Express yourself

For years, Yano and Matsuura have dreamed of a music game that allows the player to be more expressive. In the past, when they discussed potential collaborations, it was often about music manipulation, tracks that would change tempo depending on your performance or branch into different styles at the press of a button. Some of these concepts have since been explored, but at the time, they were wholly original. Both designers craved an experience in which the player could feel they were creating something truly original and personal in real-time.

"How can music be more interactive and play a more defining role rather than be just, I dunno, the base layer that everything goes on top of?" Yano said. "Because that's what modern music games do today, right? It's all essentially supported by the music itself. And the music itself doesn't change, because they're usually songs that you and I both know. So you're just building gameplay mechanics on top of that." Instead, Yano wanted the music to be driven by the gameplay.

"[Matsuura] and I were both musicians and instrumentalists, so we really understand and love the interactiveness, if that's a word, of musical instruments," Yano said. "Because that's the coolest thing, right? It's cool to press something and then suddenly the sound is just ... awesome. You're immersed in that, and there's a feeling against that. So that's what we're always trying to do."

"We really understand and love the interactiveness, if that's a word, of musical instruments."

That's easier said than done. Mainstream video games need to be approachable and easy to understand. That restricts the number of options you can give the player at any one time. Push too far toward realism, for instance, and you'll end up with a piece of professional audio software. Go too far the other way and you'll make a thoroughly enjoyable but creatively limiting title like Guitar Hero. "On some level, you need to virtualize the experience so that it's still entertainment," Yano adds. "But at the same time, let the player feel like they're making important choices."

Rap battles

To that end, Yano and Matsuura developed a rap-battle simulator. Project Rap Rabbit is split into two phases: call and response, which mimics how lyricists spar in real life. As your opponent tries to embarrass you, the game will highlight "focus words" that make up the bulk of their argument. A mood wheel will then show up in the corner of the screen, giving you time to choose a counter-rapping style. Coerce, joke, boast or laugh — it's up to you. During the response phase, you'll be asked to press buttons rhythmically with the beat and hit specific triggers when the focus words appear in your own lyrics.

Enemies will be susceptible to different rapping styles. As the difficulty ramps up, these weaknesses will change midbattle. You'll need to read the situation and, at certain junction points, change your strategy in order to deal extra damage. Toto-Maru will also have a skill tree, similar to conventional role-playing games, so you can define his strengths and shortcomings as a rapper. It all adds to the game's depth, which far outstrips Gitaroo Man and PaRappa the Rapper. Expert players, for instance, will learn to combo by quickly alternating between rap styles, or using the turntable-inspired sample technique that requires double, triple and quadruple-tapping specific focus words.

If all goes to plan, Project Rap Rabbit will have multiplayer too. Yano wants the game to be technical and competitive — the musical equivalent of Street Fighter or Tekken. So, unlike Rock Band, which offers a simple score chase, Project Rap Rabbit will put two players head-to-head. "So it's all about, 'If you do this, I'm going to counter with this, and then if you're going to counter with this, I'm going to counter with something else.'" That's why the call and response phases are so crucial. Like a high-speed game of chess, top players will need to plan multiple moves ahead.