The fantastic sound of Destiny's new anime sniper rifle was years in the making
In a game positively stuffed with sniper rifles, it takes a lot to stand out.
Destiny's a game with great feeling weapons, ones you're willing to spend hours of time grinding for, but the recently introduced and incredibly anime-assed Mechabre sniper rifle has made an especially big splash. Bungie sound designer Juan Pablo Uribe highlighted his work for the gun on Twitter, and was kind enough to explain some more of that process to us via email.
As part of this year's Festival of the Lost Halloween event, Bungie's gone full Gundam with some delightfully mecha-inspired skins and weapons. The Mechabre sniper rifle, with its killer PvP potential and knockout sound design, has been one of the most sought-after additions to this year's event.
If you're not in a position to listen to Uribe's video we embedded below, you're missing out. There's no mistaking the brzoom as you look down the scope, nor the pakeeew of firing the thing. This is pure, unadulterated Toonamicore. This gun embodies the spirit of staying up too late on a Saturday in 2001 and catching the good shit.
"The moment I saw the concept art for the Mechabre Sniper Rifle I knew it had to have sounds that fit its aesthetics. For Festival of the Lost, we normally don’t do a fully-custom pass on weapon audio," Uribe told us, contrasting Mechabre with other Festival of the Lost additions like the Jurassic Green pulse rifle or Braytech Werewolf auto rifle.
"But this one was just screaming to get that anime treatment, so I worked with the team to uncover appropriate reference material to nail the sound. As a lover of anime sounds, I just couldn’t pass on the opportunity to have some fun and give it the treatment it deserved!"
#gameaudio I am so proud of this one! All the years I've spent honing my anime sound skills on the side pay off in this amazing Gundam sniper. My favorites are the more subtle sounds of the scope, readys and the reloads. The fire assets I had mostly made like 4 years ago haha???? pic.twitter.com/ksY2DYD2mvOctober 20, 2022
Uribe also explained how some elements of Mechabre's unique sound were years in the making. "I love sound design, so outside of my work on Destiny I also spend time just doing fun sound design stuff, and one of the things I love is exploring and refining how to make classic anime sounds. So, I spend a lot of time creating sounds without an end goal and stash them in my library, hoping that one day they will get their time to shine."
This extracurricular work ultimately paid off with Mechabre's signature retort. "That was the case with the Mechabre Sniper Rifle! Several years ago, I created a suite of sounds that felt really close to the classic anime sounds of the 80's and 90's and they were waiting patiently to one day be used in the best way possible."
It's little touches like this that really make Destiny's massive arsenal sing. After all, you have to have that secret sauce if you want people to keep grinding for guns after hundreds or even thousands of hours. Destiny's recent anime turn is certainly tempting me to reignite my old dalliance with the original looter shooter. If you're hunting down a killer Mechabre roll yourself, check out our guide on how to farm Spectral Pages in Destiny 2's Season of the Lost.
