do you discover the Japanese mafia in Red Steel?
To save his fiance caught in the middle of a war between two generations of Yakuzas, ancestral and modern Yakuzas, the player will have to fly to Japan and fight his way through the Tokyo Mafia. During his journey he will come face to face with their codes, have to learn Asiatic fighting techniques and understand their ethics.

Is it a game about the Japanese mafia?
The setting of the game is Japan. But the goal is not to make a realistic Japanese game. This will be perfectly done by Japanese people. As we were an occidental team, the goal was more to work on the occidental perception of Japan, the Japanese clichs, and how a “”gaijin”” (meaning stranger in Japanese) is immersed in a new Japanese universe and must adapt himself to the “”local rules.”” This will bring more fun as we are not Japan experts, anyway.

We want to put the player in the same situation as the character, asking him, “”why is this happening to me?”” and having to learn skills and rules, What about the storyline and the clans?
The story of the game is of an American man who is engaged to the daughter of a powerful Yakuza leader who has in his possession a great sword known as Katana, katana-giri – a leadership symbol in Japan and in the Japanese mafia particularly. A rival Yakuza leader has set his eyes on it and launches a failed attempt to steal it so as to increase his power in the organization.

Everything happens during a diner in a Japanese restaurant with your girl and her father. Though the attempt fails, your fianc gets kidnapped and her father fatally wounded. Just before he dies, the girl’s father gives you the sword and asks you to go to Japan and rescue his daughter.

You now have to go to Japan to rescue the girl. To achieve this, you’ll identify the Yakuza which kidnapped her. Thus starts your life of duelling with various high-ranking Yakuza leaders and sparing their lives in order to earn their loyalty and various other weapons. That corresponds to several missions based in Japan. With your katana, you’ll have to learn the honor code of the Yakuzas and the fighting techniques, in order to get the respect of the mafia. At the end you’ll gain respect and become a modern samurai. You’ll organize a family council to defeat your enemy.

So you’re alone to face the Japanese mafia?
No, once you’re in Japan you’ll also be in contact with two masters:

Your old master, Otori, who will school you in katana fighting and mastering, honor code, respect and old secrets.

And an active Yakuza, Harry, (old American man) owner of a night club who will train you to shooting techniques and provide you with underground info.

Because of the scenario you’ll have tons of back and forth between you two Japanese mentors.

Research about Japan
The team worked on two tracks, including the occidental view of Japan, such as the usual Tokyo town pictures, a very modern high tech town, and a huge amount of documents about Japan itself. Those two sources of inspiration bring each different idea to the game to get in the end as much fun as possible but not an ultra realistic game.

The team made also many researches about the occidental perception about Japan. They made two trips for that in August 05 and in March 06. In March the team’s Artistic Director brought back about 7.000 pictures. The team also worked closely with our Japanese subs. And finally it made some research in the US. Two or three times it visited some Japanese quarters in the US cities in order to better understand some US perception of Japan.

They noticed Japan seems to be the only country in the world where tradition and modernity are so well mixed, where so much ancient stuff stands near so much high tech elements. At the same time, the team also benchmarked many other novels and movies which offer plenty of inspiration sources. They were searching for fun and peps rather than ultra-realism.

The Japanese Katana
The Japanese sabre is a leadership symbol. It deals out justice. It can be handled thanks to ancestral move techniques that are preserved throughout the ages.

What about the Yakuza?
Yakuzas are the Japanese mafia, which is less well-known compared to the US or the Italian mafias. Those gangsters (look a bit like cheap US gangsters) are members of old Japanese families, with traditions, clans, honor codes, but also a strong barbarian side. They have a kind of “”show off”” side and don’t hide themselves like most of the other mafia’s members in the world. For instance, they are made of tattoos. They’re used to cover their whole bodies to mark the fact that they can stand pain very well. And they make tattoo contests and demonstrations. Their katana is also their leadership symbol as they claim themselves as samurai out of the system. There are in constant research for more honor.

Nowadays, there are two kinds of Yakuzas: the old generation, which are gangsters with a strong honor code; and the new generation, business men who are much more violent.

They embody perfectly this idea of mixing tradition and modernity, ancestral habits and high tech equipments and represent also tons of references to use for the game, which the team explored as much as they could to select and pick up the most interesting elements.

Red Steel Characters
In the text below, Ubisoft details some of the seedy Yakuza characters featured in its upcoming first-person shooter for Nintendo Wii. As readers will see in the included artwork, these foes are not to be considered lightly.

Shibuya Girls: Mama-san (Tokai’s Mistress)
Mama San is Tokai’s mistress. Head of the Geisha district, in the chaos following Sato’s kidnapping, she elegantly manages to change some of the Geishas’ strict aesthetic codes, modernizing their look and making them sexier. Beautiful, but venomous and fatal, they become the modern “”female Yakuzas.”” Mama-san is used to recruit Shibuya girls (bad girls on Shibuya Street) to work for her.

Tetsuo (Clan Boss)
Tetsuo is one of the clan leaders. He is one of the bosses that the player must win over to his side. Because Tetsuo loves to play and gamble, the player doesn’t actually have to confront him. Instead, Tetsuo challenges the player to accomplish certain tasks in specifically designated zones and arenas. Of course, Tetsuo bets on the outcome! Tetsuo also has lieutenant and dangerous men hidden in the gaming area.