Category: Video Games

When it comes to fighting games, Arc System Works is at the top of the food chain. Between Guilty Gear Strive, BlazBlue, Dragon Ball FighterZ, DNF Duel, GranBlue Fantasy Versus, and others, ArcSys is the most active developer of quality fighting games in the business right now, and as such, there’s no shortage of dream games that fans would love to see the developer tackle. At the Arc World Tour grand finals, I got a chance to sit down with Arc System Works CEO Minoru Kidooka to talk about some of those potential dream games, the future of BlazBlue, and his commitment to pursue new IP collaboration opportunities.

IGN: I believe we spoke at EVO last year and you mentioned that you wanted to be more aggressive about pursuing opportunities to collaborate with new IP owners. Is this still a major priority for you and in the intervening months, do you feel like you’ve made some progress in that regard?

Kidooka-san: I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a priority at this point, but what we did say at Evo about trying to create more IP collaboration games is… Before EVO, during EVO, and after EVO, we’re still making steps towards that goal. So as a goal for ourselves and for our company, we really want to make something that makes the fighting community happy. So whether that’s using other IP or using our own games, we are just going to keep pushing forward to continue to make the members of the FGC satisfied.

For example, our previous games were with Bandai Namco, CyGames, as of today Nexon and [we are] in talks with other people about possibilities. We’re continuing to push forward so that the community can enjoy. So, I can’t go into details obviously at this point, but essentially that is the answer to your question.

IGN: Reflecting back on two years of Guilty Gear Strive, how do you feel about the performance of Strive and the future of the Guilty Gear series as a whole?

Kidooka-san: So regarding just Guilty Gear Strive, it both hit and kind of exceeded all of our projected expectations. Along with that, of course, we’ve put out the two seasons that we have already and we want the game to continue on and continue strong. So we plan to continue making those seasons available. But in terms of planning for the next game, in the Guilty Gear series, for now, we’re sticking to the seasons.
So of course, there’s still a lot to be done for the game. But once that is finished then they can start thinking of other things. But that’s a long ways to go.

IGN: Another thing that we talked about back at EVO was BlazBlue. Where you said that you have a plan, but that your first priority was to expand Strive. With Strive now being on every major non-Nintendo platform, cross play being implemented, and we’re now going through season two, are there any updates to your plan regarding BlazBlue?

Kidooka-san: We’re very proud of how the community has interacted with [BlazBlue]. One thing that we’re concerned with, one thing that we’re thinking about right now is that we don’t want to really have Guilty Gear and BlazBlue competing with each other. So we are focusing mainly on Guilty Gear. But of course BlazBlue is a title that the community loves. The community has put so much effort into making it what it is today, and keeping that in mind, we do want to touch back on the series at some point. So it is definitely not the case that BlazBlue is done. It is something that will be in the future. But for now, Guilty Gear is the main.

So if you think about the Guilty Gear series, when we moved into 3D, Xrd and Strive, that had a really strong impact and really strong reaction from the fans and that’s something we’re always pushing forward to. So when we make the next BlazBlue, we want to take a look at the technology of the time and see how that can create as equally strong an impact for the players. So as always, Arc System Works motto is to keep pushing forward and to keep having something new, exciting, and impactful for the users. And that’s something we’re going to be considering eventually when we do put out BlazBlue, something that has an equally strong impact as when you move to 3D with Xrd.

IGN: Switching gears to DNF Duel. You collaborated with Eighting, who is a very beloved fighting game developer themselves. Can you talk a little bit about that collaboration? Is that something you’re interested in continuing, both within the world of DNF Duel and beyond DNF Duel?

Kidooka-san: So something to keep in mind is that Arc System Works is not actually a very big company. We have around 200 members under our house, and with that limited amount of people, it’s a limited amount of resources we can put towards games. So working together with companies, like Eighting and other companies as well, really allows us to put out the games that we put out. Even Guilty Gear Strive was not 100% in-house. We had a lot of collaboration with artists and programmers outside of the company to help put that forward. So yeah, of course moving forward into other titles, into other games, we plan on continuing working with other developers to help us out and create those great games that Arc System Works is known for.

IGN: Finally, I’m going to bring up a game that is, I think a dream game in the idea of fighting game fans and it’s something that often gets brought up as something that they want to see Arc System Works do. Do you have any thoughts about potentially ever doing a One Piece fighting game?

Kidooka-san: As I said before, I want to work with other people and use what resources we have to create a fun game for the FGC to really rally behind. However, One Piece is something to think about. I can’t say whether we’re thinking about One Piece specifically. I can’t say, “oh yeah, One Piece, yes or no.” I can’t say either way, but it doesn’t mean it’s decided or doesn’t mean it’s outside the realm of possibility.

You really have to understand that we’re a small company. We can’t take up any project that comes across, we have to consider resources.

Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit

Layla was there when Redfall was pulled into darkness by the vampire scourge now consuming the island. And, when it all went down, she wasn’t alone. In the new character trailer above you can take a look at where Layla’s fight with the vampires began – and see how her ex-boyfriend got pulled into the mess too.

If you haven’t seen, Layla’s ultimate ability is summoning her vampire ex-boyfriend to help her destroy the enemies before her. As she says, their relationship is complicated. Here’s Layla’s kit:

• Power 1: Umbrella – Summon a psychic umbrella to block enemy and friendly projectiles.
• Power 2: Lift – Summon a psychic lift that launches you into the air.
• Ultimate Ability: Vampire Ex-Boyfriend – Call in a favor from your ex-boyfriend, Jason, who happens to be a vampire.

Ravenswatch is a particularly unique take on the familiar conceit of an action roguelike RPG, which puts its cast of heroes at the forefront. Pulled from the pages of classic fairy tales, and given a dark fantasy twist, these heroes band together to vanquish an encroaching force of powerful nightmare creatures – or die trying. Coming from the developers of the action-RPG sleeper hit Curse of the Dead Gods, Passtech Games’ Ravenswatch left me intrigued after some extended hands-on time with the closed alpha, which put a hero-centric spin on the good ol’ fashioned dungeon crawler.

Playing as one of six hero characters – pulling from stories such as Little Red Riding Hood, Beowulf, and The Snow Queen – you’ll freely explore an overworld filled with demons and other opportunities to amass power to face off with powerful demons ruling the land. Throughout this adventure, you’ll learn the ins and outs of your chosen hero as they unlock their latent abilities to purge the land of corruption.

Ravenswatch sticks close to the formula of a dungeon crawl, but it hones that focus more into an adventure game that has a larger goal to accomplish. With each chapter taking place across five days, the main goal of your multi-day jaunt is to build up enough power to be on equal footing with the stage’s end boss, allowing you and other party members to take them down and move on to the next phase of the quest.

What impressed me most from my time with the closed alpha was the cast of heroes, and how their unique skills and personalities add flavor to their adventures. Along with adding new abilities and buffs, you can also unlock special ultimate attacks that can deal heavy damage, such as Beowulf’s super which calls in his pet dragon to rain down flames on foes. Ravenswatch shows the potential of adding hero-centric characters into a dungeon crawler game. Seeing these characters I’ve read about in childhood live out that sword and sorcery fantasy is such a fantastic premise.

While the roster falls into classic archetypes like the close-ranged brawler or zoning magic slinger, their personalities and narrative touches also shape their playstyles. For instance, The Pied Piper uses his enchanted flute and swarm of rats to attack foes from afar. As he gains aggro, he can lead enemies away, weaken their defenses with his spells, and then pick them off with his music. Another standout was Aladdin, who’s presented as an agile brawler type who can hack and slash through foes. But when he needs to call in an assist, he can summon the Genie to beat down the opposition and even grant Aladdin one of three limited wishes to support the party or wipe out surrounding enemies.

The most surprising stand out to me was Meluise, a mermaid and siren that can strike at enemies with water magic. Yes, you can step into the role of The Little Mermaid in this dark-fantasy action RPG, and she’s awesome to play as. However, she also proves to be the most technical character of the roster, as her attacks plant her firmly into position as you use the siren’s song to attack enemies. And just like in the classic fairy tale, you’ll need to slink away from approaching an adversary when they get too close. I really admire the many clever design choices at work with the current roster, and they each play so differently from one another.

After you’ve taken out enemy encampments, raided small dungeons, and beaten mini-bosses over the five in-game days, the chapter’s boss will come calling, forcing a confrontation. These battles are hectic, blending elements of bullet-hell games with Hades’ dynamic and over-the-top boss encounters. Even with a fully decked-out character, the chapter-ending boss encounters will test your reflexes and the mastery of your character’s skills.

When it all comes together, Ravenswatch is a fun romp that shows some incredible personality, but it can frequently feel unforgiving during some runs. Just one wrong move in your dungeon crawl can lead to disaster for your journey. When playing solo, you’re given a limited number of lives to revive yourself after a killing blow, which you can run through fairly quickly. When playing in a group, not only will the enemies gain strength to compensate for the larger party, but your group will also share a limited number of revives, and once those are out, a fallen hero is knocked out from the run.

Generally, I felt the difficulty struck the right balance between fair and challenging. Still, there were particular runs where I thought I had just stepped into a giant deathtrap rather than a sprawling overworld. In addition to enemies packing a serious punch, I felt that the game doesn’t offer enough signs for opportunities during each run, which makes it easy to wander into areas where you are easily outmatched. Those frustrations aside, I still felt that thrilling sense of empowerment from dungeon crawlers, which is made all the more satisfying when seeing the cool cast of fairy tale characters dish out pain to enemies.

Much like Supergiant Games’ Hades, Ravenswatch’s positioning as an early access game puts in a great place where it can really refine its core mechanics and flesh out its fantasy world. With more characters and gameplay updates coming following its early access launch, there’s so much potential with Passtech Games’ promising next step into an action-RPG. It’s already off to an enthusiastic start, and seeing that world and its gameplay evolve has gotten me excited to see where Ravenswatch will go from here.