DayLahs

courtesy of gameinformer

Even though Lost Planet: Extreme Condition won’t be out in the U.S. until 2007, we were able to see an early version of the game in action at the recent Capcom Gamers’ Day. We also spoke extensively with producer and R & D head Keiji Inafune and director Kenji Oguro. Find out how the cold conditions will affect gameplay, how the team is changing traditional FPS aiming, and what they are doing to help boost sales of the Xbox 360 in Japan. Plus, you can check out more screens and video of the game here.

After a blast of chilly liquid nitrogen infused air drifted towards the audience, Capcom rolled out the same Lost Planet trailer that’s been up on Xbox Live for weeks. Soon after, Inafune and Oguro showed off some actual gameplay. Players will start out as Wayne, a man who only remembers that the Akrid monsters or “green eyes” killed his father. He soon joins up with a band of snow pirates that fight off rival factions and hunt down Akrid for their yellowish energy source.

Players will use both first and third person aiming to take down enemies on foot and within specialized mechs called Vital Suits. Wayne can use a grappling hook to get up to higher areas or to attach to rival VSs. Once attached to a VS, he can plant a bomb on the cockpit, jump off, and watch the fireworks. Players can dig VSs out of the snow to use them as well. If you pick up an especially large weapon, like a chain gun, you can still use it on foot, but it will definitely slow you down. However, you can attach it to a VS and hop in to speed things up.

Multiplayer matches currently accommodate up to 16 people, but the team is hoping to bump that up to 32 by the time the game is released. We saw several different environments like a cave, parking garage, and France’s famous Arc de Triomphe. The final game is expected to include approximately 12 missions.

Shortly after this demo, we were able to speak with Inafune and Oguro along with a few reporters from other media outlets to get the full down low.

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Q: I noticed that the main character, Wayne, went back and forth from wearing a hat depending how cold the temperature gauge readings were. Is weather going to be a big factor in the gameplay?

Keiji Inafune: The whole hat thing was something we intentionally put into the game. So after it gets to a certain degree of temperature where it’s too cold then, yes, you are going to want to put a hat on. The weather itself can be used strategically sometimes to your advantage, sometimes to your disadvantage. You could, for example, shoot a snowy cliff and cause an avalanche to do damage to the enemy. Also when it’s snowing very heavily it’s hard to see in front of you. So that could be a disadvantage. But it will play a part in the general gameplay to a fairly deep level.

Q: In one of the levels you showed where you were digging a mech out it looked a lot like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and I was wondering is this post apocalyptic Earth?

Inafune: That’s one of the key plot points so, unfortunately, I can’t reveal that to you. That’s part of the surrounding mystery of the game. You’re going to find out more and more about what exactly the location is.

Q: Is there going to be any sort of interaction between English and Japanese players in the online component?

Kenji Oguro: We’ve intentionally made the online component very easy to understand. Very simple, if you will. Of course there will be voice chat supported so, yes, an American could feasibly play with a Japanese person if they both understood English. But even if you don’t understand the language the interface is so simple that you can get by. It’s intentionally been created that way so that anyone can play with anybody else.

Q: You briefly touched on the multiplayer aspects in the presentation. Will this be mostly human factions warring against each other or will there be a co-op element to the gameplay?

Inafune: Basically you’re going to get to choose between which faction of snow pirates you’re going to be in. So you will have a lot of groups against other groups of people. Sometimes it will be versus. And we’re thinking about putting in cooperative missions that you’ll be able to participate in as well. So there will be co-op as well as versus in it. At this time, we’re not including the monsters as playable characters.

Q: Speaking about the monsters, one of the first things that came to mind when I was watching the demo was John Carpenter’s The Thing because of the snow and these creatures are sort of reminiscent. Was there any sort of inspiration based on that film or artistically in its design?

Inafune: Yeah, when we first decided to place this game in an icy frozen tundra sort of world, I am a big fan of John Carpenter so, yes, The Thing definitely did come to mind and the whole “trying to survive in this frozen world while you’re fighting against this creature” definitely played a part of what inspired this title. But it is only a very small part of what was powering the whole idea behind the game. So it’s not like we just totally based the game on that. It’s just a mere part.

Q: Can you talk a little bit more about how the game came about?

Inafune: Basically, we first started out thinking we wanted to make a game that felt cinematic like a movie. But games are different from movies, and we wanted to break the ceiling on the fact that games never feel as cinematic as movies. We wanted to take it in a direction that made it feel like it was in fact as cinematic as a movie and it had the advantages of a game, which was very immersive. That’s basically where we started.

Then from that point we realized there were a lot of movies that had inspiration we could borrow from. We mixed those into what the final version was, and then on top of that we also threw in a lot of Japanese culture which is why you get a lot of the anime-based looking robots, the VSs, in the game. Because we’re now at a point where, in both America and Europe, people now recognize anime a lot more readily. To be able to mix that into a shell that we think Westerners and Japanese will like and understand is kind of the main goal.

Q: So what movies specifically influenced you?

Inafune: Starship Troopers, Aliens, as well as on the anime side there’s one called Bottoms and Appleseed. The robot design is loosely based on that.

Q: How much time do you spend on foot in the game versus time inside the mech?

Oguro: It’s a really difficult answer because it’s largely based upon gameplay style. You can feasibly not get into a VS for the whole game and still clear it if you wanted to just be walking around. That’s a possibility. But on average most people are probably going to be on foot for the first half of the game for about 70% and VS they’re going to be 30%. And the second half of the game is going to be more VS-type combat probably, more like 70%-30%. You don’t always have to be in a VS, but the necessity’s going to be there a lot more towards the end of the game.

Q: Could you talk more about the different kinds of VS suits? Also, do you only find them in the environment or can you collect them, customize them, use them online?

Inafune: You will be able to change colors and weapons. They’re attachable, removable etc. About being able to purchase them online or something like that we’re still thinking about that, whether we’re going to do it or not. If you’re referring to purchasing in the game at a shop, the answer is no because you’re basically snow pirates. If you want something you steal it. You don’t pay for it. So if there’s something that you like you can try to steal that from someone who’s controlling the VS and then get a new VS that way.

Q: So you have to discard VSs eventually or is there a way to preserve them?

Inafune: You should just bury it in the snow and hide it from other people. Sort of like people at retail shelves taking the shirt they like and hiding it behind other shirts (laughs).

Q: You mentioned in the presentation about how the game incorporates Japanese and Western sensibilities with FPS and mech gameplay. Are you at all concerned about the Xbox 360’s current installed base in Japan? Do you hope to bump that up a little bit?

Inafune: It’s still kind of early to say whether Microsoft is in trouble in Japan or not because there’s really not enough games out there. And a lot of the games that are out there don’t really fit what the Japanese tastes are. After more games come out that Microsoft is supporting like Lost Planet as well as other companies’ games, then maybe that’s going to change. But, yeah, it would be nice if this game helped sales a little bit for them.

Q: The targeting reticule seemed like it was moving around within frame rather than using the traditional fixed point style. How did you decide on this mechanic?

Inafune: We’ve got a lot of confidence in the targeting system in the game. That’s because we’ve done a lot of research on FPSs in the past. Obviously, for FPSs they live or die by their controls. Based upon that research we have this new kind of system in which if you have controls that don’t move at all, it’s too difficult and if you have controls that are too loose, the cursor’s going to run too fast and that’s going to make it too difficult.

With this we’ve tried to make sure that if there’s an area where the target should be, you still have a good amount of precision controls around that target and are able to pinpoint on different areas. But if it’s an area where a target isn’t there you should be able to have slightly quicker controls. We’ve tried to balance that out. I wish I could let you play it because I’m confident that it has very good controls to the point where anyone who’s played Halo can jump right into this and have no problem and be able to control it quite well.

You have a mini targeting window that’s a certain amount of degrees wide, and within that your character will not move. He will stay focused on that area. But after you pass that degree point that that window ends on then all of the sudden your character will start to rotate and you will start to look left and right. We wanted to make sure you’d have pinpoint precision when aiming so the cursor itself, its movement is quite slow compared to other FPSs. Those are all over the place. But one way we’ve covered that, because you could get attacked from behind or the sides, is we have quick turns to both the left, right, and behind you so that way you can quickly spin around to that area and still have the precision aiming that you need.

Q: As far as the weapons that are lying around in the field as you’re negotiating the environment, can those be blown up? Do you have infinite ammo?

Oguro: First off. No, you can’t destroy the weapons that are just lying around. But weapons that are attached onto enemy VSs you can intentionally aim for their weapons and that will weaken their attack power. So you can do focused shots to help the battle go more smoothly in your favor. Concerning the amount of ammo, all the weapons have bullets so you have to keep replenishing them. There are two different types of ammo. One is your bullet/missile based type, the other is an energy generated type. I talked about it in the video. The Akrid have that yellow energy that you can absorb that would use that up.

Q: How many weapons can you hold at once?

Inafune: Two types. You can’t dual wield. One hand is for throwing and one hand is for firing.

Q: Are there any plans to have cameo appearances from other Capcom characters?

Inafune: Right now, we’re busy trying to get this sucker out on time (laughs). But if we did have some spare time then we’d probably think about it. Right now we’re just trying to get to the finish line.

Q: You talked about some of the other human characters in the game. Are they rival pirates or government people…

Inafune: Unfortunately, the answer to that question’s very simple. You answered it by asking it. Yes, there are rival factions of snow pirates that you fight against and the government. The government is always evil (laughs). In any game or in any reality, of course, yes they’re going to be evil in this as well.

Q: The main character is played by Lee Byung-Hun, a famous actor in Japan. Can you tell us about how he was cast and if there are any other big name actors in the cast?

Inafune: Basically, we initially planned to just make this a really great game. That’s what we were going to rely on for sales. It was just going to be a great game experience. However, in Japan we realized that the Xbox 360 was going to have an uphill battle. We’re going to need an extra hook to try and get people other than really hardcore gamers, which are the only types that are buying it right now in Japan.

We’re trying to get your casual gamer to purchase it as well. So midway through development we’re like, “This is a popular actor right now in Japan. Putting him in the game may help Japanese sales.” We’re not planning to use him [in other territories] and we don’t even think that in America or Europe it’s going to get us any additional sales. We’re going to have to sell it in those territories based on it being a good game.

Seems like a early peek at how Resident Evil 5 is going to be, since both of them are going to be using weather effects that can alter the way the game is played.