Twinkle Girl was only revealed earlier this week, but she’s already become something of a sensation on social media, inspiring plenty of fan art along the way. As it turns out, Capcom has a bit of a soft spot for her, too.
In a new interview with Famitsu, director Shinya Ikuta revealed that Twinkle Girl was actually the very first of Dual Override's new bosses created.
"Twinkle Girl was the first one we made," Ikuta said. "The entire staff is very attached to her."
The discussion came up when Famitsu asked about Twinkle Girl being the first female Robot Master since Splash Woman debuted in Mega Man 9. According to series producer Shingo Izumi, her creation reflects the team's interest in broadening the types of characters that can exist within the classic series.
"In the past, I think there was a stronger image of robot heroes being boys," Izumi explained. "But nowadays, female heroes are perfectly normal, and there's also the advantage of being able to bring out more personality in the characters. We adopted it as one way of expanding the variety."
Ikuta echoed that sentiment, saying the team didn't want to be overly restricted by precedent when coming up with Dual Override's cast.
"I really feel that expanding the range of designs is a good thing," he said. "Just like we were talking about earlier, we tried not to be too bound by the previous games and approached the characters with a freer way of thinking."
"Rather than thinking, 'Let's make a girl character,' our goal was to create an appealing enemy robot," Minamitani said. "When we worked toward that, she came about naturally."
There's another ingredient behind her personality, too. Ikuta revealed that all of Dual Override's bosses are being brought to life with motion capture.
"We're using motion capture for every boss this time, so I'd like people to pay attention to how lively their movements are," he said.
The team also confirmed that Robot Masters are designed first, with their stages built around them afterward. For Twinkle Girl, that meant an exhibition-themed setting filled with fireworks to match her character.
"We create the stages after coming up with the bosses," Ikuta explained. "For Twinkle Girl, we focused on a stage design that matched the character, with an exposition theme and fireworks constantly being launched."
Speaking of bosses, Ikuta also commented on the much-anticipated results of the Robot Master design contest. He says, “We’re currently preparing to announce it in a venue where it can reach as wide an audience as possible, so we ask that you wait just a little longer.”
Hopefully it won’t be too long before we see the winner. If not, hey, maybe another Robot Master or two in time for Tokyo Game Show?
Twinkle Girl has already set a pretty high bar, so here’s hoping the rest of Dual Override’s lineup gets just as much love.
Source: Famitsu
I hope they reveal the key art for the game at Tokyo Game Show. I want to guess the who the robot masters are again. I managed to get 2 of Mega Man 11's correct before they were fully revealed: Tundra Man and Torch Man.
ReplyDeleteMoCap is neat. Interesting that the stages were built around the bosses, I guess that’s the advantage of not doing contests. Wonder if that’ll hold true for the contest winner, especially with Cactus Man who came with a detailed outline of his stage.
ReplyDeleteThat’s really promising for the quality of this game. I’m really excited. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Mega Man 2’s approach to bosses the exact opposite? (Boss chosen to fit a pre-designed stage?)
ReplyDeleteYeah, and 3-8 (besides Tengu and Astro) too. Skull Man's stage is notably one of the few levels that was changed to fit the boss.
DeleteMotion Capture…? That…makes a lot of sense, actually
ReplyDeleteHope if Capcom will make more female Robot Masters over the males, I hate seeing so much bigger male quantity ove few female ratio. Let's hope the artist don't R*le 34'ed her. :'(
ReplyDeleteThere's always going to be a male majority. Female characters are normalized in the genre and there's a lot more girls and women that like this kind of thing than there used to be, but it's still primarily something that male fans enjoy rather than females. The biggest innovation that can be expected is for the female characters that do get included to have more depth than just being "The girl one". That all being said, I am holding onto hopes that we get at least two female Robot Masters this time around. A male majority is the default expectation but that doesn't mean that only one of eight should be female in each game.
DeleteMotion capture?? Damn the devs are going all in on this lol
ReplyDeleteThe wording here about her being specifically designed to be "Likable" and a "female hero" makes me wonder if their intention actually is for the 8 main Robot Masters to be playable in some form. This sort of phrasing isn't what would normally be expected for a design process centered entirely on just making enemies, but maybe I'm overthinking it.
ReplyDeleteIf not all 8, maybe there's something specific about Twinkle Girl getting to be playable or at least in a support role.
DeleteMost Robot Masters are designed as heroes, with influence from western and Japanese superheroes ever since 1987 (it's no coincidence they have "___ Man/Woman" names).
DeleteAs for being likable, that's just part and parcel for her character. She's upbeat and energetic; it'd be a problem if she wasn't likable.
I guess it depends what you mean by 'likable'. A cranky character can be likable, though in-universe it could vary.
DeleteThe design is not the greatest. But I never thought of the Robot Masters as sex coded (I do now, thanks Capcom and moderm humans) but I always thought of them as humanoid robots of things eg Man=Human-Android not Man = adult human male.
ReplyDeleteAs for popularity and special places in hearts and such.... Yeah I can predict that kind of marketing outcome. Capcom staff/marketing team are coming from a fundamentally different place than social media illustrators I can guarantee you that. That said this kind of marketing and signaling is NOT going to produce demographic growth, it just invites the kind of audiences niche struggling franchises should avoid. You heard it from me now, if/when it happens don't shoot the messenger.
I think I know what kind of audience you're referring to. D:
DeleteThe design of the bosses in the classic series was meant to be more inspired by toku stuff than anything. While there's definitely a robotic element, there's a specific design approach to them, and the staff did seem to be interested in experimenting with the idea of a girl/woman one, so I don't mind a character like this, I think it fits the series better than some of the manga/comic attempts at that.
DeleteHowever, the motion capture and all the new features, ambitions and so on concern me, are they sure this won't cause issues for a classic entry? Classic series is specifically meant for more focused games, with less abilities being part of what helps ensure that design-wise, and same goes for simpler animations. Them having a no-powers mode is interesting, but I still wonder if the game might end up unfocused or messy.
In regards to your second paragraph, your vagueness makes it difficult to understand. What audiences should be avoided, and how would this bring them? It's a character that got briefly popular on social media, likely due to the combination of girl character and the series being back properly (or not, who knows). Who's going to get interested, R-18 artists? These already had years of other characters and most people don't even know about these artists. Nor does this seem like a story-heavy game to attract shippers, nor a gacha game, so I don't get what you're trying to say.
I hate that you’re right. Let’s not forget that this is the same fandom that voted for a normal boring maid robot when we could’ve had a deconstructed elephant with a pompadour. We all know why.
DeleteThe whole "man" suffix on the names is more of a cultural thing in Japan, akin to calling someone who works in sales a "salesman".
DeleteBut with that said, even from the get-go, they were introducing what were clearly masculine (Rock) and feminine (Roll) characters. They're not humanoids or androids, they are strictly robots.
So it's not really a "modern" sensibility to make "female" robot masters, it's just something they haven't done much of throughout the franchise's history but are starting to think more about recently. Honestly, I don't think it moves the needle one way or the other, but I don't see how it would do any harm.