P.N.03

(''Product Number Three'') is a 2003 third-person shooter developed and published by Capcom for the GameCube. Set in a space colony compound, the game follows a female mercenary fighting against berserk robots. It was directed by Shinji Mikami and produced by Hiroyuki Kobayashi. To avoid similarities with ''Devil May Cry'' and ''Resident Evil'', the game designers emphasized defensive and rhythmic maneuvers and a "feminine" game world.

The game was developed on a tight schedule in an attempt to offset Capcom's poor fiscal year. However, it received mixed reviews and failed commercially. Several critics found the game repetitive and unintuitive. They were divided on its gameplay mechanics: some disliked its controls—specifically the inability to move and shoot simultaneously—while others compared it favorably to the golden age of arcade games. Mikami repurposed ideas from ''P.N.03'' for the game '' Vanquish'', and influences were later seen in ''Bayonetta''.

Gameplay and plot

The player controls Vanessa Z. Schneider, a freelance mercenary working on colonized planets. She is contracted by a mysterious client to destroy Computerized Armament Management System (CAMS) robots that have gone berserk. Robots of this type had been responsible for killing Vanessa's parents. To combat the CAMS, Vanessa wears "Aegis suits", powered exoskeletons that connect to her spine and allow her to fire energy beams from her palms and to perform powerful attacks called "energy drives". It depletes the energy meter, grants temporary invulnerability to Vanessa and damages multiple enemies. At checkpoints, the player uses points earned from defeated robots to purchase Aegis suits, suit upgrades and energy drives. The player may play "trial missions" (randomly generated levels) between missions to score extra points.

The CAMS robots attack in set patterns, and their next moves are indicated by visual and aural cues. The player avoids these attacks via evasive spins, rolls and other maneuvers. Vanessa cannot move while attacking, and so the player must often use the environment as cover. Defeated enemies sometimes drop items that replenish health and energy or that trigger a combo timer, which multiplies the points earned from enemies destroyed consecutively. Each mission takes place in a series of rooms that contain a fixed number of enemies and may include a boss robot. At the end of a mission, the player receives a score based on the number of rooms explored and enemies destroyed.

Late in the game, Vanessa discovers a clone of herself in a CAMS facility but is forced to abandon her when the building's self-destruct sequence is initiated. After destroying the CAMS central core, Vanessa encounters a digital projection of the client, whose appearance is identical to her own. She speculates that she is a clone of the client, but the client counters that none of their memories may be real. Vanessa debates whether to continue her work as a mercenary.

Development

In November 2002, Capcom announced the Capcom Five, a group of video games developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and overseen by ''Resident Evil'' creator Shinji Mikami. Among these titles was ''P.N.03'', directed by Mikami. Capcom conceived the Capcom Five to bring new intellectual property to the industry, which the company viewed at the time as stagnant. According to Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the ''P.N.03'' team's goal was to make a game both "fun to watch and fun to play". The team focused on the game's audiovisuals, action and speed, and they tried to balance the "tension experienced on the battlefield and the exhilaration of taking out the enemies". Mikami wanted ''P.N.03'' to evoke the same feelings as classic Nintendo games. While the staff felt the background graphics were important, they prioritized excitement in the game world.

During the planning stage, ''P.N.03'' was originally a wargame referred to as the "robot war game". Five days into development, the staff created a preliminary demonstration of the graphics. Mikami was unsatisfied with this prototype and decided to rework the project as a third-person shooting game. The director wanted to name the game ''Jaguar'' to reflect Vanessa's cat-like agility. However, other staff members disliked the name: some claimed that it failed to describe the game, while others thought that ''White Jaguar'' was a better title. Mikami chose ''P.N.03'' as a hint to the game's plot.

Early coverage of ''P.N.03'' by GameSpot and IGN highlighted the game's acrobatics and shooting. ''P.N.03''s gameplay was initially similar to that of ''Devil May Cry'': Vanessa attacked with two pistols and performed acrobatic moves like Dante. Feeling that it resembled ''Devil May Cry'' too closely, Mikami altered the game to reward players for performing defensive moves. Mikami wanted Vanessa to use guns, but the developers couldn't complete the animated graphics for weapons in time for release. The guns were replaced with energy bolts fired from the character. In an effort to meet yearly sales goals, Capcom developed ''P.N.03'' quickly and released it in March 2003. Many of Capcom's releases for the year had underperformed. ''Viewtiful Joe'', another Capcom Five title, was delayed into the next fiscal year to decrease the possible sales that had to be offset. After leaving Capcom, Mikami later incorporated ideas he intended for ''P.N.03'' into the 2010 game '' Vanquish''.

Kobayashi aimed to avoid conventions established in ''Resident Evil'', such as that series' dark, masculine world. With ''P.N.03'', Kobayashi wanted to portray a "white" world with "feminine, delicate lines". To that end, the staff applied a minimalist approach to the visuals, used "fine drawn lines", and emphasized "visibility and creativity" in the game world. To maintain the game's "delicate image", the developers tried to make the visuals easy to view and understand. The team crafted the gameplay to avoid "button mashing"; instead, players were meant to observe enemy attack patterns and think before acting. Mechanical designer Shou Sakai tried to craft "things that would stick in he player'smind". Because of the tight development schedule, 3D models had to be created immediately after their designs were completed. Sakai described the lack of time as the "toughest part" of the process.

Mikami was indifferent to the main character's gender. During the early creation process, he left the decision to his staff, who ultimately chose a female character. Because ''P.N.03'' takes place in a space colony, Mikami wanted Vanessa's country of origin to be ambiguous. To that end, she was given a combination of French, German, and English names. The designers posed Vanessa crouched on her hands and knees to resemble a jaguar, as an homage to the ''Jaguar'' title. Her in-game model uses 10,000 polygons to render, and the attract mode model uses 16,000 polygons. At the E3 2003 "Trial Version" demo of ''P.N.03'', Kobayashi referenced her "fanservice" and "sexy" appeal, stating Vanessa's dance animations were inspired by "watch nghours and hours of...famous dancers dancing on television" and that Vanessa's movements were animated freehand, without motion capture technology. Kobayashi wanted Vanessa to be a "cool and sexy mercenary with a tough exterior that hides her dark past." In retrospect, he was proud of the character's style and movements.

Release

The Capcom Five were first announced as games exclusive to the GameCube; however, Capcom later ported most of the titles to other consoles. At the end of 2002, the company confirmed that the game would be released in 2003 on GameCube. In January 2003, the company slated the game for a March release in Japan, but retracted the exclusivity announcement. At a press conference prior to the 2003 Electronic Entertainment Expo, however, Capcom reaffirmed that ''P.N.03'' would be available only for the GameCube. In the end, ''P.N.03'' was the only Capcom Five title to remain exclusive to the system.

''P.N.03'' was the first of the Capcom Five to be released. Before the game's debut in Japan, Capcom distributed playable demos to stores and released screenshots to the media. Upon the game's release, Capcom shipped 25,000 copies to Japanese retailers. Under 11,000 units were sold, which made the game Japan's 26th best-selling title during the last week of March 2003. These low sales failed to help Capcom meet its yearly sales goals. The North American localization was announced in July 2003. Few aspects of the game were changed for the North American market. Capcom advertised a free T-shirt as a pre-order incentive in North America. Promotional sunglasses modeled after Vanessa's were also released.

Reception and legacy

''P.N.03'' failed commercially and received positive to mixed reviews, with scores of 64% and 63 on review aggregate websites GameRankings and Metacritic, respectively. Several critics predicted ''P.N.03s cult status and lack of mainstream accessibility at its release and afterwards, and it has been listed in several articles as being an "overlooked" or "hidden" gem that " eservesanother chance".
It has been called a "cult classic" and "future classic" that could "easily confused with a 3D action title" and leave gamers "confused or disappointed" with its "initially awkward" controls, but requires "perseverance".
Daniel Etherington from ''BBC
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