Yoshinori Ono Details Deep Down, Praises PS4, Talks About 60 FPS, Vita Remote Play and DualShock 4

Giuseppe Nelva September 13, 2013 7:30 AM EST

Today Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and Asia released an interview with legendary Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono, in which he shared quite a lot more details about the upcoming PS4 exclusive Deep Down, explained the themes of the game and the story, and praised the PS4 hardware specs, also giving some details on how the DualShock 4 and the remote play feature with the PS Vita will be used.

Below you can read a summary of Ono-san’s answers:

The game is set in New York, year 2094. The members of a group called “Ravens” (the players) have the special ability to travel back in time by reading the memory of items and listening to the voice of the past. They can travel to the past by using the information they read from the items.

The game is called a “Reading RPG” for two reasons: first because of the idea of “reading memories” mentioned above, and then because of the theme of “reading emotions” The emotional theme comes from the fact that various dungeons correspond to different emotions. For instance by touching a statue and reading its emotions one can feel the grudges of a vicious mind that will then characterize the resulting dungeon.

The theme of “knowing the truth of the past” is also present, and that’s the Ravens’ purpose.

Capcom wanted to make an online only game to do something different from the past experiences of Monster Hunter and Dragon’s Dogma, in order to enjoy the online gameplay without restriction, on a platform (the PS4) that has an inseparable relationship with online gaming.

By playing with friends one can exchange the information gathered from dungeons and further the investigation of the mystery behind Deep Down.

It’s still possible to play solo, and gamers should begin like that in order to get familiar with the game, then they should challenge the dungeons alongside other Ravens.

Ono-san wants to reduce the barriers between players and online gameplay, in order to reassure those that are hostile to the idea of always online games.

Since players are supposed to play the game for a long time, like most online games, large updates have already been scheduled, and they will happen on a regular basis. Capcom will continue to develop the game after release in order to let players feel the changes regularly.

There will be a beta after the release of the PS4, and Ono-san wants it to begin as soon as possible.

Sony has created an easy development environment for the PS4, and that’s a welcome change.

The quality showcased in the PlayStation Meeting in February was reached considerably quickly, and things like 60 frames per seconds are relatively easy to achieve.

The automatic generation of dungeons is achieved thanks to the power of the PS4. It’s not completely random, but automatically generated according to certain parameters. Since the PS4 has specs similar to a PC, dungeons can be generated like this thanks to its memory capacity and computing speed.

The representation of environments is close to photo realistic, and elements like degradation of weapon and armor will also be displayed graphically. The PS4 is able to calculate the accumulation of mold, dirt and rust on equipment and display it on the textures, giving you the sensation that those items really exist in the world.

The light bar on the DualShock 4 will represent the emotions of the dungeon being played. When a Raven listens to the voice of the past, it will come from the speaker on the controller, in order to increase immersion. The touchpad will also be used for tactile features.

Remote play with PS Vita will be fully supported in order to play the game more comfortably. The team is also thinking on how to use smartphone and tablets.

Quite interesting, isn’t it? The more I hear about Deep Down the more I’m interested, in contrast with my rather mild initial reaction. Below you can check out the original video, which is of course in Japanese.