Australian Magazine Interviews The Red Steel Developers

The following are the most important parts of the interview, if you want it all, Here you got it.

Could you give us a run down of the setting and story for Red Steel?

In Red Steel you embody a US guy living in LA. To save his fiance'e caught in the middle of a war between two generations of Yakuzas, the player will have to fly to Japan and fight his way through the Tokyo Mafia. During his journey he will come face to face with their codes, learning new and more efficient ways to use his fighting skills.

How has the Wiimote and Nunchaku control configuration influenced the design of Red Steel?

The Wiimote and the Nanchaku have been at the core of the idea behind the Red Steel project. The Wiimote is very easy to use. It's easy to aim at the screen and shoot once the cursor is on target. Since the Nunchaku is held in the other hand, moving while shooting becomes natural and self-evident. Yet, once first contact with the gear has been made, the player realizes that to master the use of the controllers, he has to concentrate, calmly aim, strafe and take cover, shoot at the right time without making any brusque movement, and generally keep a flowing motion. Such mastery of emotions and moves is related in our minds to eastern martial artists. We wanted to go in that direction because we think it's totally relevant to the way the Wii controller works, i.e. not only acknowledging button-mashing but, also, spatial movement and aiming towars the screen. The way the Wiimote movement is recognized makes one think of sword movement. The right move has to be performed at the right time. For example, by parrying the player will have the possiblility of performing a counter attack to disarm or incapacitate his enemy

Is there an equal balance between sword fighting and gunplay or is one weighted more havily gameplay wise? Has it been hard finding a good balance?

At the end, we estimate we will have a balance between sword and gun with perhaps a little more gun. To tell the truth, ( and repeat ourselves ) the way the controllers work has helped us. Both gameplay are strong and immersive. Gunfight requires precision, good aiming, no abrupt moves, while katana fighting requires swiftness, rough moves sometimes, good reactions and timing of attacks. Since both gameplay ask for totally different movement, it seemed evident for us to alternate sequences in order to catch the player off-balance and offer him a unique gaming experience.

Red Steel is looking very strong graphically - what engine is it running on and what are its strengths?

Red Steel is running on the improved version UNreal engine for the Wii system. A large portion of our team has already worked with the Unreal engine. They are already well aware of its strengths and weaknesses. We have pushed the engine to its limits to offer a rich, colored and different setting to the player. Eastern culture allows for original and seldom seen scenes. We are taking advantage of that.