by Edgar - 12.29.06
Over the holidays I had a chat with Elder Prince, owner of BlossomSoft. We talked about their biggest project, Sagrada Guardians. You guys probably remember it under the name Western Lords.
(*The logo shown here isn’t the final logo)
Read the full interview after the break.
4 color rebellion: You’ve been in a media blackout for a long time, what’s the main reason behind this?
Blossomsoft: The main reason was preparation. It’s hard to plan projects when all sorts of people are contacting you and in need of your attention. That’s why the website and forum has been out of contact with the media. I just wanted to work in silence with a few teammates.
How big is the team working at Blossomsoft?
We’re not a huge team, and for sanity’s sake, I prefer it that way.
However, being an independent team can mean a lot of disadvantages, and the only communication being via Internet is one of them. What you can explain verbally and with gestures could take only ten minutes in the real life instead of one full day on the Internet.
But, despite this unfortunate circumstance, it’s always better that I can work with a few qualified people rather than massive quantities of not so useful people.
If I’m not mistaken, people working with Blossomsoft are from around the world, right?
Indeed. North America and Europe. As long as people can speak English it’s a wonderful thing! lol.
How hard/easy is it to get everyone coordinated and making sure everyone is on the right track.
It depends on the complexity of each assignment. Luckily, our team didn’t change much since 2004, so coordination and communication became easier between us, and most of my teammates understand the direction of my ideas.
I see that Sagrada Guardians development (aka Western Lords) is your priority now, how far along are you.
It’s my priority as I really want to see the end of this project. I started it and I will end it. Death will be my only obstacle he-he. It would hurt me to see SG in the top 10 vaporware list lol..
You still have a couple of years to go to reach the status of Duke Nukem Forever. I’m guessing they have the same philosophy “I started it and I will end it” even after almost 10 years.
Haha yeah, I don’t know the story behind Duke Nukem development, but sometime things get really complex with public companies. As far as I’m concerned, I’m already living in extreme poverty, so I doubt that bad finances is going to stop the project.
What makes SG different from other RPGs?
I don’t want to reinvent the wheel yet, so the game should be reminiscent of many other great RPGs. But don’t worry guys we’re going to bring some very cool innovations.
The graphics are in an early phase and I’m really intending to make them better throughout 2007. I’m currently learning to use 3D software in order to improve the feeling of the scenes; unfortunately, I’m not ready yet to implement this skill fully into the project.
A new member named Konstantin is helping, he’s very talented. Together we created the village scene. He created the basic model’s shapes, and I colorized them with a pencil to keep the nostalgic pixilation feeling.
As you can see most of the screens are “empty” since they are incomplete. For instance, that dungeon will need more carvings and pattern on the walls.
Right now I’m especially working on detached units (textures, objects, etc), so it’s hard to offer real built-scenes at this moment.
That’s why I’m a bit reluctant to demonstrate more stuff, because I fear the prompt audience’s judgment at unfinished work. He-he.
Well, just keep in mind that one of my goals is to offer a great visual experience with Sagrada Guardians.
How many playable characters can we expect to be playing with at the same time in the game, and how many total are you aiming for?
3 characters can be played at the same time. It’s because of the screen size, and we want to make sure a lot of enemies can pop up simultaneously on the screen to increase the action factor.
There were a total of 7 playable characters on the GBA version. A new character has been added in the DS version.
Will they each have their own background story, are they all on the same “mission” for the same purpose or do they all have different goals?
Each character has their own secret motives that push them to seek out the inside of Shining City. It’s the same with the villains. The scenario is very deep. If you love games with deep storyline, Sagrada Guardians is definitely for you.
So far I think there were some good RPGs on GBA and DS but none of them offered a profound storyline. We would like to enrich things in this department.
Anything special about the battle system, maybe something similar to the combo system of Chrono Trigger?
The only similarity with Chrono Trigger is that there’s no screen transition for battles. But what we’ve designed for DS, called the Free-Will system, is totally original, and more importantly, very fun. We’re really planning to bring a lot of novelty to the genre with this aspect, thanks to the DS’ features.
But since we don’t want an already established company to steal our ideas, I’d prefer not to say more…
Will there be magic(using) in the game?
Magic will be used under the form of special skills.
So no magic users, except maybe healers?
There are skills allowing healing but they will be used differently. Everything will be brilliantly connected with the Free-Will system, which I cannot really elaborate at the moment. But I should mention right now that status afflictions such “sleep” and “confuse” will work on every foe unlike many other RPGs thanks to our system. However gamers will have to use their logic.
Use our brain? How so?
We’ve invented a special gadget that will be distributed alongside with the game; With a single injection it will allow gamers a greater intellect. I’m joking of course 
Well, during battles the player can study foes and find their core weakness, and once the weakness point is discovered, foes become vulnerable to anything. There’s something more to it, but I cannot tell you more at this moment (security measure).
Do you have an approximate release date for SG?
Giving an approximate release date would tempt me to make false promises lol. That’s why we came with a new objective: our goal is to make Sagrada Guardians the best ‘last’ game remembered on DS. I think we’ll be near finished with the product at the end of 2007. 2008 is more realistic.
Nevertheless we’re working on a smaller game and we’re planning finish it before Sagrada Guardians. The new game is totally cool, and it uses RPG elements in a very special way.
Didn’t Sagrada Guardians start as a GBA project? What forced you to make the switch to the DS? Was it because the GBA is currently fading away?
Sagrada Guardians was started on GBA under the name of Western Lords at the end of 2004. During that time, the DS was already announced as becoming the next mainstream handheld system. Right now I think the GBA is at the end of its lifespan… Most companies aren’t interested to publish on a dead system because they are forced to sell it 1/3 the real price.
Yeah a lot of people are saying this will be its last Christmas…
Since our game will be completed not before 2008, it would be a suicide to keep the development for GBA. DS is a perfect continuity since it holds all the GBA features as a subset.
What do you like the most about developing on the DS platform?
We have more room for our imagination. The hardware has larger color palettes, impressive sound, and more memory to stock data. Not to mention all of the special features, such as the stylus.
Well, don’t act surprised, we don’t have a dev kit yet. And, sadly, the current homebrew emulators aren’t complete enough to support most of our concepts. So we’re using “abstraction” while developing our game. We’ve studied all specs and memory section from the hardware to pursue our development for DS. Our prior experience with GBA helps too.
So when are you expecting to get a DS Dev Kit?
As soon as we get satisfied with the evolution of the game we’ll start looking for a publisher and get access to a dev kit. We’re preparing documents to deal with a serious publisher.
What’s your thought on the next-gen consoles (PS3,360,Wii)?
I’m really interested with both PS3 and Wii. Each of them will balance my needs as a gamer, and who knows, maybe as a producer too.
Are you thinking of moving on to console after Sagrada Guardians is done?
It will only depend on our budget. Maybe Wii could be friendlier for an independent team in comparison with PS3. I have drafted many good game concepts for Wii; but, as I promised, Sagrada Guardians is my priority.
So you have some ideas that you would like to try out on the Wii, is that what you’re saying?
Exactly. I have a game concept in mind that could be quite innovative.
I also threw the idea to some staff members about making a NES game on virtual console. We’ll study the question and then see if it’s possible. It’s my childhood dream to make an 8-bit game.
My last question, What have you been playing lately?
I’ve been playing tons of games. It’s important as a game designer to play games and know about the good and the bad things.
I’m planning to play Xenosaga I-II-III and Digital Devil Saga I-II, but since I’m lacking free time, I’m going to use a Game Shark to lower battle encounters and double experience points lol.
Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. I can’t wait to hear more on Sagrada Guardians
Thank you for the interview! I’m a big fan of 4cr by the way 
Here’s three songs from the game
