Feudal Combat Leads to a Grand Battle: “Inuyasha” and “One Piece” Invade Our Game Consoles

by Louis Bedigian

“We're always working hard to produce the best game we possibly can.”

Bandai’s delivering a one-two punch: Inuyasha: Feudal Combat and One Piece: Grand Battle are about to hit stores. Based on their respective anime series, the two games are all Bandai can think (and talk) about.

What’s a talkative publisher to do? Call up someone who loves the sound of video game communication.

“Louis, listen up! We’ve got some games to tell you about!”

Okay, so it didn’t go down exactly like that, but the rest is true. No names have been changed to protect the innocent, though we reserve the right to change the names of those who are not. (That goes for you too, Sesshomaru!)

Cake? I’ll Have “One Piece”

Having been featured in Shonen Jump since 2003, One Piece is a growing saga that, like all growing sagas, has made its way to the world of interactive entertainment.  

This invisible toilet is really comfortable! 

Coming soon to PlayStation 2 and GameCube, One Piece: Grand Battle is as wild and crazy, kooky and zany as the TV show. “It’s essentially a pirate’s story,” Laura explains. “The story is of Luffy’s adventures and all the friends he makes as he tries to build his pirate crew, and his search for the treasure.”

Featuring everyone’s favorite characters, including Monkey D (that guy with rubbery limbs), One Piece is anything but peaceful. Players will get the chance to interact with their environments, all of which were created to match those introduced on the TV series. Sixteen playable characters will be available; 32 additional supporting characters are being included to enhance and further develop the story. Each of the playable characters includes 20 (at least?) fighting moves. Special attacks and ultimate attacks could add a lot to their fighting move lineup.

If you play well enough you might be able to unlock playable characters that haven’t been officially unveiled.

And this is just the beginning. Laura Yoshioka, Product Manager, says that from the video game onward, “You’re going to see a lot more of One Piece in retail and on TV.”

Fun Combat

Inuyasha, the Rumiko Takahashi-created series that drew in anime fans all across the world, is making its PS2-exclusive debut with Inuyasha: Feudal Combat. "The basic storyline focuses on Kagome and Inuyasha, among other characters,” said Laura, reaffirming the game’s continuity with the anime’s storyline. “Kagome is a schoolgirl who, while looking for her pet cat falls down an ancient well and ends up back in feudal Japan. She is holding the Shikon jewel in her body and when a demon comes after her to get the jewel, she meets Inuyasha and she frees him so that he attacks this other demon. In the process of trying to protect the Shikon jewel it's actually destroyed and broken into shards."

Their goal is to collect the pieces and stop the jewel from falling into the wrong hands. 

“We're always working hard to produce the best game we possibly can.”—Laura Yoshioka 

Cool concept, but what about the graphics and the combat?

Laura Yoshioka: "As you may know we shipped an Inuyasha game for PSone back in 2003. It was a 2D fighter, and it did really well with the fans. What we wanted to do this year was really build on that and create the game that was for PlayStation 2.

"Graphics is one area where we worked hard to develop that and make it really useable for the fans. One thing that we did was the characters are cel-shaded and really match the look and feel of the anime. The other really great thing about the game is the beautiful environments. All of them are from the TV show and they're really outstanding in their visual quality. You'll see things like leaves flowing across the screen, cherry blossoms, the flowing robes of the characters in the traditional Japanese style. It really builds on the ambience of the game for the player.”

She continued by telling us about the partnership system.

Laura Yoshioka: “In the TV show as I'm sure you know there's a lot of character development. One of the key features is the relationship which they develop between the different characters. We took that and we built that into the battle system. You can choose a partner. Say you take Inuyasha and you partner him up with Kagome right from the beginning they have great compatibility because of their great relationship on the TV show. You can really use that compatibility and as you level up your character that compatibility will increase.

"Another way you can approach that as a player is by partnering Inuyasha with Sesshomaru. In the TV series Sesshomaru is his archrival. But that adds another level of challenge for the player.

Finally she explained the element system.

Laura Yoshioka: "There are four different formation systems that the game uses. They're all based on different elements. There's a wind formation system, a wood formation system, a fire formation system, and a mountain formation system. All of these have different effects on your attack and the abilities with your partner in the game. If I take for example the wind formation system, it allows you to perform far away attacks. With mountain formation system your partner takes on a more defensive role and blocks a lot of the damage that you would receive."

“Why Inuyasha? Why would you fight me?”

Bandai's Laura Yoshioka (Product Manager), Atsushi Minowa (R&D Manage) and Sammy Matsushima (Co-Producer) answered the following questions regarding Inuyasha: Feudal Combat.

Do the elements have a strength/weakness effect? Would wind feed the flame of fire, perhaps?

Bandai: It's more of a formation rather than an element system.

Can you give us an idea of what the combat will be like? Does the game follow the traditional down/right corner/forward rolling motions like Street Fighter?

Bandai: It's not as complicated as a game like Street Fighter would be. It's more of a combination of weak and strong attacks. More attack combos. [You can move up levels.] The more levels you have the more powerful the special attacks.

Roughly how many playable characters will there be?

Bandai: There are 14 playable characters – 12 different characters and three different versions of Inuyasha.

A powerful warrior you may be….but you are no match for my sword!

What makes the different versions of him special?

Bandai: He has a human form, his demon form, and normal form. As with the TV show, with him being half demon/half human, he changes according to different times of the month.

Is there a unique gameplay component to each form?

Bandai: It mimics the TV show. When Inuyasha is in his human form he's a much weaker character, so you have to work much harder with him. When he's in his demon form he has much stronger levels. That really makes a different in the gameplay.

Which game modes have you included?

Bandai: There's a Story mode, which follows the different characters' storylines from the TV show. There's a Versus mode, which is one player or two-player. And then there's a Mission mode where you have to fulfill certain objectives to meet the criteria (protect Kagome from the enemies). There [might be a] time limit in which you have to destroy all of the enemies, things like that.

Thanks to everyone at Bandai and Kohnke Communications for having a wonderful conference call.