A Demo That's A Must See For Those Who Can!
9/20-23/2012: The latest in the popular action title: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 has a playable demo at TGS. Finally, amid the growing expectation, we spoke with The President of CyberConnect2, Hiroshi Matsuyama. (There're links to the official site for people who want to see the trailer, read play reports, hear opinions from TGS, etc. etc. I'm not really translating that bit thoroughly).
• The "Long-play Ultimate Ninja Storm"
--This time, the battle system seems to have changed a bit, hasn't it?
Hiroshi Matsuyama (referred to below as
Matsuyama): Previously, in "UNS: Generation" we made some minor changes to the system, and it built a great reputation, and helped us to achieve shipping 1,000,000 games. So, in "UNS: 3" we're continuing to try and perfect the design.
-- I've personally seen one of the changes in the new "Awakening" shown at TGS.
Matsuyama: Yes. In the UNS Series up until now, after receiving damage and being put into a tough spot, your Awakening Mode would allow you to change state into a new form. However if you look at the original story you'll see how this changes. For example, because of Naruto's training in using his "Kyubi Chakra Mode" that state becomes something that he controls through his own will. Because of that, the Awakened State is something that can be activated even at the very start of the game.
-- Ahh. So because the original work changed, the system that it inspired also needed to change, correct?
Matsuyama: Howerver, all the characters weren't able to use those powers right from the start, so it's one of the only characters that matches with that image.
-- As far as what we saw in the demo, I thought that it was significantly powerful.
Matsuyama: However, that strength doesn't just come as an advantage, because there's always a risk with Ninjutsu. After using Awakening, something has to suffer from it. So after that, you're in a bit of trouble, because there's invariably a risk attached to it. In the TGS Version, because it was a specific battle scene that was reproduced, there wasn't any decrease in power.
-- For the sake of competition, it good that you won't be able to just limitlessly use Awakeing Mode.
Matsuyama: Yeah. To Awaken, you just use the stick, so that it leaves the reset of the existing system unchanged.
-- Ahh. Yeah, some people's existing skills are REALLY impressive.
Matsuyama: Aside from the battle system, there are a lot of other things. This time, we wanted to exceed "UNS: Generation" 's 72 people. So make no mistake, we will definately exceed that number of playable characters. Since the addition of the adjustments of the renewed battle system, I think it will change the feel of all the characters.
-- What concepts inspired the changes in the new battle system.
Matsuyama: The idea of a "long-play Ultimate Ninja Storm." Up until now, I'd been thinking about the game from Start to Finish, and adding Online Play bit by bit. This time, I've been thinking about ways of enjoying the game after completion with Online Battles. The system is designed in a way to stick players together based on the ways that they want to win.
-- The want "to stick to a particular way of winning" seems similar to the rest of the series...?
Matsuyama: However, this is a part of the player aesthetics. "The conclusion by using the Ultimate Ninjutsu as finishing blow." However some people think that, if I want to get better, it means that I have to stop finishing matches like that, and end up resorting to nothing but specific conventional attacks in order to win. This time we've made a new system and it seems to be working out well.
-- So in "UNS: 3" even the expert matches will be more flashy and interesting?
Matsuyama: Yeah. The game system is designed to still allow you to improve, but to continue playing the way that you enjoy. Because the skilled players tend to fight a specific way, and it seems like they always tend to stick to that certain type of fighting. But now I believe that there will be a better opportunitity for skilled players and less-skilled players to have a more even match.
-- There's a lot of merit to this type of system, and it seems like a really cool way to learn how to win.
Matsuyama: Yeah, it's really nice. We actually got the idea for the system from the Feedback Form that we released after "UNS: Generation". There has just been an enourmous response from our players. The feedback form was hosted on the CyberConnect home site, and we got over 17,000 submissions from all over the world in the first month.
-- That's amazing!
Matsuyama: Haha, it was pretty tough. There were also a lot of, "Remove this guy!" and "This new character's really useful!" and a lot of other opinions like, "I only want you to change this one thing" but there were a lot of requests to change the system.
-- You've got a lot of really enthuiastic fans, don't you.
Matsuyama: With the timing of "UNS: 3" being announced, we've received over 30,000 suggestions in the last two weeks, haha.
-- It's increased even MORE! Haha.
Matsuyama: That's from Japan, Asia, Europe, and NorthAmerica, but I'm terrible at breaking it down between them, haha. Overall, ~60% are from America, ~30% are Europe, and the remaining 10% are all other regions. Japan only has about 170 submissions.
-- It's certainly a strong title in Europe & North America, but even if you compare that to unit sales, the figures seem a bit unbalanced.
Matsuyama: I guess Japanese people are just humble. Hehe. Of the total 1 million shipped, about 10% of them that we're selling are in Japan. Of the 30,000 suggestions, about 3,000 of the them weren't meant to be serious. Anyway, because we received a large variety of suggestions, we're always talking about them every day.
-- Incidentally, since you could try out a battle in the TGS version, how close do you feel this is to the final version?
Matsuyama: It's not even close. You're only seeing about 20% of it right now, so you're not seeing too much yet. When I played it, I didn't feel that much had changed.
• The Ultra Powered Up Boss Battle!
-- Please tell me about the new boss battles.
Matsuyama: "UNS: Generations" specialized in a particular type of gameplay, but it helped a lot in allowing us to reach 1 million games shipped, but I was told that people around the world were asking, "What happened to the boss battles? Why aren't there any?"
-- In "UNS: 1 & 2" the boss battles were absolutely amazing, so it's not too surprising that there was this kind of a response.
Matsuyama: Because we're always catching up to the original story every year, the game is always evolving with it. If you don't expand that time period to some extent, you won't get the same volume, which is the reason why we changed that in "UNS: Generation".
-- Ahh. By specializing in competitive gameplay, you were able to put out a new game, as well as focus on expanding on a different area, right?
Matsuyama: Regardless of this, everyone kept requesting, "Boss battles! Boss battles!" Which I completely understand. Haha. So this time, we've worked hard to powered that aspect up with various boss battles in Adventure Mode, a tight Story, and making it possible to experience the drama of the story. The TGS version has the Kyuubi Attack from 16 years ago at the beginning, before the Kage Summit, and it is expected to from that point up until the most recent episode of the Shinobi War.
-- That's a fantastic time to cover! How are the boss battles specifically being powered up?
Matsuyama: This time for the boss battles, the player will make a choice just before the start of the combat. Right now it's being called "Ultimate Decision" or "The Ultimate Choice". In the TGS Version this part was removed, but in the main game you'll be forced to make this choice.
-- What are the specifics of the "Ultimate Decisions"?
Matsuyama: You're presented with two routes, and the player can decide how they want to fight. Right now, we refer to them as the "Hero Route (英雄
*" and the "Tough Guy Route (豪傑
*". The "Hero Route" is the standard route that I think that more people would choose, and the "Tough Guy Route" is the option that I think more Western players will choose, because it creates a more taxing battle that some players are looking for. *(Both words are really close, so I chose something to attempt to differentiate them more).
-- So is the main difference in the degree of difficulty?
Matsuyama: They're extremely different degrees of difficulty, and they also contain different content. For instance, in the TGS Version, Kyubi attacks the village and the Masked Man also appears... right at the same time. At that point, the Fourth Hokage is the main character and he goes after the Masked Man, but somehow you also need to save the village from Kyubi. Which do you think is better, and what happens if you change the order of things?
-- You're saying that if you changed the order of the fight, things would happen differently?
Matsuyama: If you chose to play the fight against Kyubi first, you'd see finish and see, "And with the Fourth Hokage?" Then the scene will shifted to Fourth Hokage already engaged in combat with the Masked Man. The amount of damage you sustained before will affect you in the second combat.
-- Ahh, ok. But it doesn't seem like there's a large degree of difficulty change with that.
Matsuyama: Additionally, in the middle of the story Naturo needs to take control of Kyubi's Chakra while within his inner world, and there's a scene of him fighting Kyubi. The Ultimate Decision that's presented is either to fight in tadem with your instructor Killer Bee, or to fight alone with just Naruto. Clearly, the route where you choose to fight alone is going to be the "Tough Guy Route".
-- While there are a lot who will chose the "Hero Route" I'm sure there are many people who will want to try out both.
Matsuyama: Of course! So after you clear the game, it will unlock the option for all of the routes. You won't have to say, "Well, I guess I'll just start again from the beginning." Haha.
-- Please fill me in on the other new element that was added to the game.
Matsuyama: The "Secret Factor" is activated by performing a certain action during the battle that will add in a scene from the original series that adds to the flow of the battle. There are hints during the game. For example, when Sasuke stands still for a while, that means that he's charging his Chidori. When that happens... if you use Rasengan as Naruto, it will trigger the clash scene between the two of them... allow you to feel the emotions of that moment. If your life is getting low, it will trigger a flag for assistance in acheiving the Secret Factor.
-- In the TGS version, during the Fourth Hokage vs. the Masked Man, there was a Secret Factor, wasn't there? A little instructional image came up that said "Chakra Dash" and if you did it at that time, it activated a cutscene.
Matsuyama: In the TGS version, it tells you how to do it perfectly, but during the game you may think, "The actual battle wasn't quite like that..." which will give you some incentive to try things out. It's exactly like in "UNS: 2" during Sasuke & Itachi's fight, that has a hidden command.
-- Oh really!?
Matsuyama: Yeah. When playing as Sasuke, if you use Chakra Shuriken then the CPU Itachi will respond by countering with Chakra Shuriken, which will trigger the scene where they're throwing hundreds of shuriken at each other. People would often say, "It feels like you're actually taking part in the real story" which gave us a lot of ideas. SO! This time, we're looking to reproduce the original scene by filling the battles with Secret Factors. Also in the giant Boss Battles, all of the Secret Factors have been included.
-- Lastly, do you have any additional messages for the readers?
Matsuyama: First, I want to tell you that the Battle Part and the Story Mode are pretty different this time. Next, The "Ultimate Ninja" Series has sold over 9.8 million copies, and it looks like it will reach 10 million by the end of the year.
-- That's a HUGE number! What will you do in commemoration...?
Matsuyama: Clearly, we'll Namco-Bandai games to spend a ton of money on promotions!! Haha! First, on October 13, at New York Comic-Con we'll be making a new announcement. It will be taking place from October 13th to the 15th (for 3 days), so please look forward to the event!!
