"ICO"與"汪達與巨像"製作人Fumito Ueda在7月6號發行的Famitsu被訪問到God of War2的玩後感, 我們公司的combat designer- Eric Williams有個正在日本Capcom做DMC4的朋友幫忙翻譯了這篇文章. 這位在Capcom工作的朋友還說DMC4小組已經玩過God of War2, 而且邊玩邊做筆記...呵呵. 以下就是英文版的翻譯, 有興趣的人可以看一下嚕.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Have you finished God of War 2 yet?
A: Yes, of course I have. However, at first when I was playing God of War1, I thought "This kind of game is rather cool". The player's character ison the screen, and he can move on both the X and Z axis. Also, it's thetype of game where you have to be up close and personal with your opponent,and it's quite interesting but there have been so many games that have thesame style that I was sick of it. So, I had kind of a negative image aboutthe game to start off. But as I progressed through the game it reallyopened my eyes and I was like "wow this game is pretty cool!". The guys whodeveloped this game have such enthusiasm that I really felt like they weresaying "dude I want you to see all of this awesome stuff!" on purpose.Usually with sequels the tension and excitement goes down but I felt withGod of War 2 that was the complete opposite, and the excitement factor wasdefinitely higher than the first game.
Q: What was your first impression of God of War 2?
A: The way the game first grabbed me was pretty awesome. The way the gamestarted off, it made me think about how in Japanese games that would neverhappen. It wasn't a matter of "how many explosions can we have on thescreen in a short amount of time", but it definitely felt like a Hollywoodmovie. The way that everything was changing and expanding, I had neverthought of that, I had never gotten tired of it, it constantly pulls in theuser into the game's universe. Everything from the combat, to theprogramming, to the way of thinking is totally different from a Japanesegame. For example, when you see the stage where you're flying (ed. noteflying pegasus stage), and you see another stage, the more someone saysthey're two different games, the more varied the game becomes. The game'scontents change, and if too many elements are thrown into a game you canquickly lose the interest of gamers, and it'll end up costing you. When Italk about Wanda and the Colossus (Shadow of the Colossus), the whole gameis consistently based around the system of "the climb and the battle", andif you really say that we only made that kind of system, then it really wasa success. However, when making God of War 2, because of the ideas, theprogramming of the stages and the numerous ways of capturing gamers, itbecame something really different. Each part was specially created, and theparts were all consistent with each other. That's a really extravagant wayof creating things. But having so many different elements in a game makesme feel a little uncomfortable, and it's expensive too. If it was me, Iguess I would use things multiple times.
Q: Perhaps the amount of volume kind of opens your eyes, right?
A: Even more than before, the modulation, and even though you push, it'sstill advantageous, I think. However, I think the service is a littleexcessive. However, talking about the flying stage I mentioned before, it'sa little bit hard to put into words but I got this really old feeling whenI played it. You can't really fly around like you could in newer games, andyou could only attack on the Z Axis... But, even though the game designisn't totally new, the powerful imagery doesn't make me feel like it's anold game. With the CS Attack, the tension and the imagery's power is vast,I think. You could easily say that it copies a game like Made in Wario withits numerous mini-games, but it's a type of game where you can enjoy thevarying tempo. Not only that, but the game also has a wonderful sense ofdirection.
Q: As for the graphics, from the way it looks like it's done by hand, didit surprise you?
A: I think the way that Japanese people handle it is a little different.It's only my impression, but perhaps Japan would say it's a little lowpoly? It's a minute detail of course, but usually in Japan we use texturesto cover up for the low poly, I think. The edges of the polygons aren't allthat conspicuous so it has that soft look to it. On the other hand, God ofWar rather than use textures they use polygons to represent theircharacters, so it seems very hard to Japanese people. So, like a rock'shardness, that's how God of War looks. So in God of War II, even if youarranged ICO or Shadow of the Colossus' objects in that game, they wouldn'tmatch at all, since the way we made all three games are different.
Q: Do you think there's a relation between the way the game looks and howlate it came in the PS2's lifetime?
A: Yes, perhaps. With PS2 games, right now you can get a lot of power outof the system. In God of War 2, there's almost no loading time, and howfast it reads your save games is really fast. That's because you only haveto look for procedures on one hardware, which makes things easy.
Q: So everything rests on a higher foundation then, and that's whyeverything looks so good, right?
A: As for the ideas, even though they are very common, the way everythingis represented makes it interesting and fun to play, I believe. And yet,the action, puzzles, graphics, everything was realized on a higherfoundation, that was my impression. From the start, everything was put inwith care, and nothing was really neglected. Basically, like how a Japanesegame carries itself. But with japanese games, the really interesting partsare kind of sparse....
Q: It's not fresh but...
A: That's right, the attacks, system and ideas have been done before, Ithink. However, when you try to play the game, you have a usual sense oftension, but the graphics and the reactions become better and better.Perhaps, starting now, Western games are advancing quickly, you know.
Q: Has God of War 2 inspired you in any way?
A: Well there are certainly a lot of ideas and such in the game, andthey're all really fun things. I haven't had a lot of time to think aboutit though. If there are things that I can really absorb from the game Ithink I will absorb it, but God of War 2 is such a high value game (ed.note: I don't know if it means that it's valuable or if it was expensive tomake.) that I don't think I can really copy it. Perhaps with this kind ofgame, we'll leave it to the Western designers to make them, hah.
Q: Why would you do that?
A: Well, I think it'd be kind of difficult to do things like that. Thereality is that costs to develop a game is different between Japan andWestern studios. One year ago I observed how things were going with God ofWar 1, and I was really surprised by the number of people on staff. Withone team they made a lot of programs that couldn't be used more than once.It's the kind of trouble I hadn't thought of. Also, everything took a lotof time too. Perhaps they were implementing a lot of elements into theirgame. When you have a lot of stages, the player won't get bored and it'sreally interesting. However, with Japanese style, when you apply that kindof thinking, I don't think it'd be cheap at all. I don't think our scheduleor budget would be enough for that kind of project. However, budgeting andscheduling is difficult, but more than that, focusing on the scope of thegame is important. Within our team, and within a workable scope, the bestideas will eventually win out and be something we can work with. Up untilnow I've held that idea and I've made games with it. However, right nowwhen I play God of War 2, I think that if I don't think things clearly andwith a level head, I may create something that's only halfway finished.That's the kind of impression I get.
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