The PlatinumGames blog kicks off their Vanquish blog series today with an entry from Shinji Mikami, director on the upcoming release. We’ve very happy to republish the blog below and welcome you to the head over to PlatinumGames and read more from the developers of Vanquish and other titles.

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Hi everyone. Vanquish director Shinji Mikami here.

Right now, my new company Tango is having a party to celebrate our first official day of business as a full-fledged studio, and I’m the only one stuck working at the moment.

Anyways, Vanquish… Lots to say about Vanquish…

After I finished up God Hand, I didn’t have a team to work with, so I spent about a year and a half staring out a window. Soon thereafter, I was finally back at work in the studio. Vanquish is my first title after this period of almost running away from being a creator. The design of the game started with my initial desire to make a game like the Japanese animated series Casshern, as well as my desire to challenge myself by making a shooter with an incredible sense of speed and no “slogging through” sections.

At that point in the design the game was a shooter with elements of Casshern (punching/kicking) from time to time, but in the end, we settled into a design that was mainly shooter with rare elements of Casshern. When you actually play the game, you realize that there aren’t that many opportunities to punch or kick in the game, but when you do get the chance, the game really does feel like an action game. Even though it is stylistically a shooter, I would be really happy to have action gamers give the game a chance as well. Thanks to the skill and hard work of the team, the graphics are really incredible in Vanquish. I can whole-heartedly recommend it.

For my next entry, I will go into a bit more detail regarding the inner-workings of Vanquish.

Until then, thanks for reading!

SAN FRANCISCO (July 8, 2010) – SEGA® of America, Inc. is excited to announce details of the exclusive Gamestop pre-order content for VANQUISH™, the epic sci-fi third-person action shooter from acclaimed game director Shinji Mikami. Customers who pre-order a copy of the game with Gamestop will have exclusive access to this three-weapon pack, available via Xbox LIVE® Marketplace and PlayStation®Store. VANQUISH™ is set to be released on Oct. 19 in North America, with the pack being available the same day.

The Tri-Weapon pack contains a small arsenal of experimental technology, made up of the Boost Machine Gun, Anti-Armor Pistol and Laser Cannon. This triple threat of futuristic weaponry gives players an edge in surviving the frenetic and massive battles onboard the vast space station setting of VANQUISH™. The Boost Machine Gun is an early experimental weapon with impressive overall fire power and the speed to dispense rounds similar to that of a heavy machine gun. The Anti-Armor Pistol fires a special penetrative shell and was manufactured to tackle hostile forces with much stronger armor. Finally, the Laser Cannon is a miniaturized space warship laser and is more powerful than any other weapon available for infantry.

The Boost Machinegun

The Anti Armor Pistol

The Laser Cannon

VANQUISH™ will be released for the Xbox 360® and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and will be available at GameStop stores nationwide October 19, 2010.