Nintendo of Europe spoke with Mark Washbrook, executive producer at Kuju as well as Nintendo SPD's assistant manager Keisuke Terasaki regarding the upcoming GameCube title Battalion Wars.
Nintendo of Europe: Mark, could you give our members a brief introduction to the games storyline?
Mark Washbrook: The player plays the part of the Western Frontier. We have three commanding officers on the Western Frontier, each with different skills. When you start the game, the Western Frontier is under attack by the Tundran Army, and Tzar Gorgi - who is just passing over the reign of power to [his son] Marshal Nova - has secretly organised an attack against the Western Frontier to force Nova into a war against the Western Frontier. And unbeknownst to Marshal Nova, Tzar Gorgi forms a pact with the Xylvanian Empire, in order to assure the destruction of the Western Frontier forces. Unfortunately Tzar Gorgi is double-crossed by Kaiser Vlad - who is the Xylvanian commander - and the Xylvanians attack both the Western Frontier and Tundran Army in hope of reclaiming their old ancestral land, and from that point on the player joins forces with the Tundran army, in the battle against the Xylvanian Army. And we have another allied army and another enemy army that the player encounters throughout the missions that form part of the story.
NoE: Can you reveal something more about these extra armies already?
MW (smiling): Well, theyre there to present a surprise to the player as they go through the game, so wed rather not reveal too much at this stage!
NoE: The game gives you a lot of freedom to choose different ways to tackle a mission. Can you explain this part a little bit more, and how big a role does this play in the overall gameplay?
MW: The game is a blending of genres; its a combination of tactical strategy gameplay and action gameplay. So the player has full control over all the units that they can play in the game. Weve got a normal rifle man, flamethrower veteran, bazooka veteran, mortar and anti-air veterans. We also have ground vehicles and aerial units. So the player is able to control each of these units, but also to command all the other units that they have with them in the level. And they can switch control between all of the different unit types. The gameplay comes from the players decisions and choices about which units they use to defeat other units in the game. Many of the maps, once you get past the early missions, provide the player with multiple ways to complete each of the scenarios, depending on the kind of unit choices that they make. So for example when they come up against heavy vehicle installations the player will be better off using, say, bazooka troops, than they would flamethrower and infantry troops. And we provide the player with different paths through the level, to allow them to explore and choose a route that best suits their style of gameplay. That gets more complex as you get further into the game, as youre also controlling aerial units, so you have to make decisions about which ground units to take out.
NoE: How many different units are there in the game?
MW: The exact number? Lets see - We have riflemen, flamethrower, bazooka, anti-air and mortar infantry troops, then we have recon, artillery, light tank, heavy tank and a battle station. And then we have gunship fighter, bomber and Strata Fortress that makes 13.
NoE: Can you tell us the reason behind making this game strictly a single player experience?
Keisuke Terasaki: Well, first we were trying to come up with a multiplayer mode, but after doing some experiments we decided not to have it in this game. This time it wasnt working the way we wanted it to.
NoE: So is that something you would consider for a next generation sequel, to create an online version of the game?
KT: Of course its a pivotal point for such a game to have Wi-Fi access, which makes it much easier to access the internet, so its something we really want to do, if we have a chance to make it really well. But let me explain a bit better why we decided not to do a multiplayer mode in this game. When you do a multiplayer game, you need to apply the core gameplay to different fighting sides. We just didnt have the best way to make that multiplayer mode supply enough fun in the limited time we had. We did some experiments, but they werent satisfactory.
MW: We basically werent happy with how the gameplay worked out in multiplayer. Its something that we very much wanted to add to the game, but it wasnt good enough. Obviously, if we choose to do another one, this is something that would be nice to have.
NoE: There is obviously a cosmetic likeness to Advance Wars, although the gameplay appears to be very different. Do you think Battalion Wars will appeal to fans of Advance Wars on GBA?
KT: Kuju has combined real-time action and strategy in the Wars atmosphere game style. Weve come up with a new game, but its still a member of Nintendos Wars series, so they are all related.
NoE: As a final question, is there anything that was not revealed at E3, that you could share with our members?
MW: The bonus missions are something we havent talked to anyone about yet. You unlock these as you go through the game. They allow the player to play special levels where you get to control the other armies that you meet during the game. So throughout the game you play as the Western Frontier, but in the bonus missions you get to play as the allied armies and the enemy armies as well, using their weapons.