"Interaction—we usually use this term in role-playing games to specifically refer to the interaction between the player character and NPCs. But in action games, interaction is just as essential!"
"For example, taking a hit should trigger feedback, and blocking should elicit a corresponding reaction. This is the most basic form of interaction. If a game lacks even this level of detail, it can't be considered a proper action game. You've passed this basic test, but you're still not good enough!"
Kobayashi Tetsu sketched a few symbols on the board, deriving a concept.
Hideo Yoshizawa scratched his head, unable to fully grasp it.
After a moment's thought, he ventured, "Sun... melting ice... electricity?"
"Exactly," Kobayashi Tetsu said. "Current hardware might not be able to handle this yet, but we can still design it this way—it's a conceptual approach. For example, imagine you're facing a frozen enemy. You use a skill to raise the temperature, melting the ice. But you still can't get close to the enemy. So, you break a power switch, and the resulting electric current through the water continuously damages the Boss until it dies. We'll design the Boss fight around this complete sequence of events."
"Let's design a boss, for example, the Frozen Samurai, with the battle taking place in a paper mill. In the first phase, the Frozen Samurai continuously attacks Ryu Hayabusa. After clashing swords a few times, Ryu realizes he cannot break through the samurai's ice armor. He then uses the environment to his advantage, eventually activating high-temperature drying lamps. During this process, the Frozen Samurai tries to stop Ryu but ultimately fails. The ice on his body melts, allowing Ryu to deal damage."
"However, this frees the Frozen Samurai from his restraints, drastically increasing his mobility. At this point, the player has two choices: either rely on sheer skill or overwhelming damage to defeat him directly..."
"...or continue using environmental interactions. They can flip the electrical switch and lure the Frozen Samurai onto the water's surface to trigger an electric shock. In this phase, the boss's overall behavior pattern revolves around preventing Ryu from flipping the switch and avoiding the water, until the player taunts him or forces him into a charging attack."
"Design the Boss fight around this simple concept, incorporating Boss behavior patterns like hindering the player's actions, launching attacks, or dodging them."
"This complete set of logic is what we call 'interaction.' You can rely on raw skill to fight, or you can use the environment to interact. The Boss will try to stop you and avoid falling into the traps of interaction, while you must continuously lure it further into the interaction loop. Only by maintaining this complete flow can you design a Boss with true interactivity, rather than a mindless slugfest where you just trade blows."
By the time Kobayashi Tetsu finished speaking, the whiteboard was covered in a dense web of text and rough sketches.
Hideo Yoshizawa's mouth hung open wide enough to fit two Dragon Swords inside.
To be honest, he had never considered that a game could be made this way—he hadn't even conceived of this kind of interaction design.
But now, after listening to Kobayashi Tetsu, Yoshizawa felt nothing but absolute awe.
"Increasing the difficulty by using two Bosses isn't wrong," Kobayashi Tetsu said, flipping the whiteboard over to a blank page and continuing to write as he spoke. "But the two Bosses shouldn't just be independent entities. They should ideally affect each other. For example, if you have a Fire Samurai and an Ice Samurai, perhaps the Fire Samurai's attacks could melt the Ice Samurai, causing damage. Or, if you have a Wind Samurai and a Fire Samurai, the Wind Samurai's attacks could expand the range of the Fire Samurai's attacks, and so on. The point is, the two characters shouldn't exist independently. Even though they are two Bosses, you should design them as a single unit. Their behavior patterns should interact and influence each other—whether that influence is positive or negative."
Hideo Yoshizawa wiped the drool from his chin.
"President, I—I finally get it! I understand everything now!"
Yoshizawa slapped his thigh in excitement.
I've finally made it!
Kobayashi Tetsu nodded with satisfaction.
It seems the boy is teachable after all.
Team Ninja had a long-standing problem: they didn't know how to design double Boss fights.
Setting aside Ninja Gaiden, in their later titles, Nioh 1 featured Honda Tadakatsu and Tachibana Muneshige beating up a single player. Everlasting Trust had Toyotomi Hideyori and his mother pummeling a single player. Nioh 2 had Mezuki and Gozuki gang up on a single player. Wo Long had the Three Scoundrels of Eastern Wu brutally attacking the player.
The scenes described above are utterly brutal and appalling.
In Team Ninja's eyes, their approach to double Boss fights is simply to throw two enemies into the arena. They might tweak the stats, but there are zero unique mechanics involved.
People often call Capcom the "God of Action Games," but Team Ninja is no less skilled in the action genre. Their downfall is that Team Ninja simply doesn't know how to create interaction. They increase difficulty by cranking up the stats, without any actual design behind it.
When it comes to creating interaction, Hidetaka Miyazaki is truly the master.
Because FromSoftware had no money, they had to put in the hard work in other areas. As a result, Miyazaki's early works all featured combat with genuine interaction and diverse strategies. For example, in Demon's Souls, when fighting the Giant Knight, players could charge in like a madman and hack at its legs, use the height difference for plunging attacks, or even trick the Giant Knight into attacking the walls to create an opening to strike its hands.
Ultimately, because they were broke but still had to ensure the game was fun, they did their best to create the most engaging levels possible within their limited means, all built around a cohesive combat philosophy. This is precisely why Demon's Souls became such a hit overseas.
Because although Demon's Souls has a brutal difficulty and anti-human design, it actually has a complete set of combat flows at its core. Hidetaka Miyazaki designed a series of gameplay mechanics for this. Wrapped within the appalling difficulty of Demon's Souls is a complete set of interaction logic. If you can follow this logic, you'll actually discover all sorts of clever design choices in the game.
Ultimately, Hidetaka Miyazaki ensured a complete game experience under limited conditions, rather than simply relying on raw stats to disgust players.
Anyone can put an unbeatable monster in the starting area. But to design this monster so that it's not completely impossible to defeat, and even to add techniques to counter it—that's where the core design philosophy lies.
Kobayashi Tetsu was deeply gratified to see that Hideo Yoshizawa seemed to have taken his words to heart.
"The assets don't need to be modified. Most of the levels can actually be kept, but the Boss battle logic and a small portion of the levels need to be redesigned. Iwata-kun's Second Division will cooperate. As for the subsequent development process, the overall coordination and planning, and the design philosophy, I will personally be responsible for them."
Kobayashi Tetsu solemnly patted Hideo Yoshizawa on the shoulder.
Yoshizawa-kun, watch closely and learn well!
Hideo Yoshizawa nodded repeatedly.
Learning game design from the President—I won't be able to finish it in a lifetime!
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