Gundam: Rogue Orbit Interview: A Gundam Game with a Focus on How it Feels to be the Pilot

Gundam is no stranger to video games, but the various pieces of the franchise have never started out with one. That’s all about to change with Gundam: Rogue Orbit. Following its reveal at Summer Games Fest, I spoke with main producer Yuya Tomiyama and chief producer Shinya Satake about starting a new era of Gundam as a video game first, what they’re hoping to accomplish with it, and how Rogue Orbit differs from what’s come before. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

IGN: Rogue Orbit is the first time y’all are launching a new Gundam thing through a game. A lot of people know what a Gundam is, but they may not be familiar with Gundam as a franchise or any particular series. What were the things that you knew you needed to have to make Gundam Gundam in Rogue Orbit?

Yuya Tomiyama: There are lots of different Gundam universes out there, but Rogue Orbit is the first time we've introduced a new world through a video game. And because of this, we created the worldview with being a video game in mind. We wanted to make sure that the players really felt the experience of what it really felt like to be a Gundam pilot to be [at] the forefront of their experience with this video game.

IGN: I know you probably can’t go into a great amount of detail this early, but what is being a Gundam pilot going to be like for players in Rogue Orbit? I think a lot of people look at Gundam and they’re like “Oh, really cool robot,” but what is it about that experience of being a pilot that you want to communicate to players?
Yuya Tomiyama: So the information that we've shown so far is really only one part of the game, but we really wanted to focus on the experience of what it really is to become the pilot of the Gundam and we wanted to do that by really, really focusing on the fact that it's an action game. We wanted to make sure that the game's actions felt really good to play and through that we want users, because they feel it, we want users to feel the experience of, truly feel that they're actually controlling each of the Mobile Suit’s actions.

IGN: I think most people who are familiar with Gundam are used to seeing Gundams battle other Gundams or other Mobile Suits. But in the trailer, we see our Gundam battling monsters. We don't really know the story here. Could you talk about designing a game around those enemies and what we can expect when we’re fighting them?

Yuya Tomiyama: So for this game, we really wanted to bring Gundam to fans all over the world and this was like a sort of new venture for us as a company. As a company as a whole, we wanted to come together and bring this experience to users. And as for the enemies, you may have seen in the trailer, the Gundam's weapon, the physical store is very large and we wanted to focus on the sort of satisfying feeling of using those kinds of weapons and the enemies were really designed with that in mind. How can we maximize that feeling for the users? And that was sort of what we were thinking about when we created these enemies.

"We really wanted to focus on the experience of what it really is to become the pilot of the Gundam and we wanted to do that by really, really focusing on the fact that it's an action game." - Yuya Tomiyama IGN: Obviously people associate Gundam with cool robots, but the franchise usually has a deep emotional core to it, too, and the stories often deal with complex subject matter. This will be a lot of people’s first exposure to Gundam. How are you bringing that legacy of the IP into the game?
Yuya Tomiyama: So for this trailer we were able to show a lot of the action and the battles, but there's definitely a lot of characters and a lot of characters that we haven't really revealed yet. The human drama between them is definitely going to be a focal point of this video game and we hope that in the upcoming months we can definitely show more of this emotion through our trailers and other things we’ll be revealing.

Shinya Satake: This game setting mainly revolves around the conflict between humans and these unknown adversaries, which puts the sort of like world as a very, very tense situation and just sort of testing the limits of humanity and Sofia, RE-X, and the other characters that we'll be showing are going to be making a lot of like very difficult decisions in this harsh world. We hope that that will be the emotions of the Gundam universe that we'll bring to this game.

IGN: You guys have talked about bringing the IP through the West. For a lot of fans, this is going to be their first experience with it. Did starting a game force you to think about what the core elements of Gundam are? Was there anything that you were like, "Oh, maybe we should reexamine this because we're starting from a different place or we're reaching out to people who maybe haven't played or seen or just experienced Gundam?" Did you have to think about what made the core of Gundam work?

Yuya Tomiyama: We weren't really thinking too much of the Gandham legacy as a whole when we were creating this game. We really wanted to focus on creating a very good action game with the photorealistic graphics that haven’t been in many Gundam games and how to make the Gundam really appealing in this kind of photorealistic environment. Whether it be the design or the action or the battle, we just really wanted to make sure that that was the focal point of what the users felt.

IGN: On the subject of photorealism: Gundam is so heavily stylized and I think many people associate it with that kind of look and feel. Were there any challenges with making a Gundam game that looks photorealistic while capturing the feel of that art? How did you approach doing that and making sure that it felt like Gundam?
Yuya Tomiyama: This game was developed by Bandai Namco Studios, which has a lot of experience with a lot of Gundam games and robot games in general and we were able to draw on that experience to sort of bring it all together and the Helix to sort of bring that Gundam in this photorealistic world. The Helix design was also created by the artists at Bandai Namco Studios… so they know what makes each design appealing. So they were able to draw upon that to sort of create a Gundam that would really feel appealing, really feel alive in this photorealistic world and that also has to do with the actions because they've been creating these sorts of motions for Mobile Suits for years. So they were able to sort of draw on that action and bring it together all as a whole to bring Gundam to the worldwide fans.

IGN: If you were able to tell people who had never played a Gundam game or gotten into Gundam before and say "This is what Gundam is, " what would you tell them?

Yuya Tomiyama: So to bring Gundam to fans in the form of a video game, it's a very new endeavor for us and it's a very challenging experience, but we really wanted to emphasize that the Gundam is a very unique and special existence as a Mobile Suit in the world and we also wanted to make sure that the human drama between the characters was brought to the forefront.

Shinya Satake: Gundam is a franchise and IP that has been very loved throughout history, but one of the things that really makes it unique is that there are many different themes in each of the different iterations of Gundam and each one is very unique and to bring this to a new world through Gundam is just another one of the ways that we're just sort of bringing Gundam to fans in a unique way and just bringing new unique themes in Gundam to be fans.

IGN: You've talked about humans fighting against this unknown enemy and the strength of the human spirit, but what would you say are some of the themes that y'all are trying to capture here? As you said, Gundam has been so broad and so vast and covered so much storytelling, and it's gone in so many different directions. What do you think thematically is what defines Rogue Orbit?

Yuya Tomiyama: The appeal or the theme that we really want to bring is becoming the pilot, really feeling the experience of becoming a Gundam pilot and we'll hopefully be able to better convey this with more new info… but there's a lot of features in the game that really help the player feel as though they're piloting the Gundam. And especially in battle, we really wanted to create the tense feeling of being in a life or death situation in the cockpit, but at the same time, we really wanted users to… feel that they're like controlling every single motion of the Mobile Suit, that they're able to sort of use the Mobile Suit as an extension of themselves and not feel stressed and make sure that they're actually able to really feel that they're in control of the Helix.

Shinya Satake: Another thing about Rogue Orbit is that this universe and this whole [world] was created to be a video game… which really brings sort of a unique view of how users interact with the world.

IGN: Can I ask a very silly question? Can I ask about Vii? I need to know more about this character, please. Please give me all the information that you can because I just look at it and I'm like, “I want it to be my friend.”Yuya Tomiyama: So as a game, this is a brand new worldview, brand new universe. So this haro is going to be a little different from the haros that you've sort of known and interacted with throughout Gundam's history. One thing we can really say about this character, it's an actual character that will join you on your battles and launch with you in the Gundam… We really wanted this haro to feel like it's your partner that's coming along with you and there's going to be some more drama between the main character and the Hara too as well. So we hope you're looking forward to that.

IGN: Let's talk about RE-X. Is he going to be more of a defined character? Is he a little bit more avatar-y? Are we allowed to define who or is he very much his own person that we are just kind of controlling?

Yuya Tomiyama: Rex is definitely a character. He's an independent character that interacts in the world, but we wanted to make sure that players were able to sort of feel as though they'd become him through the gameplay. That the gameplay will sort of allow users to really feel that they are the pilot of the Gundam, that they are Rex and that they're able to control the Mobile Suit.

IGN: Well, now I've hit on two out of three, so I have to ask about Sofia. It seems like in the trailer, and you've talked about it, as well, that she's kind of mysterious, and maybe she and RE-X don't know each other initially. Could you talk a little bit about their relationship and give us a little idea of what to expect?

Yuya Tomiyama: Unfortunately, we aren't able to offer too many specifics about the plot right now, but the trailer's narration is Sofia and so all of those words are spoken by her. As it's also shown in the trailer, she's watching over what RE-X is doing, so hopefully in the coming trailers and coming information will shed more light on their relationship.

IGN: Is there anything that the team is very proud of that you feel is core to the game that players may not immediately notice from the trailer or from what you've revealed so far? Is there anything that you feel is core to what Rogue Orbit is that might be maybe a little hidden, or maybe not directly obvious?

Yuya Tomiyama: So one thing that the team is very proud of, especially that you can see in the trailer, is the motions of the Gundam Helix. That was something that the team put a lot of effort into making and they're very satisfied with the end result. And another thing in terms of the video game, the battles’ appeal and how it feels to really be in the inbound and be controlling the Mobile Suit is one of the big features that the team is very proud of and that it's still being brushed up, and it's still being improved every day. So we're hoping the team is really hoping to bring that to fans.

Will Borger is an IGN freelancer. You can find him on Bluesky @edgarallanbro.