Toshihiro Nagoshi Talks Binary Domain

Binary Domain, Nagoshi’s new shooter, was revealed back in January. We saw a trailer that didn’t give much away about the game and we haven’t heard much about it since. Talking to Famitsu, Nagoshi didn’t give much away! Why? Because as much as he would like to tell you more about Binary Domain, he isn’t allowed to!

”To be honest, there’s very little that we can actually reveal at this precise time,” he admitted to Famitsu.
“There’s a lot I want to talk about; it’s practically all about to burst out of my mouth, but I just have to keep it all bottled up for now. All I can really say is that it’s getting better by the day.”

Hit the jump to find out more!

Nagoshi wants people to know that Binary Domain isn’t just some shooter based on the Yakuza/Ryu Ga Gotoku engine. In fact, unlike Ryu ga Gotoku Of The End, everything in Binary Domain is brand new.
“I think it’d lead to fewer misunderstandings if people thought of them as different projects,” he said. “Ryu ga Gotoku Of The End was targeted first and foremost for Yakuza fans; it’s easy to play for people who aren’t used to gun-based action games, but you can’t really call it a game for hardcore shooter fans. Binary Domain, on the other hand, is made to be easy to play for people who like shooters, although we’re trying not to make it too unapproachable for beginners either.”

Binary Domain is set in the near future, Tokyo in the year 2080 to be exact!
“The fact the game’s set around 70 years from now is based on something I’ve had in my mind for a while,” said Nagoshi. “It took about 50 years for Japan to go from losing the war in 1945 to how it’s developed today, and when you think about it that way, people can change a lot in the span of 70 years. It’s more than enough time for society to change, and if anything, the change is going to be a lot more rapid than what we’ve seen in the past 50 years. The Tokyo depicted in Binary Domain is one way the future might work out, a kind of bold expansion on the changes that are just beginning to come into play right now. We’re aiming for a 2080 Tokyo that doesn’t seem like a total fantasy.”

Nagoshi seems to be hoping that his game will be more than just the everyday shooter. He is amining for the deep and involving ‘human drama’ which has been present in his Yakuza titles.
“I really don’t think there’s been a game with this much dialogue to it,” admitted Nagoshi. “It might wind up being the game with the greatest volume of dialogue in game history, not that I was deliberately setting out to do that, but there’s enough drama to this game that all the dialogue is necessary to portray it. That’s what the scope of this game is like.”

Whilst Binary Domain’s setting isn’t anything new, Nagoshi remains confident that it’ll succeed at telling a story like no other.
“Science fiction and shooters get combined together a lot, but if we’re going to go with this theme, we definitely aren’t going to make it a standard sort of story,” he said. “Life is one of the major themes we explore in this game, and that’s a sort of universal concept that can be expressed in a lot of different ways. I think the near-future setting will let us express that theme in a way that hasn’t been done before.”

Binary Domain doesn’t have any firm release date announced yet.

[Source: 1UP]

Ad:

14 responses to “Toshihiro Nagoshi Talks Binary Domain

  1. TaroYamada says:

    Hope it's good, will buy when it hits my budget if reviews or reaction on here is positive.

  2. CrazyTails says:

    he's right though. Apart from maybe the mgs, there isn't a shooter with really a touching story line imo. Western shooters are mostly aiming for original and shocking, but not deep.

    Well anyway, he says that it gets better with the day so i'm curious to how it'll endup playing

  3. George says:

    I'm excited to see what its like. I mean, I hope they are working on the shooting mechanics because those sucked on Yakuza of the End.

  4. Suzuki Yu says:

    what confuses me is that this game is considered as Squad based shooter and also can be played Online, even though they are promising to deliver deep story and huge dialog!!!

  5. CosmicCastaway says:

    As long as this doesn't turn out to be a cover-based shooter, consider me highly interested. =)

  6. TaroYamada says:

    Uncharted has a pretty well handled storyline, but lo and behold, who designed the first game setting the tone for the entire franchise? Ex-SEGA alumni Hirokazu Yasuhara. LOL.

  7. Centrale says:

    I have confidence that Nagoshi can turn out a game with a good story, but the teaser trailer was extremely cheezy. The final scene of it was quite compelling, though. I hope things get a lot better from there.

  8. TaroYamada says:

    My favorite third person shooters have all been designed by Japanese, Uncharted, Vanquish, so hoping for a similar flavor here.

  9. George says:

    Yo, I agree with Uncharted and Vanquish being the best third person shooters this gen.

  10. TaroYamada says:

    Hirokazu Yasuhara is a f'ing badass. HIGH FIVE!

  11. cube_b3 says:

    Either me or Nagoshi, one of us is really bad at Math.

    70 years isn't the near future. it is significantly a century.

    HeadHunter taking place in 2012 (released 2002) was the not so distant future. Binary Domain is in the really distant future. Given that Human Life Expectancy is 75 years and most of us our in our 20s the probablity of us being around 70 years from now is very slim, if not absent altogether.

  12. TaroYamada says:

    Speak for yourself Cube, my great grandfather lived til he was 101, was still driving, he pulled out of his driveway and got t-boned by a drunk driver. My Aunts lived until 99 and 98 respectively.

    Also quit deprezzing meh with yore deth tawk. D :

  13. Sharky says:

    mine all died in their 80's and 90's life expectancy where I live is one of the highest in the world.

    /gloat!

  14. George says:

    My great grandma died a few years ago, she was about 98 or something. Closing up that 100 year old age.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *