You Won’t Believe How Much Work Went Into Designing Lu Jin

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In the realm of combat gaming, The Hidden Ones offers an adaptation of the storyline from The Outcast. Players find themselves immersed in tales, duels, and trials, all aiming to secure victory. It provides character-centric narratives, boasts rapid and captivating martial arts combat, and seamlessly combines these elements with a cinematic feel, ensuring a focus on a balanced PvP experience. While there’s much happening within The Hidden Ones, it is the characters of The Outcast that truly form its core.

Recently, Game Rant had an insightful conversation with Fox Lin, the lead designer of ‘The Hidden Ones’, from Morefun Studios, regarding the intriguing character Lu-Jin and his unique combat style, particularly the Inner Demon State. We also delved a tad into the character design procedures employed by Morefun Studios. For your convenience, this discussion has been condensed and clarified for better understanding.

Could you elaborate on the comprehensive approach you take when designing characters, focusing particularly on how you started developing Lu Jin?

Typically, we initiate the process by developing the fundamental concept of a character, incorporating their personality traits and backstory. Subsequently, we work on designing their appearance, fighting style, and abilities. For characters originating from an existing series, we scrutinize their portrayed personality and combat skills as outlined in the manual. If necessary, we engage Mi Er, the Manhua author, in our discussions. Once we grasp the essentials of a character, we draft their move sets. By combining the move set design and visual appearance, we produce a preliminary version of the character. Upon internal approval of this initial draft, we proceed to create original artwork, models, and animations for the character.

To illustrate Lu Jin’s character more accurately, we intend to depict his ferocious form during his struggle on Longhu Mountain, surrounded by adversaries pushing him to release his inner demon. In this state, he transforms into a relentless combatant. Since our concept for him involves an aggressive playstyle rather than excessive defense in real gameplay, we made the choice to compromise his defensive capabilities for more potent attacks. Initially, we opted for a balanced design, such that a brief press of the defense button would trigger a Standard move for Lu Jin. However, after careful consideration within our team, we decided to take a bolder approach and intensify his offensive gameplay entirely.

Due to this decision, Lu Jin’s combat style now features a cooldown for defense, but if players press the defense button twice rapidly within a short timeframe, he will be given two Standards as a reward. Our goal was to motivate more offensive and aggressive play among Lu Jin’s players. After completing his prototype, we went through several rounds of revisions to strike the perfect balance between staying true to his character in the IP and enhancing his gameplay experience.

Inquiry: How many times did Lu Jin go through development cycles before reaching his current position, and what significant obstacle did he encounter during this journey?

In terms of character design, there haven’t been drastic changes for Lu Jin. Throughout seven revisions, we worked on refining the white 3D model, making three rounds of updates to his animations, and three iterations for special effects. During the special effects phase, we focused on harmonizing his basic attacks and skills. We ensured a balanced feel for each of Lu Jin’s moves to avoid any sudden sensations. The most difficult part was creating his movement style and conveying his intense, tormented demonized state. We also spent considerable time integrating the manhua’s representation of the Universal Talisman—one of the powerful Eight Secret Arts that Lu Jin wields—into the special effect design. Ultimately, we transformed Lu Jin into a demonized character with glowing eyes and explosive hair, whose power fills the air with thunder Talismans. We aim to present him as a fighter who unleashes his full potential when he taps into his inner demon.

Q: From early concepts to the current stage of Lu Jin, what has changed the most?

Previously stated, the design has remained consistent without any significant alterations. With each update, we’ve been working on perfecting the character’s details and enhancing the combat effects. For instance, we tried numerous variations of Lu Jin’s model to modify the amount of his hair. Originally, we wanted to mimic his manhua look with messy, voluminous hair. However, we discovered that it interfered with the character’s fight animations. As a result, we made several adjustments to Lu Jin’s hair volume, demonstrating our dedication to fine-tuning every detail.

Could you provide some insights on the role that Lu Jin and his internal struggle with his demon play within the storyline of The Hidden Ones or The Outcast series?

As a gamer, I found myself as Lu Jin, a respected member of a righteous sect, during an unexpected night attack on Longhu Mountain by the evil sect known as The Fulfilled, who were among the Outcasts. Following the Grand Luotian Ritual, I joined the valiant defense of Longhu Mountain and was surrounded by the relentless forces of The Fulfill. Despite being a close friend of the Heavenly Master, I found myself in a desperate struggle to protect our sacred mountain.>

In this conflict, Lu Jin found himself up against the ‘Heart Labors Formation’ devised by Gao Ning, one of The Fulfilled’s Wild Four – a quartet known for wielding various desires as their weapons. This arrangement has the power to sway the emotions of those ensnared within it, driving them towards intense feelings. In this challenging situation, Lu Jin bravely chose to exploit this formation to his advantage.

He intentionally immersed himself in an intense state of rage and malice, releasing a long-suppressed inner darkness that originated from the painful recollection of the massacre of his old religious group years ago – the sorrowful event at Longhu Mountain. His aim was to channel this anger towards The Fulfilled members as a means of retribution and safeguarding Longhu Mountain.

  • The Outcast, Lu Jin [Inner Demon] is designed based on this special state of Lu Jin. Through his demonized form, we get a glimpse of his obsessions and hidden resentments, while also sensing his determination and sense of justice in that moment.
  • In-game introduction of Lu Jin [Inner Demon]: One of the Ten Masters, once trapped in the Fulfilled’s Heart Labors Formation. Is easily consumed by rage and hatred.

A: Is Lu Jin known for being a consistently aggressive combatant, or has his fighting style evolved over time? In terms of the most suitable playstyle, what do you think it might be?

To conquer Lu Jin, players should concentrate on continuously tapping the defense key to execute his Standards, maximizing offensive potential while strategically using Cancel during duels. When an adversary falls, a brief press of the defense key initiates a sweeping attack, enabling players to consistently apply pressure on their opponent.

When facing off against Lu Jin, consider these strategies: Given his diverse selection of Standard plays, look for chances to defend and counterattack after he makes a move. Additionally, exploit his defense cool-down periods by going on the offensive and attacking him directly.

A: What process does the team follow when determining each character’s playing style, and why was it decided that Lu Jin would adopt a demonic approach to combat? Was this decision based more on the gameplay or the storyline?

When creating characters for the game, which is based on the Hitori No Shita: The Outcast franchise, our development team puts great importance on developing a compelling narrative. This series features a cast of superpowered individuals, and we delve into not just the backgrounds of the main protagonists, but also those of numerous other Outcasts. To ensure accuracy, we’ve thoroughly researched the personalities, combat styles, and potential martial arts disciplines of characters that were part of the original intellectual property before integrating them into our game.

To maintain Lu Jin’s inherent selflessness when confronted with a difficult situation, we aimed to portray him as staunchly upholding justice, even if it means transforming into a demonized state. Once his inner demon emerges, he descends into madness, symbolized by his bloodshot eyes and wild hair, due to the havoc wreaked by his Chi. His body language also suggests his agitated state.

Alongside his impressive physical change, his fighting technique is extremely offensive. His abilities, which include several quick dashes and the swap of frequent defense for repeated “Thunder Talisman” Standards, enable players to consistently harass their opponents. Yet, the cool-down on his defensive moves necessitates deep strategic planning.

Q: What were the goals when developing Lu Jin’s lightning-based skills?

1) The abilities of Lu Jin are reminiscent of the Thunder Talisman from the Universal Talisman, one of the Eight Secret Arts. This aspect of thunder is visible in his Standards and Ultimate. During development, we strove to evoke the feeling of “talismanic thunder fills the atmosphere.” In the original comic, the Heavenly Master remarks about Lu Jin’s Universal Talisman: “He wields thunder talismans as carelessly as spilling beans.

Keeping that thought in mind, we focused on giving Thunder Talisman in Lu Jin’s abilities a heavy, oppressive feel during combat. For each character’s skills, our goal is to bring out distinctness based on their portrayals within the work or their individual personalities. This way, players can more easily appreciate the unique martial arts styles of each Outcast and the emotions they express in battle.

A: In creating the combat sequences for the character Lu Jin in The Hidden Ones, what was your method for capturing his distinctive personality and fighting style within the cinematic context?

In our artistic approach, we prioritize managing the visual style and accurate representation of characters. To create cinematic narratives, we aim for authenticity in character depiction by employing animation and motion effects to accurately convey the emotional states of characters. For instance, instead of portraying Lu Jin as a “cool” character who performs impressive poses after being demonized, we wanted to show his inner power and emotions genuinely.

Rather than depicting him as he normally is, we decided to reveal his true emotions at the moment through his character design, using somewhat eccentric, even dark themes. Consequently, Lu Jin’s character was molded to symbolize his insanity in a demonic form, which was conveyed through unsettling body language. We believe this method accurately portrays his mental state as described in the original work at that time. Moreover, when crafting other characters or story visuals, we place significant importance on understanding their inner worlds and aim to translate these understandings into their visual presentations.

Q: How do you hope players receive this character?

We aim to satisfy fans who are acquainted with this IP by delivering a character representation in line with their expectations for Lu Jin. For newcomers to the IP, our portrayal of Lu Jin’s inner demon state is intended to evoke his resolute determination to take risks against adversity, thus allowing them to appreciate the distinct appeal of each Outcast. Ultimately, we want all players to savor the thrilling combat experience offered by Lu Jin’s unique mechanics and gain a comprehensive grasp of his gameplay dynamics, enabling them to develop their own personalized playstyle and comprehension.

Q: Is there anything else you want to share about Lu Jin for those interested in playing him?

I’m excited to share that we meticulously perfected Lu Jin’s hair details to create stunning combat effects, and this dedication extends to every character in our game. We pour our hearts into the smallest details to ensure players can immerse themselves in top-notch visuals and an exhilarating combat experience. That’s where our passion truly shines!

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2025-03-23 15:29