Scalebound Aims to Merge the Best of Action and Action RPG; PlatimumGames Explains its Design Philosophy

At GDC 2016 PlatinumGames Executive Director Atsushi Inaba hosted a panel in which he illustrated the studio’s design philosophy for action games.

You can see the full recording below, as it was made available on YouTube today, and interestingly we got a few details on the upcoming Xbox One exclusive Scalebound.

Inaba-san mentioned that games like Scalebound, that have stronger RPG elements are a better fit for character customization than action games. While the emphasis is on growing the dragon, the main character Drew will also have his own set of actions. With the game’s customization features PlatinumGames is trying to take the best of both worlds, action games and action RPG.

That said, Director Hideki Kamiya has a “strong preference” for having a very unique character, so Drew definitely won’t be “an uninspiring character.”

If you’re interested in learning in detail how PlatinumGames designs its action games, and manages to make them fitting for an international audience, you can check out the full talk below.