Learn about the history and design philosophies of Soft Circle French Bread!
Recently, in their 8th episode of “Exploring Fighting Games”, the Chemical Lovers decided to look at the design philosophy behind an increasingly-popular studio in the fighting game community, French Bread. This episode walks us through the team’s humble beginnings as they created small amateur fan games and doujin works. They eventually desired to create a licensed, professional, product, sending a proposal to visual novel company “Type-Moon” requesting to create a fighting game based off of their popular visual novel, Tsukihime.
However, they faced unique challenges when development began, as they had to strictly adhere to the source material, with heavy negotiations on creating each fighter’s moveset and play style. Despite these hurdles, the game they made (Melty Blood) went on to become a hit in Japan. They faced a crossroads with the transition to a larger screen size and increasing popularity of high definition resolution, as they lacked experience, and felt trying to release an HD sequel would be a risky gamble. Thus, they decided to create an original property, that became the game they’re currently known for, Under Night In-Birth.
While the differences between the two titles are vast, they both emphasize battle planner Komone Serizawa’s core beliefs that it is their responsibility to ensure that each fighter plays how player’s initially imagine based off of their looks. You can see the full video below, as well as further discussion in Bas Gros Poing‘s article.
For an alternate perspective on what makes Under Night so unique, check out Bloobop’s recent editorial on its “freshness.”
Source: novriltataki; Bas Gros Poing
