Onryō adaptation
As the daughter of a famous oracle from Izu-Oshima, Japan, Sadako’s psychic abilities skyrocketed when a journalist made the fatal mistake of calling her mother a fraud. Lured to an ancient well and rotting in a flooded grave, Sadako’s powers manifest into a cursed videotape that leaves viewers dead for seven days. She shows up on the last day, crawling out of the TV, glaring with murderous rage.
Given that she has psychic abilities, Sadako is incorrect in her approach. In Dead by Daylight, however, Killer’s goal is to take out the Survivors, pick them up, and put them on the hook. It is imperative to discover how Sadako can engage in these dark activities while remaining true to her personality.
“We wanted to avoid any direct contact with Sadako,” revealed game design director Matthew Spriggens. “She would look weird with the larger Survivors on her shoulders – especially someone like Jeff Johansen. Instead, we rely on the kinetic nature of Sadako’s power for everything from breaking pallets, damaging generators, to even picking up Survivors and placing them on hooks. “
Spriggens reflects: “From the very beginning, we sought to capture the haunting and macabre quality of Sadako from the classic Ringu movie. “The way she moves, slowly and deliberately, to intimidate her victims. We’ve always viewed Sadako as more of a stealthy Killer – you’ll know when she’s close, but you won’t see her until it’s too late. And of course, we had to put TVs and videotapes directly into the game mechanics. “
As horror fans know, Sadako’s TV appearance has been immortalized as an iconic moment and therefore needs to be acknowledged in the game. Spriggens said: “From early testing, it was clear that projecting to the TV on the other side of the map was a very compelling aspect of her powers. “On top of that, she created so many unexpected moments of horror, popping out of the TV behind Survivors when they least expected it.”
Design Dread
While her psychic abilities are integral to her character, affecting everything from her movements to her mannerisms, recreating the cursed tape isn’t complicated either. indispensable. To evoke the pervasive sense of fear associated with one’s impending death, the designers created a macabre seven-day countdown. Only thing, it’s a bit longer than the average Dead by Daylight trial.
Creative director Dave Richard explains: “We knew we wanted to portray the horror of a curse that would kill in seven days. “The challenge is to scale this experience down to a much smaller time frame of the game.”
Richard explains: “We chose to introduce the Convicted Meter, where various actions can increase up to 7 notches on a Survivor’s meter. “Once that meter is full, Sadako can instantly kill the Survivor when they enter a dying state. This simple system recreates the doom that Sadako’s victims experienced in other media. It pressures the Survivors to complete their goals in time or spend some precious time transcribing the cursed tape, spreading Sadako’s message, and so on, saving themselves from the curse. terrible death. ”
The experience is not only a faithful reinterpretation of Sadako’s paradigm, but it also provides players with a unique sense of urgency – not to mention agency making life-changing choices.
One of Dead by Daylight’s Game Designers explains: “The first power-up iteration included the TV, but created a videotape instead of giving it to the Survivor due to the interaction. “Any Survivor can turn off the TV, but then they will be cursed – called “Condemned” – and have to pick up their videotape, usually on the other side of the map. This version worked, and we loved the idea of a cursed videotape, but it wasn’t quite as impressive in terms of gameplay. Having to find the tape broke the flow of the match too suddenly and too often – plus it didn’t include the iconic number seven. ”
“In the end, we decided to make the curse an incremental progression rather than a binary on/off effect, and we added more ways for both parties to interact with the curse,” continued the Designer. “The killer applies a curse to nearby Survivors when it’s shown on television. Survivors can prevent the Killer from reaching specific televisions by turning them off. Doing so will give them a videotape that will increase their Conviction progress over time. Survivors who achieve Full Condemnation, the equivalent of seven segments, can be killed by Sadako while in their dying state. “
Privileges
The Rise of Sadako chapter introduces three new Assassin Perks – Scourge Hook: Floods of Rage, Call of Brine, and Merciless Storm. In addition to bringing a new dynamic to gameplay balance, these Perks must also honor the character’s spirit.
Spriggens said: “Sadako’s greatest strengths are her psychic powers and her ability to turn a broken heart into a thirst for revenge. “We always start with core character themes and think about how those themes can be adapted to situations in the game. In this case, we worked with psychic detection, precognition and revenge as the starting point. ”
“From there, we looked for interesting gaming spaces that we could adapt to the Killer perks. The aim is to combine themes with mechanics in a meaningful way, making them interesting and engaging for our players. It’s always a fun process to work with a great license like Ringu. ”
Experience Sadako’s wrath for yourself with Dead by Daylight’s Sadako Rising Chapter, available March 8 for PS4 and PS5.