Asura’s Wrath Interview Part 2: Demigods And People

Our Asura’s Wrath interview started with discussion about quick time events and Asura’s different forms. Kasuhiro Tsuyachiya, producer, revealed the six arm transformation shown in the fight with Wyzen is not Asura’s ultimate form. We picked up from there and talked about how these different forms work into gameplay.

How does that work into the gameplay? Most action games start with a weak hero who grows strong at the end. In Asura’s Wrath you start with maybe two arms, move to six, then to zero, then there’s an ultimate form somewhere in the middle.

Hiroshi Matsuyama, CEO of CyberConnect2: The game progression will have ups and downs. Asura fights based on his anger, so it will be like an emotional roller coaster. We didn’t want to make a game where you were weak in the beginning and strong at the end. Depending how angry Asura is will affect the situation.

You need those ups and downs. When you hit rock bottom from there Asura can explode with anger. So, we wanted those extremes in Asura’s Wrath.

And how does that affect combat and the moves players have? For example, when Asura has zero arms.

HM: Depending on the situation in the game, players will have different moves. When Asura has no arms he will have to head butt or kick and the move set will change. If Asura has six arms his move set will be different from when he has two arms. The scene changes this as well, if Asura is flying through the air or running on the ground, he might be shooting instead of fighting.

Yeah, I noticed that when I played Asura’s Wrath. There are some rail-shooting elements to the game. Why did you want to add this element to an action game?

HM: The reason why we added a shooting element is because we didn’t want to have a regular action game where all of the combat is close combat. We wanted to add variety and different situations where Asura will have to fight from short, long, and medium distances. Asura fights on the ground and in the air, so players will have a whole bunch of ways to fight.

You mentioned Asura’s highs and lows earlier. Could you share your favorite high points and low points in the game?

HM: It’s difficult to answer because we haven’t revealed a lot of the story yet.

Kasuhiro Tsuyachiya, Producer: We can’t say much, but I can talk about Asura as a character. Although, he is a demigod at times he feels like a human. I like how Asura has hints of humanity and can be godly at the same time.

HM: In the trailers what we’ve shown so far are battles between demigods, but one thing I can say is there are also humans on this world. When Asura meets these humans, the relationship between Asura and the humans will be a big factor of the story.

Since Asura has a human side, what characteristics of Asura do you see in yourselves?

KT: His short temper. [Laughs]

HM: Hmm… I have to think about it more. Asura doesn’t wait for people to finish talking, but I will listen to people. Maybe we don’t have that much in common.

How can you top a boss battle where you fight Wyzen who is bigger than a planet?

HM: It’s not just a matter of size. [Laughs.] Wyzen is a big fight, but there are other demigods with different fighting styles and abilities. Their fights will be as epic, if not more so, than growing larger than a planet. We want everyone to know, whatever your expectations are of Asura’s Wrath we want to surprise you because there are so many unexpected elements in the game. Please look forward to that.

Since Asura is a born fighter, what do you think about him being in a fighting game like Marvel vs. Capcom? Or brawling with Naruto in his Kyuubi form? [Laughs]

HM: [Laughs] As much as we’d love to see the Kyuubi fight Naruto, we probably can’t do that. There is possibility for another Capcom game. There are a lot of Capcom games and Capcom has done collaborations with other developers, so we might see Asura pop up in another Capcom game.

KT: We like collaborations!

CyberConnect2 is making a new series for Capcom, but Matsuyama-san if you could work on any Capcom series what would you like to work on?

HM: It would be Mega Man Legends 3! [Laughs.] I really like the series!