THE IMMERSIVE DRIVING EXPERIENCE GAME GT RACING 7, DEVELOPED BY POLYPHONY DIGITAL, IS THE LATEST IN THE SERIES AND IS EXPECTED TO LAND ON THE PS4/PS5 PLATFORM ON MARCH 4, 2022. The GT series has gone through 25 years since its first work in 1997. Producer Kazunori Yamauchi said that GT Racing 7 will be the pinnacle of the series that GT fans have expected for many years, and will also include the entire content of the past car culture in this game. This time, we were invited to conduct an interview with Kazunori Yamauchi and asked some questions about this game.
-----------------
Yamauchi: The world has changed a lot in the past 25 years, and when you buy a car and drive it for the first time, you will feel that your world has suddenly become bigger. In the past, people would share this kind of feeling, passing from seniors to future generations, from fathers to children. In childhood, we would also buy mini toy cars to play with in our hands. But now we have so much more entertainment options than in the past, such as smartphones and video games. With the increase of entertainment methods, the number of people who can convey the charm of the car is relatively reduced, but in fact, the car is really a very beautiful thing.
You said THAT GT RACING IS A CAR LIFE SIMULATOR, WHAT IS THIS MOST REFLECTED IN GT RACING 7?
Yamauchi: I think it's "World Map", which is like a "racing resort" for people who love cars.
HOW DID THE INSPIRATION FOR "GT CAFÉ" COME ABOUT? This mode of assigning tasks to tournaments can theoretically be achieved with ordinary menus, and it is very interesting to choose to use cafes and menus to distribute tasks.
Yamauchi: Actually, I had GT Café when I wrote the GT Racing project in 1992, and after 25 years, gt café finally appeared in GT Racing 7, which is very interesting. The GT Café was already there in the original "GT Racing" inspiration. One of the café's functions is the salon, where a variety of characters gather and listen to their stories. The topic can also go beyond cars, for example, in the café in Montmartre, Paris, you will have a lot of listeners, or in the café in Vienna, Austria, where many musicians will visit, the café is such a place. So in this "GT Racing 7" we designed a café where car lovers gather, where you can hear a lot of interesting things about racing.
In addition, the system of GT Racing is very complex and large, and in order to allow players to experience it systematically, gt café also plays the role of guiding the system. Before this, "GT Racing" directly threw a complex system in front of the player, and the players themselves relied on their own abilities and explored the way of playing. But now we've found that if we don't do a good bootstrap system, players won't be able to understand what a car is, what a tuning is, and what each car has to mean and culture. GT Café also undertakes such a function, from the beginning of the game to continue to complete the menu, tasks, the world will become larger and larger, the understanding of the car will become more and more profound. After completing all the menus in the GT Café, the real car life begins.
- Will the menu of the GT café be updated later?
Yamauchi: Yes. We want to convey the car culture from different aspects through the café menu, so we will continue to provide updates to the café menu in the future.
- In the Musical Rally mode, you mentioned that this mode is prepared for relaxation, but there is a time limit in the game. This seems to seem a bit contradictory, how is the balance adjusted?
Yamauchi: The purpose of our musical rally mode is as follows: 1. As the name suggests, in order to allow players to enjoy music; 2. Although there are many tracks in GT Racing, you can remember the track in a less hardcore way in this mode; 3. There is a function that complements the music rally called the Music Replay function, in which players can cooperate with music and enjoy the heroic posture of their own driving.
The purpose of the music rally is to listen to the music, although there is a beat number countdown, but it is not so difficult, as long as you remember the track, anyone can pass. In addition, if you have enough beats left when you pass through the checkpoint, you can try advanced techniques such as drifting or rotating 360 degrees.
Last but not least, if you want your kids to play GT Racing 7, the Musical Rally mode is a great way to get started. The game is easy to understand, you can enjoy racing while listening to music, and I think it is very suitable for children to play. After all, the system of GT Racing was suddenly thrown in front of the children, and the children were not easy to understand. If you start with the music rally mode, I think the children can have fun, right? The GT Racing series has been around for 25 years now, and it is estimated that many of the original GT Racing players have become fathers. If dads want to convey the charm of the car to their children, the musical rally mode is a very good choice.
Does Music Replay mode support streaming? If you are streaming, do you need to pay attention to the problem of music copyright?
Yamauchi: We've solved the problem of music copyright, so players can share the replay video they are driving with the right music to others, which is a very interesting game.
The question about the PS5's DualSense adaptive trigger has been answered many times, so what's new when playing with the steering wheel?
Yamauchi: When using steering wheels such as Tumast's T-GT or Fanatec's GT DD, you can get a feel that can be compared to a real car, such as vibration when understeered.
- In GT Racing 7, there are some vehicles that do not exist in reality, including appearance and configuration, how did you create these cars?
Yamauchi: Regarding the exterior, our Polyphony Digital vehicle modeling staff have had close interactions with designers who work at many automotive companies to design the car's exterior and interior. Regarding the configuration, it was designed through continuous communication between our team and the automotive engineers.
——In single-player games, the design of AI is a very important element, I would like to ask how much AI has improved in the new game? In the game, does AI use the level that can compete with the player?
Yamauchi: The AI itself can drive at the same speed as the more powerful GT players, so if you are driving the same configuration of the car and the AI race, it will be more difficult. However, if you are a fairly good GT player, you can probably win by 1 second faster than AI.
——Looking back at the 25-year history of the GT Racing series, what is Mr. Yamauchi's personal thoughts?
Yamauchi: I first developed GT Racing in 1992, five years before it was released, and nearly 30 years have passed since then. Since then, it's basically the same team working on it, and I'm very grateful to the team members for almost 30 years of work, and I don't think there will be any other games like this. At the same time, I also understand that this series can last for 25 years, and thanks to the support of the players, we could not get to this day without the support of the players, thank you very much. Finally, "GT Racing", which was released in 1997, is in a sense more experimental. So we also want GT Racing to be transformative all the time, so I'm also happy with the transformative elements of GT Racing 7 like Music Replay.