Hello everybody! On behalf of our studio Undercoders, and forward of the sport’s launch on July 15, we’re thrilled to present you an unique in-depth have a look at the first boss of Denshattack!
Denshattack! is a frenetic trick-based motion sport the place you kickflip, ollie, and grind… as a prepare! Set in a colourful dystopian model of Japan, you need to rack up factors, full aims, and race rivals to turn into one of the best Denshattacker of all time.
We took inspiration from a few of our favourite extreme-sports collection, corresponding to Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater and SSX, and mixed them with the vitality of traditional arcade hits and the fascinating Y2K, colourful, cel-shaded aesthetics seen in video games like Jet Set Radio or Auto Modellista.
Denshattack!’s world is constructed round outsiders
Denshattack! takes place in a future model of Japan the place a local weather disaster has left the wealthy untouchable inside their air-purifying domes, whereas everybody else is pressured to outlive within the undomed wastelands. A rebellious motion often known as Denshattack has reclaimed the deserted legacy railroad tracks, utilizing them to combat for recognition in underground duels of pace, methods, and method.
Emi, a younger however expert ramen supply lady, discovers Denshattack when she crosses paths with a journalist and units off on an intense journey of discovery, progress, and problem. From the southern lands of Kyushu to the freezing north of Hokkaido, she might want to make her manner throughout Japan, crossing the ruins of the once-powerful railway community, assembly outcasts, studying new strategies, enhancing her abilities, and battling native gang leaders.
Gang Bosses: an epic prepare showdown!
When designing the sport, the group had a transparent imaginative and prescient for the story arcs: similar to in a traditional shonen anime, every chapter needed to finish with a catharsis that felt spectacular, making a problem to place all of the newly discovered mechanics to the take a look at.
In Denshattack!, every of Japan’s areas is managed by a gang of outlaws led by a strong fighter. Every gang has its personal visible id, persona, style, and musical character, straight impressed by Japan’s suburban tradition. These leaders every have their very own motives, signature strikes and secret strategies to offer the right base for a significant boss battle.
However how do you create a boss combat with trains? Occurring rails could sound like a giant limitation, however when your prepare can defy gravity to leap, wallride, trick, or grind, it may additionally dodge punches, parry projectiles, stomp on a protect, or launch itself in opposition to a mecha with a power of fifty tons!
Prepare-to-train (or train-to-giant-machine) fight seems to be fairly attention-grabbing. And when mixed with a forged of distinctive characters, native folklore, and Japan’s infinite supply of popular culture influences and aesthetics, it opens up a whole lot of alternatives to create unique boss fights.
Kogals Unite! Meet Yoshie from the Dashing Queens
Yoshie is an influencer from Fukuoka whose reputation turned so {powerful} that the federal government branded her a menace. In actuality, they merely concern her affect. Her visible design and bubbly persona clearly embody gyaru, a Japanese subculture that challenges conventional Japanese magnificence requirements by centering glamour, quantity, and confidence. You may see this in her hair, make-up, clothes, equipment, and, after all, her prepare.
However most of all, you may see it in her transformation sequence. Paying homage to traditional Sentai exhibits or anime corresponding to Sailor Moon, Yoshie’s prepare joins forces together with her troopers and morphs into an enormous magical girl-esque mecha. The gyaru parts lengthen right here too, with bows, stars, and hearts galore.
Each boss combat follows a traditional construction of various phases, the place gamers have to determine patterns, keep away from injury, and search for openings to carry out counter-attacks. On this combat, Emi first makes use of methods and combos to entry the primary battle, then performs fast rail adjustments to keep away from the punches and makes use of grinds and floor kilos to ship blows to the mecha. All these strategies are launched all through the first chapter after which put to the take a look at through the combat.
The extent’s music displays Yoshie too: her battle theme is a collaboration between composer Sean Bialo, main Vocaloid producer Yunosuke, and pop singer (and real-life gyaru idol) Alice Peralta.
Onto the subsequent station!
Our writer, Fireshine Video games, cherished the duel in opposition to Yoshie once we first offered it, however raised an attention-grabbing query: if that is the first boss combat and also you’re already battling a large mecha… the place will we go from right here? The one potential reply was: up and past!
Boss fights have been one of the crucial enjoyable and attention-grabbing design challenges we’ve encountered whereas creating Denshattack!. We’ve been working arduous to create set items that really feel intense, difficult, unique, shocking, and, above all, memorable.
We will’t wait so that you can play them!
Denshattack! launches on PS5 on July 15.