CHROMA SQUAD the Sentai Game Kickstarter! “SURPASS THEM ALL!!!”

[Forum Discussion]

Justice fans, we have something special for you today, and I’m not gonna waste any time bullshitting about whatnot like I usually do, so dig this vibe, you all everybody: it’s called Chroma Squad and it’s the world’s very first Sentai Sim, and I’m not kidding.  A group of game developers in Brazil are making a video game for the PC based around the mechanics of making tokusatsu shows; it’s essentially your very own Saburo Hatte roleplay.  As long as there has been tokusatsu, there have been opinions on how to make it better and why the last one that came out sucked.  All of you people who have opinions now have the ability to prove that you can one-up Operation Overdrive and Kiva.

The developers, known as Behold Studios, need some help in making it, though.  They’re currently holding a Kickstarter fund to garner the necessary funds to finish the darn thing, and they need YOUR help.  Hit the ‘jump’ to read the official description, ripped from the Kickstarter’s front page, and learn a little more right from the horse’s mouth.

“Chroma Squad: sentai heroes, manager, tactical turn-based, meta-game, pixel art fun! Everything you want in a fresh indie game! In this game you become responsible for managing and recording episodes for a sentai TV show.

So, what is Sentai? Our game is based on 90’s Tokusatsu TV series, like “Power Rangers”, “Changeman” or… “Captain Planet And The Planeteers”. Yep, any group of 3 or 5, each with different powers, whose union makes a special weapon appear to defeat their enemies. In this case, Captain Planet himself. =)

In Chroma Squad you’ll see tons of references, including riders Tokusatsu, solo heroes, and every bit of our geeks 80 and 90’s culture. So, get ready for a experience full of color!

The main story of our game is about a group of stuntmen that decide to make their own sentai TV studio. You become their manager, hiring actors, purchasing awesome cameras, and making everything explode with your special effects. But their adventure becomes so exciting, that they start thinking that everything is actually real.

Here’s a quick list of what you can do in the game:

• Hire and customize your actors.

• Choose their jumpsuit color and their roles on battle.
• Select skills and make your own build of abilities. Each color has its own skill tree of possibilities.
• Buy equipment for your studio, such as cameras, microphones, chromakey carpets and lights to improve your gameplay experience.
• Record episodes and complete seasons.
• Each episode is a mix between tactical turn-based battles, with tons of dialogues, and explosive cinematics.
• You have the lights, the cameras, and of course, you make the action! You control the movement, attack and skills of each of your chromatic party while recording.
• Purchase consumable items and improve your abilities. Example: buy fireworks and gain +1 damage to your attack.
• Create channels and improve your marketing campaigns, sending letters to your fans’ mailboxes, chatting on IRC, going to conventions, and releasing comic books.
• Take care of your fans, in a very cute mini-game, listening to their distinct stories and deciding if they deserve what they’re asking for. Like a little boy who asks to visit the studio, but once you let him, you can’t tell if he might break anything valuable. ;D
• Record episodes with other studios online. Fight for audience in cooperative and competitive modes.

Now, it goes without saying, this is a pretty big deal.  We’ve had Kamen Rider games, we’ve had Power Rangers games, and we’ve had Viewtiful Joe, but we, as an audience have never had this opportunity before.  The game has even caught the attention, endorsement, and a donation from the creative team making the MMPR fan film.  But why, you ask?  Let’s review:

Let me start by saying that, as a fan community, we can often confuse having an opinion with being a critic.  It’s easy for someone with a job to judge harshly on a genre that has mainly been focused on catching the attention of children for decades.  Being a ‘critic’ CAN be classified as anything beyond leaving a comment on internet media, but the truth is that true critical review of any content able to be evaluated must come from a perspective embracing multiple perspectives.  Without such openness and prior education, the perception used within the critique becomes unacceptable and generalized, and eventually falls back into the angry peasantry among /m/ and the HJU forums.

Here’s what I mean for all of you who dun read good: we, as the audience, have a VERY limited perception of what tokusatsu is all about.  The more we learn about the parts that we don’t see will, in the end, help make our opinions of all tokusatsu media more sensible and take away the zeal and pretention often sewn into the most radical of our views.  In the realm of Super Sentai, it is easy to assume that writers and designers are lazy and re-use old themes for no other reason but to save themselves from getting REALLY inspired.  That MUST be the reason that there have been 3 dinosaur-themed Sentai teams in the last 20 years, right?

The short answer is that there isn’t a whole lot left for them to use.  It’s logical to believe that, after such a long amount of time, it must be difficult for companies like Toei to find new things to make their superhero suits based on.  You still don’t think so after Kamen Rider In Space, or my favorite upcoming American adaptation ever, Kamen Rider Fruit Ninja?  Even Ultraman is still re-using shit that has been circulating the messy round table in the writing room.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they cycle the Zyu2 mecha back in at some point just so it doesn’t go to waste.

Coming back to Chroma Squad, the truth is that many fans don’t realize how difficult it is to actually make any film at all.  Many of us are day-laborers and middle-class folks that have no idea what the entertainment industry is all about or what is required of the crews on all ends of the production spectrum.  Chroma Squad proves to be a possible game-changer in how the masses in the tokusatsu audience view the production of the shows themselves; the specificity promised as part of the gameplay is a big deal as far as learning more about necessary equipment, crew members, and budgetary constraints.  By placing us, transitioning from audience to player, into the role of Toei itself (or rather, a rebellious sect of a Toei-like company), we will be able to learn firsthand that being on a Sentai production team is not easy.

It’s not all posedowns with Koichi Sakamoto.  It’s not flying Mark Musashi out to Morphicon.  Making a film is a lot of hard work that requires a massive amount of knowledge of what shows up on camera, and by placing toku fans in charge of getting it all together, I believe it will open up our minds quite a bit.  It’s important to have a look on the production side anyway, mainly because every company (Toei, Toho, Saban Brands) has limits, which is mostly monetary.  Those who complained about Power Rangers: Samurai didn’t realize that it was made and adapted during a recession, and Saban reportedly didn’t receive overwhelming capital from selling toys like they usually do.  Even our beloved Gokaiger had financial limitations; it was reported via Orends: Range that there weren’t originally plans to include as many former actors or tribute episodes that actually did make it into the show, and it was the result of the last big tsunami and extensive communication that they got more support than the budget department had bargained for.

All I’m trying to say is that the experience offered by Chroma Squad will (or rather, should) transcend the gameplay experience and enter how we watch contemporary tokusatsu.  It might even help provide an important stepping stone between fan and independent filmmaker for those who haven’t been properly inspired yet.  I may actually do a follow-up article after this thing gets released, get some opinions from indie toku filmmakers, and do a grand review.  You know, because I’m a legitimate critic.

Let’s face it though, all of this is extra to the main point of getting to make your own tokusatsu show.  How cool is that concept?  I know that I’ve basically glossed over everything else that makes this game worthy of our excitability, but for the $15 perk, you can basically get the game and a bunch of Kickstarter-only extras when it gets released.  They’re also offering an exclusive prequel comic, a concept artbook, hats and t-shirts, and a bunch of chances to be a character in the game in some respect.  They’ve only got $3,000 left to make it to their goal (they’re stuck at $52,000, which is an insane thing to say), and if they make $80,000 by the end of it, they’re going to put extra Kamen Rider-inspired goodies into the game.  Come on now, the fans of Henshin Justice Unlimited can get the horse through the gate, right?

Remember to visit the Chroma Squad Kickstarter page at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1893273284/chroma-squad-manager-game-with-japanese-style-supe to make a donation, leave a positive comment about your hopes and dreams, and then share it with all your friends on everything.  We’ll have an interview with the top man at Behold Studios coming up in the VERY near future to learn more about what makes the project tick, as well as learning what kind of sushi they have down in Brasilia.  There’s also an interview with the creative team behind Jushi Sentai France Five coming up, as well as a talk with Mr. Gun Caliber himself about the new film that has been made about his life and career.

Until next time: have courage and press on regardless.

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