SDCC 2016: Geekscape Interviews ‘Injustice 2’ Director Ed Boon!

Moments before the Injustice 2 development team took the stage at San Diego Comic-Con to reveal more details about the highly-anticipated fighting game, Geekscape managed to sit down with the game’s director Ed Boon to get answers to many of the fans’ burning questions. The Injustice 2 Director is quickly asked what new changes and/or features will be coming.

We started off with what people expected and hoped we would do: bigger roster and include characters that we couldn’t include in the last game, but the biggest thing that we added is a thing we’re calling the ‘Gear System’–this whole system of acquiring costume pieces that actually level up your character, and this constant search for the best version of your character.

For example, if you use Batman you can make him a little bit better if you find, you know, special gauntlets that increases his damage a little bit more. You can find a utility belt that makes his interaction with the [interactive stage] backgrounds a little bit more effective–so you’ll constantly be doing that whole loot drop system: a constant search and pursuit for your ultimate version, your custom version of Batman, Superman, Aquaman, etc.

So that’s the big new feature that wasn’t in Injustice: Gods Among Us.

The next question brought to the table asked how much of an influence does the current run of DC films and television shows (Green Arrow, Flash, and Supergirl) have on the development of the game in terms of move sets and costumes.

Oh! We draw so much–you know–the thing about these DC characters is they’re represented in so many games, comics, movies, animated T.V. shows, video games, and we are huge fans and students of these characters; we are constantly watching those things, and often times we’ll see something and say, “that’ll be so cool in a game.”

Ed Boon wasn’t willing to specify just what those things were that would be ‘cool in a game’, so he was then asked if any studios have come to him personally about adding a specific scene from classic DC films or animated shows.

No. It’s more of like us paying an homage or a salute to those kind of things.

Speaking of DC shows, Katie Cassidy, who portrays Black Canary on Green Arrow, posted this now deleted image on her Instagram account back on May which carried the tagline “The process of game making! Freakin awesome!!”

Fans speculated that due to the elaborate motion capture camera setup, coupled with the familiar fighting stance she’s in, that Black Canary will ultimately be included in Injustice 2.

We are absolutely open to those ideas. We’ve done a little bit of it like it. We had the Man of Steel Superman. So we are constantly looking for crossover things to bring in. A lot of the fans of these games watch the movies and see the animated shows, so there’s a cool novelty in adding those aspects into the game. The thing about DLC is that you can go back after the game and say, “now wait a minute! Let’s add this cool thing!”

No clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ was given, but it would be difficult to imagine–due to the popularity of Green Arrow, Supergirl, and Flash–that characters and/or skins from those shows fail to make it into the game as either in-game unlockables or future DLC packs–which brings us to the next obvious question: are there plans for DLC packs upon release?

Absolutely. That’s part of our cadence–release the game and continue to support the game. I think we are probably going to go further with DLC with [Injustice 2] than any of our previous games with packs of characters and costumes–and some of our costumes will be a gear piece; if you put on a certain gear piece, you might switch over to a different character. That is going to make finding the pieces super fun.

For those familiar with games like Destiny, the loot system can be either kind or cruel. Before players begin to panic over the prospect of a loot system which mimicks the aforementioned game, the gear system will more than likely mirror the one found in the Injustice game for Apple and Android. The mobile incarnation of the game allowed players to use in-game currency or actual cash to open digital card packs which awarded the player new DC characters and gear pieces to improve them.

No word was mentioned over how one acquires gear pieces or the chances of landing a rare item. The conversation then moves to whether or not there were any features or characters NetherRealm wanted to include in Injustice: Gods Among Us, but due to time and/or budget constraints they were unable to do so.

A lot of that falls into the category of characters. The DC Universe is all about the characters, and so there’s always that [conversation] of ‘what’s the roster?’ ‘Who can we include?’ We’re going to have a bigger roster than we had in the last game, but at the same time we want to have a lot more newness.

We just don’t want to just start with the Injustice: Gods Among Us cast and then add a few more. Half [of the roster] will be new. The other half are returning [characters]–just to keep things fresh as possible. We absolutely feel the anxiety and nervousness of ‘Oh, God. We hope Injustice 2 lives up to it’, and I think the whole gear thing is the answer to what makes this game better than the first.

At the time of this writing, the only members of the original Injustice roster making a return to Injustice 2 are Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. The complete Injustice: God Among Us roster (including all DLC packs) featured a total of 30 playable characters.

Going by what Ed Boon confirmed in that half of the Injustice: Gods Among Us roster will return, that means only 11 of the remaining 26 characters will make it to Injustice 2. Who those characters will be is anyone’s guess.

Ed Boon was asked what he feels is the team’s greatest accomplishment in terms of translating a character from the comics to the video game.

I think our visual fidelity and the method in we tell our story. Story in fighting games is like a bad punch line. It’s a joke. There’s no coherent stories in fighting games.

We wanted to do the opposite.

We have a multi-hour cinematic experience that you play where we are telling a very elaborate story. We hired professional actors who we think can play the role of these characters. We are trying to tell something as close to a great cinematic experience where you participate in the fight. In fact, the Injustice comics and games are telling one, big long story. and time wise, the  first Injustice comic was chapter one, Injustice: Gods Among Us was chapter two, the next Injustice comic is chapter three, and [Injustice 2] is chapter four.

When asked about the chances of seeing Injustice as a full-length feature film:

‘Some people have drawn parallels, we’ve actually never sat with the movie people and collaborated, or anything like that. Injustice is our universe, [set apart from] the DC movie universe and the animated stuff, and the comics. I’ve been asked, you know, ‘was this inspired from the movie?’ or ‘was the movie inspired by this?’ We’ve been just telling our own story, but there might be some coincidental similarities.’

I was curious and asked if any actors from the current crop of DC shows and movies have approached Ed Boon in an attempt to get their character in Injustice 2.

We definitely had a lot of discussions about guest characters. In Injustice: Gods Among Us, we had Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, and he was actually the most downloaded of all the Injustice characters.

There’s always a discussion of ‘would it be cool to have this character in Injustice?’, and I’ve certainly had people ask me if I can get their guy in the game, but it’s a pretty long process. A lot of discussion, and it definitely doesn’t boil down to ‘do we want him in? Okay. He’s in!’

There’s licenses and stuff like that.

Injustice 2 is scheduled for release next year.

Be sure to keep it locked onto Geekscape this week as we have interviews with Phil Lamar (Aquaman) and Laura Bailey (Supergirl) coming out this Wednesday and Thursday!