AKA: Billy West
As seen in: The Adventures of Bayou Billy (NES)
Distinguishing feature: Can punch a bulletproof vest from a man’s body.
Strengths: Proficient with several forms of weaponry.
Weaknesses: Awful bayou-dweller stench.
Profile by Nich Maragos? | December 14, 2009
Is everyone here? Who are we waiting on? Hey, Grasshopper, have you seen Bonobono? We really need him -- oh, okay, there he is. All right, let’s get started.
So I showed our concept stuff to Shachou, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news is, he likes our overall design. The brawling, the shooting, the driving -- he’s cool with the multi-style thing, and he’s given us the go-ahead. The bad news is, he didn’t go for the scenario. He said it wasn’t plausible for so many guns to be floating around Osaka, and when I suggested we change them to ninja stars and set it in the Edo period, he pointed out that it turns into a Goemon game then and they’re already planning one of those for Famicom. Look, you don’t have to say “I told you so,” Moon, we all remember.
Which means we’ll need to come up with something else. Here’s what I’m thinking: we had a good thing going with the modern-day setting, but maybe Osaka wasn’t the place. America might be better, don’t they have guns all over the place there? Americans fight a lot, right? Have any of you ever been to America? You have, Moon? Wow... no kidding? You actually heard a gunshot in the French Quarter? We might be on to something here....
Well, no, no, I don’t think it’s necessarily a problem that you only saw Bourbon Street. They have swamps and... roads, and things there too, right? We can just set most of the game there. In fact, there’s our hook for the hero. He’s a guy from the swamp, or whatever they call them, you can look it up later, Shinamon. And that’s why he knows how to use a knife and a gun, because he’s used to the violent swamp life of fighting off alligators. Maybe we can grab some of the whip sprites from the Castlevania team, too... don’t they use whips in that part of the country?
What am I even asking this for? Like Shachou knows the first thing about Alabama. Moon, I want to see concept sketches for this guy from you and Susumu first thing tomorrow. Bring your vacation photos too, for reference… and while I’m on the subject, what’s a good American name we can use for our swamp man? Billy? OK... Billy it is.
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