Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex brings an All-New Anime Series to PlayStation 2

by Louis Bedigian

“We have the same recording studio that worked on the TV show to do the game.”

Let the Ghost in the Shell onslaught begin!

You’ve seen the classic film.  This fall you’ll see its long-awaited sequel.  September 17th is the day when Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence makes its way to select theaters.

November 6th is the day when Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is released to millions of Cartoon Network viewers.  November also happens to be the month when PlayStation 2 gets its fair share of the Ghost.  Based on the TV series of the same name, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex looks to be the perfect way to top off your GITS-athon.

Knowing how crazy the fans are going to be when they hear the news, Bandai held a conference call to prepare us with the detailed information you’ll need to know.  Everything from gameplay features, graphics and weaponry to the story, hacking, character choices, and much, much more.

Ghost Story

As part of the story, players get the chance to hack their way to a better tomorrow.  The world may seem chaotic now, but you won’t feel so bad when you’re using an enemy to your advantage.  You do that by hacking into specific characters.  They have an icon that indicates you can hack into them.  If you can, hack in and see what’s there.  Some enemies have a weak mind, giving you complete control over their functions.  Use your newfound control to destroy other enemies (they won’t know what hit ‘em!).  Or tell the hypnotized enemy to open a locked door that you can’t find the key to.

You can use controlled enemies for surveillance, too.

Standalone Features

• Play as Three characters: Motoko (a cyborg female), Batou (the muscle of the group) and Tachikoma (a think tank machine with childish characteristics).

• 12 different stages of vast Environments

• 4-player split-screen Multiplayer

• Several new Difficulty levels to unlock (in addition to Easy, Medium and Hard)

• Shoot special fans to unlock secret items!

Finding it impossibly difficult to escape my prevailing tactics, I cornered three of Bandai’s leading representatives (John Soller, Roy Brewer and Atsushi Minowa) and forced them to tell me everything they know about Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

Was Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex designed by the same developer who made the PSone version?

Bandai: No, the developer for this game is Cavia, and they're the ones that made Drakengard.  This is their second big title to come out in the US.  Most of their titles have been small ones out in Japan.

Do you think this game will spawn new fans for the series?

Bandai: Definitely.  To be truthful most anime games leave a bad taste in gamers' mouths.  But this game here has a good, solid game engine, and a lot of beef to it.  It's true to the actual anime license.  Whether you're an anime fan who loves Ghost in the Shell, I think you'll definitely like it.  And if you don't know anything about Ghost in the Shell you're going to want to buy it anyway.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is a third-person shooter.  Is that the main gameplay point – lots of running and shooting?

Bandai: There's an integral storyline to fighting cyber terrorists.  Obviously shooting and action is a big part of it.  Mechanics of Motoko, they jump away from her enemies shooting her and then shooting her enemies herself.  Obviously the big majority of the game is the action.  At the same time you need to find out what doorways you need to go into to unlock parts of the stage, and how to defeat your enemies.

Why did you decide to use computer-generated imagery for the movie sequences instead of new anime footage?

Bandai: Basically the CGI and the gameplay would become a little more seamless.  Obviously it's very different from the movie.  The second movie, Ghost in the Shell 2 and the TV series.

The game is going to really satisfy all of the Ghost in the Shell fans.  It's gonna have an appeal to a lot of third-person action/shooting fans as well.  It's not a traditional anime title that a lot of people are used to.

Voice Actors: are the ones featured in the game the same actors whose voices appear in the new show?

Bandai: Yes they are.  We have the same recording studio that worked on the TV show to do the game as well.

How much does the game change as you increase the difficulty?

Bandai: In the easier levels you basically have full health and the enemies are pretty easy to shoot.  As you get to the more [challenging] difficulty levels the enemies are twice as hard to shoot down, you have 1/3 of your HP, and items and their power-ups are harder to find.

In the Japanese version there are only three levels.  For the US release we changed it to 10 different levels, those are unlockable.  So for those 10 new levels you're talking not even more enemies and more powerful enemies.  You're talking about stronger enemies and your character being weaker.

Regarding the CGI, can you give us an example of how it seamlessly changes from game to movie sequence or vice versa?

Bandai: If you had a [hand-drawn] FMV it [would] break up the gameplay.  The gameplay is all 3D graphics which are done very, very well.  When it breaks into a movie sequence, which is actually rendered even better, you still understand that that's the same character.  As opposed to seeing the 3D graphics change to a 2D hand drawing while watching FMV.

Can you tell us about the different weapons and combat techniques?

Bandai: Definitely.  Weapons, you mainly start with machineguns, shotguns and assault rifles, grenade launchers.  You also have a bunch of hand-throwing weapons – knives, grenades, electric grenades.  You also have other items you can pick up like thermal optic camouflage.

[The game also includes] hand-to-hand melee combat.  Depending on how you're facing your opponent, push your melee combat button and you start doing a combination of martial arts/Matrix-type moves.

I'd also like to add that the Wachowski Brothers, the creators of The Matrix, were actually influenced by Ghost in the Shell (both the movie and the comics).

You mentioned that there's an offline multiplayer mode...

Bandai: For the multiplayer mode you can play any of the 12 stages from the Story mode.  Also for the US version we have a new unlockable 13th stage.  You can also get the parameters for each time you play, things like ammo, which weapons will be allowed.  Time limit, kill limit, etc.  You can pick [from] nine different characters, that includes your three heroes and the rest would be enemies you find in the game.  Each of the enemies also have different skins that you can select.

If I watch the show and then play the game, am I going to instantly notice parallels, or are they going to feel like two separate universes?

Bandai: No, they are really well done.  If you watch the TV show you'll see that there's Motoko, Batou and the tank that you use.  You'll see the team that they're on and their backup unit.  They're all in the game.

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

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