Category: Interviews

With Dead Or Alive 6 coming next year, more than a few fans are wondering what the game’s roster will be like. Specifically, people are wondering whether newcomers and guest characters will make it into this installment.

An interview with Taiwanese site GNN, Dead Or Alive 6 producer and director Yohei Shimbori at the recently concluded Electronic Entertainment Expo give a bit more clarity towards both. While the interview covers a lot of the same material that’s already been announced, they do talk about both newcomers and guest characters.

On the former, Shimbori states that they do plan to reveal 1 new male and 1 new female character later on. Shimbori didn’t state whether or not these were the only newcomers coming into Dead Or Alive 6, so it’s possible that there may be more. That said, this does fit the pattern from the previous numbered Dead Or Alive installment.”As for when they would be revealed, Shimbori didn’t give out any specifics.

As for guest characters, while they have become something of a series staple as of late (Dead Or Alive 4 had a Spartan from Halo, while Dead Or Alive 5 added characters from Virtua Fighter, King of Fighters, and Dynasty Warriors), Shimbori states that, though they do want guest characters, they want to “focus first on depicting DOA6‘s worldview” by starting with a “careful portrayal of the existing characters” at launch.

Dead Or Alive 6 is set to arrive on PlayStation 4, PC, and XBox One in 2019. Prior to that, it’s set to make a playable appearance at Evo 2018.

Source: GNN

A tale of souls and swords, personally told — at the biggest gaming event of the year.

Much of the excitement from fighting game fans at E3 2018 was focused towards the soon-to-be-released SoulCalibur VI. The title was available to play not only at the Bandai Namco booth in the South Hall of the LA Convention Center, but also within the Xbox Experience at the Microsoft Theater — and players, pros, and media members were lining up to fight on the Stage of History.

Shoryuken was invited by Bandai Namco to sit down and interview SoulCalibur VI producer Motohiro Okubo to discuss the title’s development, and how it hopes to be the most complete SoulCalibur experience to date.

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Austyn “Lazybones2020” Roney: I attended Bandai Namco Entertainment’s Fighting Game Dojo panel previously at the Coliseum, and a lot of the discussion was about bringing Tekken and SoulCalibur to new audiences. How was SoulCalibur VI adapted with that in mind?

Motohiro Okubo: In the early planning stages of SoulCalibur VI we had a lot of discussions and debates internally in the team, and we wanted to really understand and focus on what made the SoulCalibur franchise so attractive to fans. We discovered the way you swing a sword, how satisfying that feels, the eight-way run mechanic, I feel these are the things that really make these games attractive.

And of course, I think a lot of the core existing fans can really understand that. And in the terms of developing a new audience, I think the game has been designed in such a way that it forgives button-mashing, to a degree.

And in addition, we have a new battle mechanic called the Reversal Edge. I think it’s safe to say that most of the time a beginning player would lose to a more experienced player in a landslide. The Reversal Edge gives newer players a chance to stand on the same stage and have mind games with a more-experienced player.

Lazybones2020: Speaking of the more-experienced player, were there any major changes to the game that are geared towards esports?

Okubo-san: In terms of the competitive scene, SoulCalibur — the entire intellectual property — was at the edge, and internally there wasn’t really a climate to where we were looking into sequels. When we set out to develop SoulCalibur VI, we didn’t want to make something for the sake of the esports community, we wanted to develop something that captured the essence of SoulCalibur.

That doesn’t mean to say that it can’t hold its own on the competitive scene. Very early in development, we worked with many high-level players to create this battle mechanic and ensure it was balanced and competitive.

Lazybones2020: You talked a lot about the eight-way run and the weapons defining SoulCalibur as a franchise, how do you balance these aspects to ensure they lead to an even playing field?

Okubo-san: A lot of that has to do with the heritage of the SoulCalibur franchise, there has been a lot of information that has been passed down over the years. In SoulCalibur V we got the battle mechanics to a very high level of polish.

What we were trying to do, going back to what I mentioned earlier about the essence of SoulCalibur — swinging weapons, freedom, tempo, quick response — merging that with the high level of battle polish from SoulCalibur V, that was the philosophy of SoulCalibur VI.

Lazybones2020: How has the development cycle and post-launch support for Tekken 7 influenced SoulCalibur VI‘s development?

Okubo-san: I actually had the pleasure of being a producer on the console version of Tekken 7 as well. Having seen both Tekken 7 and SoulCalibur, I can really see both sides, and know how I want to differentiate between them.

Even in terms of development, after Tekken 7 started to wind down, we were able to take a lot of our base members from the Tekken team and apply them towards developing SoulCalibur. What we learned in terms of Unreal Engine 4 while developing Tekken gave us a lot of knowledge when developing SoulCalibur. For instance, there was an input patch that we had for Tekken 7 that we already have built into SoulCalibur.

Lazybones2020: Considering the last entry in the SoulCalibur franchise — not SoulCalibur V, but SoulCalibur: Lost Swords — was built with free-to-play aspects, was there anything that was learned from that game model that made its way into SoulCalibur VI?

Okubo-san: With Lost Swords, we learned a lot about what the fans want from the SoulCalibur franchise, and one of the biggest things we saw was the character creator, how much people loved that and how much people loved sharing what they have created, this very personalized warrior, if you will. And although I can’t go into too much detail at this moment, in SoulCalibur VI we will have a character creator in some form.

Lazybones2020: I want to ask about Grøh and his design, and what role he fills in story and gameplay. As a side note, it was very interesting to see that after his eye patch breaks off during combat, he has a very regular eye underneath! With a few scars of course.

Okubo-san: In terms of Grøh I could go on and on forever about his design and how he came to be, but for SoulCalibur VI we are taking the timeline all the way back to SoulCalibur and SoulCalibur II, revisiting the story between the SoulCalibur and Soul Edge because we think it deserves to be retold. In doing so, we added new perspectives, new characters, and new episodes affecting what happens — and Grøh is going to be a part of that.

As far as the design as a character goes, in SoulCalibur VI, we watched a lot of movies and extracted the scenes we thought were really really cool; we had this long string of cool scenes from different movies — and of course there were a lot of my favorite movies in there as well — and it really informed the kind of movement, costume, and even his weapon, the double saber. A lot of that is derived from these various movie scenes.

Lazybones2020: Is there any film in particular that had the most significant influence?

Okubo-san: I don’t want to get into any sort of legal trouble due to copyright, but if you play Grøh enough I think you will be able to tell “Okay, this is probably from this movie, and I think he really likes this director.” [laughs]

Lazybones2020: Speaking of new characters, Geralt from The Witcher was a big surprise, but still a natural fit for the SoulCalibur universe; what brought him in and how did that discussion go with CD Projekt Red?

Okubo-san: Early on in SoulCalibur VI’s development we knew that the guest characters were something fans have come to expect from the SoulCalibur franchise and we wanted to deliver on that promise and surprise. Taking the timeline back to SoulCalibur and SoulCalibur II, we really valued the world setting and backdrop of the SoulCalibur universe, whatever character we were going to bring in as a guest needed to fit in very naturally.

We discussed with our foreign marketing teams and our internal development teams as to what character might fit this requirement, and Geralt was on the short list of candidates, and we have a really positive working relationship with CD Projekt; when we presented this idea to them for this collaboration they were very supportive, and I am thankful for that.

Lazybones2020: How has the feedback been at E3? Have you gotten any new feedback that you have not gotten before? E3, this stage, this presence, how has the reaction been?

Okubo-san: Here we are — it’s day three at E3 and I have had the chance to talk with many members of the media and players on the floor, and I am very thankful they are playing the game. With all the feedback they have, it seems people are reacting positively to SoulCalibur VI.

It was quite a challenge on the onset, the idea of merging the quick, responsive speed of SoulCalibur II and the battle polish of SoulCalibur V, the distance, the spacing, the mind games. The fact that the merge is met with a positive reaction and that people are understanding what we are going for instinctively, I am really happy about that.

There are members of the battle team working really late at night in Japan right now making the final adjustments before the release date. I almost feel bad for taking all of the praise I am getting — I wish there was some way I could transfer that to them, and let them see what I am experiencing right now.

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Expect more announcements from Okubo-san and Bandai Namco as the race towards the release of SoulCalibur VI nears the finish line. SoulCalibur VI releases on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 19, 2018.

After years working under other producers, Team NINJA’s Yohei Shimbori is finally at the helm of his own Dead or Alive game. Famitsu recently caught up with Shimbori, who serves as both producer and director of Dead or Alive 6, giving him a chance to talk about the game.

One of the big differences in Dead or Alive 6 from older titles a change in theme: toning down the fan-service while going for a more gritty feel. According to Shimbori, while the previous game had the theme of “fighting entertainment”, the theme for DOA6 is “fierce”. One way they’re trying to express this is with showing the damage on the characters, including the girls — something that he says was “taboo” — on their bodies and faces, and not just on their clothing.

Adding to this is the change in generation and more powerful hardware. Shimbori states that he wanted the characters’ in-game models to look more realistic this time, with better shadows, sweat, wrinkles, etc. As part of this, they have abandoned the “soft engine” that was added to the PS4 and Xbox One ports of Dead or Alive 5: Last Round, instead they’ve created a new system just for DOA6. Of course, all this will work in 4K.

One of the big topics relating to the game’s change of direction is the reduction of fan-service. According to Shimbori, this was in part due to what people were telling him when attended Evo 2017. People mentioned that playing the game felt “embarrassing” at times, and that they wanted him to make something “cooler”.

With this, the main focus on designing the female characters is now “coolness” whereas the focus used to be on “cuteness”. He likens this to the change seen in American action movies, where it used to be that female characters were solely there for sex appeal, to now being depicted as tough and cool.

In addition to these, Shimbori talks about the actual gameplay itself: Regarding the new “Break Gauge”, Shimbori recalls that the team once stated that the series would never gain meter-powered mechanics. However, he decided to “break” with that with the new mechanics.

That said, they’re not breaking with everything introduced in the previous games. As with Dead or Alive 5, the game’s training mode will still feature frame data and the other tools players are used to. On top of this, Shimbori wants to figure out more ways for beginners to learn the game. Specifically, he believes the problem of fighting games is how to create an environment where beginners can practice and train, outside of the usual practice and tutorial modes. He wants to make a way that beginners can learn the system while still playing and enjoying the game.

Of course, they cover a lot more in the actual interview. Those interested can check it out over at Famitsu, or read the machine-translated version over at Free Step Dodge.

Dead or Alive 6 is set to arrive on PlayStation 4, Steam, and Xbox One in 2019.

Source: Famitsu via Free Step Dodge