Piranha Bytes - Facts and Information about the new Project @ World of Risen

Unreal? With horrible hair(TM)?
No.
Please use Crystal Dynamics. Thankye.

Once upon a time I would be very excited to read any new announcements from PB but I read this one with total indifference which is really sad since I really enjoyed their Gothic games as well as Risen 1. I don't believe Risen 2 was a awful game but it was very formulaic and I had to force myself to finish it. So I hope they change the formula a bit with the new game.

Risen 3 was the first PB game that I could finish, though I bought the 3 Gothics. I played a lot of Gothic 3 though before I got bored. I guess I'll take a wait and see approach.

Yea... No oversized boobs in PB games prior to R3...

joxer said:

Yea… No oversized boobs in PB games prior to R3…

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I think they are compensating for that fact that those of their games are really sausage fest

I don’t know if any of the developers ever read these pages, but my suggestions to Piranha Bytes about their new game:

- Keep up the exploration feeling that you catched up again with Risen 3.
- In-house engine looked ok in Risen 3 with lighting and shadow improvements. Environments looked unique and awesome, so keep those graphic designers. With much better textures this engine will look like new I’m sure. But character animations can be developed, that’s obvious.
- Fire those people who wrote the dialogues and made the quest design for the Risen 3. Honestly I don’t expect dialogues that can cope with Obsidian, CD Projekt or Bioware games’ level. But this game seems like it was written by 9 year old kid. Quest design filled with so many plot holes and logical errors that sometimes it really kills the immersion.
- Also I don’t know who translated Risen 3 from German to English, but it’s absolutely terrible. Please change your localization company. Best way to achieve this is to write the dialogs and story in English rather than translate to it. No matter what they say this is part of the reason why European games like Witcher 3 or Divinity Original Sin was successful in the English speaking territory.
- Risen 1 has the best combat in all the Piranha Bytes games so far. Much more realistic than the other PB games (more Dark Souls like). So please return to this system. I don’t want sliding monsters and characters who can traverse ten meters of soil with their one blow. Also Witcher 3 is the best example how an action RPG combat should be.
- Lastly no pirates please. I’m really tired of them after the third Risen. How about returning to Khorinis?

Gokyabgu said:

I don’t know if any of the developers ever read these pages, but my suggestions to Piranha Bytes about their new game:

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PB owns the blueprint for one of the best CRPGs out there... G2 NotR. Use that game as a blueprint and they'll have another hit. It may not be a mainstream hit, but certainly a niche hit.

I hope we at least get active shield blocking like Risen 1. Or active blocking of any kind like parry in G2.

Sounds good to me cant wait to read more information & watch new gameplay footage.

We will find out more about their new game on Friday. Jenny Pankratz from PB has posted a teaser image here. The binary code translates to "3 days left". It's hard to figure out what's shown in the picture.
OK. Mountains. Clouds. A flock of black birds. Maybe water in the foreground. And then some structure that is held by three strings (maybe a ship?). I'm kind of getting a Nordic vibe from this. Maybe PB is making Skyrim 2?

Oh well, we'll see on Friday…

That pic looks like Gothic ship!
If yes, won't be called Gothic 5, But Gothic: Something. For sakes of history, I just don't want it to be named Gothic: Bears.

ToddMcF2002 said:

I hope we at least get active shield blocking like Risen 1. Or active blocking of any kind like parry in G2.

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No, Please don't do this.

Sir_Brennus said:

No, Please don't do this.

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Yes. At least don't do it exactly like in the previous Risens. The ability to block everything permanently (especially in Risen 2 and 3... IIRC you could not block animal attacks in the first game) was stupid.
If they do it again, they should have an endurance/stamina or concentration bar (just like health/mana etc.) that gets depleted the longer you block.
Or simply put it in the gameplay where the hero's blocking arm will start to tremble, stagger and eventually drop after you block for a certain amount of time because he can't hold up his shield forever. They could link the duration to uphold a block to a stat like strength but keep it tight (maybe like 10s max blocking at max strength or something like that).

Maybe it is time to move on from Risen...try something more like gothic or something entirely new...I'm just not feeling this anymore.

They've all but confirmed that it's not Risen. It appears to be a new IP.

JDR13 said:

They've all but confirmed that it's not Risen. It appears to be a new IP.

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Well thats good then

Names don't mean that much to me. I don't think Risen would have been better if it was called Gothic.

The setting wasn't THAT different from Gothic.

I just think PB is fatigued by making these very similar games for so very long.

DArtagnan said:

Names don't mean that much to me. I don't think Risen would have been better if it was called Gothic.

The setting wasn't THAT different from Gothic.

I just think PB is fatigued by making these very similar games for so very long.

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Yes indeed. To be honest I also didn't think treat Risen 1 as different game from Gothic games. They both shared the famous PB atmosphere. Even Risen 2 had the atmosphere but the pirate theme was enough to make it some what different from Risen 1 and Gothic.

Maybe this new IP will allow PB to keep the atmosphere but also try out new things.

Ironically, I guess we all want them to NOT try new things, and just go with what worked for Gothic and Gothic 2?

But I can understand not wanting to clone yourself over and over, and I'd welcome evolution from PB.

It's just that I'm not really seeing that with the Risen games. It's more like one small step forward and 2 big steps back.

One thing they need to do is drop the NPC companions and go back to strictly solo adventuring. Their games were better that way, but unfortunately they don't seem to realize that.