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Double Dragon Revive
The evolution of street fighting (Gamescom 2024) - Interview about Double Dragon: Revive
We tested the long-awaited return of the franchise at Gamescom and spoke to creative director Guillaume Cailteux about its move to 3D, the more open-ended approach of this instalment and much more.
Audio transcription
"Hi Gamereactor friends, I'm at the Arc System Works booth at Gamescom 2024 and I just got my hands on Double Dragon Revive.
It's the first time we've been able to play the game, so thank you so much for joining us, Guillaume, and thank you for allowing us to play for the very first time."
"First of all, it is a 3D game, so for fans of the original games, for fans of pixel art, give us the best reasons why you chose to go 3D.
I know a couple of reasons that I liked, but please, tell us why you went 3D.
So, one of the philosophies of Double Dragon, we wanted to evolve with this game is the interactions with the environment and the different kind of actions the player can take."
"So, when doing this, 3D was kind of an obvious choice for us because it allows us to more efficiently implement these kind of actions related to environment and such on.
Not only that, but also, in my opinion, one nice thing you can do in 3D that feels good or better than in 2D is that you can now go diagonal."
"You can see how both the enemies have patterns that attack you diagonally and you can also use the thumbstick to approach them and the objects lying around, correct?
Yes, exactly.
One of the goals of this game in particular was to make the most people possible fall in love also with the genre of beat-em-ups."
"And when we kind of did a self-reflection of, for example, Double Dragon 4 and the very recent titles we had that were beat-em-ups and what kind of bottlenecks they had for newcomers into the genre, was that angle adjusting to the adversaries in order to be able to hit those was kind of a showstopper for a lot of people that are not just used to beat-em-ups, right?
So, we tried to keep the core aspect of what makes beat-em-up fun and Double Dragon fun while making it, let's say, more comfortable overall and without, let's say, much stress that was kind of inherent to some other games in the genre."
"And I guess for beat-em-ups to become modern, you really have to go 3D.
And Arc System Works, it's not that Arc System Works don't know how to transition from traditional 2D to 3D.
They really know their thing, right?
Yes, the graphics especially, I think, is what you are mentioning."
"In general, also the gameplay. They came from traditional fighting games and now they have many more 3D games and they nail it too.
Yes, yes. And really, for this project in particular, it really just seemed like something that made sense in order to make the genre evolve, and especially Double Dragon, given all the interactions with the environment, how to play with your surroundings in order to get the upper hand in battle."
"Now that you mentioned the environment, I could hang myself from a sign, I could go through a wall, I picked up a knife, I kicked a basketball.
So, what can you tell us about these interactions and some of the crazy things we can expect to happen in the environment itself?
Yes, sure. One of the philosophies behind this game is that to use these kind of environmental tricks that are what we think is one of the big identity points of the series, is to reward the player by using these kind of tricks against their enemies."
"So, the more that you are using, let's say, these gimmicks like putting an enemy into a garbage bin or kicking an object into an enemy's face or stuff like that, let's say the faster you are going to build up a super move gauge.
So, we are trying to kind of keep the player incentivized in wanting to use the most creative way possible in dispatching their enemies and what we think that really made the most fun of what Double Dragon had right from its beginnings."
"And when you finish a level, do you get like a score in how you did it?
How fashionably you fought?
Fashionably, no, but we get a score that of course is put into numbers.
Heats?
Yes, yes, exactly. And also a timer and stuff like that."
"So, we are of course aiming for replayability here, but foremost to aim for creativity and have, let's say, the most efficient and fun ways to play along.
And then you feel the gauge and you can release your Double Dragon special moves.
What can you tell us about them?
These new special moves are actually one of the tricks we took from the book of fighting games that we also took a lot of inspiration from."
"So, maybe having the game, you realize that there are a lot more actions that are available to the player compared to the old games.
Or most, to be honest, most of the beat them ups.
It's because we have kind of fused the gameplay of beat them ups with a little bit of fighting game versus fighting games as well."
"So, you will have dodges, counters.
Blocks.
Yes, blocks, anti-air.
Blocks weren't on the original or were they grapples?
Depends on the games, but not in some Double Dragon games, but you can see a lot of blocking."
"For example, in all the River City games as well, which is kind of the parents of the Double Dragon.
But some of the Double Dragon games also have blocking.
Okay, final one."
"This is called Double Dragon, so we expect it to be playable by at least two players.
Is that correct?
Is that going to happen?
When is it going to happen?
Is it going to be only two players or up to four players?
Is it going to be local?
Is it going to be online?
So, we are, of course, there will be at least two players."
"We are looking at, technically speaking, if we can support without any problems four players.
We are aiming to have as many as we can.
Couch multiplayer as well as online with both will be supported."
"Okay, and you guys are showing more of this game next month on the Tokyo Game Show and in Paris.
Yes, exactly.
We will have a demo with two players."
"I think it will be two-player cooperation mode at the Tokyo Game Show and also at the Paris Games Week.
We also aim to have new information coming up about the game.
And then the game will release when?
2025 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox and PC."
"That's it. That's Double Dragon getting revived here at Gamescom 2024.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you very much.
Merci."
Gamescom
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