The Rev It Up Interviews series has returned for the third time and I had a pleasure to interview Garient Evans, who is a director of Zen United. He's been working at the company for at least three years now and he's been working on games like Guilty Gear, Blazblue, Arcana Heart 3 and more. Even more, he has been involve with the competitive Fighting Games Community in the UK and he has been working with Top Fighting Games Players with in the Community!
RIUP - Please tell me a bit about yourself.
Geraint Evans- Haha, that's kind of a vague one! I'm Geraint Evans, I'm Director of Zen United. Er, I'm 34 years old and I live in Bristol.
RIUP - How did you get into gaming?
Geraint Evans - My first taste of gaming was when I was 3 or 4 - my dad brought home a ZX Spectrum and I was completely obsessed with it - it had some terrible simple games and tech demos written in the manual that my dad had to type out. It took for ever - but I was totally transfixed by the fact that you could make stuff move on a TV yourself. I've been obsessed with games ever since then - and have grown up playing games on pretty much every format.
There have been certain games over the years that have really grabbed me - I think Street Fighter II was probably the first game I ever got crazily obsessed with. I used to save all my lunch and bus money and play in my local arcade - The Silver Rooms - after school, and then miss my bus home and get into all kinds of trouble.
I wasn't really supposed to be in there - I was really young back then and all the other people in there were much, much older and all smoking and drinking - my parents must have thought there was something really dodgy going on, but all I wanted to do was play Street Fighter. I was really irritated by the fact that everyone played Ryu and Ken - apart from one Dahlsim player, I was the only one who played different character, Chun Li. I kinda made it a personal mission to get better and better. Even when the SNES version came out - which cost me like £70 back then - nothing really compared to the excitement of those times playing where I wasn't supposed to.
Over the years games have been swapped out - Zelda, F-Zero GX, Phantasy Star Online, I went though a phase of making Half Life levels to play with mates - basically, games have always been a huge part of my life in one way shape or form. After college I started writing about games for different magazines and websites - and did that for about ten years, before I ended up where I am now. I've been really lucky to be able to turn being around videogames into a job.
RIUP - You've been apart and work for Zen United. How long have you been working for Zen United and What is it like working for the company?
Geraint Evans - I've been here for three years now. It's amazing - I get to work on games like Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena and Arcana Heart 3. I really love 2D fighters - and it's great to be able to work on them - and help bring them to a wider audience. 2D fighters were, for a long time, not really given the love and attention they deserve, it's great to be given an opportunity to change that.
RIUP - So what kind of games do you guys promote?
Geraint Evans - Well, we've been working on Arc System Work's games as you know. We're also looking to release a new 2D fighter - which I can't really talk about yet - but we're very excited to be involved with, and will surprise a lot of people I think. We're hoping that the FGC can get behind it after we announce it - so that we can look at bringing more fighting games like that over.
One of our newest projects is Rice Digital ( http://ricedigital.net ). For ages I've been playing doujin games in my spare time and really enjoying them - Touhou, eXceed, Ether Vapor, RosenkreuzStillette, Recettear - just a whole bunch of games that, for whatever reason, get hardly any coverage, and certainly don't get as much love as they deserve - and events like Comiket happen in Japan and the western games media is like... 'so what?'
I wanted to try to change that a little - or at least provide a platform where people can read and write about these more niche kinds of games - and also try and work with great companies like Nyu Media who are trying really hard to bring those kinds of games over to a western audience. Nothing gives me more pleasure than taking a game no one has heard of bringing it to them and hearing them say, 'you know what - this is really cool...'
RIUP - What is it like to work with players who are part of the competitive fighting games community in the UK?
Geraint Evans- Honestly? Amazing.
I originally came into contact with the UK FGC in 2010 - I just started at Zen and I invited Bullet Proof, Izanami and Tim119 to come down for a few sessions. Ever since then I've met so many really lovely, lovely people - and I really enjoy meeting up with you guys.
People always moan about how the Arcades are all dead and how online gaming is destroying the social side of gaming - but I don't think that's true. I think it's people's apathy that's destroying that side of gaming. So, yeah, I have maximum respect for the UK FGC, because it's you guys who actually put yourself out there, travel to events and tournaments - make the effort to attend.
Month in month out, you have these communities who are going out of their way to keep the offline scene play happening. Booking venues, running streams, promoting events - moving equipment around the country, setting up tournaments. There's so much work involved. So much love for their own individual scenes, whether it's Proving Grounds in Newport, Electronic Dojo in Birmingham, the Manchester and various London scenes - those pockets of players are helping to keep the spirit of competitive play alive. I just wish more and more people would have the courage to leave their homes and actively participate.
RIUP - Persona 4 Arena will be coming out in Europe very soon. Have you got any plans for the games release?
Geraint Evans - Yes, absolutely - although nothing i can talk about in great detail I'm afraid! We are making something special to make up for the wait that you guys have all endured. That's something we're very conscious of. We've also got some events lined up too and a couple of nice surprises too. We'll announce all this a little closer to release.
RIUP - Has there been any good reception for games like Persona 4 Arena, Arcana Heart 3 and Blazblue?
Geraint Evans - Yeah absolutely. BlazBlue has done amazingly well over here - against many people's expectations. Lost of people said Arcana Heart 3 shouldn't be released in Europe as a physical game - and we proved them wrong with that. Arcana Heart 3 went on to do really well - it surprised a lot of people. As for Persona 4 Arena? It's got loads of really positive media attention - and it won lots of awards last year, so hopefully we'll be able to replicate that.
RIUP - How would you explain to someone who hasn't played a game similar to Persona 4 Arena?
Geraint Evans - That's a tricky one - I think compared to Arc System Work's other games it's much more accessible than BlazBlue or Guilty Gear. Actually, I don't think 'accessible' is really the right word - Persona 4 Arena still has that Arc feel to it, there's still that depth and heavy focus on combos but i think it's much more inclusive - as in, more people can have fun with it from the word go, it's definitely more broadly appealing. Exectution is a little easier, the tutorials in the game are much better - I think it's more enjoyable to a wider range of players that BB or GG - I'm hoping that Marvel players for example will take some time to look into it. It's also A LOT of fun to play, very fast, very colourfull - gorgeous to look at. I think Arc have really nailed the art of creating 2D fighters, I can't think of any developer that really gets close to what Arc's teams can do with sprites. Their development process, and attention to detail is just insane - and it really shows in the finished game.
RIUP - Have you got any favourite players that you like to watch? If so, Who??
Geraint Evans - Actually, Hurricane Rev and Kyzer! Well, certainly back when I was introduced to the FGC. I remember watching you play each other at SvB - I'm a very bad Tao player in BB, and I remember getting destroyed by you a few times in casuals and then watching you fight in the finals. Was kinda depressing actually, because it made me realise just how much I needed to learn - I guess that's the benefit of actually going to these events.
I also like watching DragonLord's Bang - he'd come down to Sodium Showdown and blow us all up on a regular basis. I also like to see Gamester's Rachel - he doesn't get to many events, so was really glad to see him make it up to this years SvB and get some practice in with some of the higher level players like Kiba.
I like watching Ravage C play P4A too - I consider it a personal victory if I take like 1/3 health from his Kanji in any given round - but he's no match for me on Vertical Aquapazza, so I guess were even! And DBlanks too - watching his Yukiko means my Yukiko has gone from Terrible - to just Really Rubbish - so some improvement there!
Also Frost and Pawndriver playing Arcana Heart - those guys make AH3 look like a completely different game to the one I play. It's like a sickness.
RIUP - Blazblue Chrono Phantasma is the next new BlazBlue game to come out and we are a bit away from getting our hands on it for our consoles. But do you think that the game will be hugely refreshing to all the Blazblue players?
Geraint Evans - Yeah, absolutely! I think the whole point of Chrono' is to really give BlazBlue a big freshen up - with some new characters and some interesting new mechanics. I'd love to be able to go into it in more detail, but the truth is, I've not managed to get my hands on it yet - so apart from what I've seen on Youtube, It's hard for me to make a really informed comment - other than to say it looks amazing. And I really want it!
RIUP - In your opinion, how do you feel about the new characters in Blazblue Chono Phantasma?
Geraint Evans - I think if there's one thing that Arc can be relied on to do, its deliver interesting character designs and mechanics. They don't do clones, they don't do anything average or mediocre - for Arc it's all about what they create that offers something different, an interesting play style - so I'm really looking forward to seeing what the new characters have to offer. Not sure who I'll pick over Tao, probably Bullet or Amane - though I'm still interested to see what changes have been made to Tao.
RIUP - Are there any events that you will be attending this year?
Geraint Evans - We'll be at MCM I think - and also London Gaming Con - those are the two I'm planning at the moment, though it's likely we'll do more though the course of the year too - and of course, I'll be turning up at various FGC though the year as always. Right now though, my focus is 100% on Persona 4 Arena...
RIUP - Any shout outs that you would like to say?
Geraint Evans - Oh man, too many to people- Ravage C and DragonLord Z, Frost, Reyokarna and Zoular - and the rest of the NGi crew. Temp in Wales and the Sodium Showdown guys - hope to see them up and running again - Bullet Proof and Ryza - oh and Kyzer and Kiba too.
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Zen United Links:
Website: www.zen-united.biz
Twitter (Blazblue): https://twitter.com/BlazBlue_Europe
Facebook (Blazblue): http://www.facebook.com/blazblue
Twitter (Persona 4 Arena): https://twitter.com/PersonaEurope
Facebook (Persona 4 Arena): www.facebook.com/PersonaEurope
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