Ginga Force - 2013 Developer Interview
This pre-release Ginga Force interview was originally featured in volume 6 of Shooting Gameside. Since Ginga Force was an unusual shmup due to its chapter system, the team spends a good deal of time talking about the thinking behind that design choice; much of the conversation takes place in the shadow of Eschatos, which was acclaimed by the shmup community but failed to gain wider recognition.
M-KAI - Programmer
Mach - Director
Yuuki Yonezawa - Asst. Director/Programmer
—First, could you tell us about your responsibilities for Ginga Force?
Mach: I handled planning, game design, and the chapter structure.
M-KAI: I was responsible for the main programming, level design including enemy attack patterns, and overall difficulty balancing.
Yonezawa: I assisted with project management, graphics, and planning. It was basically a four-person team. Including sound, it was around 10 people, but either way that's quite a small team by today's standards.
—Could you tell us about the theme and highlights of Ginga Force?
Mach: Judgment Silversword was a handheld game and Eschatos was designed with a 3:4 aspect ratio, inspired by arcade games. Ginga Force, however, is built with home consoles in mind. Switching to a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio reflects this concept and was a deliberate decision. Judgement Silversword and Eschatos are non-stop action from stage one to the final stage, and a complete Cardinal Sins playthrough takes about 10 minutes. Those games were designed around the length of their total playtime.
In contrast, Ginga Force is played chapter by chapter, with each chapter conceived as one episode of a TV drama or anime. Playing for score is the usual way shooting games handle replayability, but we wanted to explore other approaches, and break away from the standard format where a boss follows each stage. We thought, what if we could adapt the approach seen in TV dramas, anime, and tokusatsu superhero shows, where each episode a different villain in a mech is challenging you, and the story unfolds through those dramatic battles.
This was the result of us thinking about what was lacking in Eschatos. While that game's graphics were technically fine, visually they had a certain cheapness to them, and the dramatic presentation was weak.
Yonezawa: The visuals in Eschatos were fine for shooting game fans, but they were insufficient to attract a broader audience. This time, our goal was to create visuals that anyone would find beautiful.
M-KAI: To be honest, we had these concerns even before Eschatos launched.
—Can you explain more what you mean about breaking away from the standard format of shooting games?
Mach: In most shooters, the boss awaits at the end of each stage. In Ginga Force, however, the rivals appear at the start of each chapter and the gameplay itself is tied into the story. For example, in a car chase-like sequence where you pursue one rival, we designed interactive elements like destroying their engine to slow their escape speed. Essentially, we introduced action game tropes into Ginga Force.
Yonezawa: I've always believed that shooting games still have immense potential and plenty of untapped possibilities. We incorporated as many of those ideas as we could.
M-KAI: We hope this approach will broaden the appeal of shooting games.
—It sounds like a smart approach given the oft-heard sentiment today that “everything possible in the shooting genre has already been done.”
Yonezawa: As a new developer, we want to try new things. I understand that sentiment, but the same thing was being said in the 1990s. Technology advances, creating new possibilities, and yet people still declare “everything's been done.”
Mach: For Ginga Force we deliberately avoided the playstyle of Eschatos, where the game proceeds at a fast pace and is meant to be completed in one go from start to finish. This isn’t Eschatos 2. In Eschatos, we pushed players to the absolute limit of their concentration, then gave them a few seconds break—it was really “second by second” pacing. In Ginga Force, we intentionally avoided tight pacing, instead creating rhythm through the presentation and difficulty. Being able to buy weapons and freely equip them on your ship is a very home console addition.
M-KAI: Combining main weapons, sub weapons, special weapons, and Extra Items, there are over 30 types of equipment. We didn't intend to make that many, but when we counted them up later, we were surprised how many there were. Extra Items have various effects like reducing main weapon energy consumption, displaying enemy durability, or increasing lives, and you can equip up to three. For example, you can combine a 10%, 20%, and 30% reduction in main weapon energy consumption at the same time.
Mach: Clearing chapters or reaching certain play times expands the shop's inventory.
Yonezawa: Weapons are shared across difficulty levels, but extra lives are separate. You can clear Hard mode to unlock all weapons, fully equip them, and then play the first chapter on Easy. It's the perfect game to recommend to someone new to the genre.
M-KAI: In Ginga Force, the experience points and levels you would find in an RPG are replaced by the number of enemies defeated and the number of lives remaining. This shares the same philosophy as the Option Level in Eschatos and Judgment Silversword, where we didn't want players to feel their time spent playing was wasted.
Mach: For Ginga Force we think of the difficulty as “curry spice levels.” Not everyone who likes mild curry is going to keep pushing themselves to try spicier and spicier curry. Some players might prefer the easiest difficulty, just like some prefer mild curry.
—You’re aiming for a delicious mild curry, then.
M-KAI: We hope to create something that appeals to the greatest common denominator. This time we set the difficulty to mild so your friends and acquaintances could try it out.
—What kind of features are in place to get onlookers interested in playing?
Mach: In addition to camera angle changes, we made the characters talk a lot, which should be enjoyable for those watching. Recently there’s been a trend in people enjoying shooting replay videos, as spectators, but Ginga Force lets you experience that through the gameplay itself.
M-KAI: We've also included a safety net for those who get a game over. When you make a mistake, the number of lives you have left for that chapter increases accordingly, and you also earn money, allowing you to buy weapons and power up. On easy difficulty, you can at least clear the game. After that, you can practice and level up. It's designed so players don't give up before they even get to the practice stage.
—So the number of lives is set per chapter, and playing increases them?
M-KAI: That's right. You also gain 1UP items that increase your lives by shooting down a set number of enemies per chapter. It's balanced so that if you play through the chapter, you'll always get a 1UP. Even if you get a game over, your shootdown count accumulates, so your lives can increase up to a maximum of 30.
Mach: Though even with 30 lives, later stages on Hard rank are tough. For those stages, we encourage players to experiment with effective equipment combinations. Even within the same chapter, enemy attacks vary significantly depending on the difficulty.
M-KAI: This time, we've prepared diverse attack patterns for each difficulty level, so we believe it avoids being either too easy or too hard.
—Is there a Score Attack mode?
Mach: Of course we've included one. It lets you compete for scores in chapters you’ve unlocked in Story Mode, including “Judgment Force Tiger” and “Judgment Force Dragon,” and supports online rankings via Xbox LIVE. There are three player ships to select, with fixed loadouts, allowing for a pure test of skill.
—I noticed gameplay continues even when the camera angles change, which makes the cutscenes and gameplay feel closely intertwined.
Mach: We implemented similar effects in Eschatos, but after release, we received complaints that the camera angles changed too rapidly. This time, while strengthening the programming aspects, we aimed for a play experience that felt interactive despite being cinematic, allowing gameplay to continue to some extent even when the camera angle changes. This does sometimes make hitboxes harder to discern, but I still think it's fun. Pixel-perfect dodging isn't the only correct approach to STG design. We believe the gameplay can still hold up even with more approximate hit detection.
M-KAI: We feel that if we didn't implement these visual effects, there would be little point in using 3D polygons for the animations.
Yonezawa: For a game released in this era, it needs to look visually interesting, and we didn't want the gameplay to feel stagnant either.
—Adjusting the gameplay during camera angle changes must be quite labor-intensive. Was this something you still wanted to prioritize despite the effort?
Mach: We did. While the beginning and end of each chapter feature story-intro cutscenes, once the game starts, it's fundamentally designed for real-time play, even with the active camerawork.
Yonezawa: We didn't want anything to break the player's concentration, and players will tend to skip unplayable cutscenes anyway.
—There are also special conditions, like completing stages without destroying your rival.
Mach: Initially, we even considered making a game focused entirely on these kinds of situations. It was an ambitious idea. We would have allowed players to clear the stage by performing special actions to meet objectives, like Cardinal Sins. I really wanted to pursue this idea more, but we settled on the current format where each chapter has one special mission designed to corner your rivals.
M-KAI: You get praised for success and scolded for failure. That's another element we introduced for interactivity.
Mach: My long-standing theme has been “shooting like a racing game.” That's why the final boss in Cardinal Sins has a time limit. Rather than having the boss grow stronger over time or introducing characters to prevent infinite loops, I believe pushing your skills to the limit within the timeframe is less stressful than other popular options, like making bosses get stronger as the fight goes on or adding extra enemies to prevent infinite milking. Especially nowadays, I think people prefer playing intensely in short bursts to spending long hours. Playing repeatedly but keeping each session limited fits today's gaming style better.
M-KAI: I never really liked the style of grinding out points by milking enemies right up to the time limit.
—Finally, please share a message for our readers.
Mach: I believe Ginga Force shows a different direction from current shooters, so I hope you'll see that.
Yonezawa: We’ve created graphics like you've never seen before in any other shooter, and we've prepared elaborate story sequences. I think you'll find it very fresh. Please give it a try.
M-KAI: I know some people think “shooters have to let you play every stage at once,” but we put a lot of thought into other playstyles for Ginga Force. We paid attention to making each chapter feel distinct, and I will be very pleased if players notice that.
—Thank you very much for today.
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