Phantom Blade Zero Producer Soulframe says pre-order sales of the game have exceeded their expectations!
"Dear players:
Hello everyone!
The pre-orders for *Shadow Blade Zero* have been running for five days, and the pre-order results have far exceeded expectations. For this, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the friends who support *Shadow Blade Zero*! This is a vote of confidence cast upon us by our players, and we will certainly do our utmost to present everyone with an excellent game product.
The news of Donnie Yen's collaboration with us has particularly sparked everyone's interest, with numerous memes flooding social media. Donnie Yen plays the character Mo Yuan, a role we've meticulously crafted. As a powerful hidden boss in the game, he requires players to undergo a series of explorations and trials before he will appear. We eagerly anticipate everyone's encounter with Mo Yuan in the game!
I still remember the pride and passion he showed for kung fu movies when I first met Dan, and his still-strong creative desire to innovate and change. He had been involved in game development for a very long time—more than 20 years ago, he directed the opening CG for Capcom's Onimusha 3. And now, we finally have the opportunity to tell a Chinese martial arts story that belongs to the Chinese people in a game.
In player discussions, some expressed concerns about celebrity endorsements. I completely understand these concerns, because celebrity endorsements imply a series of labels that core gamers may not like, and also represent the risk of diluting the brand's image and tone. With the hype brought by celebrities, will the players' genuine needs still be prioritized?
I want to reiterate that this collaboration is not yet another instance of "a celebrity endorsing a game for commercial purposes."
Everything we do is aimed at creating better game products for players, not putting the cart before the horse. Dan not only did face capture and motion capture and personally completed the English voice acting for the characters, but also invited Chen Hao to help polish the Chinese voice acting for Demon Abyss. As the creative supervisor, he gave us a lot of suggestions and opinions. Later, Yan Hua was also brought in by him to choreograph the complex fight scenes.
Over the past forty years, Donnie Yen has created a variety of classic screen images. The grandmaster Ip Man, the beggar Qiao Feng, the policeman Ma Jun, the assassin Kane, and the blind swordsman from Star Wars are all the same person, and they don't seem out of place in the public's perception. Donnie Yen's action style, which transcends national borders and eras, has unified these images.
What *Shadow Blade Zero* strives to present is a fusion of the most traditional martial arts world with bizarre steampunk elements, human modification, and even a post-apocalyptic alternate world. Moving between the new and the old, inheriting tradition while innovating, upholding the orthodox while creating the extraordinary—this is our shared vision.
In our collaboration with Dan Ge, we have also continuously improved ourselves. Our internal action director, Yang Liu, and his Xingfu Feiyang team have fully absorbed Dan Ge's interpretation of Chinese Kung Fu, constantly thinking about the deep integration of Kung Fu with gameplay, combat systems, motion capture production lines, and other aspects. Together with combat planners and animators, they have worked tirelessly for over a thousand days and nights to design and produce many unique and impressive game action sequences that we are proud of.
This "translation" process was completed with virtually no precedents to follow, making it all the more challenging. We've previously showcased in other interviews the process of translating sword formations, drunken swordplay, and lion dances from traditional prototypes into games—as I expressed in my IGN interview, we wanted to build a motion production process suitable for Chinese martial arts from scratch, capturing the unique charm of Chinese Kung Fu that differs from Japanese/Western styles, while simultaneously translating it into input feedback, impact, camera movement, and ultimately creating a thrilling combat experience for players.
Tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM, at Sony's special STATE OF PLAY event for *Shadow Blade Zero*, Dan will first introduce the concept of "Kung Fu Punk" to players worldwide, followed by a live stream where I will introduce the game's story, world, combat system, and other content. The live stream will last approximately 18 minutes, and the entire video will subsequently be released on various platforms.
I think this may give this collaboration even more significance: we will be able to promote and convey the unique charm of Chinese martial arts culture to the world directly on a stage that is watched by global players.
The live stream and video were recorded in English and translated into multiple languages with subtitles. However, I later offered to provide my own Chinese subtitles, which were based on my original English speech and therefore might be closer to the original meaning than my live stream script.
Remember to watch on time tomorrow!
Producer of Shadow Blade Zero, founder of Lingyoufang
Liang Qiwei (Soulframe)"
Source: https://www.bilibili.com/opus/1237497330649792533?spm_id_from=333.1387.0.0
