Lead members of the development team from Dimps were also on hand to help unveil the game, which is being featured as a playable title at Sammy’s booth (West Hall #2200) for the duration of E3. Seven Samurai is exclusively for Sony PlayStation® 2 and is slated for release for this year’s holiday season.
“Seven Samurai 20XX is an exciting video game title on many levels,” said John Rowe, president of Sammy Studios. “It takes a film that has transcended generations and recreates it as an intense action game set in the future, and pays proper homage to the masterpiece that inspired it as a collaborative and artistically-driven effort.”
Seven Samurai 20XX brings video gamers a Samurai combat game inspired by the classic The Seven Samurai, the Akira Kurosawa film considered by many to have set standards for modern day action movies. The title takes the film’s timeless tale of chivalry in the face of greed and aggression into a not-too-distant future. It is a time when humans have overcome a near apocalypse but still face a treacherous enemy; one employing an army of mechanical beasts and humanoids. Seven Samurai 20XX puts players in the role of the young Ronin Natoe. At first fighting the enemy alone as they begin laying siege to the human’s one and only city, Natoe soon finds himself the protector of the humans’ last hope, the Holy Child, and ultimately the leader of a band of warriors united to protect her against the invaders. Seven Samurai 20XX engages players with an experience that combines compelling storytelling, delivered through superb cinematic cut-scenes, with intense melee-style combat. Players will use a variety of ancient fighting styles in the game, employing an arsenal of moves and attacks that grow with their mastery of the samurai way.
As a proper homage, Seven Samurai 20XX was created with the full involvement of Kurosawa Production and its president Hisao Kurosawa, son of Akira. Mr. Kurosawa played an instrumental role in ensuring that his father’s vision was faithfully recreated as a video game.
Development of Seven Samurai 20XX involved contributions from world-renowned artists. Characters in the game were conceptualized by the infamous French comic artist Moebius, best known for his Blueberry comic strip and as designer for such visual film masterpieces as The Fifth Element and Tron. The game also boasts a cinematic score, with opening and ending music composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, the world-famous music composer and winner of an Academy Award for the soundtrack for the film The Last Emperor.