FromSoftware’s latest work “Mech Wars VI Realm Skyfire” will be launched on August 25th. Recently, Bandai Namco invited the media to experience the game, and interviewed producer Yasuke Ogura and game director Yu Yamamura, and asked them to talk about the design details of the game system.
Since this interview involves part of the game system, if you haven’t read another demo report, I suggest you watch it here first.
Q: This time, the cumulative impact value will be used to trigger the stagger, why did you decide to make such a change?
A: There are two main reasons for introducing the new system. The first one is that we hope that players can feel the accumulation of emotions and the process of more and more heated battles.
Another reason is that there are four parts that can be equipped with weapons this time, so we hope that players can explore for themselves what kind of attack combination and can inflict greater damage to the enemy, so we have developed such a mechanism for players to explore.
Also because of the above considerations, in the past, mech war mercenaries only focused on assembly, but now they extend the assembly to the player’s combat experience and emotional accumulation.
Q: Can the player’s impact value be improved through assembly? In addition, will you worry that players will use the same assembly method?
A: The parts of the frame part do have a parameter of the stability value, and the upper limit of the impact value can be increased when it is lifted.
As for the assembly formula, through the assembly process, I hope that players will not only pay attention to the parameters. Different parts in the game will show different actions, and weapons will also have different effects. We hope that the experience brought to players by assembly should not only be “strong”, but also have its own style.
In fact, during our internal testing, the mechas everyone formed were different and had their own characteristics.
Q: In the promotional video, you can see the attack method of kicking, and there is also a beam saber in the trial play. Are there many melee attack methods of this type? Does it need to be used with special parts?
A: First of all, no special parts are needed for kicking. This is related to the adjustment of the OS. As long as the system is turned on, it can be used without special parts.
As for the beam saber, it is a left-handed weapon. Although “Machine War Mercenary” is a shooting-oriented game, on this basis, we have also introduced some full-featured melee weapons, which can be tried gradually after players play the game.
Q: Launch a surprise attack from outside the enemy’s attention range. Does this mean that the enemy’s numerical design will place more emphasis on the upper limit of the radar lock distance, or that the enemy AI will have a set attention range like a stealth game?
A: The reactions of enemies in different levels are also different. In raid missions, enemies will be on alert and will not attack the player immediately, but in combat missions, there will be an exchange of fire from the very beginning. In addition, when attacking missions, there will be differences due to several factors, including the direction the enemy is facing, and the distance between the two parties will affect the time and speed of the enemy’s discovery.
Q: Under the pressure of following tradition and innovation, how does the development team consider the balance between the two?
A: When making a new work this time, many of the development team are members who have participated in the series for many years, so they have a sense of mission for this work, but on the one hand, they also hope to take care of the feelings of new players.
Therefore, when making it, I hope to inherit some of the characteristics of mech mercenaries, such as assembly, color matching and free driving. And with our accumulated experience over the years, including combat design, and complex landforms, to satisfy old players and new players.
Q: Have you considered providing some strategy suggestions after players fail several times?
A: There is a training mode introduced in “Machine Battle Mercenary” this time. In fact, players can consider this mode when they keep failing. Here, they repeatedly train combat skills and assemble changed actions. This will be the starting point for players to break through and explore after failure.
In addition, I would like to add that the first chapter you tried to play should have encountered boss battles. There are actually some text prompts during the process, but maybe the translation of the trial version has not been done yet. In the official version, players can use these clues to conquer these bosses.
at last. In this work, you can upload and share your own mech assembly information with other players, so if you can’t defeat a boss, you can refer to other players’ assembly methods to attack the boss.
Q: Does this camera movement not need to care about the gyration performance of the body? Is it because of this that players are more required to observe the configuration of enemies in the environment?
A: As long as the target assist system is turned on this time, the direction of the body and the direction of the camera will be centered on the locked enemy, so that you can concentrate on observing the attacking action.
Since there will be many new players trying this time, new players will find that there are many things to do, so I hope that through this system of assisted aiming, players will not fail easily. Of course, it can also be turned off, and you can adjust it yourself as in the past. This style can be switched at any time during the battle. If the target assist system is turned off, the body will face a fixed direction, so that the player will have a better grasp of the state of the body before, after, left, and right.
The environment configuration depends on the task level. Generally speaking, if it is in a huge building complex, or if you want to go from the starting point to the end point, there will be enemies hiding in places that cannot be seen. At this time, you must use the scanning function to find the enemy. Of course, there are also different types of mission levels, and there are also places where battles are fought in open spaces. In this case, the scanning function is less needed.
Q: During the trial play, it was mentioned in the game that the accuracy of the marking line will decrease after the auxiliary lock is turned on. What is the accuracy of this situation?
A: This part is mainly when the target is locked. At this time, the aiming will be slower. If it is turned off, the aiming will be faster.
Q: How many levels are there in the length of the main line this time, and how long will it take to play?
A: The number of missions. There are about 50 missions this time. If one game takes about 20 hours, and this work has multiple endings, players can try more different endings.
After the player finishes playing the story mode, he also hopes that the player can challenge the level again to see if he can reach the S rank, and there are still online games to play.
Q: Will the number of body parts and weapons included be more or less, and whether there will be a function of suggested assembly or automatic assembly.
A: The number of parts is not as many as “Men Wars Answers” and “Men Wars Judgment Day”, but even so, there are more than 300 parts. I believe players can assemble their ideal mechs.
I personally recommend that players can use melee weapons with their left hand in the prologue, because they don’t have to do other things when waving the weapons, and they will better adapt to the rhythm of the game. After adapting, they can consider switching to shooting weapons, so that they can do more things.
Because you can see the templates of other players in the game, it is recommended to refer to the practices of other players at the beginning. In addition, there is an arena mode in the offline mode. You can also obtain the information of the enemy plane when you defeat the enemy plane. If you want to use it as your own gameplay, you can also imitate the assembly method.
In the end, producer Yasuke Ogura said: “First of all, it has been 10 years, and I am very grateful to the series players for waiting for this work. For new players, we have accumulated knowledge and experience over the years, so we hope to integrate with the mecha mercenaries of the past and provide players with a brand new mecha action game experience.”
In the end, the game director Yu Yamamura said: “Because what the producer of Ogura has said is almost the same, so I want to say something about myself. I have studied in China in the past, so I like Chinese culture very much. Although I can’t speak Chinese very well, I am very happy to be able to participate in this work. I look forward to when the game is released. Thank you everyone.”
