Here's a sentence I didn't think I'd write in 2020: there's a new launch of Stames of Rage today.
Why is she surprised? Not just because it has always been For 26 years since the last one, but that original visual cacophon was illuminating in a bottle, celebrated properly at the time, and has been revered in the form of aficionados ever since. Any modern studio can hope to resurrect this series? How could they ever get rid of that magic?
As it turned out, one could not. But three. Guard Crush Games (which created a love letter to the genre in 2015 & # 39; s Stage of Fury and hosted editorial activities on Rage 4), LizardCube (responsible for the much-anticipated visual defeat of 2017's Wonder Boy: Dragons' Dragons and Who take care of art direction) and Dotemu (a retro-love, Paris-based studio that cared for game design and general production) joined forces and embarked on a three-year journey to revisit the scenes of Rage for the audiot PS4
Discovering the stories behind the most amazing regeneration of this generation, I've reached out to a lot of people working on the topic.
Kindly posting a few days ago before the launch of their game – and giving us a taste of the collaborative nature of the project – were Dotemu & # 39; s Executive Production Cyrille Imbert and Dance Photographer Jordi Asensio, Lizardcube Art Director Ben Fiquet and Guard Crush Games Technical Director Cyrille Lagarigue, and composer Olivier Deriviere.
Basic asset preservation
Adam Hunter, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding have appeared on the 1991 masterpiece of the 1991 Mega Drive classic Bare Knuckle. The game would be renamed Stords of Rage to be released in the west.
This series is very popular for many reasons. Its gameplay, music, and design are all exciting. There should be a lot of attention to all the development decisions made. Which feature did you feel the most pressure to use?
Asensio: All the features, actually. The original games are so well made that you can't leave any aspect to be fixed. Personally, I tried to impress people early on while developing a comprehensive program that would make people more interested in learning the game and coming back more and more.
Lagarigue: It’s a powerful force to fight, to feel moist and strategic but to be bored.
Ax: A little of everything. But the feel of the game, the accumulation of various elements such as design, animation, and re-design was something we had to handle. Music has also been an absolute necessity.
Obviously Street of Rage has a very unique look and feel. How did the player – or even the developer – affect the final character and character?
Asensio: In fact, we talked a lot with great fans and they gave us amazing feedback and ideas. Every event we could show a demo on (like PAX) was a gold mine. We have changed, added, and been equally grateful for this feedback. Smiling and praising have also been an important factor in keeping us focused on our work.
Festival: Before starting production, I spent a lot of time researching game design documentation, interviews with developers, in-depth video analysis, fan-generated games, and even fan art. This has helped me get a sense of the complete feelings surrounding the license.
The re-imagined boundaries of the 2020 Rage
Important Art for Rage 4 Rings, featuring (with movement from left) Blaze Fielding, Axel Stone, Floyd Iraia, Adam Hunter, Cherry Hunter
Did Street of Rage 4 come out much in its original concept, or did it have a clear idea of what it would be like from the beginning?
Asensio: From the very beginning we wanted it to be a good hit right out of today's fashion trends. Just a good traditional beat. Then when the game came together, we found room for improvement: adding a lot of fun, and modern solutions to old distractions, without losing track of the roots of the game.
Ax: The idea was clear to everyone: we just wanted to make the best game possible. Something that is pure, simple, and effective. Something that will suit the preceding, but modern in its path.
Can you touch on today's modern addition that brought you to the classic SoR Gameplay formula, and explain why you added them?
Asensio: There are some small things (but that make a huge difference), such as slowing down the depth of the player character box when you go up or down, so you really come out when you want to knock. And the big things – for example, in SoR2 when you're surrounded, doing a special act was smart, but cost a small amount of health. So it was better than being beaten, but it always felt a little lost to life with a good decision. So at SoR3 they added a cool bar that allowed you to make your special move for free.
We tried something different. In SoR4, you lose the smallest amount of health that you can ever gain by hitting enemies – but if you're beaten right now, this small amount of life is no longer there. This opens the door to fierce gaming styles, gambling a lot of life to make great combos. Some players will choose to use special items wisely though…
We've also added a powerful & # 39; Star & # 39 ;, walkthrough that replaces the old & # 39; police call. & # 39; The police phone is a "clear" mechanic, and while it's fun, we wanted it to be something that suited our gameplay. So now you have to think a lot to connect your Star motion, as it only affects a certain part of the screen, which depends on your list. It can save you a lot of enemies (sort of like an emergency defense), but it can also increase the combo's length. This helps you recover the specific life you have invested from special measures and focus on your damage to the employer, for example.
Many others have natural hazards. You can use a perishable ball in this roof battle to chase enemies (and get a Trophy)
Lagarigue: We wanted to give players more freedom in how to play.
We've changed the rules of the major game mode (Story Mode) to reboot at the beginning of each stage as the end of life. Also, if you stick around you can choose to get gameplay assistants (more lives, star travel …) to get reduced points.
This way, everyone can end the campaign, but you are still tempted to choose a higher difficulty level because you know you will be able to get help if you stick with it. After that you can train and improve your score at each level or try the classic Arcade mode. So the goal was to keep the challenge while making the game more accessible.
"You can unlock retro characters by scoring, and gain bonus points when playing at extreme difficulty levels or when trying different characters. So, all of this motivates you to become better and play in different ways." – Cyrille Lagarigue
Creating new characters…
How much do Cherry Hunter and Floyd Iraia go through the design and combat scene before you agree on their final versions?
Asensio: We usually do a casting session where we discuss each character's style and omission. After that we go into details of the move-by-submission to find out where the job is to move and maybe find a pose that will fit. Afterwards it is up to Ben (Fiquet, Lizardcube & # 39; s Art Director) to do his magic. Sometimes it inspires a change because Ben finds something cool with a look that may (or may not) be the same as gameplay, but ultimately gameplay-like animation is more like a gameplay influence – so we always find common ground.
For Cherry Hunter it took a long time to balance both sides: bare hands and guitar steps. We pushed the slides to the max so the motion of the bare hands felt really fast and fast, while the guitar moves felt slow but powerful, with a wide range and a huge amount of impact.
Festival: In short, both of these actors were driven by their own work – but I was the words on Cherry's guitar despite the pressure from the group. I was looking for something that would really stand out in the series and look great. In the end, however, I was looking for characters that would fit in perfectly with the Stords of Rage universe.
Asensio: Floyd was straightforward, because he was the last character and we knew what we needed for the show to have a good list of characters. The biggest challenge was to work with the concept of being a "multi-dimensional connector." It took several iterations, or even some of the last minutes, to measure him properly, because his telescopic wrestling could be successful against a lot of AI behavior (yes, we ended up changing the AI a bit for him).
… And reconsider the old brokers
On the other hand, was it not easy to design with Blaze, Adam and Axel because he is able to effectively change their look and styles to combat SoR 1-3?
Asensio: From the beginning we decided they should have their best features, but I changed their properties. So, for example, Axel's neutral kick is now not only a hit, but more powerful and puts enemies out of the wall.
Festival: It's not easy for Axel to master the design. I didn't know how to give him a beard and hugging him could be a point of connection for many, but I felt the character was needed to break the cycle. You can read about Blaze and Adam's renaming in our new blog post.
How did you decide on a special move for each character? Again, was it a case to immerse the previous special methods or reconsider them altogether?
Asensio: The fun part about Axel and Blaze was that we could introduce some twisted ones to their existing events. So we can think of them depending on how well they will fit into our game system defensively, aggressively and wisely.
After that, I tried some special air movement by re-using some frames from other things, allowing us to add new moves. It was fun and useful, so Ben made some official photos for them and it was something: every new character has a special airplane.
For Adam, we thought of him as a completely new character. We had several discussions about what his playstyle should be. The idea of a small dash moving forward makes sense, because like all other members of the Hunter family, Adam can move quickly. In a related experiment, we have tried to find the ones that are equal to her SOR1 rating (“power A”).
Lagarigue: We really wanted to find Adam's fighting style that played like a "normal" character, but we weren't very close to Axel or Blaze. There is a little detail I have used that I like very much: when you pull in Adam and touch the enemy, you make a turn and come to the other side. I got the idea while watching the fight between Jackie Chan and Brad Allen in the movie Gorgeous. I thought it would be nice to have a character that feels like a very old robot, and that's the gameplay behavior I come up with to try to recreate that feeling.
Axel and Blaze are the only two characters to appear in all four games. Why did you choose to have Adam back over Skate, Max, or Zan?
Asensio: Adam is so cool and he's been out for so long!
Festival: In fact, he passed away for a long time. As soon as we announce the game, you can hear the cries of many fans yearning for his return. They knew we would add him, and there was no doubt we would be able to show him soon. Adam does not fulfill the need for gameplay like a faster Skate or a stronger Max. You just need to be here because you are good.
What was your process when you decided which enemies would return? Are there any who are excluded? If so, why?
Asensio: Borders for Rage 2 is, I think, the best game in the series. I love its slow pace. I like the way the three main enemies are made: Galilee, Signal, and Donovan. Galsia will come to keep you busy, Signal will attack you when you face him, and Donovan will protect you from focusing on him. So we create enemies and levels around this sense of interaction between badges. Oh, and we decided not to take Jet back, because it's annoying – flying everywhere and not risking combos…
Rage 4 music trails
The soundtrack is a combination of in-house tracks and contributions from iconic industry names. How did you decide in a row that they would appear in this game? Each donation was given a theme, or level sense art, to help shape it theirs track, for example?
Ax: The idea was to have a master designer that would bring harmony and togetherness throughout the game. Olivier Deriviere is not only a great composer and lover of electronic music, but he also completely understands the relationship between music and gameplay. This is important for Street Rage games.
But we also wanted to have different Eastern and Western influences. A different musical touch, as this is something that was present in a previous SoR article. So we had the original designers, Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima, take care of the solid tracks – certain boss battles, key themes, specific levels, etc. The idea was to have a part of the soul from the original series, but also the amazing music they both make these days.
We've also had some very talented artists representing classical and modern video music, as well as modern artists who have never done a video game before. Each of them had a specific moment of drama to interpret in their own opinion and to record themselves in music. We sent each designer a scene from the game, with story elements and general references about the atmosphere and characters. And then we just let them work their magic. Finding their individual tracks was like Christmas all along.
Olivier, what is the most challenging track to build / close the final system?
Deriviere: The most challenging aspect was the follow up made by Koshiro-san & Kawashima-san in the previous Street Rage. I don't want to emulate their style but rather their approach, which took club music from the 90 & # 39; s and incorporated it into the game. However, for me, I had to go through 25 years of club music and find out what was right without being unfaithful in the spirit of the series. It was so fun to recreate some of the tones of the East and the West. I have also reviewed dubstep, Microsoft such as Aphex Twin, and many other genres. But to make it sound like everything was definitely a challenge!
Which track from the traveling artists has surprised you the most? (This can be a full track or just one paragraph that has exceeded your expectations)
Deriviere: I guess I was not surprised by the title of the Main title from Koshiro-san, it reminds us well of Street of Rage and sets the right tone and prepares the player for the next struggle. We start the game in his own style, next to the original games. On the other hand, Kawashima-san's delivery is very special, very modern, and almost sounds like an electric avant-garde music at one time or another. They are both very different, and, to my great surprise, I understand more about how they can make that kind of music in the past… (and this!) All the other guests do a wonderful job, and add their own personality to each of the managers.
The game also has the option of playing old tracks – how did you decide where to play?
Deriviere: It was a team effort. We've taken the feedback from the hardest working people and spreading retro music from Street of Rage and Street Rage 2 into levels and management.
The game features two online co-op players and, for the first time in the series, four local players
Additional game modes
How does the gameplay modify or change in the four-player location mode?
Asensio: Measuring 4-player op-op mode is almost impossible. So from the start we decided not to try, but instead fill in something fun by making small changes that make the game more fun and easy to understand. For example, the more players you have, the less damage you do, so you have to help each other and coordinate your actions to make co-op combos cool. Also, you do a bonus damage when you open a friendly fire. There are many enemies during the battle, so you always have someone to fight. Also, enemies are more aggressive, and players can't be considered great (turning them into conflicting lights).
Does the game include any new game, + leaderboards, etc. Pull players back when they finish the campaign?
Asensio: There are leaderboards of all levels and characters, so once you've finished getting an S level (highest level) at every level, you can go attack with the highest points against the world's best players. There is also a mode of difficulty for Mania, which is a new game + itself. Players should also try battle mode, where each stage has a cool flavor that always provides a fun fight.
Lagarigue: Don't try the two major challenges of the game: Arcade Mode, where you have to complete the entire mission with movement and the number of lives; and Boss Rush, where you have to defeat all bosses without extra lives. Both are great fun, but great!
Developmental and confidential challenges
Any fun development stories you want to share?
Asensio: We discussed how we reproduced the first sprite version of the characters in the game in a post on our previous blog. But the fact is that I even included some posts from other games in the engine … so on occasion we even had Joe Musashi from Sega & # 39; s Shinobi as a playwright. Of course we got rid of him in the end because it was purely for engine testing, but it was fun to kick the bad guys with him.
Festival: One of the bosses – Estel, a hard-working police officer – is based on a cop I encountered in my building. He was so fake I decided to include him in the game.
Estel (left) is one of the new characters to make when the game is over
Looking back on development, what is the biggest challenge?
Asensio: The biggest challenge was understanding the past games and what made them so good. You should leave your nostalgia posts aside and ask yourself, & # 39; What is the essence of these games? Is there frustration? Should we take it away, or maybe it's just part of the experience? & # 39; These are the kinds of things.
Lagarigue: I think the biggest challenge was to put down the composition of the game and the rhythm. When making side-appeals, it's hard to keep it interesting and varied while maintaining the same fighting gameplay. I think we've achieved a lot of balance in level building, how and when enemies appear on levels. And also by investigating the AI of enemies, especially generals.
Ax: There have been many challenges there. For example, it is very difficult to find the right balance between asset and design. For me, one of my biggest challenges was music. It was very difficult to gather so many wonderful artists together and manage all the licensed and interviewed material. But the result is amazing and has allowed me to collaborate and get to know talented people like Olivier Deriviere and Yuzo Koshiro.
Festival: Staying true to the original games while trying to create something new. You are facing not only yourself, but also the expectations of fans around the world.
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