Interview with "Soul of Tsushima Island" Ranger Network: I want to realize the fantasy of players playing samurai.

On July 7th, Ranger.com interviewed Jason and Joanna, creative and artistic directors of Fool's Punch. Chatted about everyone's curiosity about the game

Q: The historical background of the Japanese samurai theme is very extensive. Why did this book choose the specific historical background of "The Battle of Tsushima Island"?

Jason: Thank you for interviewing us. The main reason for deciding to play this new game is to create a new story. After confirming that everyone has a strong interest and enthusiasm in making samurai-themed games, we began to study history, and then we discovered this very interesting historical period. The brave soldiers fought back against the island invaders, whose numbers far exceeded their own. This ambitious story is very inspiring. They must have risked their lives to defend their homes. We think it is very worthwhile to try to create something based on this story to present what may happen in a real historical story.

We have also done a lot of further research. We are huge fans of the samurai theme, and we have seen all kinds of film and television works on this theme, but it was really rare in the Kamakura era, but the film and television works in the later period of this era were relatively rich. This caught our attention.

Q: The story not only tells the story of Mongols raging after Tsushima Island's attack, but also describes the other side of how civilians will live in the war, which makes the story very layered. Could you please talk about the idea of story creation?

Jason: We decided to play a game with Tsushima Island as the stage. This game will start with the history that we are interested in. We also decided to create a brand-new story, a brand-new hero, a story that we have never told before but can make people feel familiar. There are two most important things that we want players to feel. First, we really want you to feel this story about a man who grew up as a samurai, was influenced by samurai thoughts and accepted the samurai lifestyle. After the invading army went to the island, his way of thinking and so on were challenged. He forced himself to accept this situation. What kind of process will it be? This is one aspect of our story.

Another point is that we hope that players can feel the connection between the protagonist Jing and his hometown and his love for his hometown. He loves the island and wants to protect it. We hope that everyone can feel the connection not only with the story, but also with the game mechanism.

Q: Many stories are selected and promoted by players. What impact will different choices have on the game process? Games and other characters sometimes have multiple dialogue options. Do different dialogue options have an impact on future relationships?

Jason: The purpose of our story is mainly around Ren's mental journey. He started as a samurai, and later became a war ghost. Actually, there is no other choice. This is the inevitable trend of story development. What he can choose is how he will grow up and how his journey will affect his uncle and the people he meets in life. Some of these influences are good and some are bad. Some people will praise him for saving the island, others will look down on him because he has turned his back on his original Bushido. But we won't let you choose the way you want to go, because this is a linear story of benevolence changing from samurai to war ghost.

Q: There are many important NPCs in the game. They have a long story line. Which NPC does the production team like best? There is no spoiler. Can you tell me why you like him/her?

Joanna: Of course. I like You Na because she is really great. Maybe I'm a spoiler when I say this, but she really helped Ren a lot, helping him see life from another angle, who he really is and what he should look like. I think it's cool.

Q: Sometimes, opening the world and exploring elements will have an impact on the rhythm of the main story, even if it is an excellent game. Take Soul of Tsushima Island as an example. At the beginning of the game, the protagonist is eager to save his uncle, but at this time the game prompts the player to "find someone who needs help around him" ... How does sucker punching coordinate the main story and the open world in the whole game? Will there be a situation of "indulging in exploration, regardless of the main line"

Jason: The story of "The Soul of Tsushima Island" that we want to build is not an impressive story from beginning to end, but a story in which a benevolent person turns into a war ghost, abandons the original bushido, accepts a new way of doing things and launches a counterattack against the invaders. However, when our internal personnel tested, they were largely enjoying its open world and exploring a picture of Japan's homeland in feudal times, so we want everyone to take the time to explore with a sense of freedom.

In fact, you can let Ren's story-the "golden story"-continue to develop at any time. We allow players to explore stories at any time and mark them on the map, but if you want to explore the countryside, or secret places, or areas poisoned by invaders, or do other trivial things or side tasks, we also hope you can do these things, because you will meet many friends and allies on the way, which is part of a series of stories that make up the soul of Tsushima Island. There is indeed a main story, but we have also made some subplots, which can let players better understand the feeling of defending their homes.

Q: The atmosphere of the game is excellent in restoring the feeling of Japanese era drama, which is really rare as a development team from the United States. What preparations did the production team make to create the style of the times drama?

Jason: OK, let me answer a few questions. Maybe Joanna will answer some questions from the perspective of visual effects. First of all, I think it takes a lot of research and study to create stories outside the local cultural environment. We have been studying from the beginning, and we have hired some consultants who study Japanese behavior habits to review our models and scripts, as well as some historical consultants. We have also been to Japan several times, so I leave this question to Joanna to answer. In addition, we have established a good relationship with the localization team in Japan. They have been guiding us from the beginning of development, helping us understand what we want to create and helping us make the right decision. This is a very important part of the game development process.

Joanna: We collected all kinds of reference materials, such as movies, paintings and posters, read all kinds of books, and studied some ancient Japanese paintings and tourist posters. These works of art are rich in elements, which makes people feel that they are the visual style of Japanese culture. We have studied many breezes. We also went to Japan twice. On the second trip, we recorded the sound effects of birds and nature, which was really great for our team because these sounds were different. You may think that all birds sound the same, but in fact they sound different.

We really brought back some leaves from Tsushima Island to our studio and added its texture to the game. We adopted a lot of carefully selected elements, making them a small part of Tsushima Island and Japan that we want to build, and presenting these things to the players.

Q: Legends and stories in the game, as well as haiku, bamboo beating, shrine and other elements in the collection all have strong Japanese elements. It must be difficult for a western studio like Sucker Punch to understand the characteristics of these different cultures, right? In the game, these elements blend well with the background story. How do you collect inspiration and make choices?

Jason: I'm glad you asked. I think these elements you just mentioned, such as haiku and hot springs, if you study them carefully-whether it's the culture hundreds of years ago or modern culture-many of them have survived to the present and profoundly shaped people's lives. People know them well, and in some cases, they are world-famous. People know "hot springs", but maybe they don't know this "hot springs", and so do "haiku".

These elements are part of Japanese culture, and we want to find ways to make it appear in the game while respecting Japanese culture. This is definitely not something that can be solved by casually inserting haiku into the game. This is a time for reflection. Fighting is an important part of the game, the plot is also an important part of the game, and another important part is to stop and think about your game experience. You have to sit in a hot spring and think of some people you have met before, or sing a haiku and think about what Ren is thinking now. This is an important balance that we try to create in the game.

Q: In the game, haiku (and songs) can be written in a fixed place according to the scene and theme. As you can see, the format of these haiku is very neat. Can you tell us how these haiku were created?

Jason: There are two writers, and each of them will provide a variety of choices, so we want to make writing haiku a moment to express our hearts, instead of just showing you the poems that have been written. There is no choice at all. We hope that players will participate in the process of writing haiku, not to complete the overall progress, not to upgrade and add points, or simply to write haiku.

It is true that writing haiku has a unique signature reward, but we still want players to sit down and look at the exquisite works of art created by Joanna's team and spend some time deciding what kind of poems to write in such a world; You are sitting by the lake, looking at beautiful flowers and birds, and want to know how you feel when you see them in the current game, so we offer these choices. We asked a writer to create a series of different haiku based on the art we created in these places.

Joanna: I think our team works well across teams. It's quite interesting that the environment we make has added cool elements, such as small landscapes, landscapes and rivers where we can sit and watch the scenery. Artists will come to find a good rhythm, let us find the best lens angle, plus some trees, grass, water scenery, so that all the scenery naturally come together. I can say that we don't have to ask for this or that design, because the world in the game is very big, and we have to create many interesting places and create a space for meditation. Artists are very creative, so these ideas quickly come together.

Q: The music is great. Why did you think of asking Mr. Shigeru Umebayashi to take charge of music?

Jason: Yeah. In games, movies and TV programs, music is an important part of creating art and influencing artworks. Concerts chosen for games are one of the most powerful tools, because some of them are basically only one person. We have two composers in this game. These two people can have a great influence on the game and give people a strong feeling. I can't imagine who else has made such a great contribution to our game. Even Joanna and I. The works created by these two people for our game are really unparalleled. So music is very important, we attach great importance to it, and as a part of Sony, we have an excellent music production team that can help us find excellent composers.

So when I got inspiration and ideas from the beginning, I went to cooperate with Sony Music Team and said, This is our game, this is our story, and we want to make this world, feudal Japan in this period, beautiful. This is the feeling we want, wonderful moments, invincible scenery, great touching stories, all kinds of conflicts, and we talked about all the goals we want to achieve. Then they went to the composer and replied, "What do you think of these?" When we heard Shigeru Umebayashi's name, I remember it was about two years ago, maybe five months ago. He created very unique and wonderful music for some movies, and the music he created for us is very consistent with the feeling we want in the game. It's like a musical instrument. Not the shakuhachi in the big band I imagined. I thought, wow, it's beautiful, so we invited him, and then he did some orchestral music. Our cooperation is very pleasant.

We also invited another composer to help us finish this beautiful story together. And this one focuses more on stories. His name is Ilan Ashkri and he is also a great composer. He pays more attention to human factors and the theme of the game. The two of them worked together to create the soundtrack that everyone hears in the game now.

Joanna: Let me add one more thing. We have spent many years on this game and are used to watching the scenes, characters and so on in the game every day. However, when we sat down to watch the trailer, I looked at it with my eyes, and I felt visually that I knew where to go and what to do. But when the music started, I really burst into tears, which is indescribable. These are the scenes I watch every day, but the impact on my ears has brought rich feelings. All this combined, I feel that all my five senses can be used.

Q: There is a special "Kurosawa Mode" in this game, which is a tribute to director Kurosawa. I wonder which film and television work the producer likes directed by Akira Kurosawa? How do game creators understand the spiritual core of samurai movies?

Joanna: I think it may be the Seven Samurai. This is an old movie, but I remember seeing it for the first time when I was very young. I don't remember what happened, and I don't understand why they stood there without resistance. I remember when I was a child, I asked them why they didn't move, but this is the style of his movies.

Jason: I think there are two. Heartbeat, because it is really a cool story, has many wonderful duel scenes, and I like his role very much, and there are many great photography skills. The other is chaos, which I like very much. Actually, it was one of the later movies. I think its color is very real and its photography is great, just like a war filled with smoke and troops. I first saw this before I played video games. I like those samurai flags. I don't know what they are, but they have many beautiful colors, so they have always impressed me deeply.

Q: In addition to general attacks, Ren's fighting is also characterized by confrontation and refusal. Why design such a combat system? Is confrontation and determination your understanding of samurai spirit?

Jason: We create confrontation because in samurai movies, TV programs, video games or anything related to samurai, people usually die quickly. There was a confrontation, the atmosphere was tense, and then one or two shots ended. Of course, there are movies like Chaos, in which there is a large-scale war, and there are many people, which is very lengthy, but in general, it is one person against another. Fighting usually ends soon. But for a normal combat experience, you can imagine that if you can get close to anyone and kill them with one blow, it is really not a very challenging game experience. So we want to try and simulate the difficulty by having many enemies around you and being surrounded quickly.

This is a muddy and dirty battle, very cruel. However, confrontation, we hope to have a one-on-one opportunity, which can happen anywhere and realize your fantasy of becoming a samurai. Determination is essentially an internal spirit of counterattack. We talked about courage and spirit, but his determination made him fight back, move on and save his island. That's it. That is the tenacity of the heart.

Q: Compared with many samurai-themed games, I found that Ren's movements were more realistic when the Soul of Tsushima Island fought, with one knife and one knife. How did you design it?

Jason: One way is to be different. We want to try different things. I think it is more important that we have a more creative goal and want to create something real. This can't be true, because these battles will go faster and end faster. Speed is difficult to reproduce in video games, but we want players to feel deadly and very dangerous. For example, if you make a mistake, you must learn from it, but it will not completely punish you and make you go backwards. Therefore, it has always been one of our goals to create a humanized drama viewing experience. This experience is rational, not so absurd that players don't believe in human emotions and characters experience's struggle.

Q: In combat, will the game encourage players to sneak or fight against each other? How to balance the differences in income and experience between these two different ways of playing?

Jason: I personally don't recommend a certain road or how people should play. I think players should try different methods to see which one suits them best. We specially designed this game to attract different types of players, because the gamers are a little different. Some people like to play undercover, and some people like me like to run in through the front door and start hitting people, so this is a different game style, and I think you can even take care of both. I encourage people to try and see what is best for them. In the game state, we show the charm of different armor suits, which will help you increase your favorite game style. If you like stealth, there are many equipments and costumes that can make stealth more interesting. This is my suggestion.

Q: The picture of Soul of Tsushima Island is beautiful. Can you talk about how to achieve this artistic style and picture effect?

Joanna: I think at first we just built ordinary forests and grasslands. Just like when you are hiking, you will see one grass growing with another flower, another ground cover plant, or different kinds of trees. Then we got inspiration from a painting, in which there is a rolling hill with a lot of green grass, which comes from real life. It was really beautiful, so we tried to recreate the same scene. We sealed off an area with only grass. Only one element is repeated millions of times. I remember Jason looking at it and saying, "It's beautiful". And I said, yeah, I think so, too. I don't know. In my opinion, we need different types of elements mixed together, but the fact is that the less the better. When you have a single element in front of you, it becomes another level. Based on this, we seriously think about what else we can do to make the natural world more attractive. Instead of running around repeatedly, we are looking for a typical flower, grass or tree that you can see in Japan, such as ginkgo or maple. So we found these and broke them down into independent elements. See how messy they are and what we need to take away. These are very small details. Once we understand it, we will focus on the overall situation and see if everything still holds. We look for balance here, choose very bold colors, and the final effect is very good.

Q: The representative works before the production group all have a strong comic style, and their supernatural ability has a strong visual impact. So, in the development of the more realistic Soul of Tsushima Island, what methods are mainly used to provide players with continuous visual appeal? What challenges have you encountered in the development process? From the production point of view, what do you think is the most different place between The Soul of Tsushima Island and The Past?

Jason: As one of the earliest studios to make games for PS4, we improved the way of making light and shadow when making the infamous bastard, and developed an artistic style of rendering and lighting that matched the game. When we play this game, many low-level technologies, such as shadows and lighting, are still very helpful. But we really need to change our ideas. In fact, Joanna just pointed out that less is more. This is not to create a chaotic Seattle city with graffiti, dirt, noise and realism. But how can we make players feel that it is real and show the beauty of feudal Japan to the maximum?

This is a different philosophy, not only bricks and metals, but also trees and leaves. So we have to develop many technologies to ensure that it can be realized. I think another challenge is to create a new character, a new hero, a new game name, just like all these are brand new. This is not a notorious franchise, nor is it DLC. This is a brand-new thing, which sets a huge creative obstacle for everyone. Not to mention some more interesting things, such as doing a lot of research, we don't need to do a lot of research on notoriety, especially assholes, because we live in the northwest of Seattle, where the game takes place, which is much easier. And this game needs a lot of research and photography on the story, so these are the biggest challenges.

Joanna: Scope is a challenge. Soul of Tsushima Island is the biggest game Sucker Punch has ever played. So when we enter the world to be built, we must cover every inch of the island with all the trees, grass and leaves. We are really worried about how to do this, but we have a very strong programming team. They provide some tools so that we can fill the area more creatively in a short time, and we can finish the project in time in a limited time. So I think this is our biggest challenge.