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Loop8: Summer of Gods’ Rustic Backdrops Revealed in New Trailer

Loop8: Summer of Gods

The beautiful alternate ’80s setting of Ashihara is establishing quite the mood in Loop8: Summer of Gods. Take a tour of the village through XSEED Games and Marvelous’s new trailer! Composer Noriyuki Iwadare’s “Love’s Sweet Sorrow” sets the tone for this coming-of-age RPG.

Without further ado, check out the trailer below:

If Ashihara reminds you of seaside villages you’d see in anime, you aren’t wrong! Game designer and scenario writer Yuri Shibamura discussed the inspirations for creating the setting of Loop8: Summer of Gods in an interview provided by Marvelous. Below are a few highlights.

What was your inspiration for Ashihara?

Inspiration came from a comment I often got when giving sightseeing tours to my friends from overseas: “I want to see schools and beaches like the ones you see in anime!”

Add to that the fact that, even though they loved what they saw in manga, they didn’t really understand the Japanese school system. This is why I made Loop8.

[…]

How did you create the nostalgic 80s atmosphere in-game?

This perhaps isn’t limited to Japan, but one of the things that’s key to Japanese scenery is that it can’t be separated from history. So that’s where we started — with history.

In the early 1980s, there were many old buildings, as Japan had yet to define its earthquake resistance standards, and there hadn’t been a construction rush from the economic boom.

If you take a map of Japan from the Jōmon period and all of its updates until the Edo period, you can simulate the damage from tsunamis and see where the houses were built each time to avoid the next one.

It’s the reason there are so many houses on the side of hills; flat areas are no longer residential areas but have become shopping districts over the remnants of where people once lived.

[…]

Are you a fan of anime? Were there any specific animated shows or movies that inspired the setting/atmosphere?

I watched the kind of anime that was always on American cable TV about 10 years ago, so I could show my friends around.

A clichéd answer on the setting might be Ponyo on the Cliff, simply because the region is similar in appearance and also takes place overlooking the Seto Inland Sea, but I think the atmosphere is different.

Loop8: Summer of Gods launches for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam on June 6th. Stay tuned to RPGFan as we gross closer to the endless summer!

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Tyler Trosper

Tyler Trosper

Tyler Trosper is a news writer for RPGFan. He has an unhealthy obsession with the Xeno franchise, especially Xenosaga. He runs a podcast about the series in his free time and sometimes works on fan projects. Tyler would die happy if Xenosaga Episode IV was announced. Besides Xeno, Tyler enjoys watching anime, his favorite being Neon Genesis Evangelion.

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