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Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle coming to NA, EU in 2014
Hyper-stylized, multi-generational 3D manga fighter Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle will bring equestrian combat and psychically-summoned spirits to North America and Europe sometime in 2014, Namco Bandai announced at its pre-TGS showcase earlier this week. The PlayStation 3-exclusive fighter was released in Japan near the end of last month and has "reached 500,000 sales," according to producer Noriaki Niino (left). When it does finally launch in western territories, the localized version of All Star Battle will be on par with the Japanese version's character balance: "We are still making character adjustments – even in the Japanese version – based on the feedback that we're getting from fans," CyberConnect2 president and CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama (right) told us, when asked about the potential for future balance updates. "All of that feedback will be implemented in the overseas [version]."
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle director aiming for casual appeal
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle director and CyberConnect2 president/CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama wants his company's first entry into the JoJo's mythos to be as casual-friendly as possible, Joystiq was told during a Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 event held last week.When asked if he hoped that All Star Battle, the new JoJo's fighter being developed for Namco, would be accepted by the competitive fighting game community (or if that was even a goal for the project), Matsuyama responded via translator that he "actually prefers JoJo to become a game that casual users can pick up and play, because if you appeal to the 'maniac' users too much, it becomes too niche, and the people who can play this game become very limited."Matsuyama referred to fans of the JoJo series as 'maniac' at one other point during the event, and at both times the term was said with a cheerful inflection. Here's hoping that the director's goal of creating an accessible fighting game involves making it accessible in countries that aren't Japan.
Asura's Wrath reaction no surprise to Matsuyama, dot Hack for NA needs more fan support
CyberConnect2's president Hiroshi Matsuyama was signing autographs at Wondercon in Anaheim, CA this past weekend, and he kindly took a break from showing off his latest game – Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations – to chat with us about how his other games are doing. And by "other games" we of course mean the one with the god destroyer: Asura's Wrath. Despite both critical acclaim and a strong sales start, Matsuyama is still cautious about the new IP. "It's only been a month since it's been out," Matsuyama told Joystiq through a translator. He said that he expected both positive and negative reactions, and that's what he got. "Obviously, it was a challenge to create something new. And when you try to do that, obviously the people that get it will enjoy it. But for people where the game doesn't fit their expectations, they're not going to jump up as much." We also checked in on both the dot Hack title in progress as well as a possible sequel to Solatorobo, but for both of those, Matsuyama says he needs more support from North American publishers. For dot Hack specifically, "as long as we can get more requests from the fans, there's a possibility." But he there are other factors in play as well. "It's not that people don't know about it," he said. "But I think it's more than Namco Bandai Games America is not interested in the typical JRPGs and that's why they're not looking to pick it up." Matsuyama said he's not trying to make directly Japanese or Western games, however. "It's most important to be able to see the whole world. Back in the day, a lot of developers and publishers were focused on Japanese games and sent them out to North America. Obviously that's not going to be accepted as much. From our standpoint, we're really looking to create a game that's fun for everybody in the world." That said, we kindly asked Matsuyama to show us what might be the next evolution of the Asura pose, given that we've seen it twice already so far. But because Matsuyama happened to be in the Namco booth and not the Capcom booth (not to mention that he was dressed up as Naruto anyway), we got the very serene pose above. In other words, the Asura Pose has evolved yet again.
CyberConnect2 working on another .hack game
CyberConnect2 is busy. In addition to Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Whatever, Asura's Wrath, parts of SoulCalibur V, and a .hack movie, the company is working on a new .hack game. The latest Famitsu (via Andriasang) reveals a new game in the faux-MMO franchise is on the way, with more details to come following the movie's release on January 21. In an interview with the magazine, CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama said to expect a more photorealistic look than previous anime-style .hack games. A character resembling .hack//GU protagonist Haseyo reportedly appears in the included screenshots. There's no information on platforms or release date yet, but at least now you know you'll be able to immerse yourself in the world of The World once again.
How CyberConnect2 became a Soulcalibur 5 collaborator
CyberConnect2 has movie-making experience from working on a CG .hack movie, and it's that experience -- including motion capture expertise -- that drew Namco Bandai to the developer for Soulcalibur V. "I was approached by Namco almost two years ago," CEO and Naruto cosplayer Hiroshi Matsuyama told Gamasutra. "I knew they were working on Soulcalibur V, and they asked for help in the visual side of the game. The fighting gameplay was handled by their own team, and they just needed help in the visuals of the game, because they wanted to add more to the dramatization of the game." CyberConnect 2 did storyboarding and motion capture for the fighter. Matsuyama said that the motions have a CC2 look. "The actions look a little like in Naruto, in the sense that the motion doesn't look like we used motion-capture," he said. "In that sense, I think the game looks like it's been done by us." Matsuyama also said that Epic is surprised by CC2's use of Unreal Engine 3 for Asura's Wrath. He said it's "difficult" to make a cinematic action game in an engine designed primarily for shooters, but there's something like that for every engine. "I think the tools don't matter," he said. "And, a perfect engine doesn't exist. There's always something that's difficult to do with every tool."
The evolution of the 'Asura Pose'
Back at E3, Joystiq Features Editor JC Fletcher took the best picture ever, as seen above. Little did we know that Capcom's Kazuhiro Tsuchiya and CyberConnect2's Hiroshi Matsuyama would be so keen to show off their latest version of "The Asura Pose" this week at Gamescom after demoing Asura's Wrath. Osuuuu!
CyberConnect2 loves Naruto this much
Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations appears to be in the right hands; developer CyberConnect2 seems fairly passionate about the series. How passionate? That's CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama (whose "Asura pose" you might remember) above, cosplaying as Naruto himself at Japan Expo in Paris.
Asura's Wrath aiming for 'continuous drama' a la Lost, Battlestar Galactica
Asura's Wrath looks crazy, but that compelling weirdness isn't just in the visuals for the Capcom title. In a recent interview with Eurogamer, director Seiji Shimoda of developer CyberConnect2 expressed that "drama -- continuous drama -- is also another key point" in the game. CyberConnect 2 President Hiroshi Matsuyama elaborated, calling the game "very Japanese" and noting that the company doesn't want to hide from that. However, it also plans to incorporate narrative elements found in popular TV shows like Lost, Battlestar Galactica and 24. "That feeling where you're at the end of an episode and you're desperate to know what happens next -- that's a feeling of continuing drama that we want to put in the game," he said. Hopefully Asura's Wrath will work out a better ending than those influential dramas did. %Gallery-102298%
