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Total War: Creative Assembly On Fall Of The Samurai, DLC, Consoles

We head over to Creative Assembly to talk to the developers of Shogun 2 Total War expansion, Fall Of The Samurai.

Shogun 2: Total War's stand-alone expansion - Fall of the Samurai - hits PC in March. NowGamer sat down with lead battle designer Jamie Ferguson, and lead designer James Russell to find out more about Japanese history, new features, comparisons to a certain Tom Cruise movie and more.

Modern technology such as gatling guns are introduced to Japan in Fall of the Samurai.

Fall of the Samurai brings loads of new features to Shogun 2 - would you call it Shogun 2.5? Why did you decide to continue with Shogun this year?

James Russell: Well, I think having let the player build up a great feudal society in Shogun 2 we wanted to blow it up, and face this massive challenge - the arrival of modern weapons in feudal Japan. We wanted to do more in the world of Japanese history, and this is a really, really exciting time period in history in which to set it. It's got all the ingredients to make a really compelling game experience; you've got a really dynamic period with a lot of technological change going on, old style warfare with swords, spears and cavalry versus modern weaponry like gatling guns and rifles and cannons all fighting on the same battlefield. It was a natural choice for us, we really wanted to do this period.

Jamie Ferguson: It's also a really broad and lengthy sweep of history, when you talk about Japan. We wanted to show people it wasn't just about Samurais, Geishas and lovely cherry blossoms. Japan has a rich history, for example the Boshin war which was probably one of the most intense periods of social, military and economic change that any society has ever seen in such a short period of time.

Considering the success of Shogun 2, did you always plan to cover this late period in Japan's history?

JF: I think it's when when you start reading about a subject, you go in at the entry point. That for us was the original Shogun. So we started reading through, then we started seeing references to stuff you start wondering about - who are the Tyra? You move in that direction. You start to learn about the rise of the concept of the Shogunate and the Samurai. And at the opposite end you think 'well where did that go to? How long did it last?' You get to the end of the Sengokujedi and history generally talks about how it lasted for another 250 years without change.

JR: Yes, it's where we wanted to go with Shogun 2, but we also wanted to make a really compelling experience that you don't need to have Shogun 2 to play. So for many people, this is going to be their first contact with Total War.

Creative Assembly has undergone expansion in recent months

Did you consider making Fall of the Samurai an expansion rather than stand-alone?

JR: I think it dawned on us when we started playing the early prototypes how different it was in terms of the feel. Really, everything feels fundamentally different. For example the naval battles - you're engaging with the enemy at a completely different range. You've got weapons that explode. It's loud. The sounds are different. It's a completely different experience, and because of the sheer quantity of new features and new content that we've got in it, it feels like a completely different, even though you begin in a world that you might recognise from the end of Shogun 2.

And you've carried certain things over, such as weapons from the end of Shogun 2's tech-tree, which are now open from the start of Fall of the Samurai...

JR: That's a little touch, yeah. Obviously it's 300 years later... we wanted to provide that continuity, to the world you've setup by winning Shogun 2 - now what happens when modernity arises?

JF: The continuity of this was seclusion, because when you win Shogun 2 - in real history, Japan closed completely, and the country stayed in that state. Almost 300 years later foreigners came, and met a medieval society.

Fall of the Samurai pits Imperialists against the last supporters of the Shogunate during the mid-19th century.

So Japan went quiet for 300 years?

JF: They literally shut the doors to any access from the outside world...

JR: Apart from Richard Chamberlain...

JF: [laughs] Yeah. They only had three ports where westerners could set down on Japanese soil and that was completely isolated from the rest of society - they were never allowed to talk to anyone from within Japanese society.

Similar themes were explored in the ultimately fictional Ed Zwick/Tom Cruise flick The Last Samurai - did you have to relax your usual dedication to historical accuracy for Fall of the Samurai?

JF: I think it's one of those things where history created it's own script...

You got lucky?

[laughs]

JF: What's interesting is that The Last Samurai is almost out of our scope because it was later on...

It would come towards the end of Fall of the Samurai...

JF: Yeah. It's basically the end; the modernisation, the whole Boshin war has already happened.

JR: It's the end game. The end of the mop-up period.

Tom Cruise: Not real.

Sounds like a DLC opportunity to us. How was the Rise of the Samurai additional content for Shogun 2 received? Is DLC something you're going to persevere with?

JR: It's doing really well. Some people are sceptical about the whole concept of DLC, but I think it's a really great way of giving more content to people that want more of a game, rather than just saying 'that's what the product is: full-stop'. It provides more content and allows us to push the game further in more interesting ways.

JF: It adds extra life, and it also allows us to do the things [we couldn't] if we were just to do a standalone product, then an expansion, then another tent pole. You end actually being very limited on how much you can put in in that time. There's the edge-case stuff - 'can we actually fit that into the game? Have we got time?' Also you just don't think of things until its too late. There's stuff we've done for DLC expansions that we hadn't even thought of when we were working [on the game].

JR: If there's one problem from the development perspective with the DLC, it's just the sheer amount of time and effort we spend on it. We keep on going after we finish. It's also a great context in which to patch the game and keep maintaining it. That's what we're doing with Shogun 2 too...

It'll be compatible with Fall of the Samurai, right?

JR: Oh yeah. The big things are massive AI improvements which are going back into Shogun 2. Also, battle load-times are much improved. End turn times are much faster, so there's a lot less time waiting for the AI to process. We're actually in the process of trying to re-balance Shogun 2, because it's become a little too hard now that the AI improvements have gone back in.

You've got new factions coming in, and then there's DLC factions too - how complicated does it become balancing all the possibilities?

JR: We've got to make sure that technically because there's so many different combinations that people can have, that it all fits together. And fits together in the context of multiplayer, where some players will have the DLC and some won't. But we just want to make sure in multiplayer that it works, fits together and people can have a great game whatever kind of combination they've got.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown will help grow the strategy genre, says CA.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown has been announced for PC and consoles, and a new Command & Conquer game is on the horizon - is this the start of a potential strategy renaissance or just business as usual for the genre?

JF: It's hard to say really.

JR: The world of gaming is changing all the time. I think strategy gaming is changing as well. Look at things you wouldn't normally consider part of the strategy genre like games on Facebook - the point is you've now got 150 million people playing strategy games on PC. That just wasn't the case five years ago, so I think it opens it up and brings new potential players into the gaming space - these people wouldn't have considered themselves gamers. I think there's a lot of convergence going on across games.

JF: Digital distribution as well makes a difference to who you access, in terms of customer base on PC, and the same thing's happening on console. I think there's a lot of coming together - you may even see in the future games being played across more than one platform with elements that you use to interconnect in all sorts of ways.

JR: The key thing is it's all good. We don't view other strategy games as competition in a way. Or at least I don't think it works like that. I think the more strategy games there are on more platforms the better for us. It's a really healthy thing - it gets people playing strategy games, gets people used to playing games we think are great, which are games where you've got to think and are deep and interesting. The more people playing more types of those kinds of games, the better. So I think it's great when strategy games get onto different platforms, and when there are new great strategy games that bring people in to play them.

So no MMO-type worries about competing for a gamer's playtime?

JR: I just personally think it's about growing the space.

JF: Rather than a thin slice of people to share amongst everyone, think about it as a whole world of people just learning to play strategy games for the first time. The numbers of people that own a computer or console are growing constantly, it's a growing market. Rather than just aim yourself at one market you should be looking to see where you can grow your own market. That's something people will keep experimenting with.

The CA bookshelf: A reminder that it's not all Total War and PCs at Creative Assembly.

Finally, given Creative Assembly's recent expansion for the in-development Alien console project, as well as things like Sports Interactive porting the PC-only Football Manager to iOS - have you had a chance to reconsider Total War for non-PC platforms?

JR: We’re constantly looking at what’s going on on other platforms, and thinking about the implications for us. It’s not like we’re blinkered, just doing one thing. So yeah, we’re looking at all sorts of different things. I’d say if we do go out to other platforms, we’d want to make sure the game was designed for those platforms rather than just being a port. At it’s heart Total War is about being a deep, epic, immersive strategy game experience – the PC is the ultimate machine for that. So we’d always remain at heart a PC franchise.

JF: That doesn’t mean that as things evolve and develop that that may not change. Who knows?

Rockstar is bringing early PC games such as Max Payne and GTA III to iPad – is that something you’ve thought about for Total War?

JR: Yeah, we have thought about those kinds of things and who knows what might happen? At the same time Total War has got this continuity of control system that means, actually - yes, there are enormous differences compared to a modern Total War game - but at the same time there’s that kernel that’s still there.

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Total War: Fall of the Samurai – New Weapons, New Units And Shogun 2 Compatability

How has Creative Assembly enhanced Shogun 2: Total War – the most technologically-advanced RTS to date?

We recently visited Creative Assembly’s studio in the heart of West Sussex to go hands-on with the upcoming stand-alone Shogun 2 expansion, Fall of the Samurai, and to find out exactly why the Total War series has remained in Japan for the second year running.

You can read our interview with Fall of the Samurai’s developers for more insight, but we’ve laid out our impressions and more on the game’s considerable new features below.

Shogun vs. Imperials – Tradition vs. Technology

Fall of the Samurai is set during the end of the Shogunate – 300 years after Shogun 2: Total War’s endgame – which sees the arrival of three new factions on Japanese soil, the British, Americans and French.
 
With them comes the onset of modern technology (gunpowder weapons, vehicles) and ideas (capitalism) which helps forge a brand new backdrop on top of which Fall of the Samurai plays out; an epic battle between tradition vs. modernity with the old school Shogunate clinging to power while the Imperialists attempt to overthrow it. Even the background music will become more western as time rolls on.

New Map, Units, Weapons and Technology

Yes, the latest Shogun 2 expansion is still set in Japan, but that’s not even the half of it – with the new foreign factions come the latest 19th century inventions; pistol and rifle-bearing cavalry rub shoulders with rapid-fire Gatling guns and cannons available in your tech tree along the line as the sword and spear age comes to an end, and the firearm era comes to Japan. There are pros and cons to the new technology though.

With gold at the centre of all your endeavours (even farms are now income-producing assets) the most powerful weapons are also, naturally, the most expensive. During our hands-on we found horse-drawn heavy weapons slow to move and assemble, meaning even low tech, fast moving units have their place. And as usual, if you can use the terrain – such as a deserted town in the historical battle we played – you can overcome the odds.

Steampowered Japan
 
With the arrival of Western technology comes a genuine campaign-changer – a railway line which snakes up the middle of Japan through specific territories, enabling the holder of said areas to improve trade and move units large distances across the map far quicker than usual. Control the railway, and you’ll have a huge asset at your disposal.
 
A powerful navy can win the war
 
Modernisation hasn’t just hit Japan – it’s hit the water around Japan too. While Shogun 2 included naval engagements, the ensuing battles were fairly tame. At least they were compared to the gunpowder-fuelled fights in Fall of the Samurai – we played a mission that called on us to defend our destructive ironclad ship while it underwent repairs, and required us to fire volleys of standard, explosive or armour-piercing rounds across long distances.
 
Brilliantly, it’s now possible to aim and fire your artillery from a new centre-of-the-ship, third-person perspective – ship mobility is suitably sluggish (depending on your vessel), so you’ll probably want your fleet to simply follow your orders, but the rush of firing the killer volley from your ship’s guns in third-person mode is a welcome touch. You’ll also be able to take third-person control of artillery weapons on the battlefield too.
 
More importantly, increased firepower and range also means your ships can rain-down projectiles on some in-land settlements too, adding additional strategic opportunities.

Fall of the Samurai will improve Shogun 2
 
With Fall of the Samurai set for backwards compatibility with Shogun 2, Creative Assembly has promised a huge update for last year’s Total War entry – it won’t only make all of the new and old units work together for cross-game multiplayer, but also massively improve the AI in the older game. In addition, both games will also require you to think much faster with improved AI speed in the turn-based part of the campaign map.
 
Fall of the Samurai is bigger – and better
 
Following our extensive hands-on with Fall of the Samurai, we’re convinced that there’ll be plenty here for existing fans and newcomers alike to sink their teeth into.

Creative Assembly has taken the time to ensure  that not only does Fall of the Samurai integrate perfectly into Shogun 2, but that it includes all the little tweaks, ideas and a ton of new features that the developer has been saving up. We’re not sure ‘expansion’ will do Fall of the Samurai justice, either – it’s stand alone, yes, but almost all of the changes double as improvements: 40 vs. 40 battles instead of 20 vs. 20, multiple new units, 24 campaign-map turns a year and an estimated 100 hours of gameplay ensure you won’t be finishing it anytime soon.

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