GAMECENTER: So, the entire story line is still up in the air? Nothing of the former remains other than the fact that the lead character is Japanese? He's no longer part of a special mercenary team, he is no longer related to Kirin, is no longer 1,000 years old...?

G. B.: True. The main character is Japanese, will speak in English, and possibly curse in Japanese (with subtitles). Other than that, we will just tweak it all as we go.

GAMECENTER: Are there magical creatures in the game?

G. B.: This isn't really going to be a fantasy game with spellcasting. You will be able to do some strange things with enemies' body parts, though. And these body parts do have some interesting powers, due to being genetically altered.

GAMECENTER: Are the shurikens in or out? Have they been replaced by a shuriken gun? If so, how does it work? And what kind of damage?

G. B.: The shurikens [Japanese throwing stars] are in. They share weapon spot 1 with the katana sword. Right now we are trying to make them more interesting by allowing them to skip off floors and ceilings and sometimes ricochet off walls.

GAMECENTER: Can you explain the rail gun?

G. B.: It's like the gun from the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Eraser. It creates a magnetic field and shoots a piece of metal at near light speed toward an enemy. We are playing now with the rail gun's smoke trail, trying to get it to look right. It's a very fun, high-tech weapon. At this time, all the weapons are done and in, and we are just tweaking things like their art and gameplay balances.

GAMECENTER: I've also seen shots with the character holding a heart. Do you get to rip it out of another character?

G. B.: There are currently two characters that, when you kill them, you can collect their body parts and use them as weapons. The heart is such a weapon.

GAMECENTER: Does it work like a voodoo doll on others or is it simply a visual effect? Can you do this in multiplayer mode?

G. B.: All the weapons work in multiplayer mode as well. As for the heart's function, we are still tweaking things, but we have something special planned for it...

GAMECENTER: What is the guardian head weapon? How does it work?

G. B.: The guardian head is another body part from another enemy. The way it's working now, you carry the head around with three of your fingers sticking into the back of its skull. By removing a finger, you can fiddle with the head's brain and make it fire in three different ways. The head, of course, isn't too happy about this.