PCInvasion reports that Diablo 4 initially started development as a Dark Souls like experience.
More information.Kotaku’s Jason Schreier spoke with 11 current and former Blizzard staff members about Diablo 4. All of these confirmed that the game is definitely in development. The current version, code-named “Fenris,” sounds like the wish list of every old school fan. Dark, “gross,” and removed of any “cartoony” aesthetics, the team’s aim is now to make Diablo 4 the Diablo II successor that so many wanted.
What’s more interesting to me, however, is what could have been. The original build of Diablo 4 was shaping up to be an over-the-shoulder dungeon crawler, according to the report. Led by Reaper of Souls director Josh Mosqueira, the impetus of the game was to make an action-RPG much like Dark Souls. In fact, the game looked so “not Diablo,” that Blizzard even considered calling it something else entirely.
[...]