Within the last couple of weeks, rumors began to circulate about the possibility of Lollipop Chainsaw getting a remake and now that it has been confirmed, we have a little more information on how that came about.
As it turns out, Yoshimi Yasuda, the producer behind the original, purchased the rights from Kadokawa Games, the original game’s publisher. Yasuda also adds that the team that worked on the original game are also the ones working on the remake which will hopefully aid tremendously in retaining the campy feel, look, and style of the original.
The news came from Yasuda directly on Twitter who had this to say:
Lollipop Chainasaw Remake の発表に関する Producer message をお届けします…!!!
Please check Producer message about Lollipop Chainsaw Remake.#lollipopchainsaw#ロリポップチェーンソー pic.twitter.com/ILeLTKNVZ3— 安田善巳 Yoshimi Yasuda (@yasudaD5) July 5, 2022
“Unfortunately, various factors resulted in things making it so that fans can no longer easily play Lollipop Chainsaw, and it has been some time since players have not been able to access the game on current consoles. We, the original development staff on Lollipop Chainsaw, think of the game as very precious to us, and did not want to leave it in limbo, where players who want to play it cannot.”
While the remake is being developed by the same team that brought us the original, and presumably Yasuda producing again, the game will need to go through some significant changes, most notably the soundtrack. Yasuda points out that the licensing situation surrounding the songs is will need to be overcome by replacing many, if not most of them. Visually, the game will see some improvements on current generation hardware on consoles, though Yasuda hasn’t confirmed which consoles the game will be available or whether it will come to PC. However, we figure it will likely be on most, if not all major platforms. We just hope it isn’t an EGS exclusive on PC.
Speaking of the graphics, while we know that it will receive a major overhaul to compete with today’s standards, Yasuda adds that in addition to changing the music, the dev team will be taking a “more realistic approach to the graphics” this time around due to having “access to consoles with higher specifications”. Presumably, this means the cel-shaded stylistic look may be abandoned in favor of whatever they consider “realistic”.
The original game was co-written by Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn but since the announcement that the game was getting remade, Gunn Tweeted that he has no involvement in the remake.
To answer the question in the article, neither I nor @suda_51 are currently involved in this. I heard about it for the first time from Suda a couple weeks ago. https://t.co/hc659ROwXQ
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) July 5, 2022
There is certainly a lot of interesting bits about who is and is not involved in the game and the changes coming could either be welcome or shunned by fans of the 2012 original. But ten years is a long time in the world of game development and we can’t wait to see what improvements they bring beyond PS3 and 360 hardware when the game releases next year.
