Capcom Production Studio 8

DeVargas (Capcom Studio 8) [PS2 – Cancelled]

DeVargas is a cancelled action adventure that was in development by Capcom Production Studio 8 for Playstation 2. The team is mostly known for their work on the Maximo series, Final Fight Revenge and Final Fight: Streetwise, but they also worked on some fascinating lost projects.

Studio 8 was full of talented devs and artists: after publishing Maximo 2 they started working on 3 interesting pitches: Maximo 3, DeVargas and Final Fight: Seven Sons (the unreleased FF planned before Final Fight: Streetwise). While for Maximo 3 and Final Fight: Seven Sons some footage and concept art were already preserved, DeVargas remained unseen until Trent Kaniuga (former Studio 8 artist) shared one image on Twitter:

We were able to gather some details about this canned project in 2015, while we were doing research for our book. Maximo 3 and DeVargas were in development using a similar code, so their early prototypes shared a few assets and models. While Maximo had a broader audience thanks to its character design, DeVargas was conceived as a more mature project, with a more realistic art-style.

The game setting was somehow similar to Assassin’s Creed. The main protagonist was a prisoner on ship and in the prototype you woke up in shackles. Your main objective was to escape using stealth: the boat interior was dark and the men on it had lanterns, so you could sneak up behind them and choke them with his chains.

This was just an early idea for the first level, but after it the game would open up, being more about exploration and melee combat. DeVargas was worked on for just 3 – 4 months before Keiji Inafune decided to cancel it.

In the end, only Final Fight: Streetwise was greenlighted by Capcom, but when released it failed to achieve mainstream success and it bombed in sales. Capcom decided to not invest in their California team anymore and sadly Production Studio 8 was closed down in 2006.

At the moment only a single concept art remains to preserve the existence of DeVargas, but you can keep an eye on Trent Kaniuga’s Twitter profile and Youtube Channel to see if he could find more in the future. 

Final Fight: Streetwise [Beta – PS2 / XBOX]

As we can read on Wikipedia, Final Fight: Streetwise is a beat-’em-up produced by Capcom, released in North America and the PAL region for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2006. It is a spin-off of the original Final Fight developed by the American team of Capcom Production Studio 8 (the developers of Final Fight Revenge and the Maximo series). You can play as Kyle, the brother of Cody from the original series. When you find that Cody is in trouble, you must roam the streets of Metro City until the mystery is solved. Final Fight: Streetwise is a third-person game that stays true to its beat-’em-up roots but adds light role-playing elements and minigames to the fray as well. A respect system has been added so that your decisions affect how characters in the world react and relate to you.

However, the game had a lot of beta elements such as:

  • Combo Bar
  • Journal Image
  • No BGM play
  • Different Loading screen (Which it appeared as Loading text instead the turnable disc)
  • Different logo
  • Respect Logo changed
  • Doesn’t had Kyle victory pose
  • Had a Episodics

At the beginning, Cody did not have a white band in his hand. And he said a lot of curse words. Also, Kyle’s introduction was also different:

“The bloodly like a motherfu**er is me”

Also, after Handsome Bob sent some gangstas to kill Kyle, they said:

“That’s HIM, he fuc*ked Bob up, GET ‘HIM!”

Instead this

“That’s HIM, he messed Bob up, GET ‘HIM!”

Capcom removed a half of the cutscene in the opening. Also there was no slow motion effect. Combo Bar was removed before release. Journal Image is replaced as the “Journal Updated” text. A couple of IGN Gameplay videos have some beta gameplay we never seen before with all differents above. Dialogues bubbles are different too, they used some kind of Transparent Space instead Sharp Metal Box. No BGM added, possibly they aren’t licensed with Funkareem yet, so Fatti Sotto wasn’t add yet. Different logo of the game also shown in some trailers and IGN & GameSpy’s gameplay. Also at the Barfly, It had the Point hand instead the Arrow.

Before Streetwise entered development, Capcom was producing another title, Final Fight: Seven Sons, which featured a different story and characters, a different gameplay system and cartoonish, cel-shaded graphics, that was later cancelled in favor of Streetwise.

If you find more beta differences in the videos below, please let us know!

Post by Thomas Christian

 

Maximo 3 [PS2 – Cancelled]

Maximo 3 is the cancelled third episode in the Maximo series, a game that many fans were waiting for, but unfortunately things went not as planned. The original Maximo: Ghosts to Glory is a 3D action game created as a spiritual sequel to the 2D Ghosts n’ Goblins series, developed by Capcom Production  Studio 8 and released for PlayStation 2 in 2001 / 2002. A sequel, Maximo vs. Army of Zin was released in 2003 and the third game was in the works by the same team, but after only a few months of development it was canned due to lower than expected sales from Maximo 2.

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Maximo 3 was started soon after Studio 8 finished to work on the second chapter (Maximo 2 ends with the promise of a third game, with Maximo and his allies teaming up to find Queen Sophia), and they created many concept arts that you can see in the gallery below, with new enemies, settings (an Arabian theme, inspired by the success of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time) and features. The “cartoony” feel of the original games was dropped for a more gritty look.

In the original design doc we can read more about Maximo 3’s gameplay mechanics and story:

Across the Southern Sea, in a land of exotic culture a great history, lies the city of Mashhad, the gateway to the ancient east, but lurking in the shadow of a proud people are the forces of blood and corruption. The Cult of Chut, a religious order legion with fanatics, is preparing to transform the city into a single bloody alter whose population will be the sacrifice in their apocalyptic ritual.

But all is not lost: Maximo stands against this tide of destruction. Having followed the trail of his lost love, Maximo arrived in Mashhad with hopes that his journey will soon end. Now he will pit his sword and wist against the church’s faceless leaders and rescue Sophia; the possessed conduit through which Chut makes itself heard.

Maximo 3 stars with Maximo and his band in bad shape. In their quest for Sophia, the heroes have encountered the Cult of Chut, death worshipers who find a “man who walks with Death” an affront to their beliefs. As a result, Baron has beel killed, Tinker maimed and Maximo and Grim have been merged into one, thanks to a curse. Maximo and Tinker have been hunting down cultist sects when they arrive in Mashhad, seeking revenge and a cure to Maximo’s condition.

The new connection between Maximo and Grim would have been used as one of the main features of Maximo 3, needed to progress through the game:

Maximo is covered in tatoos, which are actually the external manifestation of the cultist’s curse that has trapped Grim within him. With the press of a button, Maximo transforms into Grim, allowing him several abilities.

As a result of the curse on Maximo, turning into Grim drains Maximo’s Health. Stay as Grim for too long and Maximo will lose a life. Only by collecting the souls of the evil cultists can Maximo sustain himself in Grim form.

At some point in the game, Maximo will use Grim’s form as a disguise to infiltrate the cult’s tower during Chut Holy Day. Gameplay will have the players switch the two forms.

As a phantom. Grim can slide up walls, flow like a shadow along walls, give a little extra distance to a jump and glide down from long drops. In addition, the player can perform several attacks with his scythe. Grim attacks do not always kill, rather they are used to “prep” an enemy for Maximo’s attacks, such as breaking a cultist’s protection spell or “mortalizing” ghostly foes.

While in Grim form, the player cannot talk to innocents as they are too scared. However, Grim’s attack will free the innocents of the cult’s influence, turning them from enemies to normal innocents that Maximo must rescue from othe enemies.

After this first concept phase, Capcom Studio 8 created an early playable prototype with a test level which would have been the hub world of the game, to test out Maximo’s new abilities, as Wall Jump, Carry / Push / Pull / Throw items, Swim (to maneuver around obstacles, resolve puzzles and find hidden treasures in deep lakes), Talk to NPCs to gain information, advance the story, start mini-quests, rescue innocents from enemies and free them from the influence of the Cult.

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Some new items and weapons features were also planned, as the Sword Grapple to grab ledges, the Flintlock Rifle (a new gun-weapon type), Claws to climb up walls, the Crossbolt Gauntlet (to shoot bolts and to use it as a grapple hook to swing or to be pulled towards a secret area) and the Horn (to knocks enemies back and to cause parts of the scenario to shake and break to find new paths). There was also a “lock on” mechanic, very much like the 3D Zelda games.

Maximo 3 was going to be a much more ambitious project than Maximo 1&2 and would have taken the series into a full action-adventure game, more similar to The Legend of Zelda. The new lead designer was heavily inspired by exploration / puzzle aspects of Zelda, so the game was going to be more focused on exploration and to be less linear than the previous titles.

maximo 3 ps2 cancelled

In the Maximo 3 prototype it was possible to explore a small town, to interact with a few NPCs, climb upon its walls and fight with some enemies. There was just one functioning enemy, which was a the basic cultist that you can also see in the concept arts. Looking at this unfinished prototype and reading the design doc, it seems that Maximo 3 could have been the best game in the Maximo series, but unfortunately not much more work was done on it, as it was canned soon after the creation of this early demo.

Capcom Production Studio 8 was full of talented artists and after they finished Maximo 2 they started to work on 3 interesting pitches: Maximo 3, DeVargas and Final Fight: Seven Sons, the unreleased FF that was planned before Final Fight: Streetwise. In the end, only FF: Streetwise was greenlighted from Capcom, but when it was released it failed to achieve mainstream success and it bombed in sales. Capcom decided to not invest in their California team anymore and sadly Production Studio 8 was closed down in 2006. Only few concept arts, a video and a few pages from the design doc remain to preserve the existence of Maximo 3.

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