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Xbox One Exclusive Scalebound Was Shelved Twice, Originally Starred a Little Girl

D

DarkLordMalik

Member
Speaking with GameSpot, Kamiya reiterated that this could be called his dream game and shared more details about the original pitch.

"If you look at the long span of it, the first idea [for Scalebound] was when we started the company and were thinking of ideas and games that we want to make," Kamiya said. "The idea popped up there, but then we made Bayonetta. Then after Bayonetta, we revived the idea and made a prototype but that prototype failed and the game got cancelled. It was put on a backburner for a variety of reasons and we moved on to The Wonderful 101. "

Towards the end of development on The Wonderful 101, the studio began talking about what to do next. Kamiya revived and revised his pitch for Scalebound; the game as we know it today has been in development for about two years. But before that, the game was pitched as title for the Wii using motion controls and featured dinosaurs under the control of a little girl.

"When they first started, the idea was for a Wii game and we wanted to use a Wii remote to do the orders for the dinosaurs," Kamiya explained. "You were in control of the dinosaurs, you were ordering the dinosaurs around, and they'd do cool things. Then after we made Bayonetta, we started the prototype. The first thing that I made a change to was making it a dragon game.

"We changed the dinosaurs to dragons, but at that point the lead character was even weaker than [current protagonist] Drew is in the context of Scalebound," he continued. "She was actually a little girl who was with these dragons. As we were making this prototype, I realized that I didn’t want to just be watching the fight, I wanted to be more participatory in the fight. And I started talking with the staff about how maybe we should change this to be a swordsman or someone a little bit older. This was when the prototype got put on the backburner, so to speak, and the project was halted. Then we made The Wonderful 101."

Kamiya reiterated that he wants players to have an adventurous world to run around in, necessitating the more active dragons and the more aggressive, proactive character Drew--far different from a young child controlling the creatures and being a passive part of their struggle.

"The most fun for me is building out the dragon and then building the enemies of the dragon that’s going to fight and you see them start fighting on the screen and seeing those battles play out," he said. "That’s really what we wanted to do with the game from a core play perspective and being able to execute on that has been a lot of fun for me."
Click to expand...
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-one-exclusive-scalebound-was-shelved-twice-or/1100-6431046/
 
R3TRODYCE

R3TRODYCE

Member
It still doesn't look too hot so I can understand why tbh. I hope that it ends up well because I like dragons.
 
S

Shenmue

Banned
Woulda been better with a little girl I think than a douchey, headphones guy.

Kinda like Pixar's The Good Dinosaur, but with a little girl and a bad ass dragon. I guess kind of like Drakengard 3...
 
K

Kouriozan

Member
Interesting.
Maybe she'll be back as a secret character where you need to get the highest score on all level just as I expect from Kamiya :lol
 
R

Reset

Member
It seems like the current Scalebound is a huge improvement over the prototype/old idea.
Playing as a little girl who doesn't even participate in the combat seems boring as fuck.
 
I

Illucio

Banned
Dinosaurs and a girl?

Actually that sounds like a very good game that could work, make it a hunting/survival/horror game with a campaign and ability to tame and boom! Awesome game.
 
B

Bessy67

Member
Thank god it got changed. Playing as a little girl pointing at things for dinosaurs/dragons to interact with sounds like an awful game.
 
D

Dio

Banned
Yeah, this could have been a nice change, actually. Drew comes off as a derivative character we've all seen before, obviously heavily similar to Dante and other stylish hack and slash protagonists.
 
G

GRaider81

Member
Such a shame they pushed the protagonist slider all the way to douchebag.

Girl sounds cool but I get the reasoning. Dinosaurs also sound cool but dragons are a good replacement.
 
S

SatoAilDarko

Member
Noobcraft said:
So Scalebound was almost Pikmin with dinosaurs :eek:
Click to expand...

Right down to the Wii Remote being use to command them.

Little girl controlling dinosaurs sounds awesome though.

I wish we had more Wii Remote light-rts games.

The one other one that comes to mind is Overlord: Dark Legend. Which was pretty alright despite performance issues and the fact that while ten hours really felt like it didn't get into advanced stuff till very late.

Little King Story missed that opportunity sadly.
 
S

shoreu

Member
Raider1874 said:
Such a shame they pushed the protagonist slider all the way to douchebag.

Girl sounds cool but I get the reasoning. Dinosaurs also sound cool but dragons are a good replacement.
Click to expand...

I honestly don't see the douche, yet. He doesn't seem like an asshole character.
 
B

Blackleg-sanji1

Banned
That sounds alot better character wise and could have grabbed japan im sure. New guy jus looks like generic western style dude bro. Still game looks amazing
 
Shpeshal Nick

Shpeshal Nick

aka Collingwood
Original concept would have made for an interesting game but would have been very hard to market and would have bombed commercially.

The game we're getting now looks like a safer bet while still being just unique enough to differentiate itself. Looks fantastic.
 
S

...Scatter...

Banned
Shenmue said:
Woulda been better with a little girl I think than a douchey, headphones guy.

Kinda like Pixar's The Good Dinosaur, but with a little girl and a bad ass dragon. I guess kind of like Drakengard 3...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm sure you would've bought a Wii game where you control dinosaurs with a wand as a little girl. -straight profits
 
C

Coolluck

Member
SatoAilDarko said:
Right down to the Wii Remote being use to command them.

Little girl controlling dinosaurs sounds awesome though.

I wish we had more Wii Remote light-rts games.

The one other one that comes to mind is Overlord: Dark Legend. Which was pretty alright despite performance issues and the fact that while ten hours really felt like it didn't get into advanced stuff till very late.

Little King Story missed that opportunity sadly.
Click to expand...

I think Battalion Wars fit that too. It was such a disappointing game.
 
M

Massive Duck. C.M.

Banned
pizzacat said:
People who wanted to play as the little girl are being put on lists as we speak
Click to expand...

image.php
 
B

BatDan

Bane? Get them on board, I'll call it in.
I'm kind of confused how Platinum's development works. At least for W101 and Scalebound.

Do the publishers approach them and say "We want you to make a game for us" and Platinum pitches ideas they have?
 
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