The recently announced Blades of Fire will encourage player progression through the player’s own skill and three equipment they find, rather than relying on stat numbers like more traditional RPGs tend to do. In an interview with the Epic Games Store blog, lead game designer Joan Amat spoke about how progression in the upcoming RPG will work.
Amat discussed how the studio doesn’t want protagonist Aran to essentially become a magical god by the end of the game. Rather than being able to shoot fireballs out of his weapon, the studio instead wants to focus on rewarding players by giving them strength through the weapons that they create, and how they actually wield it in battle.
“You definitely can’t turn Aran into a magic god at the end of Blades of Fire, right? There’s lots of spectacular things that you could do, have your weapon shoot fireballs or other things that are really spectacular,” said Amat. “This is not our aim! Our aim is to make everything really important.”
“You can fill the screen with VFX and make the character feel really powerful, but we’re forced to make sure you feel powerful because you’re doing meaningful stuff—because you’re wielding that weapon, you created that weapon, that enemy has a long-range weapon, and I have to solve that problem.”
In Blades of Fire, Aran de Lira will have to make use of the Forge, where various materials can be combined along with Forge Scrolls to make weapons from out of seven distinct weapon families. The studio has previously described this as offering “almost infinite” combinations of weapons.
“[Historical YouTubers] are talking about edges; they’re talking about balance, center of mass, grips and handling, and edge alignment. They’re not talking about agility, strength, stamina, intelligence, and dexterity, right? Those are not the stats,” explained Amat.
“When we moved from the stats combo into a challenge mentality, balance became so much easier. We only really need to make sure that the enemy is strong against some things and weak against some other things. There are all these other great RPGs that are about power complexity. That’s not what this game is about.”
“That’s the epiphany we want players to have,” Amat continued.
He also confirmed that Blades of Fire will feature a cautious style of combat; players will have to be careful about the kinds of enemies they take on, and one of the key abilities in the game will be to interrupt enemy attacks. However, this will bring its own challenges.
“You cannot interrupt enemies easily,” explained Amat. “That is what keeps the pace down. If you could, it would speed up everything. If you had the initiative, you would be always dealing damage first, being the first to act. The game would not be as lethal. Enemies would have more HP if you’re just attacking over and over.”
Studio co-founder and game director Enric Alvarez also spoke about the Forge system in Blades of Fire, diving into the history of how forges have been traditionally used.
“Forging is a complex thing,” said Alvarez. “Human beings have been forging weapons, blades, and steel weapons forever. It’s immense, the science and the art of forging, but we had to choose a way to present this to people that was both entertaining and useful for your combat experience.”
Blades of Fire is being developed by the studio behind Metroid Dread, MercurySteam, and will be coming to Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC (through the Epic Games Store). The game is slated to feature more than 50 different types of enemies that players can take on as they explore the world and take on Queen Nerea.
Comments are closed.