Anarchy Reigns, Platinum Games’ multiplayer brawler, has a scientist with Tesla coil arms, a minotaur with a giant hammer, and a cybernetic ninja with a rocket pack. While each character has unique attacks and customizable skills, the core character design started with two archetypes.
"Everyone is first divided into heavyweight or lightweight class. Like many other games in this genre, heavyweight characters tend to move slower, but are more powerful. Lightweight characters are more agile, but don’t have the same amount of power as the heavyweight class," Atsushi Inaba, Producer, explained to Siliconera in a brief interview.
"Also, heavyweight characters can throw two people at the same time because they are stronger. Some of the lightweight characters have longer combos than the heavyweight characters," Inaba added.
"Once we divide the characters into these rough classes, we assign killer weapons and moves that fit their fighting style, personality, and appearance. One prime example, is Sasha, the character that uses ice. These are the kinds of ways we differentiated each character so they feel unique."
Inaba’s favorite character in Anarchy Reigns is the Black Baron or Blacker Baron, as he’s called in this game. Anarchy Reigns comes out this January for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
