The Team Behind ‘Iron Saga VS' Talks About Their Love Of Super Robots
What with Iron Saga VS finally released on Steam, I caught up with Renaud Cormier, Global Media Director at Game Duchy about the game.
If you remember, I played Iron Saga VS at last year's Tokyo Game Show and I was very impressed. Infusing the style and pathos of the Super Robot Wars games into a cogent 2D fighting game, Iron Saga VS definitely stood out.
The game is now finally released and in addition to an interesting roadmap of content over the coming year (shown below), I thought it worth digging more into the studio behind the game, something Renaud was very kind enough to oblige.
'Most members of Game Duchy are either mecha fans, fighting game fans, or both. After building technical experience with Iron Saga mobile, it made sense to move on to the next logical type of game, a fighting game. It's been a dream for a lot of us to finally see our favorite super robots in a modern, easy to get into yet competitive one-on-one fighting game. Alongside these classic anime mecha are our own Iron Saga originals, who introduce some unique fighting styles and weaponry, together, they create a solid roster where each design complements the next. The rising popularity of units like Kaguya and Qing Long during our open betas, alongside fan-favorite super robots like Getter Robo and Mazinger Z, has only reinforced our confidence in the beauty of this combination. This is what inspired our most recent splash artwork of Kaguya facing off against Getter 1, currently used as the main image in the Steam store.
'The design team has been significantly inspired by the Street Fighter series, particularly Street Fighter V. Many of Iron Saga VS's core mechanics reflect this influence, for example, things like the Flash Counter mixing Street Fighter V's Crush Counters and Street Fighter 6's Punish Counters, further customized with our own special twist, the Arsenal System. Each of our playable mecha has a set of 2 distinct, unique move lists primarily affecting which attacks are used with the 'D' button, somewhat akin to Street Fighter V's V-Skill and V-Trigger selection.
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'We have also taken cues from various other games, including the King of Fighters and Guilty Gear series, for instance, their expanded combo freedom and air mobility. The final result is a fine-tuned assembly reminiscent of classic fighting series while still keeping our own unique identity. Visually, this identity is immediately clear: instead of boxing or using magical powers, our giant robot characters will be firing off missiles and rocket punches while boosting across the battlefield, brandishing laser swords.
This year's roadmap for 'Iron Saga VS' has a lot of impressive content.
'Our roster features a mix of popular mecha and pilots from the mobile game, alongside a few that we believed would bring a distinct, unique visual style and gameplay mechanics. For example, Nero and its pilot Slokai, the 7th pope of the Mechanical Vatican, are already highly popular among our mobile users. Meanwhile, the lesser-known Wu Shuang will truly shine in a fighting game with its Lu Bu-inspired weaponry and its own original 'pilot' created for the game: Yin, the computerized spirit of an ancient warrior. Story-wise, Iron Saga VS is a spinoff and splits from the narrative of Iron Saga mobile, so they should be considered as two alternate timelines.
'As mecha game fans, we've also been following the Super Robot Wars tactical role-playing games in many ways. Inspired by its fun animation style, we wanted to capture the same excitement while still ensuring we keep the body proportions of each mecha, such that the limbs are long enough for a fighting game's close combat animations. You can also see it communicated in the cut-ins of our Supermoves, where a zoomed-in, highly detailed version of the mecha will perform the awesome final attack. That said, this art style also integrates well with our bones-based animation style, further encouraging us towards this choice. The end result is a fun and vibrant mecha fighting game we hope still manages to carry on the classic legacy of super robots.
'We are also excited to share that we are past the planning phase for other platforms and have begun developing on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, iOS, and Xbox. We are also striving to provide cross-platform play as much as possible in order to let our players face their friends regardless of their preferred device. Additionally, our testing for the Steam Deck has been very positive, and we will work on obtaining certification shortly.'
The extra content on the way also looks great, especially the story mode and the addition of Zeorymer. The latter is a genuine beast in Super Robot Wars J, with its upgrade to Great Zeorymer being notably rather scary.
In any case, I'm just happy I can use Final Dancouga to punch other mecha in the face and that makes me very happy indeed.
Iron Saga VS is now available to play on PC via Steam.
Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.
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