Samurai Jacked?

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In a weird way, the anime "Afro Samurai" was kind of set up like a videogame. After witnessing his father's murder, our titular hero sets out to kill the man who orphaned him and anyone who gets in his way -- which essentially means he has to kill a bunch of increasingly tougher enemies until he gets to the big boss. But while this sounds like the perfect setup for a fighting game, according to the game's senior producer, Namco Bandai's David Robinson, Afro Samurai -- like the anime that inspired it -- is going to be a bit more than you'd expect.

Crispy Gamer: For people who are not familiar with the show, what was "Afro Samurai"?

David Robinson: Afro Samurai is based on the manga by Takashi Okasaki, which was adapted into a five-part TV mini-series on SpikeTV. Afro is one of many characters in the thousand-year story of two sacred headbands: the Number One and the Number Two. According to legend, only the warrior who possesses the Number Two headband has the right to challenge the Number One, and only with the Number One headband in his possession may a man become a god. However in Afro's case he's not interested in godhood, he seeks the Number One because its owner is also the killer of his father.

Crispy Gamer: So what kind of game will it be and how do you play it?

Robinson: Afro Samurai is, at its heart, an action-adventure game with a distinctive look and comic book-style panel system that reinforces its uniqueness among other games in the same genre. The foundation for gameplay is combat, driven by our Dynamic Cutting and Music Inspired Battle systems. We want to give players lots of opportunities to test Afro's powerful moves against all kinds of opponents and obstacles. The worlds were designed to encourage the player to move through them with agility and elegance.

We're trying to create a game through which the player could really begin to understand this tortured soul, burdened with so many issues. We hope that the player will form an emotional attachment to Afro, to care about what he's going through.

Crispy Gamer: What are the Dynamic Cutting and Music Inspired Battle systems? How do they work?

Robinson: The Dynamic Cutting System is a unique system with which we are able to have a character appear cut or dismembered by Afro's sword in any direction without the use of traditional animation of the body parts. In some games, wounds appear in predetermined locations based on the animation programming; in Afro the player can cut an enemy in any direction and the sword will cut them into pieces based on the actual sword placement. This gives the combat in the game a very uncanned, dynamic feel.

The Music Inspired Battle system allows the enemies to change their movement, aggression or artificial intelligence based on the tempo and beat of the music track. Each fight is almost choreographed using hip-hop, giving the combat sequences a cool feel that changes from battle to battle. The system really gives Afro a very unique replayability, as the battles and the animation can vary based on the different music played.

Crispy Gamer: How did you decide that this would be the best kind of game for Afro Samurai?