Bound By Flame - E3 2013 interview and Previews

Bound by Flame was at E3 but seems to be ignored by most sites. Here are two previews and a new interview video.

Bound by Flame Interview with Jehanne Rousseau at E3 2013

RPGFan

Bound by Flame is not designed as a full open world, but instead is divided into chapters, with each chapter having its own quest hub and areas to explore. Because of this design, we were told that the game will be "semi-linear," but with a heavy focus on story.

Combat appears to fairly standard action RPG fare, though we were impressed by the creative monster designs and the detailed environments in which you'll fight. Over the course of the game, you'll meet up to five potential companions, of which two at a time can join you in battle. While you only directly control your own character, you can issue commands and assign set behaviors to your AI-controlled companions.

Outside of battle, you'll interact with your companions and NPCs through a variety of dialog options, a WRPG staple. Depending on your choices, you can affect your relationship with other characters, enough that certain companions may even leave your party if you alienate them enough. For you lovers out there, yes, there will also be romance options.

We don't yet know if Bound by Flame will break the mold of the dark fantasy action RPG, but the wealth of customization options and imaginative monster designs show promise. Maybe being possessed by a hellish flame demon isn't so bad after all.

SideQuesting

Bound by Flame utilizes a traditional Third Person Action RPG gameplay system: run around and slash at enemies, use magic, level up through skill trees. There’s crafting, alliances, and conversation choices. There are up to five additional party members than can join in, and multiple side quests that pop up, seven per party member. The visuals carry a sort of dark fantasy style, with plenty of skeletons and giant demons running around. The environments we saw during our demo presentation showed us the insides of caves, tops of cliffs, and warrior encampments. Characters look like knights or savages, wizards or fighters. It’s not going to blow your socks off from that respect.

Where it does do some interesting things is in the morality side. The main character, which can be created based on our gender and appearance whims, has been possessed by a fire demon. As the game progresses and choices are made to gain power, take the hard way, do good or bad, our hero can become more possessed by the entity, slowly turning into one along the way. The change is both physical and plot-based, too. In our presentation the character grew horns, became scaly, more muscular and threatening, and the appearance will be different based on how we’ve designed our characters. The game’s different factions and allegiances will change, since some groups are considered pure and others are nearly cult-like towards the demon.

It’s a little like the team took the idea of Mass Effect 2‘s Shepard physical changes and expounded upon them to the nth degree.

It’s an intriguing idea that may inspire a few playthroughs, as players take different paths and make different choices along the way. It seems like it has the ability to make everyone’s experience with it unique. It’s still early in development, and has been pushed out of 2013 into the beginning of 2014. Though it’s being developed for XBLA , PSN, and PC right now, the team hasn’t made any choices yet for next gen consoles as of yet.