The producer of Phantom Blade Zero believes that authentic cultural themes are important to games and should not be diluted for a global audience.
Liang Qiwei (known as Soulframe), who is also the CEO of developer S-Game, discussed the topic with Japanese site 4Gamer at this year's Tokyo Game Show (thanks Automaton).
The upcoming action game has a “kung-fu punk” aesthetic, described as “using kung-fu and martial arts as the core and coating them with popular culture.”
Additionally, Qiwei suggested that having a dark theme is part of the appeal to a global audience, comparing the game to Game Science's Black Myth: Wukong, which has achieved enormous success.
“If we look at recent titles, Black Myth: Wukong had to overcome a much bigger hurdle than our game in terms of culture, as it is completely based on a classic work of Chinese literature,” Qiwei said.
“So [Game Science] You may run into this problem of players not understanding the cultural background. But in my opinion, the quality and gameplay experience of a game is its core. If you can achieve a high-quality, entertaining gaming experience, I think a difficult theme can be an advantage, not a disadvantage. If your game is entertaining, players will perceive unfamiliar themes as something new.”
He continued: “The reason we Chinese gamers know Western and Japanese culture is because we had very entertaining Western and Japanese games as an entry point. We slowly became accustomed to them. I doubt Chinese gamers knew much about samurai. Japanese at first, and I don't think they were particularly interested in them, but because there were so many good games about them, they're now recognized as basically a pop thing.
“So, again, if the game itself is interesting, the feeling that its themes are strange can be an advantage, rather than a barrier. I think it is a very strong advantage that attracts more players.”
It's certainly an interesting take, considering one criticism of Black Myth: Wukong was its disjointed narrative that relied on knowledge of the novel it's based on. Likewise, this could have fueled renewed interest in the novel, particularly outside of China.
Phantom Blade Zero has been compared to From Software's Dark Souls games, although Qiwei insisted that the game is not soul-like despite some influence.
I got to play Phantom Blade Zero at Gamescom and loved its tense, parry-based action.