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[Tizoc]

Just finished reading this excellent article about the development of SoR2/BK2.
http://shmuplations.com/streetsofrage2/

This interview is an in-depth look at the making of Streets of Rage 2 (Bare Knuckle II in Japan) with its designer Ayano Koshiro. Although a veteran of game design whose work has graced classics like Actraiser, Lunar, and Ys, in the West she is still largely unknown except as the sister of famous composer Yuzo Koshiro. In any event, this candid interview serves as an excellent introduction to her own significant contribution to gaming.


This interview appeared on Ancient’s blog as a celebration of the recent 3DS port of Streets of Rage 2. They also shared the planning docs for the game, including much of Ayano Koshiro’s original concept art. I’ve translated a selection of these for your enjoyment here!

Miss Koshiro gets it-

V. Imagining Streets of Rage 4

—Who would the characters be?

Koshiro: Well, one thing is for sure: no moe characters. Just old dudes and tough guys.

—And muscleheads, right?

Koshiro: Oh yes, muscles. Muscles, muscles, and more muscles! (laughs)

—Who exactly would buy this game? (laughs)

Koshiro: Me. (laughs) I think tastes are changing though and more people are getting into this kind of stuff again. These days everything is just little girls and I think people are getting tired of it.

—And I think Streets of Rage fans want that older style.

Koshiro: Yeah, definitely. I don’t think it would fly with little moeblobs.

—Yeah, this is Bare KNUCKLE after all. You fight with your fists!

Koshiro: Yeah, this is no placed for teddy bears.

The article also has a link for the 3DS SoR 2 interview

Didn't see a thread for this yet, thanks to JCViewtiful for linking to the article~

 

[Ashes]

Didn't they just release streets of rage 1 music album on vinyl? Sounds like something is cooking.

 

[Crono27]

They didn't they just release streets of rage 1 music album on vinyl? Sounds like something is cooking.

Yes they did supposedly 2nd one is coming soon. Was just at a buds house earlier today and saw it.

 

[Hours Left]

V. Imagining Streets of Rage 4

—Who would the characters be?

Koshiro: Well, one thing is for sure: no moe characters. Just old dudes and tough guys.

—And muscleheads, right?

Koshiro: Oh yes, muscles. Muscles, muscles, and more muscles! (laughs)

—Who exactly would buy this game? (laughs)

Koshiro: Me. (laughs) I think tastes are changing though and more people are getting into this kind of stuff again. These days everything is just little girls and I think people are getting tired of it.

—And I think Streets of Rage fans want that older style.

Koshiro: Yeah, definitely. I don’t think it would fly with little moeblobs.

—Yeah, this is Bare KNUCKLE after all. You fight with your fists!

Koshiro: Yeah, this is no placed for teddy bears.

This lady is speaking my language.

 

[Dragon1893]

This is very interesting, thanks for posting.
A reminder of how straightforward game development was back then.

 

[Haunted]

no moe characters

[...]

These days everything is just little girls and I think people are getting tired of it.

:bow

 

[chaobreaker]

I already linked to this interview on this thread I made a month ago. It's a good read though.

Here's some scans of SoR2's concept art as well.

 

[Memory]

Nice find.

 

[Tizoc]

I already linked to this interview on this thread I made a month ago. It's a good read though.

Here's some scans of SoR2's concept art as well.

I did see your thread when searching for threads with 'streets of rage' in their title, but wasn't aware you linked to the article my bad ^^;

The article mentions they developed the game in less than a year btw.

 

[gelf]

—Who exactly would buy this game? (laughs)

Koshiro: Me. (laughs) I think tastes are changing though and more people are getting into this kind of stuff again. These days everything is just little girls and I think people are getting tired of it.

I really hope that's true. Its tough at times these days being a long time fan of Japanese games and at the same time finding the moe aesthetic a complete and utter turn off.

Sega please let these guys make SOR4. I'd be there day 1 even if it had no graphical advancement from a Mega Drive game. In fact that could be a positive as that means more stunning 16-bit cityscapes.

 

[Loona]

The interview is pretty great. I can only hope Axel's presence in Project X Zone 2 helps to boost the chances for a new game in the series.

 

[Tizoc]

The interview is pretty great. I can only hope Axel's presence in Project X Zone 2 helps to boost the chances for a new game in the series.

I'd settle for M2 or Taxman quality ports of the trilogy on Steam and modern consoles >_>;

 

[Vex_]

Just as long as bae blaze is still there it doesn't matter who else is in the game.

Spoiler

Although my main was skate.

 

[hodgy100]

I'd settle for M2 or Taxman quality ports of the trilogy on Steam and modern consoles >_>;

lawd that would be excellent. Im annoyed that sega hasn't jumped on Taxman to make high quality ports of all their older titles :/

 

[Boogalogist]

Alright! Go beefcakes!

 

[:Motorbass]

Here's some scans of SoR2's concept art as well.

ERECTRA yo!

 

[@MUWANdo]

lawd that would be excellent. Im annoyed that sega hasn't jumped on Taxman to make high quality ports of all their older titles :/

Without taking away from the quality of Taxman's work, those ports were only possible due to the classic Sonic games being meticulously dissected by Sonic fanatics for the past 10+ years; I don't think you can expect him to apply the same degree of thoroughness or competence with any old game.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

They didn't they just release streets of rage 1 music album on vinyl? Sounds like something is cooking.

I wish.

Wait, Axel in Project X Zone 2? Album release? Nah......still, not holding my breath for a new game.

 

[Vex_]

I wish.

Wait, Axel in Project X Zone 2? Album release? Nah......still, not holding my breath for a new game.

Ikr. It's like everything makes sense for a game to be made, but then you just think "oh right... This is SEGA we are talking about. Not happening."

 

[Tizoc]

I wish.

Wait, Axel in Project X Zone 2? Album release? Nah......still, not holding my breath for a new game.

Is Axel's story in PXZ2 about him trying to save Adam.
Again?
Blaze and Skate should be a duo unit IMO

 

[The Taxman]

Without taking away from the quality of Taxman's work, those ports were only possible due to the classic Sonic games being meticulously dissected by Sonic fanatics for the past 10+ years; I don't think you can expect him to apply the same degree of thoroughness or competence with any old game.

I'd disagree on that. You'd be right in that Streets of Rage would take longer to remaster initially, because the game would need to be researched, but the Retro Engine itself that the Sonic remasters run on is adaptable for many 2D games.

Personally though, I've never wanted to do SOR because Bombergames' SOR Remake was so good. If anyone deserved to do a remaster it's them.

 

[Tizoc]

I'd disagree on that. You'd be right in that Streets of Rage would take longer to remaster initially, because the game would need to be researched, but the Retro Engine itself that the Sonic remasters run on is adaptable for many 2D games.

Personally though, I've never wanted to do SOR because Bombergames' SOR Remake was so good. If anyone deserved to do a remaster it's them.

Is that the fanmade SoR game from a few years back?

 

[The Taxman]

Is that the fanmade SoR game from a few years back?

That's the one A very nice remixed soundtrack (Even noticed some cheeky samples from The Prodigy in there) and basically all 3 games mashed up into one mega game, with oodles of configurable options.

 

[Loona]

I'd settle for M2 or Taxman quality ports of the trilogy on Steam and modern consoles >_>;

Didn't an article about the 3DS version of SoR2 mention something about plans to make Shiva playable in Versus mode, but that didn't come through? I wish they'd get the chance to complete that.

Is Axel's story in PXZ2 about him trying to save Adam.
Again?
Blaze and Skate should be a duo unit IMO

Was there any information on that? Since Robo-X is an opponent in PXZ2, I'd assume events are after SoR2, so Adam would be out.
Then again, Captain Commando in NxC is after the events of that game, and for Darkstalkers the Jedah stuff happened before the Pyron events...

I'd like Shiva as a recruitable enemy in PXZ though...

Is that the fanmade SoR game from a few years back?

Yep, it was great.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

As an indie who is making a beat 'em right now, this interview was super interesting.
Glad you posted it OP!

 

[Mdk7]

I wish SoR 4 would happen. Really, that genre is just so much fun.

 

[Tizoc]

Didn't an article about the 3DS version of SoR2 mention something about plans to make Shiva playable in Versus mode, but that didn't come through? I wish they'd get the chance to complete that.



Was there any information on that? Since Robo-X is an opponent in PXZ2, I'd assume events are after SoR2, so Adam would be out.
Then again, Captain Commando in NxC is after the events of that game, and for Darkstalkers the Jedah stuff happened before the Pyron events...

I'd like Shiva as a recruitable enemy in PXZ though...



Yep, it was great.

I don't see any issues with Adam being kidnapped again and need to be saved, could be made into a running gag sort of thing

But wait PXZ2 has some events taking place BEFORE some of the events of PXZ1?

 

[Cave Johnson]

Thank you for doing this interview today. To start off, what was your role in the development of Streets of Rage II?

Koshiro: Role? I’d probably say Chief Graphic Designer. Nowadays we’d call it something like “art direction” (deciding the overall look of the game). I also did character designs. I came up with all the special moves and attacks too—in their rough outline/draft form, that is.

—Oh, you did the moves/attacks too? Did the planners give you some general guidance about that?

Koshiro: No, I came up with them first. For setting the actual damage parameters, we had a head planner for that, but the approximate strength of each attack was something I wrote out. You know, like “jump attack does 1 damage, straight jab does 2, heavy jab does 3″, etc. For Max and Sammy, they were new characters, so I consulted with my brother Yuzo Koshiro about them.

—Oh, so you designed Max and Sammy from the ground up?

Koshiro: Yeah.

What? So she essentially is responsible for ALL the BEST parts of the fucking game? How the fuck did she fly so under the radar when it comes to female developers. This right here is this Truth and the Tree of fucking LIFE!

 

[kevm3]

She pretty much vocalized everything I've wanted to say. I looked at some Japanese indie stuff and the vast majority of it is little schoolgirls, which is bizarre. I don't want to play a game as a little schoolgirl or some prettyboy jpop kpop star. Time to go back to that old school tough aesthetic.

 

[@MUWANdo]

Didn't an article about the 3DS version of SoR2 mention something about plans to make Shiva playable in Versus mode, but that didn't come through? I wish they'd get the chance to complete that.

That's something that came out recently, yeah--they'd initially planned for six playable characters including Shiva and a greater emphasis on the versus mode, but it was simply too ambitious and they had to scale back.

I'd disagree on that. You'd be right in that Streets of Rage would take longer to remaster initially, because the game would need to be researched, but the Retro Engine itself that the Sonic remasters run on is adaptable for many 2D games.

Personally though, I've never wanted to do SOR because Bombergames' SOR Remake was so good. If anyone deserved to do a remaster it's them.

Oh, you're a member here? I didn't have a clue.

I didn't mean to disparage your engine at all; my point was that projects like your Sonic remaster or even the aforementioned Bombergames SOR remake are the culmination of a lot of time and effort from passionate fans and aren't necessarily something that can easily be reproduced by substituting one or any element.

I guess that's why it bugs me when people write off M2's 3DS Sonic ports because they can't hang with yours--no shit, M2's a salaried company with tight deadlines and a million other things to do, they can't realistically be expected to match something like your project.

(I do wish they'd taken cues from S2R's special stages, though; I respect the effort they made to add stereoscopic 3D to the authentic backgrounds but there was simply no way to make it look good with the original frames.)

 

[Tizoc]

I just now realized that was Taxman
Can't believe I neglected to read the username D=

 

[Angelus Errare]

So Alex is half Asian Jean Claude, and uh big guy who's name I never remember is Bruce Lee if he decided to lift all the things.

 

[Loona]

But wait PXZ2 has some events taking place BEFORE some of the events of PXZ1?

Considering the sequence:
Namco X Capcom -> Endless Frontier -> Endless Frontier Exceed -> PXZ1 -> PXZ2, and the subplots covered in each of those games, yep.

In NxC, a number of referenced games' events had already taken place, like Captain Commando's and Bravoman's.
Reiji and Xiaomu started a romantic relationship at the end of that game, by the time Endless Frontier came about was already established (with a mild spanking kink thrown in to boot). PXZ has boosted Saya clones based on the NxC final boss.
The Endless Frontier games reference story elements from the Super Robot Wars Original Generation games that preceded them.
In PXZ the likes of Heihachi, Morrigan, Chun-Li, Valkyrie and Arthur had already met thanks to NxC events.
Also in PXZ Sakura got annoyed with Ogami about 3 times over his interactions with other girls, one of which was Erica, and in PXZ2 they're no longer in the same team - Ogami and Erica are now together, and Segata Sanshiro is now present to establish the true Sega OTP.

Sure they have to make these things sort of simple so the games can stand on their own, but there are plenty of callbacks to what preceded them - they learned a lot of lessons from decades of Super Robot Wars games.