PlayStation Universe was lucky enough to sit down for an interview with Akihiro Suzuki, the series overlord behind Dynasty Warriors and Bladestorm, during a recent hands-on event in London last week.
You can check out our impressions of Bladestorm and the PS4 version of Toukiden Kiwami via the links provided. Below you’ll find a complete transcript of our chat with Suzuki-san, who answered our questions via a translator also in attendance.
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PSU: Firstly, Suzuki-san, hello. What plans do you have to make the Dynasty Warriors series more fresh for future instalments?
Suzuki-san (via translator): So obviously we reached DW8 now at this stage, and, ah, Suzuki-san himself personally feels that it’s reached that stage where it’s a good time to sort of look back, and see, you know, what the different options are in the future there. So, for you know future, DW9 in that instance, uh he’s sort of considering to look into the system itself, to get a sort of refresh feeling, and pretty much revamp the game system as well.
Q: What is the thought process of the development team in deciding what to add to the base game/extreme game/empires game? Is it planned out in advance or decided after the release of the base game?
A: So if you look back the history of the franchise, so obviously it’s going to be a case-by-case for the team, that’s the usual standard. So they actually make the original base one to start with, then actually consider the extreme or the empires series from then. So, there’s no sort of pre-planning involved in that.
Q: Currently there’s two player co-op online and two-player split-screen. Will you ever expand to having possibly more online, like maybe four, or possibly more in the future?
A: We do hear a lot of feedback from the fans for increasing the co-op/player numbers, so that’s definitely something they are looking into. They are looking into it, that’s for sure, whether they include it we’re not sure.
Q: Do you get a lot of request from fans about which NPCs should be added next as a unique usable character?
A: We do receive a lot of feedback from the fans in terms of who they want to see available in the next instalment. We do actually sort of have a collaboration going with the specialist media in terms of the magazine, and we do receive a lot of feedback based those collaborations. We do get a list from the players, from the fans, that they want to be able to see ‘this commander’ appear in the next instalment, so we do base a, you know, a roster, based on the feedback from fans in this sense.
Q: Moving onto Bladestorm: Nightmare now, is it possible to comment on the target resolution and frame rate for the PS4 and Xbox One editions?
A: So, talking about frame rates, originally when the development started for Nightmare, it was actually running on 60 frames; there weren’t any issues. But having said that, the team wanted to make sure the graphic, in terms of the units, the enemy units the players can see on any given single screen, he wanted to make sure the entire battlefield could be seen in one screen. So, they actually brought back the frame rate to 30 frames, just to make sure that what we call the ‘pop-up issues,’ they wanted to make sure that was eliminated, so that’s why we brought it back to 30 frames for Bladestorm.
Q: You mentioned in the presentation there the weather system, does it dynamically affect in terms of how you play the combat, or is it more of a cosmetic thing?
A: The weather, in terms of the weather, the movement in terms of the different units you control, it won’t change that much. But having said that, the distance, you can actually see, from your units, that’s going to change dramatically based on the weather. So, if it’s going to be really raining for example, you can’t see the distance, all of the battlefield. So that’s the only difference it will make.
Q: Will there be any co-op systems in Bladestorm?
A: Talking about co-op, and the versus as well, both will be available as online co-op and online versus. For co-op, we actually prepared a difficult stage, a difficult mission, for players to work together and control different units on there, you know, based on players who plays the co-op, to achieve different missions. For versus, it’s going to be a head-on collision with your mates, and obviously they are different sort mission sets, in terms of versus.
Q: Thanks, this is our last question. We’re just curious about Suzuki-san’s feelings on working with PS4 and Xbox One, and how things have improved over last-gen, and how he feels it could evolve the franchise; is he excited about what could potentially happen?
A: So, on console development in general to start with, obviously we’ve seen generations of instalments with the PlayStation and Xbox, and the development itself is getting easier by the generation, that’s for sure. But having said that, we need to look at the overall gaming industry and market itself, and obviously we now have cloud gaming now, and online gaming, so the overall environment, in terms of the games industry, is changing. That’s one area we need to keep our eyes on.
PSU would like to thank Tecmo Koei and Suzuki-san for agreeing to and arranging this interview!