Developed by Wuhan-based independent game studio Suzuku Games, Showa Mikoku Monogatari was officially announced at the Bilibili Game Awards event held on January 8. The game pays homage to the pop culture of the 80s and incorporates strong B-movie elements to present an American country that has become a Japanese economic and cultural "colony".
Although it tells the story of a Japanese in the United States, because of its unique story theme and witty elements, in addition to Chinese players, it has also attracted the attention of Japanese players and American players. This time we interviewed the creative director of Showa Rice Story, "Cat Boss" and the game director "Uncle Cat", and asked many related questions.
"There will be some weapons in the game that make the player marvel, "Can you use this weapon of grass?" There are even weapons that we're thinking about whether to put on mosaics or not."
——From the introduction of the game type is an RPG, can you introduce the RPG elements in the game?
Cat Boss: There are a lot of RPG gameplay, but they don't show up in the PV. "Showa Mikoku Story" does not have the same degree of freedom as American RPGs, there will be a relatively clear main plot. It is closer to the game habits of Japanese and domestic RPG players. Outside of the main line, players can also find many side quests, reflecting some of the customs and customs under this unique worldview architecture, and will encounter some interesting people and interesting things. In addition to side quests, there will be some mini-games that can be played by players for a long time, with cultivation elements. We will share this part with you in the future.
- In the trailer, some scenes of the combat part are also demonstrated, which is more in favor of the refreshing style of "Chainsaw Sweetheart" than the survival horror work of "Resident Evil". Can you elaborate on the characteristics of the game's combat system?
Uncle Cat: The design goal of this game's combat system is to bring players a refreshing combat experience, and at the same time, some strategic elements will increase the depth of gameplay, not just simple brainless slashing. In addition, we also pay more attention to the difficulty of controlled battles, we do not want players to be trapped by high-threshold battles, but can experience the battles with a more joyful and relaxed mentality, as well as the rich and interesting "Showa and The United States" and various main line side stories we have built outside of the battles.
- Does that mean the game is more of a story than a combat part?
Cat Boss: That's right. The combat part will be both refreshing and strategic, and it won't be too difficult. The reason why we advertise this game is an RPG is also to hope that players will not pay too much attention to the combat part. Although the combat part of the game is relatively free and fast-paced, the difficulty of the battle itself is not particularly high.
——In PV, Butterfly uses a gun, a katana, and a drill that pays homage to Tengen's breakthrough, will there be any weapons that look cool?
Uncle Cat: What weapons will appear, we are not very convenient to disclose at present. However, it can be said that there will be more types of weapons that appear in the game. In addition to the somewhat spoof steel drill bits shown in the trailer, there will be many special weapons, and the weight of such weapons will not be less. One of the main points of our design of various weapons is to satisfy the player's cool mentality while providing some fun "beyond the battle itself". When the player pulls out some weapons in the game, they will exclaim, "Can you use this weapon?" ”。 There are even weapons that we are considering whether to put on mosaics or not.
- The game branches mentioned in the official introduction are very interesting, such as the branch of the sexually cold adult film director, which makes people very curious about what the story is. Where did the inspiration for these little stories come from?
Cat Boss: In the process of writing a serious story, we will have some ideas in our heads that we think are very interesting, and we imagine that in such an apocalypse, there may be some people like this. These people can help us show the theme of cultural integration, although the specific content is currently only described in such a sentence, but the story and gameplay of the side lines are in line with the characteristics of NPC and the background of the times.
——Suzuku Games previously produced "Death reborn trial" as a game of escape from the chamber, the focus of the game is to express the internal environment. But this time, the scene of "Showa Mikoku Monogatari" looks more open, is there anything different from the previous one in terms of technology and design ideas?
Uncle Cat: The scenes in the "Dying" series are mainly small scenes in the room, while "Showa Mikuni Monogatari" is a more large map design. Therefore, from a technical point of view, we need to design the loading method of various game resources, the arrangement and architecture of the scene, etc. We want to give players as seamless and uninterrupted a gaming experience as possible.
From the design point of view, the scenes of the "Dying" series are to give players a sense of eerie and terrifying atmosphere in a closed environment. In "The Tale of Showa Rice Country", we hope to present the loneliness of the end of the world and the United States and the feeling of the sky and the sky and the sky through the elaborate open scenes.
- How big is the explorable part of the scene? Is it a process design that advances all the way with the development of the main line process or a large box design that explores relative freedom?
Uncle Cat: The scene of the game is divided into several areas, and the design of these areas is relatively open, which is a large box court design that is relatively free to explore. Although the main line of the game is strongly guided, players can also explore the surrounding environment. In each scene, we use some design to attract players to deviate from the normal main line route and explore more places; on this basis, there will also be some hidden very deep elements and rewards, waiting for those who are more eager to explore.
In addition, areas that have been visited before can also be revisited and explored repeatedly.
——As a work with the theme of road movies, the motorcycle of the heroine Butterfly should be a more important element. While using RVs as a base, what role do motorcycles play?
Uncle Cat: The caravan is more of a stronghold and camp for the members of the butterfly and the protagonist group, and is the "home" of the protagonist and his party in the last days. At the same time, some very interesting little stories among the members of the protagonist group will also take place with the caravan as the stage.
Butterfly rides her motorcycle as she leaves her motorhome to fight and explore in the environment. At the same time, there will also be some motorcycle-related performances in combat, although not particularly much. In the main line flow, the motorcycle will appear in some special links, and there will be some special gameplay.
In addition to motorcycles, there are also clips of the heroine Butterfly wearing house clothes and moving in the caravan. Why insert these life-filled fragments into the elements of plasma and B-grade films?
Cat Boss: On the one hand, I wanted the segments of life in the RV to be able to tune in to the rhythm of the game. The rhythm of exploring, doing main quests, and fighting outside is actually faster and more compact. But after completing a small part of the story, players can return to the reassuring and comfortable base of the caravan and slowly play with the items they have collected during the journey. These items may help you gain ability gains, such as a comic book after defeating an enemy in battle. After the protagonist returns to the caravan to read a comic book, he can learn a new skill through the contents of the comic book.
In the game, the motorhome is a necessary place for the player to relax. Just like when you go out on a trip, you take a lot of photos, you come home, wash the photos out, hang them up, and then you can slowly reminisce about your journey. You can imagine that in the middle of the night, you sit alone in the caravan without disturbing, and you can pull out all kinds of strange little babies to do something more personal, which is still very good.
"Our development team is usually a fun person, so although we are still telling stories, there are always some strange ideas popping up in our heads. Instead of stealing pleasure ourselves, we'd rather share it and see how people react."
——What is the story style and narrative tone of "Showa Rice Story"? Judging from the PV, it feels like the story has a hint of seriousness in the absurdity, and a hint of humor in the tension.
Boss Cat: As you understand, its overall tone isn't that serious. But we're also serious about telling stories, not playing with stems for the sake of playing with terriers. It's just that in the process of storytelling, some black humor elements will be added like some B-grade movies that we like. I think a lot of games are putting a lot of pressure on players right now, such as service games, heavy play games, and some games with more literary and heavy themes.
There is a lot of fun in our game, which allows players to play with a more relaxed mentality. Because our development team is usually a fun person, although we are still telling stories well, there are always some strange ideas popping up in our heads. Rather than stealing fun on our own, we'd rather share these ideas with players and see how people react.
Uncle Cat: To put it simply, we want players to have a smile on their faces the whole time when they play Showa Rice Story, and it would be better if they were smirking. [Laughs]
VANAHEIM ELECTRONICS, THE ORIGINAL CODE SHOULD BE FROM THE GUNDAM SERIES ANAHEIM
- It can be seen that show that showa 66 is a very interesting setting, which coincided with the year when the Japanese economic bubble burst. After Japan conquers the world with money in this other timeline, the plot setting of human society being disintegrated by the zombie crisis that immediately erupts is also very dark humor. Can you ask the developers about the setting of the worldview concept?
Cat Boss: The setting of the world view is indeed the "if line" that many people understand, joining the bubble economy for some reason has not burst, and what is the specific reason, this is also a question that will be answered in the main plot, and it is not convenient to disclose it for the time being. At the beginning of the story, there is a suspense, that is, after the protagonist crawls out of the soil, why she can still live after being buried alive, why the world will become the end of the zombie rampant, these answers will also be found in her journey to find her sister. We hope to preserve suspense for players in this section.
——The shot of the heroine Chikusa Butterfly in the PV seems to deliberately avoid her face, is there any special reason for this?
Cat Boss: I think this question can be answered honestly: because we haven't done the protagonist's face yet. In Showa Story, the characters' faces are scanned for real faces, and this is the first time we've used such technology to process a character's face, so it will take some time to reach a level we're satisfied with.
The shot of Butterfly watching fireworks with zombies and sitting in the back seat of a zombie's bike gives a very strong impression, and Butterfly also has a comeback setting. Is there some connection between her and the zombies?
Cat Boss: This question involves spoilers for the main line, and it is not convenient to disclose it for the time being, but the zombies that appear in Showa Mikoku Monogatari will be a little different from the zombies that appear in the same type of work.
——In addition to Showa movie posters and merchandise advertisements, even objects such as electric fans and rice cookers have faithfully restored the taste of the Showa era, and presumably the development team has made great efforts to restore the atmosphere. In this regard, can you talk about the dedication and intention of the production team in this regard?
Cat Boss: As a creative director, I control the content of the entire game. I hope that "Showa Mikoku Monogatari" can be from our own point of view, and try to ensure that the elements are extracted from the memory of the main creative team. I really didn't have the experience of living abroad, so those elements are the memories I accumulated when I was exposed to various foreign cultures and literary works as a child. For example, manga, animation, Japanese dramas, American dramas, etc., these things will naturally leave a variety of impressions after watching more.
When we actually started developing the game, our creative team would come up with their own ideas, find out a lot of resources, and sift through them on my side. The criteria for screening are whether I will feel familiar when I see this thing, whether I know this thing, whether it exists in my memory, and using these criteria to screen what will appear in the game is very subjective.
After the game structured and re-integrated the cultural elements of the United States and Japan, the results were amazing. For example, Hollywood, which has become the new Yokohama, the Golden Gate Bridge with lanterns, and the Statue of Liberty in kimono, it is difficult not to praise the feeling of the developers in the free-spirited way of expression. What did developers go through when they restructured an America ruled by Japan?
Cat Boss: At the beginning, the starting point was that I think that other works do not describe this part of the content very carefully, although in the work the United States was occupied by other countries, but after the occupation, it seems that there is no change in the spiritual culture and people's life of the United States, just a simple military occupation, which is very uninteresting. So when we think of doing such a subject, the main starting point is to hope to make these two cultures a contrast. Because in reality, Japan will be more influenced by the United States, so we find it very interesting to adjust the perspective of the two.
Statue of Liberty in kimono
Since the real Japan is more influenced by the United States, we can't use the real Japan as a reference, so it is more important to combine my mind with the points that the main creative team members can recall and the traditional Japanese are more distinctive to the American landforms and architecture. In this regard, our main creators and concept designers have tried many kinds of solutions, through continuous trial and polishing, and finally determined this artistic style that we want. This process is very challenging, after all, this style can not be found on the Internet, can only rely on our imagination to play, to experiment. However, the final result made made us feel quite satisfied, and now it is also a period of harvesting results after the challenge.
——There are many people who think of Amazon's TV series "The Stranger of the High Castle" after watching the PV, has the development team gained some inspiration from this TV series during the development process?
Cat Boss: Honestly, The High Castle Stranger didn't inspire us. I didn't actually watch "The High Castle Stranger" when I thought about it, and later when I was communicating with my friends and friends at SIE, they also mentioned the work "The High Castle Stranger" to me, and then I went to see this TV series. Although this work tells the story of a world in which the United States was divided and occupied by Germany and Japan, its background is completely different from what we want to do, and we can hardly find a reference from this work. So after that, we still try to design from our own point of view and ideas, which has nothing to do with "The Strange Man of The High Castle".
There is a saying that when Chinese developers export Chinese culture, in addition to excavating the essence of their own culture, they can also deconstruct and absorb the culture of others to express their own culture. From the promotional video, we also see this "Chinese perspective", which points out another new possibility for the selection of domestic games. As a domestic game practitioner, do you have any experience in content selection that you can share?
Cat Boss: The point I pay special attention to in the selection of topics is to be sure of our own characteristics. Domestic games are not like other countries' games, and they have not yet established a relatively distinct label in the world. For example, the games made by Japanese developers are very distinctive, and no matter what kind of theme they make, they can be seen at a glance as Japanese style. The United States is also the United States, europe is also the rising star Poland, although "The Witcher" is also a sword and magic, but it can well express their own fantasy literature characteristics.
When we think of the works of these countries, we can understand what their characteristic style is. Domestic games are still relatively backward in this regard, which is a challenge and opportunity for us. So when choosing this genre and setting up a project, I wanted to work in this direction and at the same time wanted to highlight our differentiated advantages as an independent game studio. We're going to do things that AAA game developers don't do, so when choosing this genre, I think it's unlikely that Japanese developers and American developers will do this kind of thing, which is the starting point of our game theme. I think only then will the road we take get wider and wider.
"I had a very complicated mood when I listened to this song during the Wuhan epidemic, although the lyrics were positive, but when I listened to it, I had a feeling of self-deprecation and sadness, which was very much in line with the apocalypse with a little black humor in the seriousness we wanted to convey." 」
Kill Bill Vol.1
——We looked at the game PV and found that there are many differences between the overseas version of the PV and the PV announced in China. For example, the overseas version begins with a line that pays tribute to "Kill Bill", and the domestic version begins with a zombie bower, is this a special reason?
Uncle Cat: Whether it is an overseas version or a domestic version, I edited it based on the library of game content recorded in advance. As for the production of two versions, it is mainly to hope that the trailer can be played more safely and publicly in China, so that more players who may like this game can see it.
The beginning of the overseas version
So in the domestic version, I chose more relatively safe and interesting content, such as bowing zombies and road riding clips reminiscent of Kamen Rider. In the version that aired overseas, I chose my personal favorite "Chicken Flying Egg Fight" clip, and the plot of this paragraph was also designed by me. Therefore, from the director's point of view, the overseas version is more like the "director's cut version", while the domestic version is regarded as the "public version".
——Overseas players, whether Europe, the United States or Japan, are most concerned about that pool in the PV, giving people a sense of peace of mind that the pool will exist no matter on which timeline, which can be said to be a magic stroke of the PV. How did you come up with the idea of adding this element in the first place?
Cat Boss: As mentioned earlier, these elements are all extracted from our memories, and we do need a swimming pool in the game, and when I think about what kind of swimming pool I want to make, I immediately think of that "pool" and I can't think of a second pool. I don't think I have to deliberately avoid this, so I finally followed my heart, after all, this is also the most in line with my normal reaction, I also hope to be able to make this memory real in the game.
That pool that will exist on either timeline
Our art director is a very simple girl, and after I asked her for this request and showed her a reference, she didn't understand what kind of swimming pool it was, so she arranged it. The guy who was specifically responsible for doing this scene didn't know what the origin of this swimming pool was, but I looked at him when I saw that he was almost done, and he smiled at me. It wasn't until the pool was done, the PV was plugged in, and after much discussion on the Internet, that our art director finally noticed something was wrong and came to me and asked me what kind of pool it was. Later, the puzzle was also revealed.
——The music in the promotional PV chose the original song "それが事" from "Red Sun", which happened to be released in 1991, that is, the showa 66 in the game, is this a coincidence?
Cat Boss: Regarding this song, I heard the version that Li Keqin sang when I was a child, and I also heard the original Japanese song, which was easy to contact in that era, so I was very familiar with this song. When I was thinking about which song to choose as the BGM of the promotional video, I hoped that its melody would make Chinese and Japanese netizens resonate and feel nostalgic.
Another direct reason is that during the Wuhan epidemic, we were full of unknowns and fears about the virus, and when we listened to this song, our feelings were very complicated. Although its lyrics are very positive, they have a sense of self-deprecation and sadness when they are listened to, which is very much in line with the seriousness of the end times with a little black humor that we hope to convey. The third reason is that it was released in 1991, the year when Japan's bubble economy burst and the Showa 66th year of the alternate world. Combining these points, we feel that this song is particularly suitable for the theme song of "The Tale of Showa Rice Country".
When negotiating with the copyright owner of the song, we have been more nervous, and we do not know what kind of attitude the copyright owner will show when they see that we want to put this song in an apocalyptic zombie game. To avoid this, we're also going to go through a long talk to explain why we want to express this with this song, and explain that although we're a zombie game, there are other themes. But in the end, the copyright of the song was negotiated very smoothly.
Because the publicity effect of PV is very good, now chinese, Japanese and American players are very concerned about this game. Did the development team expect such a big response?
Uncle Cat: Because the other members of the development team continue to be busy with the production of game content, the promotional film is almost all my responsibility from recording the content to the final editing into a film, during which it has undergone several iterations. After watching and editing the same piece of content for several days, I was honestly a little numb at the time, and I couldn't jump out of my role to judge the quality of the film, so I started to worry a little. So I took this video to the cat boss many times, but the cat boss has always thought that the quality of the video itself is still good, coupled with the theme of the game, the gameplay, our whole team has a relatively good expectation and confidence in the game, but for me personally I really did not expect it to be so hot to this extent.
Cat Boss: Before the promo was released, many people on the team, including Uncle Cat, were asking what I thought the response to the promo would be. My own idea was that it would definitely catch fire, and I was very confident in the work we did together. But at the same time, I am also very worried about whether any players will compare our works with other AAA masterpieces, whether they will feel that the picture is rough, the action is stiff, and the details are casual, and I still have some worries before this. Although I estimate that it will cause a relatively wide discussion, including many people who scold us, but after sending it out, it has actually received overwhelming praise, which has indeed exceeded our expectations.
——Judging from the number of views alone, the trailer for "Showa Rice Story" can also be said to be the best PV in recent years except for "Black Myth Goku". Gaining such attention is an opportunity or a pressure for the development team?
Cat Boss: It's more about stress. We are more confident in the game we are developing, from the direction of opportunity we think that we are going in the right direction, as long as we finish the game well, then the probability of its success is very large. After the trailer was released, the praise rate was so high that we felt very unexpected, which also increased the pressure on our team in an instant. The original style of our team is that we think it is very good to do this, we feel very happy to do it, and after we finish it, we can take it out and give everyone a lot of fun, and then the work can also be profitable, so our team can run very well, so our original expectations for it are not so high. After that, we also had an emergency meeting in the team, hoping to help everyone adjust their mentality back to before the trailer was released, after all, we still have work to do later, or we need to keep a normal mind. Just do the work you want to do and don't let the players down.
"We can find that the homogenization of AAA masterpieces is very serious, and when we think about how we should play to our strengths as an independent game studio, I hope it can become a different kind of work." 」
——How long has the game "Showa Mikuni Story" been planned, and what is the starting point or opportunity for creating this game?
Cat Boss: The idea was first had in 2016, when our first game, Trial of Dying Rebirth, was developed, and on the eve of the game's release, I was thinking about developing a larger, more player-facing title with several of the team's creators. I had a starting point when I made this game, and I wanted to make a game that would touch and make players from different cultures around the world, including Chinese players, find it interesting. At the same time, I also hope that this work can be significantly different from other works of large factories, after all, we are only a small studio, and we cannot compete with large factories in terms of funds and manpower. When playing the AAA masterpieces of other game manufacturers, we can also find that the homogenization phenomenon is very serious. As I think about how we should play to our strengths as indie game studios, I want it to be something different. I put the idea in my memo after I thought about it that day, and the next day I couldn't wait to share the idea with several other creators.
Uncle Cat: My first thought when I heard this idea was very surprised, I don't know how you came up with such an idea. Second, I'm a veteran player myself, but I've never seen another production team or game dabble in this genre, so it's a big opportunity for us. And when the cat boss and I said this idea, I already had a lot of very graphic things in my head, so this is a very interesting starting point for us and the whole production team, and we have gained a lot of fun in the process of creation.
Cat Boss: So I felt that Uncle Cat's eyes were shining and it was not an illusion.
- How did you describe what you were going to do when you came up with this idea?
Cat Boss: I hope to use the theme of Japanese culture to colonize the United States, to describe this theme from our own perspective, to add memories of our childhood, and to make some interesting content. If this content is made, players overseas (especially in Japan and the United States) may find it both familiar and unfamiliar. Strange because this content is our own understanding of popular culture and has certainly been a little different for them. On the surface, they are able to understand and accept the subject matter; and when they go deeper, they will find many surprise parts. As for the scale and volume of the project, we also evaluate the strength of our own team to see what kind of work we can make.
——The game is expected to land on the PS4/PS5/PC platform, is there any reason for the choice of platform?
Cat Boss: Because this is a platform that we are more familiar with. Our last game and other titles in development will land on the PlayStation platform, which we prefer. We wouldn't say we wouldn't say we wouldn't do it on other platforms, but we haven't considered this step yet, and we also hope that the game will be played by more players, but that's a story for another day.
It is said that the head of the China Star Project has helped this work a lot as an advisor, can you tell us what help he provided?
Cat Boss: Regarding the part about the person in charge of China Star, he first saw this game as early as 2018, although he regretted missing the selection of the second China Star program, he personally liked the uniqueness of this work and our team, and since then he has maintained many years of contact with us, providing us with many suggestions and adding references in different dimensions for us. In addition, we actively help us connect overseas issuances and investment introductions, and continue to help us as a special consultant.
——What stage is the development progress of the game at present, and when is it expected to be officially launched?
Cat Boss: The development progress is about 75%, but we still have a lot of work to do, especially the completion of the art part is still very low. Because our funds and human resources are relatively limited, we are slow to do so. After that, we also need to recruit developers again in the art part, and more importantly, we need to outsource personnel to help us solve it. There's a lot of uncertainty, because it depends on the schedule of the outsourcers, who may not be busy, so we can't accurately estimate when the game will be completed. But we will try to move forward with the game as quickly as possible.
As a practitioner of China's game industry, how do you view the future development of China's single-player games?
Cat Boss: From the perspective of recent years, China's indie games and single-player games have finally reached a relatively good stage. At this stage, the players' demand for high-quality games and our ability to produce high-quality games, this double helix has reached a certain standard. Now if we make a high-quality game, we can also get the recognition of players, such as the more popular games such as "Ghost Valley Eight Wilds" and "Dyson Ball" in recent years, it can stand out from a large number of games, but also because players in the market have a strong demand for high-quality content. Unlike before, you may be buried in making a high-quality good game, so I am more optimistic about the future development of China's single-player games.
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Cat Boss: I mainly want to say three things: first, I hope that players can keep an eye on our work and expectations; second, I hope that players will be patient, because we still have a lot of work to do later; third, I want to tell you that I will do our best to do our best to do this game, and we are very confident about it.