RoA: Blade of Destiny - Interview @ GMP

Myrthos

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Crafty Studios' Technical Director Christian Weinmüllner and Creative Director Ronald Halder answer the questions that Game Media Pro asked them about Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny.

Which ‘old-school’ RPGs are your favourite ones?

Chris: One of my first RPG’s was the orginal Realms of Arkania:Blade of Destiny (pre-HD!), so of course this game is at the top of my list. I also had a lot of fun with Ultima Underworld 1 and2 as well as Arx Fatali. Arcanum with its unique combination of Steam-punk and magic was also one of my favourites. I really liked Legend of Grimrock which is not necessarily old, but I still consider it ‘old school’. Ronny: My passion for RPG’s came a lot later for me. I preferred classic structural games and also have played nearly every racing simulation out there. However, when I got hands-on with my first online RPG, I was just fascinated by the in-game worlds. Imagination, beauty and such density, are all the qualities I find so interesting about RPG games.

What are the future plans for Realms of Arkania? I think the word trilogy speaks for itself! We also want to implement the game on other platforms, without making compromises to the story. We also have some interesting ideas for what comes next after Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny… more will be revealed soon.

What we can say is that we will continue to do everything possible to make the games of the trilogy comparable to real DSA games. No high fantasy, no exaggerated flashes!
More information.
 
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All fingers crossed for 30 July. If this does well it could a big step in reversing the trend towards dumbed down single character RPGS.
 
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Whoa, I thought the July release was only for the German version and that the English version would only be available come September-October. This is very good news! So, Shadowrun Returns this week and ROA: Blade of Destiny next week. Excellent!
 
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Not long to go now. Really looking forward to this. Just hope they haven't watered it down too much.
 
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Just hope they haven't watered it down too much.
Well, from what I've gathered (from the scant English language info available) it ought to be pretty much a basic UI, graphics and other eye/ear candy upgrade, with little to no changes to gameplay. However, I might be wrong. At least it looks they're using ROA 2/3 engine underneath, as e.g. there are way more equipment slots for PCs than in ROA 1. With that in mind, I hope it also means one can shoot diagonally now in combat.
 
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I will definitely check it out. That being said, I've seen some videos and while the 3D exploration looks good, the combat looks somewhat.. uninspired, and it wasn't all that amazing to begin with.

Ah well, I guess we'll know more next week.
 
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As far as I remember they said that they did some tweaks in combat, like adding cover from ranged attacks. But we have to wait a couple of days to see how that works out.
Liked the combat in the old games though. My only problem there was that very easy combats took very long to just click them away.
 
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As far as I remember they said that they did some tweaks in combat, like adding cover from ranged attacks. But we have to wait a couple of days to see how that works out.
Liked the combat in the old games though. My only problem there was that very easy combats took very long to just click them away.

There was also the issue of long initial combats. If I remember correctly, the combat system made hitting something hard in the lowest levels, so there was a whole lot of misses on all attacks.
 
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There was also the issue of long initial combats. If I remember correctly, the combat system made hitting something hard in the lowest levels, so there was a whole lot of misses on all attacks.

That's why the cheesiest party always had 3 elves with (cross)bows. For melee skills you had to spread your points between "attack" and "parry", so that one time out of five where your fighter actually rolled a hit with his longsword the enemy had a chance to parry, so you hit more like 1 out of 8 times.
With ranged weapons your entire skill was added to the attack roll, and enemies couldn't parry. In PnP you could also decrease your attack modifier to increase your damage but this wasn't even necessary here. Bows ruled anyway.
 
Just hope they haven't watered it down too much.

They haven't watered it down at all. I've seen some videos of the game in action and it's pretty much a 1:1 copy of the original game, only with better 3d graphics: same icon-based interface, non-explorable interiors (dungeons aside, obviously) with a set of actions you can do (e.g. using talents in taverns to earn money, speaking to shop owners etc.), identical overland travel system, same multiple-choice dialogue system… heck, even the layout of Thorwal (the starting city) is pretty much the same.

As long as they implemented the missing/broken things (the original had lots of encounters that didn't work out as planned and many loose ends) and maybe added some more quests, it's going to be an awesome remake.
 
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Color me skeptical. I'll wait for people familiar with the originals to describe in what ways this improves on the original before buying the CE. I'm confident it won't be sold out very soon.

They already pulled a stunt with the CE being unplayable without the day 1 patch.
 
They already pulled a stunt with the CE being unplayable without the day 1 patch.

You mean the german retail version? I heard that some stores started selling it earlier than they should have.
 
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You mean the german retail version? I heard that some stores started selling it earlier than they should have.

That seems to be the case, but it also seems to be the case that it doesn't say anywhere on the box 'this product requires activation' or something similar. Which wouldn't be exactly true anyway, it's just an incomplete product. Not a nice thing to pull on customers who are willing to pre-order a "collector's edition".
 
Inhowfar is it incomplete ?
 
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It seems to be just unplayable. Icons missing, skills not working, wonky text messages etc.
 
Color me skeptical. I'll wait for people familiar with the originals to describe in what ways this improves on the original before buying the CE. I'm confident it won't be sold out very soon.

They already pulled a stunt with the CE being unplayable without the day 1 patch.
Who exactly is "they"?
 
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So has it been released yet in europe?
 
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