Something for Ignition and gamers to think about

The upcoming Wii U console has sparked the interest of many third-party developers, some of whom have never even developed for a Nintendo platform before. While Ignition is no stranger to Nintendo hardware, the creative director of its upcoming third-person action game El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron has given his take on Ignition bringing the game over to the Wii U and the possibilities that come with touch-based controls.

El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron takes themes from the apocryphal Biblical texts and its creative director Sawaki Takeyasu has complemented them with a modern narrative that contemporary gamers are more likely to relate to. As far as the game's art style goes, influences come from a wide range of sources: from popular Japanese woodblock artists to African and Native American sculptures, the majority of the development team grew up loving the works that came out of Studio Ghibli, so Takeyasu suggests the animation studio's founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata are probably major influences too.

Speaking to Gamer Euphoria, Takeyasu wondered what gamers in North America and Europe would want from a Wii U El Shaddai game and sounded optimistic about the kind of doors that the Wii U and its controller will open up:

I believe that Ignition has speculated about how they might want to bring the El Shaddai universe to [the Wii U and PlayStation Vita], but nothing has been announced yet. I’m curious to see what the fans in North America and Europe will want from any prospective future offshoots from the first game. Clearly, both the Wii U and PS Vita offer all sorts of exciting new control methods and connectivity options, so I feel that anything is possible with these new devices, and the El Shaddai universe is rife with a multitude of avenues that could be explored. I’m personally a big fan of the iPad, so I’m curious what might be possible with touch-panel enabled consoles.

So although nothing has been confirmed or announced, it's good to see that Ignition seems to be keeping its mind open. Takeyasui was then asked whether the technology utilised by the Wii U would enhance gameplay in any way, to which he replied:

That’s definitely what’s exciting about these new platforms, but as I said, this is all purely speculative at this point. I’d rather focus on getting players to try the core El Shaddai experience first!

[source gamereuphoria.com]