Before you dismiss this as an anime/manga zone suggestion, keep this in mind. Mainly, I want the npc's to LOOK Japanese, and I DONT want them to have huge eyes, monstrously huge, obscenely colorful hairstyles. This is NOT a suggestion to make anime or manga themed content, this is a serious suggestion for an asian-styled zone.

As we all know, fictional Japan is –full- of tech, magic, and most of all, great scenery, and that is why I think a neo-Japan zone would be a great zone for CO. From the bustling streets of the city, to the peaceful beauty of the countryside, to the rich supernatural and technological bits…It would cater to characters styled after anime, martial artists, power suit characters…the list goes on!

City Areas

When it comes to cities, I don’t think that MC really cuts it for some. With a neo-Japan zone, we could have some very interesting city areas. Think neon lighting, sleek buildings, holograms, all that neat stuff…all packed into one flashy, super-techy city. There would be humans, aliens, demons, celestials, and robots all walking the streets together with little to no racial prejudice. After all, what better place for variety?

The people would dress in all sorts of cool, weird outfits that Japan is known for, and perhaps even more. The police could all be in powered armor, we could have vending-machines that sell boosts and consumables, and we could move throughout the various areas via superfast trains.

During the day, the city would look shiny and nice, but at night is when it would REALLY show its stuff. All those lights ablaze, people in outfits with glowy tron-like designs, and best of all…ninjas! Nighttime in neo-Japan would offer a great opportunity for an open mission involving urban/techy ninja attacks! Perhaps opposing organizations duking it out in the cover of night?

During the day, we could have random Kaiju/giant robots attacking the city via open missions, with a huge police/military response just to add to that giant-monster-fight feel!

Countryside

For this, think bamboo, cherry blossoms, deep forests full of spirits, and of course, shrines. This is where the magic aspect would tie in.

Social Areas

This one, I must admit, caters mostly to the role-playing community, but I think it also offers the other types of gamers some interesting places to see.

City-

Of course, there could be an underground rave going on. This would be the hardcore club, with the npcs in wacky clubber garb, swinging around glowsticks and covered in glitter and all that jazz. This club would make caprice look like a retirement home. The lighting would probably be dark to show off all that glow, with some of the moving lights as seen in the dance room in caprice. There would be drink vendors, and possibly even items to buy to make your character hold glowsticks while using dance emotes!

For the not-so-clubber types, there could be a nice little park or perhaps an open mall, like in Vibora. It could offer tailors, various venders (interactable and non-interactable), crafting trainers, and a powerhouse portal, all in different shops within the mall.

And I think the biggest of all could be a huge science complex, like a giant laboratory/robotics lab maybe? Throw in some science and arms trainers for some non-role-play use.

Countryside-

First on my list, a Buddhist-esque shrine…think a classic, large-ish shrine, complete with koi pond, rock garden, and cherry-blossom tree. There would be monks tending to their various duties, whether it be putting up/maintaining protective wards against evil, fixing up/cleaning the shrine itself, that kind of stuff. There could even be a little altar where you could place an offering to refill your stars. Could also have some mysticism trainers!

Similar in looks to the shrine would be the martial arts dojo. This one, however, could be an instance rather than an open area, where inside would be a room very similar to the fighting dojo in Westside. There could be masters teaching students the four types of martial arts we have, along with some of the various weapons for each along the walls. Throw in a few martial arts arms trainers for some usefulness and flavor.

Of course, there’s the spa/bathhouse/hot spring area…just wouldn’t be Japan without it! This one is a little self-explanatory, really. A few hot springs…nothing big, but something we don’t really have.

PvP spots

For some added use, there could be a few areas that have pvp-map equivalents. Let me explain. ((I don’t pvp much, so please excuse the bad explanations here))

In the city, there could be a huge hero-games building called the holo-ring. What it would basically be is a big indoor sports arena with holographic-looking terrain. There would be pvp vendors and computers where you could queue for holo-matches in whatever kind of PvP type. The maps, both open-world and pvp, would have a very tron-esque gaming arena look with multiple levels of terrain, and destructible, holo-generated objects that can be thrown.

In the countryside, near the fighting dojo, there could be a dragonball-style fighting ring, also with vendors and the option to queue for pvp matches. Both the open-world and pvp map equivalent would be a large, flat area enclosed by spectator seating, with some npcs thrown into the seating for some flair. There could be boulders and some trees or practice dummies around for throwing.

And to tie in with the giant robots and Kaiju, why not include a new pvp arena, focused around…you guessed it, giant robots versus Kaiju? We have already seen that the ability to actually pilot giant robots is in game, and this just seems like a no brainer to me.

(suggested by rokurocarisu) An action figure fighting arena, similar to the rikti fighting cage in CoX, paying homage to things like medabots. The action figures would have no level, equal stats, and a small amount of powers, 3-5 powers per AF.


This is open to additions and is a bit of a work in progress...but yeah, thats my idea for a japan zone!

Hideout

Along with the temple I had suggested earlier, perhaps a dojo/shrine hideout could be released as well, and/or some asian themed additions to our existing/upcoming hideouts, such as for the sanctum, cave, basement, and upcoming penthouse.

Edit- Check the bolded area up top, dudes.

I'm always down for some Giant Robot vs Giant Monster action!

This is a great idea for a new zone. Material practically writes itself.

Could we have a "badly dubbed" cutscene or two, as an homage to early Japanese monster movies? For example, a character in such a cutscene could deliver a long soliloquy, with great passion, in a language we can't understand, and the dubbed voice / subtitle would say "chocolate" in a monotone voice, or something like that.

I'm a big fan of the japanese style .. so :

/sign

I've also thought of Japan/Tokyo first when picturing a new city zone. I would love to see this come to life. :)

There goes our Power Rangers again :P.

I hadn't even thought of a cheesy power rangers esque group of heroes! I should add that in!

I'll stop at two posts, but there's a few more observations that would "fit" with this kind of new zone. First, Japanese culture would be good subject matter, and manga / anime are a huge part of Japanese pop culture--plus there are the traditional aspects of culture and architecture that would add to the atmosphere and material for quests. If there are any manga / anime / Japanese culture aficionados on the Cryptic staff, there's a good chance they'd be thrilled to be involved in setting this up. Second, and on that note, this zone could end up not only being fun for players, but a project that the dev team thoroughly enjoys carrying out. Some easy-to-ponder beginning points for ideas ...

- Evil types trying to infiltrate the doujinshi / rival doujos
- Yakuza (nuf said)
- Fans struggling to get into the manga store to get the hot new comic
- A sumo mini-game for PvPers (push your opponent out of the ring!)
- A supervillain that draws their own pets (yes, a nod to Sai, of Naruto, but also very anime)
- Lots of homage villains / heroes based loosely on Japanese traditional / pop culture
- The struggling Enka singer / karaoke
- Shogi and Go (nuf said)
- Cherry blossoms and castles - think Nagoya Castle
- Hot springs / Onsen
- High speed railways and elaborate (+ famously timely) subway / public transport networks

... since Japan is known for robotics and for technology in general, and for being collectivistic, you can have groups that aren't magical in their origins and that also aren't necessarily dressed up in traditional military garb--a nice departure from two of the most common themes in villain groups in the rest of the game.

Great setting for a zone, or next comic series.

To go into japans tech area maybe we can finaaly take down mecanon kinda makes sense.
with all of its tech we can have a huge dungeon where he takes over said robots and we fight them till we get to the control room where he is