What...So you are too?
To be honest, every time July comes, I feel both painful and happy.
After all, in this month, bilibiliworld is waving to you in front, and chinajoy is blowing a kiss to you from behind - in these large-scale exhibitions, you can always see something new and different.
But... it also means I have a lot more work than usual. Therefore, this state of happiness mixed with pain and struggle is just like when you were complacent about the four old kings in your hand when playing versus landlord , but when you look up, you find that the landlord is smiling lewdly at you with four aces in his hand.
But fortunately, among the aces held by chinajoy this time, I really like something - "Rusty Rabbit". There's no doubt it's been a heavy hitter since its debut at last year's Tokyo Game Show. "Gen Urobuchi" and "Yuichiro Saito", when these two names come together, you can predict that they will definitely have a "big job".
I was also fortunate enough to interview Mr. Yuichiro Saito, the producer of "Rust Rabbit" and his development team on chinajoy, and had a pleasant exchange and discussion with them. Because of this, I also hope that this hard-won interview can give you some new understanding of this "2.5D horizontal platform action game".
q: Judging from the doomsday machinery, wasteland punk and other elements of the story, it is actually a relatively dark and cruel plot setting. So why did the game choose such a cute fairy tale art style design?
a: "The Rusty Rabbit" was born out of a simple demo created by Mr. Gen Urobuchi himself, and he himself likes some more cartoony and cute designs. Therefore, we prioritize respecting his preferences. However, in addition to retaining the cute furry features of the protagonist, we also intentionally designed it to have an image of "squinting its eyes and curling its lips downward" - don't you think it suddenly becomes very handsome, and this kind of cuteness The cool style is so cool, isn’t it?
q: "This is the Earth where humans have left" is the core setting of the game. So under the premise of "human beings have left", why did the production team choose to use rabbits to fill the gap of "Lord of the Earth" instead of other animals? ?
a: To be honest, we didn’t think about which animal would make sense to dominate the earth. It was just because Mr. Gen Urobuchi’s original demo featured a rabbit as the protagonist, and we directly followed that setting. In addition, what I want to tell you is that there are not only rabbits in the game, but there are other animals waiting for players to meet them in person.
Mr. Gen Urobuchi’s original intention of creating the demo
q: Choosing Mr. Takaya Kuroda, who once voiced Kazuma Kiryu, to voice the “old rabbit looking for his daughter” stamp in this game was because the production team deliberately wanted to create an interesting gag for players. ?
a: At the beginning of , we were also considering whether to choose a female voice actor to dub such a cute image? Or just choose an old voice to play this old rabbit? But if you think about it carefully, this game is a work of Mr. Gen Urobuchi's "looking back on the first half of his life". Therefore, we finally chose a male voice actor of similar age to him to perform the game. Mr. Takaya Kuroda is an experienced voice actor who just met our needs, so this cooperation was naturally facilitated. As for some related easter eggs outside the game, this was not our original intention, but since we have this relationship, it can be regarded as a lucky coincidence.
q: According to the basic information we know, "Rust Rabbit" is a story-driven game. So in such a rich game market, why did we choose to use the horizontal version 2.5d style to express this game? A story? Will this cause great difficulty in reflecting the richness of the plot?
a: In , we mainly respect the original intention of Mr. Gen Urobuchi. After all, his demo was originally a side-scrolling action game. As for the "poor performance ability of horizontal version games", we really can't deny it.However, we chose to use various methods to enrich the performance of the game. For example, there will be exquisite animation performances during cutscenes, the protagonist walking to certain scenes will trigger thoughts like an old man, and the dialogue between various NPCs and the protagonist will also Very rich etc. And we are confident that this will allow players to have more feelings about this rabbit and the game's plot.
q: What is the difference between "Rust Rabbit" and other Metroidvania games?
a: Because the character setting of is an old rabbit who "likes to collect all kinds of waste products and then assemble robots", we have put a lot of effort into exploration. We hope that players can play as an old rabbit who carries a drill to dig holes everywhere. Dig the ground and collect the rabbits from all kinds of weird and weird gadgets.
q: According to your introduction, the game focuses more on "exploration" rather than pure "combat". Does this mean that the difficulty of the game is low and the combat element is just a minor addition?
a: I personally believe that games are not designed to embarrass players, but that does not mean that "Rust Rabbit" does not pay little attention to combat design. In fact, we have clearly designed two lines to help players become stronger. To put it simply, when facing a certain level, you can easily pass the level after acquiring certain props or abilities, and your strength is greatly improved. Of course, you can also continue to explore or upgrade - like Complete the character growth process like climbing a hill, and then come back to challenge the boss. Although these are two completely different routes, the goals that can be achieved are actually the same.
In order to be more intuitive, the producer Mr. Saito personally drew pictures to explain
q: In addition to Chimney Mountain, will Stamp take us to experience more "apocalyptic wasteland punk" scenery?
a: Unfortunately, our current game content only revolves around Chimney Mountain. But this is not the end. If there is an opportunity to release DLC or other supplementary content in the future, stamp will definitely take us to see a wider world.
q: Since the producer, Mr. Saito, has mentioned many times that this is a game inspired by Gen Urobuchi, we also all know that Mr. Gen Urobuchi is a creator with a very strong personal style - so, his contribution to this game Is it still a very "free" creation, or has there been clear communication and negotiation with the game developers?
a: For me, when developing games, we must first consider respecting the creator's creative desires. Therefore, our team has not interfered with the creative content of Mr. Gen Urobuchi. But during the game development process, Mr. Gen Urobuchi also took the initiative to communicate with us and asked for our opinions. Therefore, "The Rusty Rabbit" is still a personal work of Mr. Gen Urobuchi, and it is also the result of the hard work of all of us.
q: For producer Mr. Saito, what other games had he developed before leading the production of "Rust Rabbit"?
a: To be honest, I have been in the video game industry for more than 20 years, and I have participated in so many games that I can’t remember them all. But if I want to say the most famous work, it should be the "Danganronpa" series.
q: So, "Rust Rabbit" is Mr. Saito's first game after leaving the "Danganronpa" series?
a: In fact, after I left the development related to the "Danganronpa" series, I quickly participated in the production of "Granblue Fantasy Versus". However, I am not one of the main persons in charge, so my name does not appear in the game. If you look at it from the perspective of "development is completely led by me", then "Rust Rabbit" is indeed the first game I developed after leaving the original company.
q: What does Mr. Saito think is the most attractive thing about "Rust Rabbit"?
a: First of all, the original intention of developing this game is to "fulfill the dream" of Mr. Gen Urobuchi, and Mr. Gen Urobuchi himself is also a very popular creator. Therefore, his fame may attract some fans to pay attention to this game. game.In addition, we also hope that players who are interested in rabbits, doomsday and side-scrolling 2D settings will also pay attention to this game - don't you think the story of a rabbit driving a mecha and making a fortune in the doomsday is cool? ?
q: What was the biggest difficulty or regret that Mr. Saito encountered in developing "Rusty Rabbit"?
a: There are really a lot of pains and regrets in . But what they sum up is that the creative ideas imprinted in my mind cannot be realized.
q: Through the official game pv, we can see that in addition to the protagonist stamp, there will also be rabbit forces such as the "bb group", and Mr. Saito also mentioned that the "bb group" is a design that he likes and joins, so is this Does this mean that players can control more than just stamps?
a: In fact, this is one of the "regrets" I mentioned above. Although I like the setting of "bb group" very much, this game was ultimately started because of Mr. Gen Urobuchi, so our perspective is still Will depart from stamp.
q: Through the official pv, we learned that the protagonist Stamp is a rabbit who likes to play with machinery. Will it have a new mechanical vehicle, or will its robot have a new shape or new state?
a: Coincidentally, this is also the pain and regret I mentioned above. I really have a lot of ideas about mechanical design that I want to realize, but due to some objective factors, they all came to nothing. However, I put some of the mechanical ideas on the enemies, so you can still see those machines in the game. Design, you just can't manipulate it yourself.
q: Can you reveal a little bit about the game length of "Rusty Rabbit"?
a: It is roughly estimated that the main line of will have about 15 hours of content. In addition, there are many other elements to explore in the game, and the combined length of the two should be about 25 hours.
q: "The old rabbit collects scraps to create a robot and then saves his daughter." I always feel that there are many stories to explore in this setting. Will the game have multiple ending settings because of this?
a: Unfortunately for , the game does not have multiple endings. After continuous discussions with Mr. Gen Urobuchi, we finally decided that only one ending would be enough.
q: To be honest, "Shadow Torch City" in the same "rabbit, machine, doomsday, dieselpunk" style has already been released on the market, and the settings of this series are a bit too similar to "Rust Rabbit" Yes, is this a coincidence?
a: This is actually something we have been looking for opportunities to explain publicly. It is undeniable that "Shadow Torch City" is an excellent side-scrolling metroidvania game. But our original intention in developing "Rusty Rabbit" was just to help Mr. Gen Urobuchi "realize his dream", and his demo happened to be in settings such as "rabbits, machines, and doomsday". We did not develop and produce it with the idea of "plagiarism", all this is really an accidental coincidence.
q: Finally, I have a more interesting question. "Rusty Rabbit" is a game developed based on Mr. Gen Urobuchi's personal preference, and he has always left enough creative space during the development process. This is just to save the world. Can the old rabbit whose daughter embarks on an adventure finally find happiness?
a: This is really an interesting question. First of all, we have to admit that Mr. Gen Urobuchi is a creator with a strong personal style, and this is also the "autobiographical" work of Mr. Gen Urobuchi - therefore, the ending of the game will also be an ending of "it is indeed Gen Urobuchi" . As for whether this ending is considered "happy" or not, it is left to the players to judge after playing.
