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These three Street Fighter III: 3rd

Strike interviews were originally
featured in Gamest magazine and
the Capcom Secret File. They cover
the origins of the 3rd Strike
development, the design of the new
characters, changes from 2nd
Impact, and much more.

The third interview with general

producer Noritaka Funamizu also
features his comments on the
contemporary arcade and FTG scene,
alternating between pointed criticism
of the industry and heartfelt
declarations of support for the genre
and community.

Street Fighter II Interviews

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike – Pre-release

Interview
originally featured in Gamest magazine

—At long last, SFIII: 3rd Strike is almost here—just one month left! I’d
like to start with some general questions about the game. How long has
the development been going on?

Capcom: We started it around the time we finished 2nd Impact, so almost a

year and a half.

—How about the staff?

Capcom: We had just added a bunch of new staff, but it was mostly the same
team from 2nd Impact.

—The official title for the game is “Street Fighter III: 3rd STRIKE Fight for
the Future”. The title is very… long. (laughs) What was the reason for
that?

Capcom: We started conceptualizing 3rd Strike during the development of 2nd

Impact, when it was still called by its provisional title “Second Edition.” The
numbering is a remnant from that. As for “STRIKE”, we decided we wanted to
use a word with more immediate force than “Impact”. The subtitle “Fight for the
Future” has a couple things going on: first, it’s a call-back to the first game,
New Generation, and the idea that these are the next generation of fighters;
second, we wanted to signal to players that this was a game you could only play
at game centers, and convey our hope that the tradition of live arcade FTG
matches will continue for a long time to come.

—Ah, so it wasn’t just about length then. (laughs) There’s a lot of deep
associations there.

Capcom: Of course! (laughs)

—Capcom has many other 2D FTG franchises, including Darkstalkers,

X-men, Street Fighter Zero… where does the Street Fighter III series fit in
among these?

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Capcom: The other series are all related in one way or another to Street Fighter
II, either as developments, refinements, or offshoots of that style of gameplay.
However, from the start SFIII was designed as a game that would take the core
concept of SFII, but adapt it for today’s generation and technology.

—And where does 3rd Strike fit amongst the other Street Fighter III
games, then?

Capcom: Good question. We really took things to the limit in terms of volume,
with the number of characters and such. In that sense I think you can probably
call 3rd Strike the culmination of the SFIII series.

—Being a culmination of the series, as you say, I imagine the

development must have been very challenging.

Capcom: Yes, definitely. We took what we learned from 2nd Impact and re-
examined the whole SFIII system. Also, we really wanted to create beautiful
backgrounds this time; visuals that you could take time to slow down and
appreciate when you were playing single player. The entire staff really put their
heart and soul into the graphics for 3rd Strike. I want to specially point out the
car in the bonus game—it’s a must-see… please refrain from destroying it right
away! (laughs)

—I felt like the sound has really changed for 3rd Strike, too. There’s rap,
hip-hop—it’s a very different feel from what we’ve seen in FTG games up
to now.

Capcom: Yeah. We really wanted to challenge ourselves to try and do

something new with the sound, too. It was very important to us. We used the
Canada hip-hop artist infinite for the opening track. I think they came up with
something really cool. You know, the whole sound staff really tried to capture
the essence of those words “Fight for the Future” with their music. If they had
only followed the story alone, I don’t think the same feeling would have been
conveyed.

Capcom developers in the recording studio with infinite.

—Well then, I’d like to get to what everyone is dying to know more
about: the game mechanics…

Capcom: Uh oh… (laughs) We’re still in the fine-tuning stage, so I won’t be able
to give a final answer to everything, but I’ll do my best!

—I wanted to start off by asking about the version you had on display at

the AOU show earlier this week. I was able to play it, and I noticed that
you’d changed the leap attack and throws: you now have to press
medium punch and medium kick simultaneously to execute them. What

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were you trying to accomplish with that change?

Capcom: We wanted to avoid the command inputs overlapping (especially when

you consider the addition of parrying), so it was done to simplify things,
actually.

—I’ve heard about about a new “Grade Judge” system in SFIII. Were you
trying to send a message to the FTG scene with the inclusion of this
system?

Capcom: I used to go to local events and see these beautiful, graceful

performances from highly-skilled players of 2nd Impact. It was then that I
thought something was missing if players were judged simply on their win
percentage or their score. I wanted to try adding something that would be able
to judge the aesthetic aspects of a fight…

However, it’s difficult to objectively judge a thing like “beauty”, so I’m sure there
will be times when players think the rating is off. I hope players see it as just
one approach to the possibility of seeing matches as something more than just
win/lose. I want players to try and get a good grade!

—Parrying is one of the key features of the SFIII series. How has it been
adjusted for 3rd Strike?

Capcom: We’re still fine-tuning the parrying, so I can’t say anything for certain
yet, but compared with 2nd Impact, the feel is a little different. For mid-air
parries you now push the lever in the same direction as ground parries, for
example.

—I often heard people complain that the input timing for parries was
very difficult in the previous games. What are your thoughts about that?

Capcom: Any element of gameplay ultimately comes down to a question of how

it affects the weight and balancing of the overall game. Difficulty and Ease are
two sides of the same coin.

Concept art for Ken. Developer comment: “We had planned to add
more moves for Ken, but his Shoryuken was so strong, he kind of
became a one-trick pony character. Even if you suck, he’s strong
enough to bury many of the other characters…”

—I think the ability to combo after parrying is a big part of what makes
the SFIII series so fun and refreshing to play. I got the impression that
the damage on such attacks was set relatively high, which I think
accounts for making it so fun. Were you thinking along those lines when
you set it up?

Capcom: Regarding the strength of the attacks, more than combo damage per
se, we were thinking about the tempo of the game. On the one hand, we figured
that most of the players for Street Fighter III were older. And if the damage was

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set too low, then fights would always be determined by the relative skill
difference between players. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we wanted to
bring back that sense of tension and excitement from the early days of fighting
games, you know?

—Finally, I’d like to ask about the characters. I’ve always felt like the
characters in SFIII have a ton of personality. Each one really stands out.
There’s almost no “color swap” characters, and I love how each one has
a distinct fighting style that really justifies their existence in the roster.
When you’re creating a new character, what comes first: the fighting
style concept, or their look/appearance?

Capcom: When we make characters, even if we have a really cool visual motif,
if we can’t think of a matching set of movements and fighting style to go along
with it, usually that character never gets made. In contrast, if we do have a
solid idea for a fighting style first, then the moment we find a visual design to
match, it’s an almost immediate greenlight for that character. That happened a
lot, actually.

—Could you say a word or two about the 4 new characters: their design,
fighting concept, etc.

Capcom: For Makoto, we were asked to make a character based on ikken

hissatsu: simple, direct, and powerful. Ryu and Ken have a more American style
of Karate, so we wanted Makoto to have a more Japanese style. And of course
we tried to make her moveset and controls reflect that, too.

For Twelve, we were thinking about how to make a character who was more
deliberately weird and atypical. His design was basically all about “breaking the
rules”…

—Twelve seems to be a character with a lot of secrets. How about Q?

Capcom: Q isn’t associated with the main storyline, so we had more freedom in
designing him. His fighting concept was simple, direct charging attacks with a
little extra “je ne sais quoi” thrown in.

Remi, on the other hand, was designed as a hardcore martial artist like Alex or
Ryu—and a rival to them, with characteristics that would counter their abilities.
We also wanted to flesh out the backstory of SFIII with Remi. He was the last of
the new characters we created—in fact, we didn’t even get started on him until
well after the others were done, so he took a long time to finish. For his fighting
style, we took a frank look at what styles were missing from the SFIII line-up,
and developed it from there.

—3rd Strike is also the first SFIII game to feature Chun Li. Was she added
in response to fans?

Capcom: That was definitely part of it, but as developers we also wanted to see
her added to the mix.

—Of all the new characters, who was the hardest to create?

Capcom: In terms of his design, Remi. The one who took the most work and
time, though, was Chun Li.

—As developers, do you have any favorite characters?

Capcom: All of the new characters are popular, but I would probably say
Makoto or Twelve. Of the older characters, Dudley and Necro are very popular.

—This is obviously a hypothetical question, but if you were to continue

the SFIII series, what characters would you like to see added from the
previous (ZERO etc) series?

Capcom: I’d have to say Sagat or Zangief.

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Concept art for Necro and Dudley, who

were favorites among the development staff.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike – Roundtable

Interview
originally featured in the Capcom Secret File

Hidetoshi Ishizawa – Main Planner

Tomonori Onuma – Planner
Yasunori Ichinose – Planner
Haruo Murata – Events/Text, Grade Judge system

AOU Show and Location Test

Ichinose: Let’s start off with the location test. How did it go?

Onuma: There were a lot of 2nd Impact players there.

Ichinose: Yeah, lots of very passionate fans.

Ishizawa: Some of them had their own homepages online, which they would
update everyday with new info from the location test.

Onuma: I’m very thankful for them.

Ishizawa: I was reading their pages and it was very helpful. It was like, “Oh
shit, a bug!” or “hmm, maybe that move is overpowered…” (laughs)

Onuma: As I said, we’re very thankful. (laughs)

Ishizawa: We always listen to the feedback from players. Truly. Even when it’s
just flattery. (laughs)

Murata: 3rd Strike had a really long location test, didn’t it? Almost a month?

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Ishizawa: Yeah, when you compare the version of the game at the beginning of
the location test, and what we ended up with—it’s like two entirely different
games!

Murata: And 70% of those changes were made in the last 3 days. (laughs) It’s
crazy… it almost feels like the entire game was made in one week. (laughs)

Ichinose: I was really impressed at everyone’s ability to focus and concentrate

in that short period.

Ishizawa: Yeah, but management knows that and relies on it, so they never
give us enough time. (crying laugh)

Murata: Was it always the plan to do the location test right after the AOU
show? I remember at the AOU, we only had one Super Arts completed…! It
seemed insane.

Ishizawa: I remember coming up with the 2nd and 3rd Super Arts during one
of the events at AOU, like literally during the presentation I was giving.

Murata: People were asking all these different questions, and all I could say
was “It’s still in development. It’s still in development.” Really, hardly anything
had been finalized. (laughs)

Grade Judge

Ichinose: The Grade Judge system was much more strict at first, wasn’t it?

Murata: It was. At the location test, you were doing well if you could get a D! It
was even harder during the AOU show before that… there, people were only
getting F and G ratings.

Ishizawa: Yeah, I saw someone get a B

and everyone went crazy. People thought
the highest score possible was an A.

Murata: And an A is only halfway on the

scale. (laughs)

Ichinose: What?! Really?

Ishizawa: In the very final stages of

the development, we invited some
superplayers to the game center for
some all-day playtesting session, to try
and ferret out any bugs. Even those
guys couldn’t reach an A ranking. It was
like, uh oh, aren’t these the best players
around? (laughs)

Murata: Yeah, in order to finish in time

Early concept art for Twelve.
Developer comment: “This is a very
early design. We had planned to
add camouflage to his skin, too.
for the AOU show, the requirements I
programmed for the higher ranks were
just stupid. “Finish with more than 99
seconds, with 99 combos, 99 parries”,
etc. (laughs maniacally)
Ichinose: Impossible, even for a god.

Murata: For the final version, I made them more reasonable, of course.
(laughs)

Ichinose: I imagine that you had to take a crazy number of variables into
account to make the Grade Judge system.

Murata: The programmer in charge really put his heart into it. He was tinkering
with it and adding things up to the very last minute.

Game Mechanics

Ishizawa: In the beginning, we wanted to add another new mechanic to 3rd

Strike, something on par with the importance of parrying. Unfortunately, we
realized that adding another mechanic like that would really change the
gameplay we’d established in the SFIII series, so we abandoned the idea.

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Onuma: There were still a lot of possibilities left to exploit in parrying, we

realized. And if you aren’t extremely careful with new mechanics, they can
easily become either overwhelmingly powerful, or totally useless.

Ichinose: What were some of the ideas you had…?

Ishizawa: Ah… there was the “bomb” idea, if I recall.

Ichinose: A bomb…?!

Ishizawa: Yeah, just like it sounds. A bomb like in a STG game, something
where you press one button and everything gets destroyed! It would have been
usable only once per match. We were thinking seriously about how to include it
in a balanced way.

Murata: Wow.

Ishizawa: If we define parrying as “a technique that can defend against any

and all attacks”, then we wanted to counterpose something to that with a bomb,
as something that could break any and all defenses. It was a simplistic
conception. But ultimately, of course, people were like, “Nah, there’s no BOMBS
in Street Fighter!”, and we dropped the idea. What a shame, I say!

Onuma: No, I think it was the right choice. (laughs)

Progressive Hit Frame

Murata: Uh, what the hell was this, in the end? (laughs)

Ishizawa: (painful laughter) Um yeah, the name isn’t particularly illuminating.

We were all trying to come up with an easy way to explain it for the AOU show…

Ichinose: I remember receiving a fax with “What is the Progressive Frame

system?” and an explanation written, but I confess I didn’t understand any of it.
(laughs)

Murata: That was probably by design. (laughs)

Ichinose: It’s nickname was the “analogue hitbox”. If I recall, it was a different
way of calculating the hitbox compared with the previous games…?

Ishizawa: Yeah, excluding certain moves. (laughs) The easiest example is

probably Elena, I think? Her basic footwork (her stances), the movement of her
feet is calculated in an analogue way.

Murata: It’s really something added for the hardcore player. We’re talking the
difference of a pixel or two…

Onuma: It’s a fun system to try and figure out. Hardcore players, please enjoy
the challenge!

New Characters

Ichinose: We should probably talk about the new characters too.

Ishizawa: Let’s start with Chun Li. Her main designer, Akira “Akiman” Yasuda,
was really busy with other things this development, and had a hard time of it.

Ichinose: The feel of her standard attacks changed a lot.

Ishizawa: I guess you could say she’s the Chun Li of Street Fighter III. And we
didn’t use her background info/notes from SFII either.

Murata: Everyone was really curious about her age and background. We
decided to determine all that for ourselves; whatever the official canon might
be, we wanted to make her our own. Now that’s what you call real love for a
character!

Ichinose: I can feel the passion.

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Concept art for Chun Li in 3rd Strike.

The developers say she took the most time and effort to complete.

Murata: And remember, age is nothing but a number! You don’t start being old
until the moment you say “I’m old”…!

Onuma: …I’m not gonna ask.

Ichinose: Next up is Makoto, who was very popular at the AOU show.

Ishizawa: Alright, I’ll tell you guys a little secret. We actually finished Makoto’s
design during 2nd Impact’s development. But for various reasons, we ran out of
time to include her there, and resolved to include her next time. And so we did!

Murata: That happens a lot actually. Like Hugo, in the first SFIII game.

Ishizawa: Yeah, almost every development has its thousand and one “next
times”… (laughs)

Ichinose: Next is Remi. His image somehow feels un-Capcom.

Onuma: He wasn’t there in the beginning of the development.

Ishizawa: When we looked at the other 4 newcomers, we felt there was

something lacking from the roster. Then it hit us: “Ah hah! There’s no bikei
character!” (laughs) 1

Murata: I wonder why we didn’t realize that during 2nd Impact. (laughs) There
was clearly something missing.

Ishizawa: The design for Remi started not from our game design team, but
from the character designer. His concept was for a delicate bikei-type.

Onuma: He came up with 40-50 different designs, didn’t he?

Ishizawa: There were a lot, yeah. There was the bikei doctor, the bikei priest,
the bikei prince, bikei monster…

Onuma: Some of those don’t sound very bikei, no matter how delicate their
limbs may be. (laughs)

Ishizawa: The “bikei priest” was one of the final contenders, I remember.

Ichinose: Next is Q.

Ishizawa: He’s a mystery. I’ll say no more.

Ichinose: That’s it?!

Ishizawa: That’s it. That’s what “mystery” means!

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Concept art for Q. Developer comment: “His combination attack is

supposed to look like someone who’s drunkenly stumbling down the
street and singing in high spirits.”

Onuma: Ok then, moving on to Twelve.

Ishizawa: He was designed as a character who could copy other characters’

faces. We also wanted to do something with a simple color pallette, so we could
really focus on making the movement and animation interesting.

Onuma: He ended up being completely different from Necro. Instead of just

changing his face, he became a character who changed his whole appearance.
(laughs)

Ichinose: I heard the XCOPY of Hugo was originally going to use the Abigail
character from Final Fight, actually?

Murata: That’ll have to be “next time”. (laughs)

Ishizawa: Oh god, it’s way too soon to be talking about “next times”… (laughs)

In Closing

Onuma: Well, shall we wrap this up? Any closing thoughts?

Ishizawa: There was a lot of stuff we weren’t able to do in 2nd Impact, so this
is kind of like a refined, improved version. In that sense 3rd Strike was a total
overhaul of the SFIII system, a chance to get the fundamentals right. I mean,
we’re always trying to do that, but.

Murata: It was the usual dilemma you have with sequels in a series: the
difficulty of balancing newness and familiarity.

Onuma: At its core, it’s a game designed for serious, intense matches.

Ichinose: Yes, and I think games are more interesting and fun when they’re
played seriously.

Ishizawa: The commercial release of 3rd Strike is finished now, but how it will
play, and how far it can be taken—that’s now in the hands of the players. I want
to see the game truly “finished” by the efforts of the community.

Murata: Now that’s a nice way to end this!

Ichinose: Yeah, that seems a fitting end.

Ishizawa: If we talked about the real state of things, we might get in trouble…
(laughs) Better to play it defensive.

Murata: Sometimes you must attack! (laughs) Is there anything left you want
to say to players…?

Ishizawa: I’m gonna have to crouch guard on that one. Forgive me.

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Murata: Grade F. (laughs)

Taken from the Capcom Secret file, this funny picture shows which
characters were most popular for the location tests in both Japan (on
the left) and America (on the right). The list at the bottom, likewise,
shows which Super Arts were most popular.

Noritaka Funamizu – 1999 Developer Interview

originally featured in Gamest magazine

—How was the response to SFIII: 3rd Strike at the AOU show?

Funamizu: It honestly inspired us with a lot of confidence. When you put your
game on display there, you finally get a chance to see what the public thinks.

—Both the first SFIII game and 2nd Impact received very good reviews, I
believe.

Funamizu: Yeah, 2nd Impact was good in its own right, but I have to say that it
was far from ideal for us. It wasn’t very polished, and as developers we realized
that a lot of things we wanted to do got left out. That’s why we really gave 3rd
Strike our absolute best, on all fronts: graphics, gameplay, and everything. It
was our intent to make a game that would be the final word on the SFIII series!
That’s why it took us so long to complete, but by the same token, we’re very
confident it will be popular with players. We really feel like we’ve finally achieved
what we’ve been trying to do all along with the SFIII concept.

—The FTG boom has come and gone. Looking at the offerings on display
at the AOU show, we’re seeing more and more music games and large-
format arcade machines from developers. With SFIII, Capcom has bucked
those trends and released another FTG game, renewing its commitment
to this genre… can you speak to that decision?

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Funamizu: Well, you know that we declared to the world long ago that
“Capcom will never stop making 2D FTGs!” But in the last 10 years, other
developers came in and flooded the market with knock-offs, creating a vs.
fighting bubble. However, at this AOU show, I couldn’t help but think that those
same developers are now abandoning ship and jumping on music games in
pursuit of the Next Big Thing.

For us, we’ve always valued FTG games, and we’re even more committed to
them now than ever.

—And yet it’s a definite fact that the

vs. fighting genre is fast
disappearing from game centers. In
fact, 3rd Strike will be the only new
FTG game released this Spring…

Funamizu: That’s all the better for us—

less competition! (laughs)

—Would you say that you feel a

deeper obligation than usual with
the release of 3rd Strike in this
climate, then?

Funamizu: Hmm, I don’t know. I had

figured the game industry would have
moved more decidedly into 3D by now.
Had that happened, I think 2D FTG
games would have actually become Noritaka Funamizu, SFIII: 3rd
Strike General Producer.
more esteemed for their rarity…. but the
world kind of lagged behind my
expectations. We’re just now seeing the NAOMI system, and it feels like
“finally…!”

—People have been talking for a long time now about the future of small
and mid-sized game centers; it was even brought up at the AOU
roundtable this year. While it’s unquestionable that music games have
captured player’s attention in recent years, for smaller game centers, I
think traditional video games remain important to them. The high
rankings of 3rd Strike and Giga Wing are no doubt owed to their quality
and popularity as games, but I think they also reflect a sentiment from
smaller game center operators: “please keep making good video
games!” That being the case, do you feel a sense of responsibility as
one of the last developers focusing on video games—a sense that if you
don’t release quality games, it could be the end of the market itself?

Funamizu: That has been our stance from the very beginning. That is the
honest truth. It’s always been our development ethos, to make quality games
that are both affordable for operators to purchase, and will return them a steady
income.

I also firmly believe that for game centers to continue to exist in the long run,
they must continue to have video games. However, I’m sad to say this, but
many of the operators who have bought our games—the moment that music
and large arcade machines started becoming popular, they abandoned video
games and only bought those machines. Despite our long relationship, they
turned a cold shoulder to us. And many of those operators still don’t recognize
the value of video games, even though buying nothing but those machines for
the last 2-3 years hasn’t saved their businesses.

—Well, I’m sure it’s not all of them, but even so, I have a hard time
believing that any operators would treat Capcom that way!

Funamizu: Yeah, it started getting worse about 2-3 years ago. They’ll still buy
certain products, of course, but other things they won’t even consider. To be
honest, we’ve discussed getting out of the arcade business entirely. We don’t
make a lot of profit on them, and game centers don’t seem to want them
anymore. Some at Capcom have suggested shifting our entire business to home
console games.

But if we did that, the entire arcade industry would fall apart. I feel I can say
that with confidence.

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If (hypothetically speaking) we went under, all you would have left are those
big, simplistic arcade machines, and video games in arcades would soon die out.
Without new video games, many game centers would close, and the market
would become absolutely dominated by those big machines. All that would
remain of game centers would be “amusement park”-like spaces, and perhaps
the corners of bowling alleys… it’s a bleak picture of stagnation.

When I consider that, it actually reinforces our decision to stay in this market.
And of course we love arcades, after all…

Concept art for Ibuki. Developer comment: “The start-up pose for Yami
Shigure. At first, Yami Shigure was just a normal special attack, but
many people complained, so it became a Super Art… bah!

—It seems accurate to say that you’re not only thinking about the future
of Capcom, but the health and future of the industry as a whole.

Funamizu: Yeah. We’re always thinking about the industry. That’s why I want
to say this to operators today: in these difficult business times we find ourselves
in, don’t just focus on short-term gains and what’s immediately in front of you!
Please think about the long-term health of this industry.

I should say that I’m not trying to dismiss music games as a genre. I think
music games, UFO catchers, purikura photobooths, and other machines which
cater to the general public are important to game centers too. However, there’s
this clear trend with operators today, a kind of “we don’t need hardcore
gamers!” And I have always thought that perspective is very dubious. We
absolutely need games that meet the needs of hardcore, dedicated gamers.

—But not every game center is like that, right? There are still places that
are supported by regulars and hardcore players.

Funamizu: Yeah, I know that is true. And I hope they continue to do their best.
But overall, the vast majority of what we hear from operators is “Make us
games that casual players can enjoy!” That attitude just brings out the
contrarian in us, though… it’s like, “don’t you want these games for hardcore
players?”

—In that sense, it sounds like 3rd Strike was unabashedly targeted at
hardcore players.

Funamizu: Yeah. 3rd Strike—even more than usual (laughs)—is especially

aimed at the long-time 2D fighting and Capcom game fans. It’s a game
designed to completely satisfy the hardcore FTG player, no joke. (laughs)

—I imagine it must be very difficult to make a game like that.

Funamizu: Yeah. And that’s why releasing 3rd Strike is a bit of an antagonistic
move for us. It’s our way of saying that we aren’t only concerned with the
casual user, and a declaration of intent: Capcom cares about hardcore gamers!

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shmuplations.com http://shmuplations.com/sfiii/

—Yeah, compared with the ZERO

series, it does seem like 3rd Strike is
aimed at a different class of users.

Funamizu: As you said, they are

Concept art for an attack of
Twelve’s that was removed before
the final version. Developer
comment: “This was Twelve’s
original jumping roundhouse
attack. The designer really liked it,
and even animated the wheel. But
one day came to his senses and
realized something wasn’t right
about it, changing it to the attack
you see today.”
different. The ZERO series was aimed
more broadly, at the general public.
However, while 3rd Strike is aimed at a
more limited audience, we did strive to
make it a little more accessible
compared with 2nd Impact. There are
people who never played 2nd Impact,
who might look at this game and think
they’d like to try it out—we did a few
things to make it easier for them to get
into it. Adding Chun-Li, for instance, was
one such attempt to get people
interested, a familiar face for new
players.
The pressure on us has been huge for
this game. (laughs) We’ve been under a
major timecrunch in March, and
everyone has been scrambling like mad
to make the deadline. We’re working
around the clock though, doing our very
best to fine-tune the game to meet the
standards of the FTG community.

We feel a genuine sense of duty to make this game right, and to leave hardcore
players with something they can really sink their teeth into and enjoy for years
to come.

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