Sin & Punishment 2 Detailed
Treasure's latest hits Japan in three weeks! Get the full word here.
October 6, 2009 - We've known about Sin & Punishment 2 for some time now. We even played it at E3. Now, thanks to Famitsu, we've gotten some specifics on the title. The magazine has an interview with the game's development staff, in what will be the first of three weeks of exclusive updates.
In the hot seat for the interview were Treasure producer (and CEO) Masato Maegawa, Nintendo producer Hitoji Yamagami, director Atsutomo Nakagawa, and art director Yasushi Suzuki.
Maegawa touched upon why the sequel exists after so many years. Despite the original's ending, he explained that Treasure wasn't necessarily thinking about a sequel. The original game was made with the idea of using the N64's controller in a unique way. Similarly, they decided to make the sequel once they saw the Wii's controller. "We thought, 'This is the Gun Sword,' isn't it?", recalled Meagawa of having first seen the Wiimote.
It turns out that the game we're seeing as Sin & Punishment 2 may not have actually started off as a sequel to the original. Nakagawa explained that the team was making the game as they pleased, and it slowly ended up resembling Sin & Punishment.
In addition to the shooting mechanics, Sin & Punishment 2 inherits something else from the original: a deep story -- or "very deep," to quote Yamagami. Maegawa joked that he should instead say "hard to understand," but Yamagami added that the scenario has, to a certain extent, become something that can be more easily understood by general users.
Those who are into the Sin & Punishment story will be pleased to know that a good amount of the interview concerns this area of the game. The sequel takes place int he same universe as the original, but on a different planet. You play as Isa Jo, son of the original's main characters, Saki Amamiya and Airan Jo. The Isa character actually appeared in the original, but as Isa Amamiya. According to Maegawa, something happened that made him switch to his mother's name.
Also featuring in Sin & Punishment 2 is Kachi, a mysterious girl. Isa is actually under orders to kill Kachi at the start of the game, but he ends up helping her for some undisclosed reason, and now both are being targeted.
On the gameplay side of things, Nakagawa offered some good news as he said the number of stages has seen "a considerably increase." The game is more than double the length of the original, added Yamagami.
We touched upon some of the basic gameplay concepts in our E3 preview. Unlike the original, where you moved your character just on the ground, the sequel allows for air-based movement as well. You have access to two playable characters now; each character has different capabilities.
Maegawa and crew also commented on difficulty. The gist of his comments are that easy mode has been made easier and hard mode has been made harder. It seems that players at both ends of the skill spectrum will be pleased. However, Yamagami noted that the game is being made specifically for game fans. He said this as he joked that the Wii isn't just about family-oriented titles.
Elsewhere in the Famitsu story, the magazine confirmed something that we heard from Nintendo at E3. Sin & Punishment 2 will feature a Wi-Fi score ranking, allowing players to show off their shooting skills to the rest of the world.
Sin & Punishment 2 is set for Japanese release on October 29. With just a few weeks to go, we're happy to see it enter the headlines again! We'll be sure and bring you as much as possible as the Japanese release approaches.
I loved the original but didn't have any idea this came out so soon in Japan.
I love fighting games !!! Come on challenge me !
