Red Earth, a previously Japan-only title, will finally be making its way westward when it releases as part of the upcoming Capcom Fighting Collection.
First released in 1996, Red Earth creatively combines fighting and RPG mechanics. While there are classic PvP fights, the game also had a Quest Mode in which would take on a gauntlet of fantasy bosses, as if their fighters were adventurers on a grand quest.
After each boss, players would receive experience points that could be used to upgrade their character’s stats, really driving home the fantasy adventure aesthetic that inspired Red Earth.
In a reflection on the game posted on the official PlayStation blog, Andy Wong, a senior manager at Capcom, explains the history of the game and the reason behind the choices they made.
How did this unique take on fighting games come about? Takashi Sado, one of the producers of Red Earth at the time – and still at Capcom – started working on the proposal for Red Earth in the mid-90s. Since fighting games were growing increasingly popular at the time, he followed this trend and initially planned to make Red Earth just a fighting game. However, he was feeling that the skill level between fighting game players was growing where more casual players couldn’t keep up with more top-tier players. In order to bridge this skill gap, his team wondered if they could get creative and compensate for it by changing parameters, equipment, or other facets of the genre.
Also during this time, Sado was drawn to fantasy action games such as the Capcom-developed Magic Sword and The King of Dragons. Both of these beat‘em-up games had character progression systems that powered up the player-controlled character. With fantasy games in mind and an urge to address the growing skill gap amongst fighting game players, the unique RPG-like character progression system was created for Red Earth.
Andy Wong
The upcoming Capcom Fighting Collection will include multiple games such as Street Fighter II, Darkstalkers, and more. Players can get their hands on it on June 24th on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.
