In an interview with Game Informer, Takashi Iizuka explains the origin behind Trip, one of the three main villains in the upcoming Sonic Superstars, and the first character design by Sonic’s original creator, Naoto Ohshima, since Sonic Adventure. Iizuka states that the idea behind the character was to change the dynamic of what a villain in the Sonic series is.
When speaking with Ohshima-san about making a new game together, we wanted to have a new story. We thought about, well, what story can we have? What characters are going to be there? And how’s this all going to play out? As we were talking about that, we really felt we needed a new character for the story – we want to introduce a new character. And we don’t just want to have a character with no background with nothing going on that’s just going to ‘boop’ pop up in the world. We really want to show a character with some kind of unique characteristics, some character backgrounds, some storytelling elements that are going to make the character unique and stand out and be a character that people can kind of relate to and empathize with and enjoy as a character in the world, not just because they’re there, but because they mean something to the world.
Takashi Iizuka
In the past, when we’ve had new enemies come out, we’ve always had really strong, powerful enemies. We have Infinite [from Sonic Forces]. There are lots of these kinds of, boom, they’re in your face as an enemy, and you know right away that they’re very strong. They’re a formidable enemy and, ‘Oh no! How am I going to deal with this enemy?’ That’s been the way enemies have been presented in the past, and we wanted to do something different.
Takashi Iizuka
Iizuka also explains that her armor design is meant to look like a sungazer lizard.
When you look at her, obviously she’s covered in armor, and the reason why she’s covered in armor in the game is the base of her character is a sungazer lizard in English. In Japanese, it’s more direct – it’s literally ‘armored lizard’ in Japanese. But the sungazer is that animal that was being referenced for the design of Trip.
Takashi Iizuka
However, behind Trips’ childlike demeanor, it seems that she’s hiding something under all that armor. As Iizuka explains, the team wanted to introduce her in a way that doesn’t make her strength too obvious to the player.
The team wanted to show that Trip is not that usual enemy, and we wanted to introduce her in a way that’s not the obvious ‘Oh, I’m super strong’ way,” Iizuka says. “When we presented Trip in the very beginning, I think she even falls on her face in the very first scene that you see her in. The first thing I think people will be thinking is, ‘Who is she, and why is she a super strong enemy? What’s going on?’ We wanted to introduce the character in that way to make it different from how enemies have always been presented in Sonic games.
Takashi Iizuka
What’s your opinion on Trip? Do you think she really is hiding some kind of awesome power under all that armor?
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Source: Game Informer
