Red Steel 2 creative director talks with VG247
Jason Vandenberghe explains even more of what makes up the game two days before its launch here
Nathan Grayson from VG247 has put together a great interview with Red Steel 2s creative director, Jason Vandenberghe, which you can find here. Its a great read and touches on many interesting aspects of the games development, so wed recommend taking a look, but for the impatient weve included some of the new information below.
One important part was how the success of this game would affect a potential continuation of the series. "Red Steel 2 isnt really a "do-or-die" situation," says Vandenberghe. He went on to clarify, however, that "the desire to make another game in the series will depend on whether or not Red Steel 2 is a success (by several measures, not just sales)."
"Fact is, thats always true," he continues. "If the fans dont want us to make a sequel, we generally wont. See, because we know they wont buy it. Which is sort of the point. So, in that way, this situation isnt really all that different from any other first or second releases in a franchise. We either prove that the idea is cool enough to keep chasing, or we call it and try something else."
Another question covered was the curious lack of blood in the game. It turns out this wasnt exactly a choice to get a lower age rating, but rather for aesthetic and character reasons.
"For me, it was a question of matching the graphic-novel-style look we wanted, the background and setting we wanted," explained Vandenberghe, "and the kind of hero I wanted the player to be in the game. To me, if you add blood to this game, suddenly I feel much less like a good guy making the world a better place, and a lot more like an anti-hero slicing up badguys for kicks."
When we went hands on with Red Steel 2 for the second time earlier this year, we noticed that the sword fighting was still not 1:1, even with the MotionPlus requirement. This is by no means a bad thing – its a blast to play in its current state – but some people may be a little surprised when they try it out. According to Vandenberghe, the development team did give it a go, but it didnt end up working very well.
"We tried it. It sucked, and it sucked hard. We looked carefully at what the problems were, and decided that with the time and resources we had, it couldnt be done. And, worse, it wasnt clear that it could be done in first-person at all. Now, time may prove me wrong – someone may go ahead and make a most awesome first-person sword-fighting game with true 1:1 motion, and make it totally satisfying, learnable, powerful, and fun. I wish them luck!"
He did say that if they do a similar job in the future, its possible they could "push things quite a bit further," but that its a big "if". This leads on mighty well to the discussion on developing with the Wiis limited hardware capabilities; apparently a high-def version of this game wouldnt look all that different, mainly because of that graphic novel style they were going for.
Unlike the first game, Red Steel 2 is purely a single-player experience. This decision has received some opinions from gamers, with some thankful for all resources being put towards the one aspect while others are concerned about a lack of replayability. However, both sides would be happy if some external multiplayer experience was made. Vandenberghe was very positive about this when asked.
"Are you kidding? Dude, Ive been considering almost nothing but that with most of my free time for the entire duration of this project. I want nothing more than to beat my lead designer at his own game in multiplayer. Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. Yes. Yes."
Lastly, he was asked if hed consider using the Vitality Sensor in a future entry in the series. "Duh. I intend to include a "zen" mode where if you can keep your heart-rate low, your spirit (re: mana) will regenerate faster, and, to the contrary, if you maintain a high heart-rate, you will generate more rage with each strike, which will allow you to unleash ultra combos." Certainly sounds like itd be interesting to play with.
Source: VG247
