makaiarchives

[makaiarchives]

All About Vampire Interview

The following is a translation of a developer interview from All About Vampire.

Differentiating from SF2

What got the development of Darkstalkers started? First of all we had intended to make a fighting game, but our big precondition was that we had to make something that went in a different direction from SF2 both visually and thematically. With that in mind, in order to create an entirely new type of cast and setting we chose “monsters” as our theme. We thought that by using established, well-known monster archetypes it would be easy for players to grow attached to them despite never having been in fighting games before.

In what specific sorts of ways did you differentiate it from SF2? Even though it is a different game from SF2, it is a versus fighting game after all, and SF2′s rules have firmly established themselves in the genre. So doing something completely different would likely have a hard time finding an audience. So the overall rules are the same, but by using monsters, we’re able to depict all sorts of things that human characters wouldn’t be able to do.

Tell us about the number of people and length of time involved in Darkstalkers’ development. I can’t give you exact numbers, but there were likely a lot more people involved than you’d think. Every little bit of balancing required a huge amount of effort to get things to an acceptable level.

What exactly was difficult about balancing Darkstalkers? At any rate, we didn’t have enough time. (Laugh) It was too much for the main planner to do alone, so by the later half of development we were calling in help from other departments, and we ended up having quite a few people working on balance. In the end we had one balancer assigned to every two characters. I’d say taking all of that data and thoughts into consideration and tying it all together was the hard part.

Which characters were considered the strongest among the developers? About that, as we were balancing we were having all of our employees play the game, and eventually everyone ends up finding their own main. Before you know it, that becomes the only character they play. Once you become an expert with that character, you'll start winning against everyone. But if I had to pick which character is top tier... Hmm, I’m not really sure. (Laugh) Generally characters with projectiles are considered strong in fighting games, but if you can master the chain combos, Victor with his high damage might be the best. Anakaris is a bit difficult to control, but he can also be strong... I guess in the end I can’t really declare which character is top. (Laugh)

1300-1500 Frames of Animation

How were Darkstalkers spectacular graphics drawn? First the project planner would think up an overall image and profile, and from there he’ll have the designer start drawing things out on paper. The planner would also think up ideas on how each character would move. Darkstalkers spent a lot of time on its character design, probably close to double that of our other games.

And those paper drawings are then fed into the computer? That’s right. I’d say the production process is similar to TV animation. First, the designer draws a rough draft for the move he was assigned. Once the planner approves it, the designer then starts drawing the lineart for the individual frames that determine how the animation will move. Once all those frames are drawn, they’ll do page flipping tests to check how it looks in motion, just like a traditional animator, then scan them into the computer. Then they’ll check the animation of the lineart on the computer, adjusting the number of frames if necessary. Then they’ll start adding color to the sprites, but at first only in a rough form without any shading or anything. Then we’ll take those half-finished sprites into the game, and use them during play testing and balancing. And if all that gets approved, then the finishing touches get made to the sprites.

Does much retouching work need to be done to create finished sprites from the scanned drawings? “Much” doesn’t begin to describe it. The scanned drawings are less clear than what you’d get out of a 20 year old copier. (Laugh) So without a lot of fine detail work they’d be completely useless.

About how many frames of animation does a single Darkstalkers character have? There is some overlap, but if you keep that in mind it would end up being around 1300-1500 per character. That’s around triple, or maybe quadruple that of the first SF2.

Darkstalkers’ characters seem to reuse a frame or two between several different animations, did you have that in mind when designing their moves? Yes, we did pay attention to that. After all, having every single one of those 1500 total frames be unique just wouldn’t be possible within the amount of time we had. This is where the designers’ skill shows, they’re building on their previous experience.

I would assume you have several character designers, do you have a single designer assigned to each character? Yes, there are certain aspects that don’t fall neatly into that format, but in general that’s how they’re produced. In the end you might have one designer split across two characters, or partway through production one designer might help out another, it varies.

Guard Cancels: Originally Aid for Beginners

I’d like to ask about the distinctive new gameplay elements added in Darkstalkers, so first how did the idea for the Special Gauge come about? You know that Super Street Fighter II Turbo has the Super Combo Gauge. The fact is that Super Turbo’s and Darkstalkers’ developments were overlapping and the decision to add the gauge to each game came almost simultaneously. It seems to be a required feature these days, or rather it was a type of accent that we wanted to adopt for our games.

Next is Guard Cancels. How did this element come to be? Darkstalkers follows the same conventions as SF2, so long term players will quickly become experts. But we wanted newcomers to play Darkstalkers in addition to seasoned fighting game players. So Guard Cancels were intended to be a tool that beginners could use to face experts on an equal level. Of course in the end it turned out to be the exact opposite, just making the game even more hardcore. At first we had it so you could Guard Cancel with anything, even normals. The midair Guard Cancels in the finished game are a remnant of that. As development and balancing proceeded, we eventually settled on the system we have now, for the purpose of deepening the gameplay. Darkstalkers has lots of single attacks that hit multiple times, and those were also designed with Guard Cancels in mind.

The finished game has speed settings and combo bonuses, neither of which were in the location test. What about those? We generally decided to add everything that SF2 had. Anything that gets added to the genre soon gets taken for granted these days. So we went ahead and added everything we could. With regards to speed, preferences vary a lot from person to person.

What’s an “Elbow Bone Skewer and Pull into Electric Uppercut?!”

The strange move commands like Darkness Illusion’s are one of Darkstalkers’ distinctive features. We tried to come up with commands that represent the move’s overall “shape.” Also since the EX Specials were considered secret this time, we tried to come up with commands that would be difficult to find. By the end of the location tests, they had all been figured out except for Darkness Illusion. That one remained a secret to the end. (Laugh)

How do you come up with the special moves’ names? The official names get decided about a month before the game is complete, so up until then the same move might get called different things by different people. For example, Lord Raptor’s Evil Scream. I called it exactly what it was: “Elbow Bone Skewer and Pull into Electric Uppercut.” It was such a long name that everyone found it hilarious, and we all called it that up until the last minute. (Laugh)

Were there any moves that didn’t make the cut during production? Of course we had to cut some things for memory reasons, but we tried in general to avoid cutting special moves. Also there are some normals, for example a light kick and a medium kick that look the same, where we actually drew lineart for different animations that didn’t make it in.

What about moves that didn’t make it past the drawing board? You know Rikuo’s EX Special Aqua Spread, where a big geyser of water shoots up. Originally that was planned to have a big tidal wave fill up the screen, and Rikuo would start swimming at you inside it. But that was a bit too crazy, so we scrapped it. (Laugh) Also, you know how Lord Raptor has that one-eyed monster that appears during his Hell’s Gate teleport. That thing is Lord Raptor’s buddy, and we had an idea for a special where the two of them join together to attack. Huitzil had a thing where he’d transform with a catapult on his back and launch something at you, and Pyron had a special where he’d summon a Stand that would attack independently.

Our Motto: To Make the Best Thing Every Time

Capcom’s fighting games are known for having a play experience that’s a cut above the rest, what’s the key to that? It’s gotta be the programmers. (Laugh) Normally the planners just unilaterally command the programmers, but occasionally the programmers would bring us their own ideas and say “Let’s make this.” And I might give the OK, but the attack ends up feeling slow or unresponsive, and next thing I know the programmers are fixing it up on their own and the character designer will say “Let’s improve the movement a bit.”.. All sorts of people in all sorts of positions checking and fine-tune things, really developing together as a group might be a big part of it.

3D polygon-based games are starting to appear as a new medium for fighting games, but as far as sprite animation goes I feel Darkstalkers is close to being the pinnacle. Our motto is to make the best thing we can every single time. As soon as we finish making one thing, we’re determined to make something even better. Even something just made yesterday starts to feel old. Our development times are long enough that even in the middle of a project it can grow and evolve. We’ve gotten a lot of compliments from our players on Darkstalkers’ graphics, but I still feel there’s even higher to aim for.

In America, Gallon is Jon Talbain

Is Darkstalkers being released in America? Yes, but not under the “Vampire” title it has in Japan. Our development team went on an overseas trip and they saw black kids and white kids playing against each other, and their playstyle was really aggressive. Very rushdown and offense-oriented. They didn’t “turtle” and play footsies like Japanese players, they were all “I’m gonna kick your ass!” (Laugh)

Are there any differences in the overseas version? Aside from the title, some of the character names are different. Gallon is Jon Talbain, Zabel is Lord Raptor, and Aulbath is Rikuo. These names came from a Capcom USA employee who was involved with creating the characters’ backstories and such. He wanted to come up with names that would have global appeal for us. So the names Demitri and Morrigan and such came from America. But in the end we felt Jon Talbain and a few others would sound odd to Japanese players so we changed them.

Huitzil and Pyron Are Not Playable

How has the reaction from players been since Darkstalkers’ release? I haven’t actually gone out to arcades and asked people, but on online message boards there are dedicated Darkstalkers threads full of posts. They know everything down to the smallest detail, to the point where I feel I could learn things from them. (Laugh)

Are people on those boards posting rumors about Huitzil and Pyron being playable? Probably. People might get that idea since we made Akuma playable in Super Turbo. But unfortunately those two are not playable.

Will Darkstalkers have a sequel? Perhaps if the demand from players is enough.

Would Huitzil and Pyron be playable then? I can’t say anything about something that hasn’t been decided yet. (Laugh)

I’ve heard a Playstation port of Darkstalkers is in development. I’d like to push that as far as the hardware can handle. We’ll do our very best to replicate the arcade version accurately, so please look forward to it.

Parting words for our readers? Darkstalkers is a game that the more you play the more you’ll come to understand. So please play diligently.

[makaiarchives]

Gamest Short Story: “Demitri’s Hundred Year Battle”

The following is a translation of a short story that was originally published in Gamest magazine at the time of Night Warriors’ release, and was recently republished on Capcom’s Capcom Densetsu website.

The Truth is Now Revealed!

Demitri’s 100 Year Battle

(Part 1)

The Dark Nobleman, Demitri Maximoff... What is this “100 Year Battle” that led to his fate of exile from the Demon World? We’ll tell the whole story right here.

The Demon World was governed by the 3 great “Demon World Noble Clans:” the Aensland Clan, the Dohma Clan, and the Voshtal Clan. But after continuing for over 10,000 years, this establishment of rulership finally crumbled after the death of the Spirit Lord Galnan, head of the Voshtal Clan. This lead to the beginning of what would become known as the “Demon World War.”

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Dark Lord Jedah, head of the Dohma clan, plotted to take total control of the Demon World himself. By prying opening the forbidden “Door” to the Human World, he began to collect wicked souls. He did this for the purpose of defeating the Demon Lord Belial, head of the Aensland Clan, wielder of the greatest magic power in the entire Demon World. However, by absorbing far more power into his body at once than he could handle, he ends up destroying himself.

The Demon Lord Belial (Black): Said to possess the strongest magic power in the entire Demon World. Head of the Aensland Clan. The most renowned even among the Demon World Nobles.

The Spirit Lord Galnan (Yellow): Served as head of the Voshtal Clan for over 20,000 years.

The Dark Lord Jedah (Pink): Capable of absorbing wicked souls and converting them into magic power. His recklessness led to self-destruction.

The Demon World was enveloped in chaos. All of the other Demon World Nobles who had up until that point reluctantly obeyed the rule of the three great leaders each began to proclaim that they were the rightful successors to the throne, and began to attempt to overthrow Belial. Among these challengers was Demitri, the young head of the Maximov Clan.

Demitri had a chance of winning. By using the “Door” that Jedah had opened, he had supplemented his lesser magic power. His clever and calculated control of this power allowed Demitri to slowly but surely began to encroach on Belial’s sphere of influence. “Just you wait, Belial. I’ll show you once and for all who the strongest in the Demon World is!” Powers will clash, and the time of confrontation draws near!

Demitri’s 100 Year Battle

(Part 2)

“Just you wait, Belial. I’ll show you once and for all who the strongest in the Demon World is!” After supplementing his power through the “Door” that connects the Demon World and the Human World, Demitri Maximoff approaches the Demon Lord Belial. Will he succeed in his ambitions?

At last Demitri arrives at the Demon Lord’s castle. An asphyxiating, ominous dread fills the air. An enormous shadow slowly ascends. “So it’s you...! How ill-mannered of you to barge uninvited into my castle!” A gigantic form, like a craggy mountain, stands, towering over him.

Demitri (foreground) and the Demon Lord Belial (background)

Unshaken, Demitri responds. “Hmph. This castle will be mine very soon. As will this whole Demon World!” “How pathetic!” Without a moment’s hesitation, a barrage of countless blades of light are unleashed at Demitri. Dodging them by a mere hair’s breadth, Demitri takes a step back. The air trembled as the Demon Lord slowly opened his eyes.

The fierce battle continued for days. While Belial went easy on Demitri at first, planning merely to toy with him, he slowly began to realize that the circumstances had changed. The Demon Lord himself was reaching the limits of his power. “This little squirt... Where did he find such immense power...?” Demitri was able to absorb souls from the “Door” to the Human World, and was now in command of unlimited power. Demitri proclaimed his victory. “This is the end, Belial. Get my rage!” As he prepared to launch a ball of flames at Belial with all his might...

“Wh... What’s happening? I can’t move!” Demitri’s arms seized up, and a violent current of energy threatened to drag him away. “Belial... what on earth have you done?!” “Let’s just say that in the end you didn’t have the power to defeat the Demon Lord after all.” With his last ounce of energy, Belial severed off a part of the Demon World, the part with the “Door”, point of contact with the Human World, and sent it into another dimension. Swallowed up by the immense power that he himself had summoned, Demitri was blown out of the Demon World. “It’s a pity to sacrifice a small part of my own world... but I had no choice.” 

Demitri, along with his entire castle, was flung into the Human World. In order to heal his wounded body, a long sleep was needed. As a result of this battle, the “Door” was lost, and many Demon World creatures flowed into the Human World. 100 years pass... With the arrival of Pyron, the Dark Nobleman Demitri Maximov achieves his revival. He plans to return chaos to the short period of peace that the Demon World has enjoyed. The answer to the question of ”Who is the strongest in the Demon World” will soon be revealed.

-Fin-

[makaiarchives]

All About Vampire: “Secrets of the Darkstalkers”

The following is a translation of a character backstory/information section from All About Vampire.

Demitri

A Castle Looming in the Mist Deep within the Transylvanian mountains stands a lone old castle... It’s said that it can only be seen in the foggy light of a full moon. It has come to be known as “Castle Zeltzereich”, after the family that has owned the surrounding land for generations, but its real name remains unknown.

A Hundred Year Battle Demitri was one of the most powerful of the demon world nobles. Challenging the authority of the emperor of the time, Belial (progenitor of the Aensland clan), Demitri engaged him in battle, but suffered a narrow defeat. After being expelled to the human world, he would need a hundred years to fully regain his strength.

The Secret of the Aura An ability Demitri gained in the human world. By completely enveloping his body in an aura of “fighting spirit”, he is able to polarize sunlight and operate safely in the daylight for a short amount of time. It is also has the effect of dampening spiritual energy.

The Humans Who Dwell in the Castle The humans who inhabit Demitri’s castle are a byproduct of his “meals,” and have become immortal. They have undying loyalty to their master, and are incapable of betraying him. However, if they are exposed to sunlight for even an instant, they will be reduced to ash. The four women in Demitri’s throne room are his favorites, and are named Angelica, Elizabeth, Francois, and Patricia. On the night of the full moon, Demitri gathers his followers and they hold a banquet. On days when he feels particularly generous. he’ll have them kidnap a woman from the outside world, and quench their thirsts with a wine of fresh blood.

AB is Demitri’s preferred blood type.

He loves beauty, and values class and nobility above all else.

He believes that preying upon beautiful women and making them immortal is the greatest compliment he can bestow, and that his victims should be thankful in return. “Beauty that doesn’t last is nothing more than a lie...”

His “true form” that can occasionally be seen while he fights is how he appears in the demon world.

Jon Talbain

The Curse of the Beast Talbain’s mother died shortly after giving birth. Furthermore, his father’s identity is unknown. He was a naive but pure young man who spent day and night training with the hopes of becoming a master of the martial arts. Until one night under the full moon, when the savage, wild blood that had boiled within him without his knowledge awakened... After being heavily wounded by the people of his village, he vanished into the woods.

All Is Determined by Fate While avoiding human contact, Talbain began to study his own nature. On nights of the full moon, he feels compelled to attack people at random. He becomes excited at the sight of blood. He suffers burns when touching silverware... These are without a doubt, the symptoms of a Lycanthrope. Unable to recall any event that could have caused this, he knew it must have been inherited. Talbain cursed his own blood, and cursed his own future.

Faith Alone is the Path to Salvation Talbain’s dreams of mastering the martial arts were shattered by the unforeseen fate in his blood. Before long, Talbain determined that only by abandoning all thought of a happy life as a human and concentrating solely on training as hard as possible could he save himself. Then, at last, his body itself was transfigured into that of a beast. At that time, he heard a voice to the side of his head. Was it merely self-encouragement, or was it perhaps the voice of God...? “Surpass your own limits. Only then, will you return to your original form.”

Talbain’s fundamental strength as a martial artist further amplifies his power.

He is capable of returning to human form, but it’s impossible to stay that way for long. Aside from when he absolutely must venture to a place where he’ll be seen by humans, he lives breathlessly deep within the forest.

Victor

Mad Experiments There was once a man who, while possessing an intellect far above that of average people, was possessed by the lure of creating “Artificial Life”... Professor Von Gerdenheim. By digging up newly buried corpses from graveyards, he collected his “materials.” Occasionally he would even go so far as to stain his own hands by turning the still living into “materials” as well. By then, the professor’s soul was fully soaked in darkness.

The Swapping of Souls Enormous amounts of electricity was necessary for the experiment. The professor waited and waited for a stormy night. Then at last, as if called up by the devil himself, black clouds enveloped the laboratory, and deafening thunder rang through the air. At the instant that Victor’s body was struck by lightning... the professor died of electrocution. In the end, it was impossible to create a life from nothing. The professor had done nothing more than exchanged his own life for that of Victor’s.

Remnants of Consciousness Only a very simple desire was input into Victor’s brain. That is, to “Prove that I’m the strongest... Defeat all my enemies.” This is none other than the professor’s own desire. That by artificially creating life, he hoped to prove that he was the most powerful man in the world... Even after the professor died, his dream of pursuing of that goal did not.

The giant bolts on Victor’s head are electrodes.

His body was assembled from a total of 37 separate parts.

Victor is incapable of feeling pain. He can only lose a fight due to his body temporarily losing its electrical charge, rendering him immobile.

Victor is often seen picking his nose while fighting. It would appear that this was a trait of the original owner of the fingers used in his construction. Or perhaps the stitches in his nose have started to loosen, which bothers him.

He has no need to eat, but he must remain electrically charged. However, under normal activity levels, his body is capable of generating and storing electricity, making him effectively immortal.

Lord Raptor

The Temptation of Emperor Ozom A dark soul defiled by evil is a delicacy to demons. Ozom, the current emperor of the demon world, had goaded Lord Raptor, the owner of the most vile soul in the human world, into committing mass murder. Under the promise that after his death, Raptor would be granted unlimited power...

Raptor’s Tenacity Ozom had obtained a gourmet soul. Of course he had no intention of honoring his end of the bargain. But after grasping the soul of the departed Lord Raptor, which was bursting with even more hatred than before, he had an idea. “I’ll give this guy a temporary life, and have him kill even more... His soul might become even more delicious.” “Lord Raptor,” declared Ozom. “You will annihilate the dark ones that are scattered about the human world. It is only then that you will obtain phenomenal and everlasting power.”

The Creature Known as Le Malta In order to keep an eye on Lord Raptor, who might run amok and start pursuing his own goals, Ozom dispatched the Ultra-Creature “Le Malta.” This being sticks with Lord Raptor around the clock, supporting him in battle, all the while observing the darkening of his soul. Le Malta is also one of the few types of creatures that is capable of freely traveling between the demon world and the human world.

The guitar Lord Raptor carries with him is also part of Le Malta.

All sounds that enter Lord Raptor’s rotten ears end up sounding like heavy metal. It’s because of this that he’s always in a good mood.

His ability to draw out weapons from within his body was granted to him by Ozom.

His appearance in his former life can be seen in one of his winposes.

Morrigan

Conflict in the Demon World The three primary forces in the demon world are currently the Aensland clan, the Voshtal clan, and the Dohma clan. Emperor Ozom originates from the Dohma clan, and is engaged in a bitter power struggle with the Voshtal clan. The Aensland clan carefully observes this conflict, but despite being the oldest and most established of the three clans, its leader seems to have no particular interest in claiming the throne. The leader of the Aensland clan is said to have power that far exceeds that of Ozom, but he fears that if he were to ever unleash it, the other two clans would likely join forces against him. He is particularly cautious of Ozom, whose actions he observes carefully.

The Endangered Succubi The population of Succubi and Incubi in the demon world has decreased dramatically over the past century. Including Morrigan, the number of Succubi in the Aensland clan is now in the double digits. Can they continue to exist as a species? At this rate they will meet the grief of extinction with 50 years. On the other hand, the threat of extinction also draws near even in the human world...

Queen of the Night Morrigan has a rather blunt philosophy, even among succubi. The future of the succubus species may be gloomy, but she believes that so long as she’s enjoying herself now, that’s good enough. Stimulation... that’s all she needs to be satisfied. Or perhaps through her actions, she hopes to create a new power source of her own. At any rate, her personality  is definitely quite different from that of the average succubus.

Her wings are phantasmagoric, capable of ever-changing shape.

They can transform into any weapon she imagines.

Her bats are her attendants, and are normally hidden in her wings and hair.

Her main reason for fighting is merely to experience stimulation, not to drain her opponents’ life. Of course, she does need drain life to stay alive.

There are various means by which to drain life, but in Morrigan’s case it seems that it’s often from mouth to mouth, or in other words, a kiss.

Anakaris

In Ancient Egypt... There was once a great city known as Giza on the Nile basin, and Anakaris’s own country boasted size and prosperity that rivaled it. Anakaris was born as that country’s first prince. His intense charisma captivated the people, and at the age of 12 he became pharaoh.

A Country Without a King With the country’s fate at stake during a war with a neighboring country, Anakaris suffered a wound and fell ill. Upon realizing that he was not long for this world, Anakaris summoned his retainers and instructed them to bury him in a pyramid after he died. He swore that one day he would be revived, to fight for his kingdom’s prosperity once again... After Anakaris’s passing, his retainers buried his remains in a pyramid as instructed, but during the next war the kingdom was thoroughly conquered. Afterwards, the very fact that Anakaris’s country had ever existed was erased from history.

A Call That Transcended Time Anakaris’s spirit laid protected by the pyramid. What awoke him was the power of Pyron. When Pyron’s evil will reacted with the pyramid power, an unknown energy that transcends space-time brought life to the wrappings and death mask of Anakaris’s remains, and revived him.

Anakaris can freely control his death mask and wrappings at will.

His body is mummified and contained within the wrappings. As an aside, the full length of those wrappings if laid out in a straight line would be equal to 33 pyramid-lengths.

Anakaris specializes in attacks that warp space.

The form taken on when cursed by “Royal Judgement” is brought about by making the opponent believe that they have become what Anakaris wills them to be, and is actually no more than an illusion.

Felicia

Her Unhappy Beginnings In a small, rural American town, under the rusty church gate, just out of the reach of the October rain, a baby... Felicia, was left orphaned. The church’s Sister Rose embraced the baby who was imposed with this sad fate, and decided to raise her herself. Sister rose named her “Felicia,” after the word “felicity” meaning “God’s blessing.”

Unusual Abilities Felicia grew up quickly in the church’s orphanage. Above all, her naive and innocent personality brought happiness to those around her. But that happiness didn’t last long. The changes that began to appear in her body started to reveal that she was not human. Fur, claws, ears... and the tail was the tipping point. Felicia, being so young at the time, of course had no idea why everyone stopped playing with her. Eventually Sister Rose left, taking Felicia with her. For the next few years, Sister Rose looked after Felicia, her continued affection unwavered by the fact that Felicia wasn’t human. After Sister Rose peacefully passed away, Felicia swore: “I’ll take care of myself from here on, mama!”

Wishing to be a Star Despite becoming accustomed to living alone, Felicia became dissatisfied with having to avoid human contact and came up with a brilliant idea: “I’ll become a musical star! My unusual looks might even become a point of interest! I probably can’t do it the normal way, so I’ll travel the world, beat up all the bad monsters, get everyone’s attention, and then...” It would appear she has no plans for what happens next.

Felicia is actually in her late 20s, but in monster years she’s the equivalent of 14-15 years old.

One of her abilities is transformation. She can transform into a kitten, but at best she can only stay in that form for 5 minutes.

The base of her tail is her weak point. It causes her to lose her strength.

The white parts on her body are fur, and are not cut in any particular fashion but merely grow that way naturally. (In other words, those aren’t clothes... get my drift?)

Bishamon

An Unfortunate Man There are may legends passed down about cursed armor and swords, but there is almost no record of this “Hannya” and “Kien”, so the possibility that Bishamon was simply completely unaware of the possible consequences when he equipped them can’t be discounted.

Malicious Miasma Hannya is an armor said to have secretly guided a certain famous warrior during Japan’s Sengoku period, at times actually becoming one with him, and has bathed in the blood of countless fallen foes. It’s likely that this armor itself was actually a type of creature from the demon world. By drawing in and multiplying malicious energy, it has traveled from place to place in search of blood. Kien was a famed sword forged by a master swordsmith, but by some circumstance it has come to work in concert with Hannya. It is likely being manipulated by dark forces.

The Imprisoned Bishamon Bishamon’s body has been possessed by Hannya. However, it can be supposed that what is actually inside the armor is not Bishamon’s physical body, but rather his spirit. His physical body likely lays dormant as a soulless shell somewhere. Bishamon occasionally regains his own consciousness, but this results in nothing more than being shown the results of his own gruesome deeds.

The flames that float about Bishamon’s shoulders are some of the souls of those that Hannya has killed.

Bishamon is capable of conversing with Hannya. However, despite how much Bishamon may plead, it is inconceivable that Hannya would ever release him.

The bodies of those sliced in half by Kien instantly reattaching is a mystery. Perhaps our notions of common sense simply don’t apply to monsters? Or perhaps the dismemberment itself is merely an illusion caused by Hannya?

Many unanswered questions remain with regards to Bishamon’s stage, but no one knows the truth...

As an aside, in the overseas version Hannya and Kien are known as “Gaiketsu” and “Jinrai”, respectively.

Rikuo

Underwater Empire The underwater empire where Rikuo lives exists deep within an underground lake and has virtually no contact with the surface world. To his kind, the entire world exists within the water. Their one connection to the surface is at the bottom of a freshwater lake deep within the Amazonian rainforest. It seems that this was only discovered recently.

A Special Ecosystem Rikuo’s species doesn’t belong to any known ecosystem on Earth. They are divided into males and females, and reproduce by laying eggs. Their faces are rather humanlike, and are in fact quite handsome. They breathe with gills, absorbing oxygen from water. They are also capable of storing water within their gills and using it little by little. It’s thanks to this ability Rikuo is able to fight on land. Of course this water must be replenished regularly. His species is also capable of morphing the cells of various body parts (or even the entire body) to mimic the forms of all sorts of aquatic creatures. Rikuo in particular is a master of this ability, able to transform into more forms quicker than anyone else.

The Cause of the Earthquake Rikuo’s kingdom exists within an underground lake that was perfectly balanced in the gap between two plates of the Earth’s crust. After Pyron’s arrival, this balance was broken and violent underground volcanic activity began. With no means of stopping it in sight, the kingdom eventually sunk deep to the ocean floor.

The place where Rikuo fights is a freshwater lake that is connected to his underwater empire. Only Rikuo, with his exemplary athletic ability, is capable of reaching this place. Visiting it is also a right reserved only for the king.

Due to living only underwater, Rikuo’s species has no means of communicating with other life forms on land. They communicate with each other through special sound waves, one use of which on land is Rikuo’s Sonic Wave attack. Thus Rikuo’s opponents likely have no comprehension whatsoever of what he says in his winquotes.

Sasquatch

The Legendary Snowman Deep in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, at an altitude of over 3500 meters, in a perpetually snowy basin, lies the village of the Bigfoot tribe. With as population of around 80, they lived in mutual harmony under the village elder Tundrad... That is, until those “outsiders” came to the village.

Kick Out the Outsiders! By the time Sasquatch, the strongest Bigfoot of the village, had realized what was happening, it was too late. The humans had gotten wind of them. Then bears that had been chased from their homes by those humans. Then all sorts of bizarre monsters, the likes of which had never been seen before... One after the other, they all came to the village and upset the Bigfoots’ way of life. The humans, with their "flashy boxes” and “noisy tubes,” the bears and monsters with their claws and fangs and tails and fists, they all assault the village. “Get out of our village already!” Sasquatch yelled desperately as he tried to repel the outsiders. “Can’t you at least be polite?! Maybe bring us a present or something?”

Attack Rather Than Defend When reason fails, it’s time to bring out the fists. Sasquatch prepared himself for the worst. After winning the right to represent the village by defeating his rival Donketcho in snow sumo, Sasquatch descended from the mountains. “...Man, it’s hot. No one told me it was gonna be this hot down here!” Sasquatch already seemed like he’d be broken. “But with my reputation as strongest in the village at stake, I’ve got no choice but to exterminate those pests!”

The Bigfoot tribe normally subsists on fish and small game.

Sasquatch’s techniques involving spitting cold air are his own special abilities, and not something that every Bigfoot can do.

The Bigfoots are capable of storing cold air in their bodies, and using it to counteract rises in body temperature. Also, although the exact mechanisms are unknown, they are seemingly able to generate their own cold air within their bodies. This is the only explanation for some of Sasquatch’s techniques.

The little snowmen that appear in Sasquatch’s winpose are his friends, and are seemingly the only demon world creatures that have a friendly relationship with the Bigfoot tribe.

Huitzil

It is said that the Huitzils were created by the ancient Mayans. The technology to do so was given to them by aliens... It can be conjectured that Pyron was responsible.

Among those exhumed from the Mayan ruins, some were over 65 million years old. This is evidence that long before the existence of humans, a technological civilization once existed. However the basis for this theory is weak, and because it would completely overturn our current understanding of history, it is ignored by the mainstream scientific community.

It could be that the ancient Mayans themselves merely unearthed the remains of an advanced technology from the age of the dinosaurs and used it for their own purposes.

Huitzil’s body is covered with a special metal that s incapable of being synthesized on Earth. It is similar to so-called “liquid metal,” but its ability to freely change its shape regardless of temperature is without a doubt the result of extraterrestrial technology.

The giant robot and surrounding other Huitzil units in Huitzil’s stage merely have their programs paused. If by some chance all of them were to activate at once, the entire Earth would no doubt be at their feet.

Pyron

Many unanswered questions remain about Pyron, and little information is available.

Pyron’s body is a supernatual spiritual form, and normally would be completely incapable of suffering physical damage.

If he was serious, Pyron could easily evaporate two or three planets in a matter of minutes. The reason he does not could perhaps be regarded as him seeing a reason to fight under his own predetermined rules? At any rate, it would be wise to fight him in a manner that does not damage his pride.

[makaiarchives]

Gamest Special Issue Interview

The following is a translation of a developer interview from Gamest issue 129, a special Darkstalkers issue.

The Planning Stage of Darkstalkers

Gamest: Sorry for bothering you on such a busy day. So let’s get right to the interview. Are the two of you project managers? Ohno: Yes. Funamizu: That’s right. Although I joined in partway through the project and am sort of following everyone else. Gamest: In this game, the entire cast is comprised of monsters called “Darkstalkers”, right? Was there anything in particular that inspired you to think about making this sort of fighting game? Ohno: The project itself began about 2 years ago. And it was decided from the very beginning to use monsters. Gamest: Is there any particular reason for that? Ohno: To start with, it’s easier for players to identify with a character that’s based on something they already know than something that’s made completely from scratch. Gamest: On what basis did you choose the monsters that currently appear in the game? Funamizu: We’d name all the monsters we could think of, and from those we picked the ones that seemed like they would look good and appeal to players. We probably had about twice as many ideas as what we ended up with? Ohno: Some even had a small amount of art drawn. Like a tree man, whose entire body was made of wood. There were quite a few ideas. The weirdest one was a regular old businessman who would fight. Who wasn’t even a monster, of course. (Laugh) Funamizu: We also had quite a few Japanese youkai, but global audiences aren’t very familiar with those so they didn’t make the cut. Nurikabe and such. We said he’d always be blocking, so we could get by without much animation and stuff. (Laugh) Ohno: And the Invisible Man. Like just a pair of gloves floating in the air. Gamest: That’s incredible. (Laugh) How did you go about deciding each character’s name? Funamizu: The official names were decided pretty late in the process. It was the same in SF2, we just called them by nicknames during development. Gamest: What sort of nicknames? Funamizu: Morrigan, for example, was a female vampire at first. So to differentiate Demitri from her, we’d call him “the dude”, and “the guy” and such. We’d call Felicia “the cat”, Talbain “the wolf”, although some people called him “the dog.” (Laugh) And then there’s “the mummy” and “the samurai” and such. Gamest: Is there a reason the vampire became the protagonist? And not the werewolf or whatever? (Laugh) Ohno: There’s no particularly deep reasoning for it... but when we were first naming monsters, the very first one we came up with was “vampire.” And before we knew it, he had become the protagonist.

Each Character’s Hidden Backstory

Gamest: Talbain’s kick attacks look a lot like those seen in actual martial arts, don’t they? Ohno: Talbain’s backstory was originally that he was training to be a martial arts master. That’s a remnant of that backstory. Funamizu: Although in the end we had to cut his animation a bit due to memory limits. Gamest: Were there many moves that didn’t make the cut? Ohno: Yes. At first no one was thinking about memory limits, and just making things. There were lots of things that didn’t make it in. Funamizu: Even among the normal attacks, we had been differentiating every near, far, light, medium, and hard attack. Anakaris had quite a bit of that. Even weirder than what he ended up with. Gamest: One thing I’m personally really curious about, what was Bishamon doing inside that igloo? Doesn’t he look a little embarrassed when he peeks out? (Laugh) Funamizu: There are various theories about that. (Laugh) Maybe he was cooking rice cakes, or maybe he was just hiding. We actually thought about lots of different animations for that intro. Like he’d come barging out of the foyer of that house on the side. And there was one where he’d pop out of that snowman. (Laugh) Gamest: Some of the characters in this game have different intro animations when fought in CPU matches, don’t they? Morrigan being one. Ohno: That’s right. The spriters who made these characters would just come to us going “Here, I drew this, use it!” and stuff. Morrigan’s was an example of that. Gamest: By the way, who is this “master” that’s mentioned in Morrigan’s ending? Ohno: There isn’t any particularly detailed story there, but he’s Morrigan’s guardian, sort of a father figure to her. Although at first we were considering having him be Demitri’s brother. Gamest: Were Huitzil and Pyron more or less the same from the beginning? Ohno: For the bosses, there were various other concepts besides those two. Some people also wanted more than just two, but in the end we ended up with what you see. Gamest: Did you intend from the beginning to make Anakaris such a weird character? Funamizu: Yes. Basically we made him by taking the artist’s drawings and saying ”Let’s use that for this move.” And we said from the beginning “Let’s not give him a regular throw, but instead give him a command throw that can grab opponents from a distance.” With his coffins, we’d go ask the artist “Could we have these come falling down from the sky?” And he said “Sure!” (Laugh) And when we tried it it turned out being pretty useful. And even with his curses, we’d go “Wouldn’t it be nice if he could do this?” and then the artist actually drew everything for it. (Laugh) Gamest: Talbain’s supposed to be a werewolf, so why does he turn into a Dachshund when cursed? Funamizu: Well, that’s a long story. (Laugh) Gamest: When Lord Raptor uses Hell’s Gate, a weird monster shows up for a split second and swallows him up, doesn’t it? You can hardly notice it when you’re just playing normally. Funamizu: That’s Raptor’s little sidekick, isn’t it? Ohno: Or his friend. We considered having him fight alongside Raptor at one point. Funamizu: We call him “Le Malta.” Because he looks like an enemy character in our game “Three Wonders” with that same name.

The Secrets of CPU Matches

Gamest: There aren’t any mirror matches in arcade mode this time, are there? Funamizu: It feels kind of weird to have the character fighting himself. We don’t prevent mirror matches in VS mode, but those tend to end up kind of unpleasant anyway. But it also meant we didn’t have to come up with AI routines for mirror matches. Gamest: Also it seems like Rikuo and Sasquatch always show up last in arcade mode. Ohno: That's predetermined. Sasquatch always shows up last, and Rikuo right before that. But the order of every character before that is different each time you play. Although of course, neither of them will show up if you’re playing as them.

Graphics

Gamest: The graphics in this game give an entirely different vibe from all the previous ones. Funamizu: From the very beginning of the project it was decided to go with this graphical style. To do something different from everything else we’d done up to this point. To decrease the workload of each frame by simplifying the shading of the sprites compared to previous games, and use the work that frees up to increase the number of frames. Ohno: It was after that change to the graphic style was decided that the characters were designed to fit that new style. Gamest: How does the amount of frames compare to SF2? Funamizu: It’s about quadruple that of the first version of SF2. We really wanted to make the action flashy, so we spent more time thinking of ideas than actually drawing. But we decided to make Demitri and Morrigan a bit more standard, so their actions are a bit more subdued. We thought it might be a mistake to make everything completely weird, so we intentionally left them as more standard types of characters. Gamest: Were you aiming for overseas audiences with that style? Funamizu: Not really. But we did draw inspiration from American animation. More than anything what we wanted to do was make something that hadn’t been made before. That was the whole concept of the game itself.

On Game Mechanics

Gamest: How did you come up with the idea for chain combos? Funamizu: First we just thought “It would be cool to be able to cancel even normal attacks into each other.” At first we had it so you could do it just by pressing two buttons at the same time. You’d just press the two buttons of the attacks you wanted to combo together, and it would automatically combo them for you. We called it “buffering.” It would make it so anyone could do combos. But of course that ended up making it too easy, so we quit that and made it how it is now, where you press the buttons with proper timing. Balancing guard cancels was also pretty difficult. The defender always ended up having the advantage. So we ended up making them rather difficult to pull off. They used to be so easy you could do them on reaction. Ohno: Also the moves you can use as guard cancels typically have invincibility by default, but when used as a guard cancel they get longer invincibility than normal. Gamest: Anakaris and Bishamon don’t have guard cancels, do they? Funamizu: Bishamon has his Kienzan that’s specifically for reversals. He was really overpowered at first. He seemed like he’d be able to turtle endlessly. We weren’t sure whether Bishamon and Anakaris would end up being liked or not, so we thought “How can we make them completely different form everyone else?” They have their own twists. Ohno: Bishamon was completely unbeatable during the location tests. When someone finally beat him, it was another Bishamon. (Laugh) His dash was almost twice as fast as it is now. He had longer range. And Mukuro Fuuji had less recovery time. Gamest: Did chain combos and guard cancels end up working the way you expected? Funamizu: Not really. Looking back, we might have gone a little too hardcore. I think it ends up putting too big of a barrier between players who can pull them off and players who can’t. Also the fact that we have lots of multi-hit moves in this game, like the ES specials, was done with guard cancels in mind. Gamest: Was the idea for the Special meter there from the beginning? Ohno: Yes. The idea that you’d fill up the meter and it would power up some of your special moves was there from the beginning. We had some other ideas for how to use the meter that didn’t make it. Gamest: Does the draining of the active Special meter have any effect on attacks’ strength? Ohno: No, it doesn’t. So long as it’s active, everything from normals to specials gets powered up. Gamest: But it seems like attacks you land at the very instant the meter becomes full do really high damage? Funamizu: Um, it does seem a little high for some reason. Especially throws.

Details

Gamest: Are the characters’ voices performed by professionals? Ohno: Yes, they are. We had professional voice actors do them for us. We used 5 voice actors total, 2 women and 3 men. So the men play multiple roles. Demitri is voiced by a pretty famous voice actor named Nobuyki Hiyama, who performs in Yu Yu Hakusho and such. Gamest: What’s Bishamon shouting when he gets knocked out? It sounds like he’s saying “hoeh-hoeh.” Ohno: He’s saying ”onore (why you...!).” (Laugh) We used quite a bit of processing and effects on the voices in this game. But Demitri and few of the others are more or less the raw voices. Funamizu: When Demitri does his ES Chaos Flare it sounds like he’s saying “san bai gaeshi (triple payback)!” (Laugh) Gamest: “San bai gaeshi?” (Laugh) Ohno: “Sen bai gaeshi (thousand-times payback),” “genmai rice (brown rice),” people heard all sorts of things. People also heard Morrigan’s “Soul Fist” as “pork bits.” Gamest: Yeah, we said that over here, too. (Laugh) Ohno: We had quite a few sounds at first. Character voices and sound effects. But we didn’t have the danger music like in SF2. Talbain’s stage music used to be something a lot slower, but it didn’t really fit so we changed it to what it is now. Gamest: The backgrounds really have a lot of work put into the details. Like the dog in Bishamon’s stage which starts dancing gleefully when you win a match. Our editing team has a huge fan of that dog. Ohno: His name is Taro. Also the cow in the corner of that stage used to actually make a mooing sound to go with that mouth movement. It would start mooing when you went to that side of the stage. But it started getting annoying, mooing like crazy and people were like “Don’t go to that side of the stage!” and “Hurry up and beat Bishamon so that cow will shut up!” Gamest: Is he an Akita Inu? Ohno: No, he’s a Shiba Inu. Gamest: I’m also curious about the girls in the igloo. It looks like the one on the right is really cheering someone on. Funamizu: You’re really perceptive. (Laugh) Ohno: The story is that those two are sisters, and the one on the left is the older and the one on the right is the younger. the younger sister is captivated by the fight in front of her, and the older sister is cooking rice cakes for her. That’s what the artist told me. Gamest: I had no idea there was a story there. Glad I asked. (Laugh) Changing the subject, in this game, unlike SF2, a character waking up after being knocked doesn’t have an advantage on throws, do they? Funamizu: The throw system itself is entirely different from SF2. Throws don’t instantly happen the moment you input the command, there’s actually an instant where the character attempts to grab the opponent. If, during that instant, the opponent escapes, you go into a throw miss animation. Earlier in development is was even more different, but it wasn’t working out, so it became the way it is now. Gamest: Is the game speed system based on Super SF2 Turbo? Funamizu: Everyone has their own preference when it comes to game speed, so we thought this approach would be the best. Speed 3 is pretty fast. But we intended to make this a fast-paced game, so it doesn’t feel wrong. Gamest: I see. So in conclusion, any messages the two of you would like to leave for the players? Funamizu: Have fun playing against each other! Ohno: You’ll be able to do those chain combos and guard cancels if you practice. Keep at it until you can pull them off! You’ll enjoy the game even more than before. Gamest: Thanks for meeting with us on such a busy day.