Since Part 1 of the Fist of the Blue Sky Crossover made its way into FOTNS: LR at the end of 2020, we went on to release not only Part 2 but also Part 3 and have even seen 11 new Crossover Fighters join Kenshiro and the gang on their journey.
As many FIST OF THE NORTH STAR fans already know, Fist of the Blue Sky follows the story of Kenshiro Kasumi, the Successor of Hokuto Shinken from two generations before. We were elated to be able share this legendary tale that precedes the events of FIST OF THE NORTH STAR.
First, let's talk about the man himself: Kenshiro Kasumi.
In contrast to FIST OF THE NORTH STAR's Kenshiro, we see Kenshiro Kasumi prefers to live life on his own terms and has a rather arrogant edge to him. There is an admirable side to him that links the two protagonists, and that's their loyalty to those they are close to.
In the Game of Death scene where Kenshiro Kasumi steps into the ring disguised as his friend Ye, we see him unleash a special technique called "Gate-Shattering Finger Strikes" on Goran. With both hands pointed into a spear shape, Kenshiro Kasumi repeatedly strikes his opponent, gradually lifting them into the air from the force of multiple repeated strikes.
To recreate this attack animation in-game, we started by creating action design specifications to make it easier to picture the movements. We made sure to refer to a range of materials, including the original manga, to ensure that fans can easily recognize this technique when they see it.
As the game positions the user's party on the left of the screen, this means that the user will view Kenshiro starting from the left side of the screen and heading to the right side of the screen to unleash the technique. As a result, at the action planning stage, we had to flip the image designs to fit with the game. This may be a simple step, but it is vital to recreating the scenes from the original manga.
Flipping the image makes it much easier to picture.
That's about it for Kenshiro Kasumi's character animation. We didn't add any extra flair to it, the way we did for Koryu as mentioned in Developer's Diary #7. Our goal was to recreate Kenshiro Kasumi and the scenes from the manga in-game as accurately as possible.
Now let's take a look at Charles de Guise.
Although Guise is a practitioner of Hokuto Sonkaken, we barely see him using its techniques in the manga. As it is difficult to show off the unique traits of Hokuto Sonkaken, we had to sprinkle some extra details into its animation.
During the initial planning stage, we decided to depict his attack in two stages: Firing bullets which he controls using Hokuto Sonkaken's Chi Mastery, and the action of him stabbing at his opponent with his sword. We concluded that the most interesting and unique part of this attack is the part where he controls the trajectory of the bullets with his chi. This became the most emphasized part of his Secret Technique "Chi Mastery".
The scene in the manga where he fires two bullets became the inspiration for this attack animation. We decided to increase the number of bullets and make them come flying at the enemy from all directions for an impactful and exciting finish.
Next up is Pan Yu-Ling.
Yu-Ling was distributed to users in parts 1, 2 and 3 of the Crossover, so I can imagine that lots of users have managed to ReVIVE her.
The initial idea for her Secret Technique draws inspiration from multiple aspects of her character. She may be sweet, but she's also a fierce horse bandit. Our specifications required us to portray her as a strong and beautiful woman who has a strong grasp on battle tactics.
Yu-Ling is not really one to fight with her bare fists, so for her secret technique, we chose to give her a variety of items and firearms to cycle through to complete her attack. This brought us to Yu-Ling's choice of weapon. It has to be something that she spams her opponent with, we thought.
Original manga scene.
With her Secret Technique Bandit Spirit, she hits her opponent with a boomerang and then follows up by pummeling her opponents with a series of different weapons for good measure. When we see her in her horse bandit scenes in the original manga, she makes use of lots of weapons, elegantly maneuvering as if dancing. We wanted to recreate this elegant movement in-game.
We initially planned for her to just use a machine gun, but we decided to give her a rocket launcher too for extra impact. Although the rocket launcher does not appear in the original manga, it has appeared in other works in the series. We know that some of you out there might recognize where it's from. A sophisticated young lady with a giant machine gun—whoever she's aiming at must be shaking in their boots.
Liu Zong-Wu debuted in Part 2 of the crossover.
His Secret Technique Vital Point Strike is inspired by the scene from the original manga where Kenshiro sends an arrow to Zong-Wu as a declaration of battle. This technique, however, does not actually appear in the original manga.
To create his Secret Technique, we combined a number of fierce attacks we saw Liu Zong-Wu use during his battles with Kenshiro, concluding with an attack that pierces the opponent's vital channeling points, making it the finishing blow that ends the fight.
As a man of military expertise, we also wanted to portray him as one with not only brute strength but the brains to match. For this reason, we took inspiration from a scene where he creates a plume of dust with his Chi then attacks his enemy while their vision is distorted.
At one point during battle, his hat slips off but he remains composed. These were the kinds of details that we focused on to correctly depict his personality.
That's about it for now. We still have a lot more Fighters to talk about, such as Mang Kuang-Yun, Liu Fei-Yan, Zhang Tai-Yan and Pan Guang-Lin, who joins the battle in a wheelchair. In Part 3, we see Yasaka make his first appearance along with what we've all been waiting for: The ritual battle where Blue Dragon Kenshiro Kasumi faces off against Warlord Liu Zong-Wu.
There's plenty of intense battles and passionate Fighters to talk about, so stay tuned!
