This year hasn’t been shy with highly anticipated releases. Some of which have a lot of hype leading up to the release, but that slowly fades as we await the next title. Sometimes, though, experiences linger with me, and one title, in particular, has remained on my hard drive as I find myself returning to its complex action systems and unique futuristic narrative. Slave Zero X from developer Poppy Works and publisher Ziggurat Interactive draws inspiration from iconic titles like Devil May Cry, Guilty Gear, and Strider, while introducing fresh elements that set it apart in the genre. We had the opportunity to sit down with Francine Bridge, the Art Director, and Alex Lotz, the Managing Producer, to understand the game’s development, narrative, and the creative decisions that shaped this biopunk adventure.
Slave Zero X is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
If you want to know more about the game, check out our review.
Azario Lopez: Slave Zero X features a unique blend of 2.5D action and stylish combat. Can you walk us through the core gameplay mechanics and what sets it apart from other action games in the genre?
Francine Bridge: While I wasn’t in charge of directing gameplay specifically, one of the first things that interested me about the project was the central conceit: the depth of a more traditional 2D fighting game, with all the implied technical elements to combat, such as longer combos, tactical animation cancels, complex inputs, etc., but applied to the template of a side-scrolling brawler with large numbers of enemies.
I think part of what gives “character action” titles such as Devil May Cry the longevity they’ve enjoyed is their depth—even without the infinite complexity of a human opponent, a title that allows you to continue learning and developing new techniques, the “meta-game” of combo showcases and labbing ever-more-spectacular performances will live beyond the first completion of the narrative component itself. Coupled with the chance to execute those techniques on a Musou-like horde of encroaching enemies and I think we have a game that offers a full spectrum of experience from the initial rush of mass carnage and power fantasy through to the profound satisfaction of perfect execution – something that’s reflected in some of the principal character arcs as well!
Alex Lotz: The combat mechanics of Slave Zero X draw inspiration from anime fighting games, particularly Arc System Works games like Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, and spectacle fighters like Devil May Cry. These mechanics allow for extended and expressive combos that set Slave Zero X apart from most brawler or beat ‘em up games. While the game’s combat occurs on a 2D plane, the player traverses a 3D world. This creates a 2.5D presentation, which also sets Slave Zero X apart from most of the games in its genres.
Azario Lopez: The game draws inspiration from titles like Devil May Cry, Strider, and Guilty Gear. How did these influences shape the development of Slave Zero X, and what elements did you specifically aim to incorporate from these games?
Francine Bridge: Speaking outside of the technical gameplay aspects that were very obviously inherited – Guilty Gear’s “Roman Cancel” system, DMC’s eternal style/flourish mechanics, and Strider’s 2D/3D hybrid environments, I think something we tried to bring forward from DMC and GG especially is their willful ostentation, their kind of chuuni maximalism, the natural “pulp” genre of games from their era. Things like eschewing the minimalist UI of many modern titles to return to a skeuomorphic or themed graphic design principal, covering all our surfaces in iron skeletons and hissing machinery – indulging in pure “rule of cool” throughout every facet of the design process.
DMC and GG live at a very keen edge between absurdity and genuine thrill, and I think the balance they strike between something that’s patently silly and something with a degree of emotional or visual profundity to it is key – but only in conjunction with sincerity. If there’s any one thing I would want to take from those titles, it’s the ability to take ourselves completely seriously, even when we’re asking you to emotionally invest in an ultraviolent story about a sorcerer tyrant being cut down by a sword-wielding bishonen who effortlessly slices giant mecha in half with a single blade.
Azario Lopez: Slave Zero X is set in the biopunk world of Slave Zero. How does the narrative of this game expand on or differ from the original 1999 game, and what new themes or storylines are explored?
Francine Bridge: We’re not shy about saying that our title is a “spiritual prequel,” something we coined during development – we didn’t adhere 1:1 to every detail established by the original and worked harder instead to capture the vibe or the intended atmosphere. However, the broad strokes connect, and we tried to account for some differences. As much as the Sovereign Khan resists being overthrown by the Guardians and the citizens he oppresses, he resisted us even harder – we also couldn’t kill him because his survival was necessary for the original title to make sense.
Consequently, I think we shifted focus from a broad-scope narrative about a major revolutionary moment finally being realized and invested in a personal arc, tied in with a thematic through-line that Miles (Luna, Slave Zero X Lead Writer) and I felt strongly about, which is that a personal act of vengeance or atonement doesn’t constitute a revolution – that you cannot merely destroy, but must attempt to build something new, and that isolating destruction and creation from each other results only in perpetuating the status quo. Slave Zero X is a story about the personal trials of Shou and X that ties into a larger picture when their legacy is inherited.
Alex Lotz: The main difference between the games is the former focuses on melee combat in a smaller biosuit, while the latter is about ranged shooter combat in a gigantic biomech – and there are clear narrative reasons for this difference. Some themes the games have in common are body horror, corporate megacities, and a tyrannical overlord villain in the Sovereign Khan. Much of the new storytelling in Slave Zero X comes from its protagonist Shou and his relationship with his rival Atavaka, and each of the SovKhan’s lieutenants (called the ‘Calamities’) has a bit of their own story arc as well, each unfolding through radio transmissions received while Shou climbs the Megacity.
Azario Lopez: Shou, the protagonist, is a complex character merging with a Slave Unit Prototype. How did you approach his character development, and what makes his journey compelling for players?
Francine Bridge: Shou and X must be discussed together because they constitute a single protagonist body (literally and figuratively). There’s a modern archetype in the form of the “symbiote,” the idea of a character who shares a body with another being that often externalizes their identity and acts as a tempting or corrupting influence – “Venom” is the most well-known example; and another might be “Greed” from Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist.
While both of the above examples develop beyond this, too, the popular perception of this kind of character is that the “Symbiote” often craves violence or the satisfaction of base urges and offers power in exchange for having those urges indulged. Shou and X start like this, but Miles and I worked to create an arc where that only lasts for a brief time – X pretty quickly develops into a more full-fledged person in her own right and begins to ask questions about life beyond existence as a weapon, or beyond the immediate need for violence. By the climax of their arc in Zone 5, the roles are inverted – Shou wants to kill and kill and kill, while X tries to resist his self-destructive impulses and pull him towards believing in life beyond vengeance. I think that’s the core of their dynamic – Shou and X bond through shared trauma, but they must grow beyond it and share more than just a common enemy or mutual suffering.
On a lighter note, one thing I really wanted Shou to exemplify was a “brat” attitude. When we were doing auditions, one of the principal reasons we went with (Shou’s English-language voice actor) Griffin Burns, was because he brought a slight whininess or petulance to Shou’s voice that felt more interesting than the purely noble or sorrowful tone of some of the other auditions. X is, even after she develops, very straightforward and sincere, while Shou is a little more snarky and petty, which makes again for a fun inversion of the usual dynamic between “host and symbiote.” Much as Griffin spoke to us by showing that kind of nuance, Elizabeth Maxwell, who is the English-language voice of X, stood out because she showed us a lot more sides to X than just the initial “murder gremlin” angle, and her performance is kind of leagues ahead of my wildest dreams for what X could have sounded like or been.
Alex Lotz: The first narrative event of the game is Shou merging with the discarded Slave Unit prototype biosuit he comes to know as X. At the beginning of the game, the motivations of Shou and the nascent X are both unclear – Shou’s own comrades from the Guardians are heard over the radio panicking about his rash action in stealing the biosuit. One thing that is compelling to the player about Shou taking on this reckless mission without the permission or support of his comrades is that all of his reasons for doing it are not explained until several flashbacks that appear later in the game. X, who has recently merged with Shou, is (like the player) also curious about Shou’s motivations. X and Shou’s conversations and the interplay of their distinct motivations also serve to create many moments of character development.
Azario Lopez: The game is set in a dystopian future with biopunk elements. How did you go about designing the world and ensuring it felt immersive and authentic to the sci-fi genre?
Francine Bridge: I don’t know that the sci-fi genre, or any genre, requires “authenticity” or even “immersion” – I think the player is certainly immersed in the City as a narrative location through the amazing work of our environment artists, the myriad of advertisements and the scores of pipes and maintenance gantries that cluster every surface or the sound design that populates that City and expands it beyond the immediate visual scope of the player, but I don’t know that verisimilitude is valuable in and of itself.
We wanted the heightened super-reality of a pulp OVA. Defining each Zone as visually distinct was very key, calling back to the earlier format in games of distinct “levels,” especially in old sidescrolling titles, but then reifying that as part of the City’s in-universe structure, a series of separate districts or security levels that climb up to the surface where the Palace awaits. I think we were very blunt with our metaphor – the City is literally an engine to generate suffering that empowers a ruling class or central figure. The piping that runs throughout every level was our most commonly recurring motif – a cluster of pipes implies function and complexity and industrial detail, but it also recalled veins – the City is not itself a living thing in a literal sense (Excepting maybe the overgrown flesh in Zone 4….), but it’s a representation of the body of the Sovereign Khan himself, built to enclose everyone there, making them both parasite and food for his own ambitions.
Any dystopia debases human life – we did that on a micro level in the Residential Zone through swarming all space with ads, exposed machinery, and dilapidated infrastructure but no evidence of livable space designed for human comfort or well-being, and on a macro level in the overall structure, narratively and literally of the City as a “suffering engine.”
Azario Lopez: Slave Zero X’s narrative explores a relationship between the two male leads through flashbacks. Could you elaborate on how this relationship is integrated into the game and why you felt it was important to include this element?
Francine Bridge: I mentioned earlier that we decided to bring a more personal element to the narrative of Slave Zero X and to give our central character a more personal motivation. Providing context and meat to that required a secondary storytelling format for us to slowly reveal Shou’s relationship, framed as X probing his memories as they ascend, eventually culminating in his final admission to her of what he feels was his sin.
I think a queer relationship is still an inherently “rebellious” or “revolutionary” one in most popular contexts, and as a team with several queer members, cis and trans, we wanted to see something of ourselves reflected in the story. On a personal level, I’m a sucker for a good grand romantic tragedy, and I wanted players to feel keenly the sorrow that Shou feels over realizing that the only way he can still touch the man he loves is with the blade of his sword.
The concept of the “former loved one turned enemy” is actually fairly common in character action with “rival” type characters, but the most famous examples, such as Dante and Vergil, are familial or platonic relationships – I’ve always wanted a grand pulp tragedy that didn’t feel a need to moralize or equivocate about characters being incidentally gay. Being included means being included even in something as melodramatic and indulgent as a swordfight between two doomed lovers.
When I saw fanart depicting the imagined moment of Shou and Isamu confessing their love for the first time to each other (something we didn’t show in our flashbacks since they’re already lovers by the time the game shows us their past) but also the art of Atavaka coldly caressed by the hand of SovKhan, I felt a deep joy that we managed to connect with someone on that level. I would like to see more queer characters who don’t exist solely as didactic tools about our humanity, as important as education is. It was a joy to tell this story the way we wanted to, with no compromise.
Azario Lopez: The visual aesthetic of Slave Zero X is a blend of 2D sprites and 3D environments. What was the inspiration behind this art direction, and what challenges did you face in bringing this vision to life?
Francine Bridge: I think our primary inspiration was actually the aforementioned Strider 2, which sits with a handful of other titles at this transitional moment between 2D being the dominant format for industry titles vs 3D, where teams were scrambling to figure out what worked and what worked well in the new field, and elements of the old and new pipelines collided.
I’ve always had a soft spot for titles from the “awkward” era of something like the early PS1 or the Sega Saturn, where 3D was an enormous novelty but also not effortless. I like any period of development where restrictions breed creativity – while the challenges of making our highly idiosyncratic combination of tools and engines work were steep, I relished our chance to create something that felt authentic to that period in part because we were fighting our restrictions. It also somewhat serendipitously supported our “OVA” flavor, recalling the sharp contrast between moving characters on cel frames over the lavishly painted backgrounds of older animation, with a sharp divide between our sprites and the “diorama” levels we populated with them.
Azario Lopez: The game features a 90s-inspired soundtrack with heavy Drum’n’Bass and industrial music. How did you choose the music for the game, and how does it enhance the overall gaming experience?
Francine Bridge: The music supported both the atmosphere of the title (high energy bursts interspersed with cooler stretches of relief) and the period flavor as a “throwback” title. I wasn’t responsible for the music directly – we were in the very capable hands of Blake (Troise, AKA PROTODOME, music on Slave Zero X) but I did pass Blake some recommendations early in development for artists I felt could be relevant, such as Susumu Hirasawa (with strains of “Parade” and “Haldyn Hotel” influencing Hercule’s battle theme) and Chu Ishikawa, whose industrial work, especially “MEGATRON” as it was heard in Tetsuo: The Iron Man surfacing in part of the SovKhan’s two-part boss track.
Alex Lotz: As with the setting and story of Slave Zero X, the soundtrack has some strong aesthetic connections (and even a few direct callbacks) to the original Slave Zero. The vast majority of the OST’s themes and ideas are new and distinct to Slave Zero X, but one way we feel it enhances the overall experience is a feeling of consistency with the tone and world of the original Slave Zero.
Azario Lopez: After completing the main campaign, Slave Zero X offers additional challenges such as the ‘Crimson Citadel’ procedural challenge tower. What can players expect from this post-game content, and how does it add to the replayability of the game?
Francine Bridge: The Crimson Citadel offers players a platform for the skills they acquire clearing the main story – I wasn’t involved with its development firsthand, but it’s my hope that people can use it as a stage for the most spectacular combo work and as a place to indulge any craving for violence not sated by the path to the Heaven over Hells.
Alex Lotz: Aside from chasing a spot on the high score leaderboard, Crimson Citadel offers replay value to those looking to master the game’s combat system since it’s a way to test your mettle against nearly all of the game’s enemy types and several of its bosses, in one play session. It also allows you to try out a variety of upgrades and weapon loadouts quickly since your unlocks in Crimson Citadel are separate from those in the main campaign.
Azario Lopez: The game has received very positive reviews from players. How has the feedback from the community influenced the development process, and are there any specific updates or features planned based on player suggestions?
Francine Bridge: I’ve been enormously, deeply grateful for the response from those who’ve played and shared our game, both positive and negative – I had a nightmare the night before release day where we became available only to receive no response at all, good or bad, and I’m very happy to know that people care, in either direction. Feeling such positivity, though, was something I hoped for but didn’t dare “Count on” since I’m terrified of disappointment, haha.
The team has been making performance and bug fixes since release, and a few minor edits have been made to gameplay functions to meet player feedback – one thing we didn’t anticipate was some weird techniques being discovered, such as the “teleporting kunai” combo extender (if you know, you know) which were strictly speaking, unintended bugs, but which we chose to leave intact after a pass to ensure they didn’t create any other bugs, and have now, with player endorsement, become part and parcel of the toolkit available to players. That kind of active dialogue is only possible in the modern model for digital ongoing releases, and I’m grateful we were able to have it in there!
Alex Lotz: Within days of release, we received feedback and feature requests that have helped us hone and improve core content and “quality of life” aspects of the game. We are not yet able to announce or confirm specific pending updates or features, but we can confirm that many are under investigation thanks to the feedback and support of the players, who have been encouraging and open with their thoughts on how to improve the game.
