Spellbound Entertainment - Returns as Black Forest Games

Good for you, but that doesn't have anything to do with PB vs Spellbound, etc. in regards to developing another Gothic title. ;)

Yes it does I don't want PB to make it. Not hard to understand now is it. :p You brought up PB making Gothic again and I replied. Have a happy day now.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,181
Location
Spudlandia
The only reason I think PB would have a hard time returning to the Gothic IP is where the story left off at the end of Arcania. I do not think it would be easy to pick up from there, as they made the nameless hero a pretty passive NPC by making him the king, along with most of the other characters you could care about in the series. I rather doubt they want to pick up the story of the Arcania (horrid emo hair blunt uninteresting dude) protagonist.

So how would or could they contiune? Probably by a huge retcon, cutting parts of, or all of Arcania: G4 and probably even Forsaken Bugs. I personally don't like that idea either, but PB is known for being a developer that used rusty axe cutting and retcons in their history (Risen 2, for instance).

As for Arcania, as much as I was one of the people who were really looking forward to it, the game sadly failed to engage me at all. Despite the familiar characters, the story was a total mess. They introduced some elements that did not work, upset the wonderful mythology of the Gothics and failed to present anything remotely interesting to me. Endless corridors in huge empty scenery with monsters running at you and you just click click click them to death. I remember the game being a torture by the second half, I wanted it to end. No small interesting nuances, no living settings, no sidequests, nothing. I never ever want to replay it, and that's quite telling (I have replayed the Gothics, even FG (!) several times, and the Risens, too).

As for Spellbound, I would love to see a new Commandos clone they make, because in those games, it seems, they could find something they could put their passion in. I remember all the small bits and stuff you could do in Desperados, now THAT was a game I would want to go back to.
 
Joined
Jun 29, 2012
Messages
201
The only reason I think PB would have a hard time returning to the Gothic IP is where the story left off at the end of Arcania. I do not think it would be easy to pick up from there, as they made the nameless hero a pretty passive NPC by making him the king, along with most of the other characters you could care about in the series. I rather doubt they want to pick up the story of the Arcania (horrid emo hair blunt uninteresting dude) protagonist.

I am hoping that PB will ignore Forsaken gods and Arcania and continue on original Gothic 3.
 
Joined
May 21, 2012
Messages
1,436
Location
Sto plains
The PB boss already said that they consider the stuff JoWooD did without them as not canonical.



----------------------------

The Spellbound / Black Forest PR is just the typical marketing bullshit to let investors and partners know they still there. Just ignore it.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
7,830
Well, IMHO the gothics where never about story anyway, they were about gameplay, exploration and atmosphere. In fact I feel that if they made a game in the same atmosphere and got a great story writer onboard, it might become even better compared to if they tried to stick to the G1,2,3 storyline.
 
Joined
Oct 25, 2006
Messages
6,292
The Gothic story pretty much ended in G3 though, a new Gothic would need a new hero and so on just like Gothic 4 and would probably be set quite a few years either before or after the story of G1-3.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,583
Location
Bergen
Yes, they do indeed need a new hero, although they can make Nameless#1 forget everything again. Hey, they did it several times before. :)
As far as I know, Risen was supposed to be a continuation of the Gothic series until PB and Jowood parted ways and PB had to reinvent the IP. So technically (yea, I know they deny any connection between the two universes) they already made a new hero for Risen. No big deal coming up with another one, huh?

@Gorath: I did not know they flat-out disregard FG and Arcania. Thanks for the heads-up, this is actually great news! Have you got any source on that?
 
Joined
Jun 29, 2012
Messages
201
@Gorath: I did not know they flat-out disregard FG and Arcania. Thanks for the heads-up, this is actually great news! Have you got any source on that?

Mr Rüve posted it on WoR or WoG a couple of months ago.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
7,830
Mr Rüve posted it on WoR or WoG a couple of months ago.

He did indeed. The posts can be found here and here :) .

As far as I know, Risen was supposed to be a continuation of the Gothic series until PB and Jowood parted ways and PB had to reinvent the IP.

It has become clear from comments of PB's Mr. Hoge that the relationship between PB and JoWooD was at an end when or even before Gothic 3 was released.
It does not seem to be a coincidence that the story of the NH was concluded at the end of Gothic 3 and that the map of Gothic 3 showed an area called the "Unknown Lands". PB never seriously intended to work on another Gothic game (expansion or sequel) for JoWooD. They were done with Gothic at that time.
They built Risen from scratch. There was no such thing as an adaptation process or a conversion from Gothic to Risen.

They (especially Mr. Rüve) are having fun teasing people with easter eggs though (like the island of Khorinis diary reference in Risen 2 that Mr. Rüve asserts must have to do with the author's intoxicated state when he wrote those lines ;) ).
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,201
Back
Top Bottom