14 DAY TRIAL // Bandai Namco's Global Gamer's Day event was a great opportunity to get some more information on Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day, the final piece in the Short Peace collection of animated films.
The Short Peace project is a sort of hybrid product, consisting of four different short films and one game, coordinated by Akira creator Katsuhiro Omoto, one of the films even being nominated for an Academy Award, last year.
The theme the films is Japan, and each of them is tied in some way to a fixed point in its history. After the shorts were finished, their creators realized that they were missing something to represent modern-day Japan, and the idea came to them to describe it not by the means of a film, but of a game.
In order for them to accomplish their goal, they turned to famed designer Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacturer, and for the production they asked for help from Crispy's, makers of Tokyo Jungle.
For the game, producer Yohei Kataoka and Goichi Suda had to come up with something that expressed contemporary Japanese culture but also was on the same page as the four short films.
Bandai Namco producer Naoto Tani revealed some interesting points during an interview with Siliconera, pointing out that the official recommendation was to first watch the four movies, and then play the game, as doing this would offer a bigger picture of the entire Short Peace project.
As Bandai Namco is using a lot of new character IP, they wanted to experiment with other channels that would allow them to bring those characters to different media formats, and the decision to mix a video game with the films felt like a natural choice.
The game is highly atmospheric and has a unique visual style, with smoothly animated cutscenes and a lot of visual noise when killing enemies during the gameplay moments, offering its players a truly stunning visual experience.
"People may think that the game is crazy—and that may come through with the art, but it's not what I've been trying to do with the game. Short Peace is one collective work, and we want the game to mirror the films in terms of volume and content. The original Short Peace films are actually short films, so when it comes to the game, I wanted to make it something people can complete in just two or three hours," Kataoka shared.