Ben Judd's Japanese Blog Translations: The "Top Secret Blog"

[gypsyOtoko]

August 10, 2009
Title: Things Learned from 'The Making of: Vol.3'

Vol. 3 of the 'Making of the Bionic Commando Fight Song' series was actually filmed a pretty long time ago, but I wanted to put it up on the public site closer to the release date of the game.

The reason why being that this video is different from the other ones and features an exclusive interview with a pretty passionate Ichirou Mizuki - that being the case I'd love for everyone to check out vol. 3.

Looking back on this project, I've learned alot of different things. The way things are done in Japanese industry, how long development really is, the importance of making information public and the like. The list could go on forever.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I learned quite a bit from Ichirou Mizuki.
- Take what you love, have a dream and do something new. Even if you figure there are a lot of people that have something they're passionate about, not all of them have a dream. And sometimes even if you have a dream, you don't always have the courage to do something new.

Ya... To an extent I have achieved my dream, but in achieving that I've had plenty of failures along the way. I think I've become a little more frightened of the idea of taking on new challenges.

However I learned from Ichirou Mizuki that during the course of one's life it's important to continue taking on new challenges, and when I think of that I have the courage to be unafraid of failure and continue taking on new challenges. Those words help me a great deal in tough times and times I want to give up.

Ben
(Ben Judd)
(Translation by gypsyOtoko-Matt Walker)

[dvincent]

Someone should tell the photographer on the side that motor drives are very annoying when recording videos.

[stove_]

One of the guys have to call him "BenBen" on the next podcast.

[gypsyOtoko]

(Translator's note: The BBS didn't like me trying to post more than 4 images in one post, so I've decided to change the last IMG tag to a link tag. Sorry for the inconvenience.)

April 17, 2009
Title: Conceptual Progression and Modification

As the release date of the game approaches I'm hoping everyone is going to get revved up for release, however prior to that let's go back to the beginning.

When creating a huge title like Bionic Commando you tend to put several years into the product before releasing it. On that long road to release everything from the design of the characters , to the world the game takes place in, the story, and even the fundamental gameplay elements of the game change.

During this blog I'll be touching on those modifications and progressions that occur during the development of the game.

During the development of Bionic Commando what took the lion's share of the time was the design of the swing element (the animation, the movement, the effects, etc). What took another pretty big chunk of time was the character design.

The big problem with creation of the hero of Bionic Commando - Spencer, was the design of "Spencer with the Bionic Arm". We had to come up with a way to make his face and body look natural even with a giant freakin' metal bionic arm grafted on.

That being the case we started design focusing on creating a good balance for his whole body. We started with a wireframe design and then chose our balance for the whole body.



Next we considered the theme of the character. Since Spencer's existence is supposed to be representative of 'the American Hero' we thought about trying to display the Stars and Stripes somewhere on his body. At one point we also thought it was important to retain the characteristic red hair he had from the NES version of Bionic Commando. And then we decided that by making his hair longer we could not only give him some individuality, but we could also give the player a more visual cue of the direction Spencer was swinging in by having his hair flail accordingly.



We ended up putting the Stars and Stripes on the arm at one point. That design, however, made the arm look like something you'd see the villain using and therefore ended up going with a different design.



1. Red hair
2. Long hair
3. An arm with a more human like hand, rather than a sharp metal claw

Using the 3 items above as a base, we came up with the following image:



However after hearing various opinions on the red hair, we decided that it didn't really fit the hero type, and just for kicks decided to make a design similar to your standard military type character. After that we also got a suggestion to make the arm more Science Fiction-esque so we tried a design that was somewhere between the claw and the hand design.

http://www.capcom-fc.com/bc/thumbnail/4174.jpg

However we realized that it was better within the game to have a more hand-like design, and that by giving the character the standard short haired soldier look you always see we lost some of the visual impact - so we went back to long hair. And so after altering and fixing the design of both the arm and the character we settled on the final design that you have all seen. But we knew that there were definitely gonna be fans that would scream - 'If he doesn't have red hair - he ain't Spencer!', so we decided that the long, brown haired Spencer wouldn't be enough. At that point we decided to have a meeting with the dev team and the final decision of that meeting was to make a classic Spencer model. Using the model the user can play as Spencer with his original outfit from the NES 'Bionic Commando'. At that point in development it would be pretty rough work squeezing the time into creating the model, but we knew we owed it to the fans who had supported the series for so many long years.

You can access this classic model by purchasing 'Bionic Commando:Rearmed' on the same hardware as you're playing the new Bionic Commando, so by all means we would love to have you download the game and give it a whirl.

Hey, being an Osaka-ite I still have to try and make some money somehow!
(That's right, BenBen is, for all intents and purposes - an Osaka-ite!)
(Translator's note: Sorry, I may have messed up this last sentence since I don't speak the Osaka dialect and have chosen not to put the effort into looking it up tonight. :P)

Right, back on track - my bad! Anyhow, it was a long process, but that's how the new Spencer came to be. Given how hard we've worked on it, it would be great if the character really caught on.

Ben
(Ben Judd)
(Translation by gypsyOtoko-Matt Walker)

[Carnivol]

Originally Posted by gypsyOtoko

Using the 3 items above as a base, we came up with the following image:

Am I the only one who think that one looks a tad bit like Simon?

[MutantSquid]

Thanks for these gypsyOtoko.

The second pic with the huge USA badge is reminding me of Judge Dredd a little. I still don't understand the brown hair, I think that last pic with the red dreads looks the better to be honest. :P

[gypsyOtoko]

April 23, 2009: e-Capcom's Limited Preorder Special!

With Bionic Commando's release quickly approaching and having my hands full with Capcom's big event: "Captivate 09" I'm a busy guy, but there's something that I gotta promote to you guys right now!

While I've mentioned all the preorder bonuses for the overseas consumers already, this time I'd like to let you guys in on one of the bonuses headed for Japan ----

By purchasing Bionic Commando on e-Capcom, as a limited preorder bonus you can get "Bionic Commando: Rearmed The Soundtrack"! Right now this soundtrack can only be acquired by going through e-Capcom!

Actually overseas the soundtrack is available through digital purchase, and it has been received with relatively high praise - even selling quite well given that game soundtracks are not known for being strong sellers overseas. If you check out the iTunes store, you'll notice of the 19 reviews that are up for it, most of them are 5 stars.

This music was composed by adding a new backbeat feeling to the base 8-bit tracks. It's an innovative arrangement of the nostalgic game music of old mixed with modern style rhythm.

I've been known to listen to this soundtrack when jogging, myself. I mean, c'mon - it's got awesome rhythm and it's freakin' game music! It's AWESOME!

BUT if you want to get this on a printed CD it can only be done here in Japan! This is definitely what you could call a special edition.

However this is a limited edition run, so when the first batch are all gone it's all over. So hurry up and reserve this game!

But, the bonuses don't end there!
You also have a chance to enter into a raffle for signatures by my beloved Ichirou Mizuki and Kouhei Tanaka!
(Benben wants one of these, and even he can't get them!)

You can preorder Bionic Commando from the following links:

>>PS3
>>XBox360



Ben
(Ben Judd)
(Translated by gypsyOtoko-Matt Walker)

[Skanneri]

Originally Posted by gypsyOtoko

http://www.capcom-fc.com/bc/thumbnail/4174.jpg

Haha, Spencers lost evil twin, Axl Rose.

[gypsyOtoko]

May 1st, 2009
Title: The Captivate 09 Event, a New Trailer and an e-Capcom Update.

Hello all of you swingers!

I reckon that with the start of Golden Week ( :a holiday week for the Japanese) everyone is ready to start some hardcore vacationing - so do you guys have any plans to go anywhere?

Speaking of going places, Ol' Benben spent last week carrying out various activities at Capcom's 'Captivate 09' event. This time we held the event in one of those spots the celebs tend to have a taste for: Monaco. As you can see in the picture below, the view from the hotel was stunning.



It's all good - you guys don't be jealous now. I was mostly stuck inside the hotel the majority of the time taking interview after interview and doing game presentations - so that view from the window is just about all the opportunity I had to enjoy the outside. That being said, it was an incredibly important event in that we were able to show the press our new titles and get their honest feedback.

Naturally we exhibited BC's multiplayer at the event as well. I was happy to hear positive feedback in relation to that. Ol' BenBen isn't much of a multiplayer guy, but BC's multiplayer is incredibly fun so I often end up getting sucked into it for hours. (And so it follows that I've also gotten pretty good at it as well.)

Switching gears for a second, have any of you seen the new trailer? Given that the graphics have been given a bit of a power-up and a pretty good tempo has been established I think you can start to get an idea of how freakin' awesome BC's 'New Generation Swing Action' really is!

Additionally, as i introduced in my last entry, by reserving BC on e-Capcom you will receive the Bionic Commando:Rearmed soundtrack ahead of the game. These cd's are in limited quality, so for those of you who haven't reserved yet you should hurry up and get on that!

And so with the opening of Golden Week, BenBen is going to be catching up on some sleep. (And I therefore will be sleeping in the stead of updating the blog next week!)

I hope everyone enjoys themselves with their families, loved ones and friends this week~!

Ben
(Ben Judd)
(Translated by gypsyOtoko-Matt Walker)

[gypsyOtoko]

With the end of Golden Week people are starting to get 'sick' of thinking about how the year is only half over. That being said in today's blog entry I'll be touching upon a special type of virus that we hope you don't want to get rid of.

Recently viruses have become a pretty hot topic for discussion. Well it turns out that this term, 'virus', can be applied to marketing as well.

One thing that we give alot of thought to on the website/community site is how to generate increasing interest in the game. One way to do this is a technique called 'viral marketing'. The word 'viral' comes from 'virus', and so the thought is that, similarly to a virus, certain videos/images/audio that are made public will get passed around from person to person. And so those materials will then gradually spread and attract the attention of more and more people.

The viral video we have up on our public website is definitely of an 'American flavor', so I'm not entirely sure how much sense it will make to those who were raised in other parts of the world - but why not check it out for the sake of tasting some of that foreign flavor?



For those of you who don't understand that last bit of English I'll go ahead and translate it for you:

"Relax, no cats were actually harmed during the filming of this commercial. Meow."

Additionally, e-Capcom, which already offers an excellent pre-order bonus for the game, can now be linked to as an affiliate!

As we're offering a special opening campaign, if you act now for a limited time you'll get twice the points for linking to the website - so if any of you have a website or a blog we would love for you to help us promote Capcom on all fronts!

>>e-Capcom Affiliate Site Campaign Details

Naturally there's also a banner for Bionic Commando so please go get it and add it to your site!

Ben
(Ben Judd)
(Translation by gypsyOtoko - Matt Walker)