Comments on: Ubisoft Gets It: Why Red Steel Needs Canned Sword Moves

By: Hutch

Hutch — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:26:38 +0000

You make a lot of good points, but let’s be realistic. Ubisoft released this game prior to the Wii making it’s market debut so they didn’t have a lot of time. They were thinking, “Crap, this controller is awesome, but the wii interface only gives us which way the gyro is moving and the orientation of the controller and where it’s pointing and when”. That doesn’t translate to “The top of the controler is at x,y,z in space, and the bottom of the controller is at x,y,z in space.” So, although we have general orientations of the controller and vague movements conveyed to the engine, that doesn’t translate into a concise set of instructions they can convey to the rendering softare. They had to work with what they had, to produce a quality piece of software.
I think they did a great job.

By: hobojo

hobojo — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 22:00:20 +0000

People also seem to overlook a key aspect about swordfighting that would not work well for the Wii controller: swords have metal blades, that when they hit most things, do not pass through. If your opponent blocks your strike with his sword, in the game your sword would have to stop abruptly midswing, but in real life you could still move your hand freely without any feedback besides perhaps a rumble. So if this was truely freeform where the game follows every action you make exactly, how does the game resolve this disconcurrence? Does the game just abruptly jump the position of your sword, which would be completely unrealistic? What would happen if your opponent not only blocked your strike, but pushed your sword away to the side?

The fact of the matter is, your playing space is not accurate with what’s happening in the gamespace is, and as a result what the game does cannot mimick what you do in real life 100%

By: gardenofwiids

gardenofwiids — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 13:45:33 +0000

Using buttons would certainly not have been a better course of action. Pressing a button to trigger an attack is hardly an immersive experience. Moreover, the number of buttons on the Wiimote is very limited while the number of gestures that could be executed with the controller is limitless.

Giving players what they want is important but not terribly so. Nintendo in particular has often stated that they try not to give people what they want but rather something new and exciting that they would not have thought of themselves. Personally, I see more opportunity for complaints about freeform control in this game than anything else.

Finally, the game was not in any form at E3 other than demo form. Ubisoft will certainly listen to the tide of complaints and make adjustments, but I doubt they will suddenly make everything freeform unless they find it to be fun.

By: Mee

Mee — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 12:23:05 +0000

Good try to justify RedSteel current Gameplay.

But it makes no sense to me, if you ask the question “Why Ubi HAD to do …” I ask this question “What is the point of the wiimote if it is used to trigger canned moves ? A simple pad with buttons would seem a better choice for that type of action.”

So Basically I think the current control scheme of RedSteel :
-is NOT what players, you know, the “masses” wants, and the players are the buyers so…
-is completly ignoring the innovative wiimote by using it to trigger canned moves…

you can justify that the way you want, it will not make ppl buy the game in the form it was shown at E3

By: There Is A Dream Dreaming Us » Interesting post about Wii controller

There Is A Dream Dreaming Us » Interesting post about Wii controller — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 04:03:35 +0000

[...] http://gardenofwiids.wordpress.com/ [...]

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 03:23:37 +0000

Excellent article, couldn’t agree more with your reasoning on canned moves. Even with Nintendos new controller they would need to have some really advanced programming to pull it off, aswell as a massive learning curve for the gamer.

Lets not forget nintendos direction is about making games accessible to non-gamers and ubisoft are taking that direction by making it easy for non gamers to actually be able to pick up and play the game without having to sit there for 12 hours learning 101 on sword play.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 15:02:36 +0000

The answer is because the Wiimote is not precise enough to do it:

http://www.xgaming.com/newsletter/Wii%20Dupe.shtml

By: bongo

bongo — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 23:34:01 +0000

yeah ubisoft isnt up for the challenge of make a free form sword fighting system. They maybe an ok company but theres no way they can pull that off im hoping team ninja will become wii friendly and put out a nice sword game cause i bet they are up for it.

By: eamonn

eamonn — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 23:21:23 +0000

Brilliant article. You’ve convinced me that Ubisoft are doing the right thing.

By: gardenofwiids

gardenofwiids — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 22:23:59 +0000

I’ve been owned in kendo; does that count?