Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Director of El Shaddai interviewed

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: The Director of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron comments on the use of the "Book of Enoch" (i.e., the Book of the Watchers in 1 Enoch 1-36) in an interview with Joystiq. Excerpts:
So what is the world in the game supposed to be? Is it a weird interpretation of our world or is it a fantasy realm?

It is completely a fantasy world, completely original. It came out from the developers. It's not really an interpretation of the real world.

Does it have a name?

There is no name. We don't have a specific name for the game world.

It's set in sort of a fantasy landscape, but the story is based on Biblical themes. What inspired the use of these Biblical elements?

That's because the project started when the UK headquarters asked me to make something based on the Book of Enoch, which is Old Testament apocrypha. That's how it started.

What about the Book of Enoch led into an action game?

It's not that I thought that a game based on the Book of Enoch would be good for an action game, per se, but it's because I have a lot of experience with action games. Also, when the UK headquarters based on the Book of Enoch, there was another guy from the UK headquarters who said he wanted to make something beyond God of War. We decided to combine them and make it into one game.

When the guy at the UK office who requested the Book of Enoch game -- when you showed him this, what did he think?

He was very pleased.

[...]

About the religious elements. Do you think Japanese players and Western players will feel different about the religious aspects?

I guess that probably people will feel differently in Japan. I think so.

In what way?

As for Japanese people, the Old Testament, we're not familiar with these kinds of things at all. They don't feel familiar. It's a complete fantasy for Japanese people.

[...]
I dare say Japanese and Western players will react differently, although the Enochic material is very foreign to Westerners too.

This was interesting, but I wish he had said more about the details of the use made of the Book of the Watchers.

Background here and here.