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Interview with BW Producer of Shadow Blade Zero: The story of Soul and Zuo Shang will continue

Aunt Wang Li

2024-07-16

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Author: Auntie Wang Li

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The core is "fighting, fun"

For gamers who like to follow game news and promotional conferences, there is probably nothing more exciting than the "Summer Game Festival" last month. You know, at this exhibition, the domestic action game "Shadow Blade Zero" first opened its offline trial activities. Watching others holding the handle and feeling the excitement of every knife and every punch, domestic players also have questions: When can I experience it?

Fortunately, people didn’t have to wait too long. At BilibiliWorld 2024 held this month, "Shadow Blade Zero" launched its first offline public trial in China, and I was one of the lucky ones who got to try it out in advance.

After the trial, I also had a detailed discussion with the game producer "Teacher S". In this more than one-hour interview, I successfully gained more knowledge and understanding of "Shadow Blade Zero".

Q: In the promotional video, the game has been emphasizing that it is "martial arts punk". What are the specific aspects of this punk? Can you briefly explain it to us?

A: First of all, punk is a spirit of resistance, rebellion and mix and match. For example, cyberpunk is no stranger to everyone, and it is precisely the mix and match of "high technology and low life" that highlights its punk spirit. Therefore, we disassembled the traditional Chinese martial arts culture and then integrated more fashionable and popular elements. For example, it is difficult to see elements such as mechanical arms and mechanical cannons in traditional martial arts, and it is also difficult to see traditional martial arts expressed in the "soul-like" art style. This should be "martial arts punk".

Q: In the game, we see a countdown setting of "66 days remaining". Does this mean that the game will definitely end in a Bad End? Will this time limit affect the game's content experience? How will it be reflected specifically?

A: The countdown setting does have an impact on the game content, but I am not in a position to reveal how exactly it will be reflected. However, I can tell you secretly that it affects more than just the ending, or its impact on the game is far richer than you think, and players will also experience different game content because of this setting.

Q: We all know that most of the games of the same type on the market are based on a "soul-like" idea, allowing players to "suffer" first and then experience the taste of "sweetness after bitterness". What do you think about this?

A: I want to make it clear that Shadow Blade Zero is not a "soul-like" game. Personally, I hope that the game can make people have fun and enjoy it directly, rather than using a complicated way of "suffering first, then overcoming the suffering". In addition, I think the experience of a game is half in the game and the other half outside the game. Outside the game, Form Software or Hidetaka Miyazaki's brand is loud enough, so when players play their games, they will preset a position of "I will suffer", but if this "suffering" setting is not endorsed by a celebrity, then players may not be able to tolerate it.

Q: The content of this offline trial is only a novice tutorial and three "BOSS RUSH", so how rich is the game in terms of exploration?

A: The design of Shadow Blade Zero is still biased towards traditional action games, and making players feel good in combat is also our core idea. But this does not mean that we will ignore map design and exploration content. What we can reveal is that we have learned various small garden map designs from "Souls", so we are also confident that we can surprise players in terms of exploration.

Q: In the trial play just now, I clearly felt that the protagonist had a lot of derivative counter-attacks after successfully blocking or dodging, and the rhythm of attack and defense conversion in the battle was also very fast, but this is based on the premise that the difficulty of this trial play was intentionally lowered. Does this mean that after the official version is released, the game will be difficult to be so "cool"? Or in other words, the game's operating threshold will be raised again?

A: This is a good question. We have to admit that considering that most people are trying out Shadow Blade Zero for the first time, the difficulty of this trial is a little lower than the official version, but this does not mean that the game will not be "cool" when it is officially launched. I think the first thing a game should do is to make players feel refreshed, so we will make different difficulty options for players of different levels to ensure that players of all levels can feel refreshed. And in my opinion, the current trial version allows most people to complete the game within 20 minutes, which is already a very balanced difficulty.

Q: "Killing Aura" has always been the core setting of the "Shadow Blade" series. In the trial play of "Shadow Blade Zero", I can also feel that "Killing Aura" is closely related to the character's dodge, block and attack operations. Once the "Killing Aura" is emptied, it will fall into an unbalanced state. Does this mean that "Killing Aura" is still a resource management system similar to other games, requiring players to clarify their subsequent operation allocation before taking action? Does this design conflict with the high-speed and smooth combat?

A: Shadow Blade Zero is indeed a fast-paced action game, and it is also a game that allows players to enjoy playing. But to be honest, there must be restrictions and releases, so that players can always maintain a sense of relaxation, which can reflect the true "excitement" of the game. If there are no restrictions, and the character keeps swinging and slashing, in my opinion, this is no different from a "one-slash 999" game, and we have lost our original intention for Shadow Blade Zero.

Q: We learned from the promotion that the game will have more than 30 kinds of weapons. How can we obtain these weapons?

A: To be honest, we prefer to let players capture weapons themselves rather than picking them up somewhere - after all, the sense of accomplishment brought by these two methods is different. If you carefully observe this trial version, you will find that in the last boss battle, the character's default weapon is the weapon in the hands of the previous boss. So, if you want to experience more primary and secondary weapons, then try to challenge the boss.

Q: Currently, Shadow Blade Zero is only available for offline trial play, but there are many players who are interested in this game. Can we put this trial DEMO online in the future so that most players can experience it?

A: Actually, we can feel the players' care and support, and we don't want to disappoint them. But we have to admit that the current DEMO version has a lot of flaws and bugs. In the trial just now, there were players who got stuck in the official process of the game due to bugs - this may be a small episode offline, but it would be a very serious accident online. However, we will do our best to fill the gaps and strive to allow most players to experience Shadow Blade Zero under appropriate circumstances.

Q: Are you worried that Shadow Blade Zero will always be compared with Black Myth: Wukong by players?

A: I don’t think this is a bad thing. The two games being compared by players is also a good opportunity for both of us to learn and improve. In addition, because there are too few large-scale domestic games on the market, players can only see us, so I hope that as a pioneer of large-scale domestic games, we can attract more excellent domestic games.

Q: "Shadow Blade Zero" is a reboot of the "Rain Blood" and "Shadow Blade" series, so will it leave some easter eggs for old players of the previous games?

A: Definitely. "Shadow Blade Zero" is a brand new game, but it is also a continuation of the classic. We will let new players experience the excitement of "Shadow Blade Zero", and at the same time leave a variety of easter eggs that will make old players "smile knowingly".

Q: Can you reveal the final price of the game?

A: Sorry, I haven't thought about this issue. Because the game is not close to the release stage yet, and there are still many things to deal with. But I can guarantee that when the day comes, we will announce the price in time and will never hide it.

Q: The last question, which is also the one that players are most concerned about, is what is the current progress of the game and when will it be officially released?

A: Actually, this is a question that many people have asked me. And most people predict that it will be released in 2025. To this, I can only say that the current development situation is very optimistic, but we still need time to polish the game and coordinate the work of all parties.