Chronos: Before the Ashes - Interview @Gamingbolt

Silver

Spaceman
Staff Member
Joined
February 13, 2014
Messages
9,314
Location
New Zealand
Gamingbolt spoke with the devs of Chronos: Before the Ashes about the combat structure, progression, and more.

Chronos: Before the Ashes is itself an overhauled version of 2016's Chronos, so how much have you had to go back and change and add things to the story, given the fact that Before the Ashes is a prequel to Remnant?

John Pearl, Design Director: The story of Remnant: From the Ashes picks up just a month after the end of Chronos. We very intentionally followed the story and lore we set up in Chronos as we developed Remnant. This meant in Remnant, we expanded on the ideas and fleshed out elements from the world of Chronos. Sticking closely to this established lore meant we didn't have to change much post Remnant except for a few dates on some journal logs and give things official names. An example of this would be the World Stones. We never specifically called them anything in Chronos, but we officially named them in Remnant, so we went back to make sure they were named properly.

[...]

Chronos: Before the Ashes' combat has been described as "unforgiving and brutal". The same could probably also be said for Remnant: From the Ashes, which also adopted a Souls-like structure in many ways. How much does Chronos have in common with Remnant in those regards?

Pearl: With Chronos, much like Remnant, the game was heavily inspired by Dark Souls and Bloodborne. One of the big differentiators between Chronos and Remnant, is Chronos is entirely focused on melee combat. Similar to Remnant and Dark Souls, you're never taking on hordes of enemies, unless of course something went terribly wrong. Each encounter is meant to pose a challenge to the player as one wrong move can leave you open for an attack, and like Remnant, your healing options are limited.

The combat, however, is never meant to feel like a slog. Much like Remnant, we designed the combat to be challenging but we give you a lot of tools that once you master them, you can always remain in control of a combat encounter. In fact, fans of the combat of Darksiders 3 will find a lot of similarities with the combat in Chronos. The moment to moment combat is built around perfectly timed dodges and parries followed up by powerful arcane counters. The combat isn't supposed to be as flashy as Darksiders since you're just a human from a remote island and not a Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Unlike Dark Souls games, we do offer difficulty settings. We really love the world and lore of our games and want as many people as possible to experience all of the story and cool moments we packed into the game. We offer an easier difficulty which is balanced to allow a player to get through the game's story without punishing them. On the other end of that, we offer a hard difficulty that should feel closer to that "brutal" difficulty Souls fans look for in a game.

[...]
More information.
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Messages
9,314
Location
New Zealand
I didn't know this game shares the same universe with Remnant: From The Ashes. I have played Remnant well over 100 hours and it's a solid Souls-like game. So I am going to buy Chronos too.
 
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
1,181
Location
Sigil
I didn't know this game shares the same universe with Remnant: From The Ashes. I have played Remnant well over 100 hours and it's a solid Souls-like game. So I am going to buy Chronos too.

I didn't realize it was the same developer. The visual style is very different here.

I've played some of Remnant and liked it, so I might check this out. I hope this is more of a conventional RPG though rather than a soulslike.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,331
Location
Florida, US
Hmm I wouldn't call Remnant: From The Ashes a Souls-like game. Yes the combat can be hard but it reminds me of a game called Hellgate: London. Anyway it's a good game.

Also didn't know this game was made by the same developer. Though in hind site it does fit in with the beginning of Remnant: From The Ashes. Your from the same village.

Edit: Some people cant get personal opinions. See that's my opinion not fact. As I played Souls-like games and Remnant: From The Ashes felt nothing like one of the clones.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,348
Location
Spudlandia
Hmm I wouldn't call Remnant: From The Ashes a Souls-like game. Yes the combat can be hard but it reminds me of a game called Hellgate: London. Anyway it's a good game.

Also didn't know this game was made by the same developer. Though in hind site it does fit in with the beginning of Remnant: From The Ashes. Your from the same village.

Edit: Some people cant get personal opinions. See that's my opinion not fact. As I played Souls-like games and Remnant: From The Ashes felt nothing like one of the clones.

Yes, it shares some characteristics with Hellgate: London. There is a hub area and the other areas are random and procedurally generated. Also there are some similarities in setting. But the combat in Remnant is stamina based rather than button smashing and requires careful timing with attacks and dodgings which is the main characteristic of Soulslike game. Though apart from other Soulslikes gameplay based mainly in ranged weapons rather than melee. So we can safely say it's Souls with guns like Immortal Unchained.
 
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
1,181
Location
Sigil
Back
Top Bottom