Siliconera got to chat with Goichi “Suda51” Suda at GDC recently, where he talked about the Fire Pro Wrestling World DLC “The Vanishing” and trying to bring over Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special, the Japan-only Super Famicom game known for having one of the darkest endings, as a proper English release.
Siliconera: How does it feel to come back to the Fire Pro Wrestling characters you created after so many years?
Goichi Suda: It’s been 25 years since I worked on my last Fire Pro Wrestling game and my idea was what if the main character from the previous game had a child before he died. Now, that character would be 24 or 25 years old and at that age it would be the right time to be a wrestler.
The character on the right is the son of the main character from the last game. The timing worked out right too. Spike Chunsoft was talking about doing a sequel and I felt it was a good time to do it and continue the story of those characters.
How do you write characters like wrestlers who often have larger than life personalities like other wrestlers?
Goichi Suda: I first entered the game industry because of pro wrestling and the first game I wrote a scenario for was a Fire Pro Wrestling game. Like you said, wrestlers have big personalities, and while most of the games I’ve made since then have not been pro wrestling titles I find myself writing characters with a pro wrestling feel to them. I can write those kinds of characters naturally.
What can you tell us about the game’s scenario?
Goichi Suda: I’m imagining the character on the left is a notorious American wrestler and the son from the previous game on the right are going to grow and develop as wrestlers, especially the son. There’s another character from the previous game who is a veteran now and is going to act as their mentor. Through the son’s connection with this character he gets into wrestling, starts training, and goes on an adventure to develop himself as a wrestler.
Did you imagine new wrestling moves or original finishers for these characters?
Goichi Suda: Since I’m really into pro wrestling, it comes natural to me. I’m thinking of them and these will be added to the original set of moves too. In the original game, the main character had a special move and a real-life wrestler, Kenta Kobayashi, started using that move in real life.
We’ve talked about continuing a story from Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special, but will fans in the West get a chance to see that story?
Goichi Suda: Recently Spike Chunsoft branched out overseas and recently I’ve been speaking to Iizuka-san, another producer, about what we can do leading up to this. One thing we are considering is to put the original Super Fire Wrestling Special up on Steam with a proper English release. It’s something they are considering and something I hope they will make a reality. I put a personal request for it too.
So about that ending in Travis Strikes Again…
Goichi Suda: [Laughs] I wonder what that was myself. It might be Travis messing around. [Laughs] I hope around E3 time I’ll have something cool to announce.
Fire Pro Wrestling World is available on the PlayStation 4 and PC.
