There's a thread on an Iwata Asks interview about the game on NeoGaf, it includes a translation/summary.
I read through the interview.
Here are some things I picked up.
Setting:
- At first a variety of setting were considered. For example: medieval Japan
(with a samurai main character) and modern day (starring a high school boy)
- Scandinavian mythology was eventually chosen over Greek mythology because
it was felt that the audience didn't have as much of a set image of what
the gods and creatures are supposed to look like.
- However this very fact led to a very long period of trial and error concerning
the character designs. Sometimes motion capture had to be done for a character
even before the character design was done.
- Especially the giants took long, because you fight them so much during the game.
- Because Sandlots previous games were set in cities, they found creating
a natural landscape very difficult. Scandinavian nature was researched
to create an authentic atmosphere.
- When piled up, the script for the game is more than 10 centimeters thick.
- There is more than an hour of cut-scenes.
Gameplay
- The giants will keep on coming after you even if they lose limbs. If they
lose both legs, they will crawl.
- Increasing the difficulty doesn't only affect the strength of the enemies
but also their AI.
- The NPCs (like the serfs and other warriors) also adapt to situations.
For example, they will shout different things according to how far away
the enemies are.
- Because Sandlot didn't want the NPCs to shout the same things all the time,
more and more lines were added in. In the end, the voice recording for the
game lasted more than three months.
- It was Nintendo who asked Sandlot to add in Wifi-play, and Classic Controller
and Motion Plus support. Iwata personally phoned Sandlot regarding Motion Plus.
- In the beginning of development about a 100 weapons were planned. But
as the developers kept on trying different things with the Wii-remote,
the number of weapons ballooned up to over 300.
The age rating
- A lot of anxiety was felt over the high age rating. Sandlot tried decreasing
the gore and removing some of the dismemberment. But they felt that
making it less realistic would actually hinder the gameplay.
(Note: It is not implied that it was Nintendo who would have wanted a lower
age rating)
- In the end the graphic violence was kept. In order to not glorify violence,
the players role as the protector of the people was emphasized instead.
This also fit the spirit of the original Scandinavian mythology.
I'm not sure if the cutscene amount is a good thing but if in doubt you can probably skip them. Chou Soujuu Mecha MG also had a crapton of story crowbar'd in there, I guess Sandlot just get verbose when they come near Nintendo.
There's also a notion coming from somewhere that Sandlot worked on making the slashing feel perfect before they made the levels, kinda like how Miyamoto perfected the jumping physics before any levels were made for Mario.
Topic: Zangeki no Reginleiv (Read 32012 times)
