A couple of months ago we reached out to Nintendo Life readers with our Switch Summer Survey, a chunky questionnaire designed (with your help) to assess the state of all things Nintendo and Switch as the console cruises through its eighth year – and as our thoughts inevitably turn to its successor.
This 70-question blowout covered everything from the Switch eShop to Joy-Con drift, your past Nintendo consoles to your hopes for the future, not to mention a selection of posers about your favourite Nintendo-focused website. Since summer ended, our data monkeys have been crunching the numbers and it’s time for the results!
In Destiny 2, dungeons are designed to be self-contained experiences often relating to a wider narrative branch of the Destiny universe, but built with their own gameplay mechanics, boss encounters and, most importantly for many, themed loot. The challenges faced within a dungeon require wits and a coordinated fireteam (although the most seasoned players can try to complete it solo), and conquering a piece of high-level content like this is one of the most rewarding Destiny 2 experiences.
With that in mind, they’re also a marvel of game design. When you first enter a dungeon, almost everything is a mystery. There’s no waypoint, no guidance – even finding the right way to go is a test of your intuition, and that’s before you’ve encountered any puzzles, enemies, or high-octane boss encounters.
Destiny 2’s newest dungeon, Vesper’s Host, was introduced at the start of Revenant earlier this month and is an exciting continuation of the dungeon entries. Vesper’s Host takes Guardians into the depths of an abandoned Braytech space station being damaged by a mysterious anomaly, and the setting takes an unnerving horror turn as you uncover its depths.
Inside this atmospheric new environment, you may come across a new set of armor, as well as a fresh pool of weapons that are exclusive to this dungeon. Among them is the returning Exotic Sniper Rifle Ice Breaker, an original Destiny weapon that has finally returned to the game with a set of updated perks that complement the current Destiny 2 experience. With plenty of brand new and returning treats up for grabs, it’s the perfect time to drop in and test your mettle against what lurks in Vesper’s Host, and if you’ve not been following the evolution of Destiny 2’s dungeons, you’re in a for a pleasant surprise.
We spoke to several key designers and developers on the Destiny 2 team to break down some of the core elements of Vesper’s Host, discuss what goes into drafting and crafting the dungeon experience, and ask about some of Vesper’s Host unique additions that make it the most mechanically unique dungeon yet.
Delving In
Before a dungeon can enter its granular planning stages, several high-level decisions need to be made about its setting, and how it slots into the catalogue of existing dungeons, according to Destiny 2 Design Lead Brian Frank. The team intentionally seeks to create contrast from one dungeon’s theme and setting to the next. The last dungeon, Warlord’s Ruin, took place in a brisk, fantasy-style arena, full of snow-capped medieval architecture – a starkly different setting to the hard sci-fi design of Vesper’s Host.
“Guardians have explored Braytech facilities before, and while previously it’s felt very clean and sterile, a big environmental goal was to take something familiar and twist it into a new context that felt fresh and exciting,” explains Ryan Baker, Senior Environment Artist on Destiny 2. “There’s a theme of space madness with the Fallen spinning this web compelled by an alien mind, something has broken containment and swept through the station.
“We really wanted Guardians to step onto the station and feel like finding an old crime scene after something terrible happened.”
Destiny 2 also shines in its ability to show Guardians the way with environmental nods and intuitive level design, a shrouded ledge or a well-placed light that alludes to a correct path. However, this aptitude is not always used for good – players are often tricked by what appears to be the way forward, only to meet a quick end in a trap or down a hole. The peril is short-lived and of no consequence (unless you’re aiming for a flawless run with zero deaths) but laying out believable paths to send players the wrong way also encourages exploration and quick thinking.
“Using Revenant’s horror theme, we can run with a film analogy [in Vesper’s Host],” Baker tells us. “Our approach is like writing a script. Thinking of the environment as the player journey, we need to identify where to create tension or provide a moment of respite to take in the scenery and get your bearings. The same peaks and valleys come with a good horror movie, and too many traps, like jump scares, could become stale or even tedious. Within the context of the entire dungeon experience, including the surrounding encounters and major emotional beats, we can space traps out appropriately to always feel warranted.”
“A good example: The second encounter is frantic and intense. After clutching the win, Guardians will begin a spacewalk for the second traversal. It is a quieter moment to breathe and absorb the new environmental storytelling. Just as they get comfortable, we start raining down lightning bolts, ramping up the tension by introducing a new environmental hazard spewing from the anomaly.”
A New Encounter
Once you’ve made your way through the winding, haunting corridors of the station, chewed through waves of smaller enemies and familiarized yourself with the dungeon’s mechanics, you’ll land at a boss room. Boss encounters are a core component of dungeons – and there are usually three very different encounters throughout each.
As a basic overview, players will typically be presented with a one large enemy that is immune to damage, and engaging with a set of mechanics or goals will unlock a limited-time phase to deal as much pain as possible before the immunity returns. The aim is to repeat these steps until the threat is taken care of, which sounds easy enough, but on a first run, it’s a tough battle.
“We start all encounter designs by defining an experience statement, which describes the player fantasy for the encounter in one sentence,” explains Chris Manprin, Design Lead on Destiny 2. “They are guideposts to help drive a number of key design decisions, including narrative, boss behaviors, puzzle mechanics, and map layouts.”
With that in mind, Vesper’s Host features a particularly interesting encounter – Raneiks, a Servitor that can shift its form between one large sphere and nine smaller ones. It’s the first dungeon boss that places a premium on area of effect damage that can hurt several smaller targets at once, rather than solely hitting big enemy as much as possible, which is a first for Destiny 2’s dungeons.
“In the Raneiks Unified encounter, being swarmed was a core part of the experience statement,” Manprin adds. “This theme resonates throughout many elements of the encounter design. Players are trapped in a confined space, filled with enemies, then when teleported outside they are immediately surrounded by Shanks. Raneiks bombards players with bombs, and even in death, Raneiks multiplies tenfold. Almost every element of this encounter ‘swarms’ the player.”
The unique design of Raneiks also in turn inspires versatility in how Guardians choose to conquer it, which, for a game that features over 1000 unique weapons and countless perk possibilities, is always extremely welcoming. With multiple targets to damage, there’s much more room to get creative with those high-level loadouts.
“We’re always looking for ways to react to the evolving meta and create experiences that feel unlike anything players have encountered before,” explains Julia Condemi, Designer on Destiny 2. “With Raneiks, we wanted to build a boss that would reward players for using their knowledge of the game’s sandbox and their collection of weapons in a way they hadn’t thought about previously.
“You’re welcome to use your old reliable favourites, but this boss says, ‘Hey, that Grenade Launcher you haven’t used since you got it? Those Heavy weapons with the One for All perk you have collecting dust in your vault? Those might be great here!’”
A Worthy Contest
The Destiny team also had another ‘first’ to consider during the launch of Vesper’s Host. This is the first dungeon launch to include Contest Mode – which challenges players to complete the dungeon at a heightened difficulty within the first 48 hours of it being live. This mode has typically been reserved for Destiny’s raids – endgame content that challenges a full fireteam of six to complete. That said, the community is still extremely enthusiastic about dungeon completion at launch – seasoned players will still race to be the first to beat it, and the introduction of Contest Mode to Vesper’s Host is an official acknowledgement of such and adds that necessary extra hurdle for Destiny 2’s most practiced Guardians.
“We wanted to reinforce and amplify what was already happening in the community when a new dungeon launched,” says Frank. “Given historical completion times for dungeons without Contest Mode, we knew the difficulty would need to be increased to make the event worthy of the caliber of teams making day one attempts. “
The pressure of competition and a limited time to earn rewards sees these players rapidly develop and refine strategies for overcoming Vesper’s Host’s unique puzzle mechanics, but it’s worth nothing that unlike Destiny 2’s raids, dungeons are designed to be completable solo. This is an incredibly aspirational achievement, the most difficult thing to do in the game by a significant margin, but possible.
“Every encounter is designed with the intent that a single player with mastery over the encounters, sandbox, and buildcrafting can complete it,” says Manprin. “Mechanics that lean too far into coordination or complexity are modified with consideration for the solo experience.
“The addition of Contest Mode came with systemic changes to support it. We branched the difficulty settings for normal and contest, which allowed for tuning boss health independently between the two versions.”
Breaking the Ice
Dungeons are not built to be completed once – they’re designed to be run multiple times and contain a varied loot pool of armour and weapons, as well as one Exotic weapon with a rare chance to drop when the dungeon is completed. In Vesper’s Host, the Exotic drop is Ice Breaker, a reintroduction of an Exotic Sniper Rifle that dates all the way back to 2014’s Destiny.
Longtime fans of the franchise have been eagerly awaiting the return of the weapon, but the team felt Vesper’s Host’s final encounter made for the perfect place to finally earn it back.
“With us coming into Destiny‘s 10th Anniversary year we’ve been looking at Destiny weapons players remember most fondly, and Ice Breaker is right at the top of that list,” says Chris Proctor, Senior Design Lead. “Given how strong the weapon is in endgame PvE content, it’s fitting it come from a challenging PvE source, and so Vesper’s Host made a ton of sense.”
“We put some time into updating the design of the weapon to match the Destiny 2 sandbox, trying to retain the feel of the original, but making the loop more interesting and giving it the Exotic 2.0 treatment to bring it up to our Destiny 2 Exotic weapon quality bar. At the end of this design process, we had something we were excited to ship, incorporating high ammo uptime and a Solar and Stasis tie-in.”
If you’re itching for a new Destiny 2 challenge or you’re a seasoned Guardian that’s due another run to score the coveted Ice Breaker Exotic, Vesper’s Host is available to play in Destiny 2: Revenant now.
Dive into the world of Destiny 2 to explore the mysteries of the solar system and experience responsive first-person shooter combat. Unlock powerful elemental abilities and collect unique gear to customize your Guardian’s look and playstyle. Enjoy Destiny 2’s cinematic story, challenging co-op missions, and a variety of PvP modes alone or with friends. Download for free today and write your legend in the stars.
AN IMMERSIVE STORY
You are a Guardian, defender of the Last City of humanity in a solar system under siege by infamous villains. Look to the stars and stand against the darkness. Your legend begins now.
GUARDIAN CLASSES
Choose from the armored Titan, mystic Warlock, or swift Hunter.
• Disciplined and proud, Titans are capable of both aggressive assaults and stalwart defenses. Set your hammer ablaze, crack the sky with lightning, and go toe-to-toe with any opponent. Your team will stand tall behind the strength of your shield.
• Warlocks weaponize the mysteries of the universe to sustain themselves and destroy their foes. Rain devastation on the battlefield and clear hordes of enemies in the blink of an eye. Those who stand with you will know the true power of the Light.
• Agile and daring, Hunters are quick on their feet and quicker on the draw. Fan the hammer of your golden gun, flow through enemies like the wind, or strike from the darkness. Find the enemy, take aim, and end the fight before it starts.
COOPERATIVE AND COMPETITIVE MULTIPLAYER
Play with or against your friends and other Guardians in various PvE and PvP game modes.
• Exciting co-op adventures teeming await with rare and powerful rewards. Dive into the story with missions, quests, and patrols. Put together a small fireteam and secure the chest at the end of a quick Strike. Or test your team’s skill with countless hours of raid progression – the ultimate challenge for any fireteam. You decide where your legend begins.
• Face off against other players in fast-paced free-for-all skirmishes, team arenas, and PvE/PvP hybrid competitions. Mark special competitions like Iron Banner on your calendar and collect limited-time rewards before they’re gone.
EXOTIC WEAPONS AND ARMOR
Thousands of weapons, millions of options. Discover new gear combinations and define your own personal style. The hunt for the perfect arsenal begins.
105 GB hard drive storage space required as of November 10, 2020. Subject to change. Requires broadband internet. After November 10, 2020 see www.destinythegame.com/size-requirements for current requirements prior to purchase.
Destiny 2 may contain flashing patterns and images that may produce adverse effects for a small percentage of people sensitive to them.
Bungie, Inc. makes no guarantee regarding the availability of online play or features and may modify or discontinue online services with reasonable notice at any time. Using the software constitutes acceptance of the Destiny Software License Agreement available at www.bungie.net/sla.
Last week, we asked you grab your bows and set off on Aloy’s original journey in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, sharing epic moments using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
sorathluna shares Aloy sitting in a field of blue flowers.
sirevanztheduke shares Aloy and Varl gazing out at the land before them.
ForgottenJasmin shares Aloy gazing up at the illuminated night sky from a desert valley.
Beat_Minerz shares Aloy scrambling up ruins and roots to reach a Tallneck.
MdeavorVP shares Aloy about to bash a Watcher with her spear.
dlazdagamingshares a view of the land with a Tallneck roaming.
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Dragon Age: The Veilguard SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on November 13, 2024
Next week, we head to Thedas to explore the realms of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Share moments in action or traversing the Fade with #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket adapts the beloved card game into a speedier experience more fit for mobile, but players can’t get their heads around one rule change regarding going first and are calling on developer Creatures Inc. to change it.
At its simplest, the Pokémon TCG works by players attaching energy to their Pokémon to do attacks, with more energy resulting in bigger damage dealt. Pokémon are eventually knocked out and, once a certain number are defeated, someone wins.
Card games commonly apply nerfs to the player who goes first so they don’t gain an unfair advantage over what’s essentially a coin toss, and the Pokémon TCG is no different. The player going first draws a card and can attach a single energy to a Pokémon, as normal, though isn’t allowed to attack.
This balances things out a touch as, while player two is the first to attack and therefore do damage, player one can swing back the following turn with two energy and a bigger attack. But Pokémon TCG changes this mechanic by only allowing a card draw on the first turn, making the entire thing, some players believe, completely redundant.
“As we seem to all acknowledge going first in this game feels awful, and don’t get me started about the one energy evolutions which benefit off going first,” Reddit user Seedler420 said.
“Can’t we trade the possibility of attacking turn one, which in terms of gameplay doesn’t make any sense, with the possibility of attaching energy turn one? This way the player going first would have energy advantage while the player going second would have the first attack.”
The way Pokémon TCG Pocket works essentially gives the advantage to the player going second, as they have both the energy advantage and the first damage advantage. “It would feel a little better if we at least got to put energy on a card first turn,” said one player in the comments. “It definitely feels bad,” said another.
Pokémon TCG Pocket arrived October 30 as a streamlined and has players opening packs, collecting cards, building decks, and battling others; a simple formula that immediately proved popular given it made $12 million in four days.
Creatures Inc. is keeping busy since launch as it has already added three events to the game: one focused on collecting, one focused on solo battles, and one focused on player versus player battles.
The first offers players a free Wonder Pick with the chance of pulling either a Meowth or Chansey alongside event tickets and Wonder Hourglasses, with its second part also released today.
Sony’s high-profile live service struggles have seen the cancellation of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game and, most recently, the disastrous release and then un-release of Concord, which resulted in the closure of its developer, Firewalk. Amid the turmoil, Sony has reaffirmed its commitment to major single-player games.
Speaking during an investor call, Sony’s finance and IR chief Sadahiko Hayakawa said that while it has no major first-party games coming out before the end of its current financial year ending March 2025, the company plans to “continue releasing major single-player game titles every year from next fiscal year onwards.”
So, what major single-player games does Sony have in the works? In the same financial call, Hayakawa pointed to Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yōtei, the sequel to 2020’s smash hit Ghost of Tsushima. Ghost of Yōtei, due out at some point in 2025, would certainly qualify as one of Sony’s “major” single-player games.
Sony is also set to publish Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding 2: On the Beach as a PS5 exclusive at some point in 2025, so that’s at least two next year.
Looking further ahead (or to unannounced 2025 releases), Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 developer Insomniac has its Wolverine game in the works. That one’s yet to receive a release window. We know God of War developer Sony Santa Monica has something cooking, and Guerrilla looks set to round out the Horizon trilogy with another single-player adventure, although that is reportedly a long way in the distance. Naughty Dog, too, has multiple single-player games coming down the pipe.
That’s a lot in the works at PlayStation Studios to come over the course of the next few years, or however many years the PS5 has left in it before Sony releases the inevitable PS6. And throughout it all, Sony’s live service push continues, with Guerrilla’s Horizon Online, Bungie’s Marathon, and Haven’s Fairgame$ all in development.
Meanwhile, Sony continues to do deals with external developers that see single-player games launch first on PS5. For example, it partnered with Square enix for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, 16, and 7 Rebirth, Shift Up for Stellar Blade, Game Science for the record-breaking Black Myth: Wukong, Team Ninja’s Rise of the Rōnin, and Bloober’s Silent Hill 2 Remake.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Cardy, Matt, and Emma have been playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Do they like it? Listen to find out. They’ve also been tinkering with the PS5 Pro, as well as watching the enjoyable Paddington in Peru and touching The Remarkable Life of Ibelin. There’s also time for a bit of Pokemon TCG Pocket, Black Ops 6, and Play-Doh chat. Lovely.
Remember to send us your thoughts about all the new games, TV shows, and films you’re enjoying or looking forward to: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
“The cool thing about bombs is that you can hide them in anything,” is probably my favourite Oppenheimer quote of all time, and in the case of Ian Hitman, it does raise an important question: with so many everyday objects equal to the rubber duck in its unthreatening aura, yet more inconspicuous, why choose to put an explosive in this one?
The simplest answer is that’s it’s a recurring bit of levity, a holdover easter egg, elevated to the status of key mission item in Hitman: Codename 47 before being given pride of place as an explosive in the World Of Assassination games. But to ascribe such unassuming purpose to the duck is to ignore its revelatory power. We must go deeper.
News on Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair had gone quiet over the past few weeks, but a new statement from the latter studio has shed some more light on the complaint — specifically, the patents Nintendo claims have been infringed upon and the prescribed fine.
In a new post on the Pocketpair website titled ‘Report on Patent Infringement Lawsuit’, the studio reveals that Nintendo’s claim pertains to three specific patents (7545191, 7493117 and 7528390), all of which were applied for between February and July 2024.
Next Week on Xbox: New Games for November 11 to 15
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in!
Farming Simulator 25 invites you to join the rewarding farm life. Whether you build your legacy single-handedly or cooperatively in multiplayer – you decide. New features include maps in North America, East Asia, and Central Europe; crops like rice, spinach, peas, and green beans; and new animals like goats, water buffalo, baby animals, and more.
The Rise of the Golden Idol follows a tenacious relic hunter on a quest to unearth the powerful artefact that – if legend is true – can reshape the world. Uncover the truth behind 15 strange cases of crime, death and depravity in the 1970s.
A turn-based strategy game inspired by ‘90s classics. Lead powerful magicians called Wielders and venture to lands unknown. Wage battles against armies that dare oppose you, hunt for powerful artifacts and expand your territory. The world is ripe for the taking – seize it!
Unrivaled after four decades, Tetris Forever celebrates the original, genre-inspiring puzzle game that escaped from behind the Iron Curtain, onto the world stage, and into our cultural consciousness. Celebrate 40 years of Tetris with 15+ games, a new game, and documentary videos.
Beautiful Sakure: Running Club is a continuation of Kaito’s journey, where he embarks on a new hobby. This visual novel delves into themes of love, friendship, and self-discovery. Kaito’s new passion for running leads him to join a local running club, where he reunites with familiar faces from his past and meets intriguing new characters.
Inspired by the classic Paperboy, Food Boy gets players to deliver pizzas in urban environments in an exciting arcade format. Make perfect deliveries and knock out furious customers to get the highest scores and unlock new cities and challenges!
Join Mona on her quest and experience the ultimate adventure! Venturing through portals, Mona will encounter werewolves, mermaids, dragons, and other fantastical beings on her way to face off against an unseen malevolent menace! With stunning visuals, captivating storytelling, humorous dialogues, and challenging puzzles, The Harmony Chronicles promises endless hours of immersive gameplay.
Step into the mystical, atmospheric world of Nephise: Ascension, where danger lurks beneath breathtaking beauty. As Nephise embarks on her most perilous journey yet, you’ll find yourself lost in the stunning landscapes of Dragon’s Valley, where ancient secrets await and survival hangs by a thread.
Get ready to dive into the ultimate extraction royale where PvP and PvE collide in an all-out battle for survival! Teardrop Island — once full of promise, now a dystopian warzone — needs a hero. Too bad it’s getting you. This isn’t just another shooter. This is the next evolution of cyberpunk warfare, imagined by visionary director Neill Blomkamp (“District 9,” “Elysium”), and it’s about to turn the genre upside down.
Songs of Silence is a fantasy strategy title which marries deep, tactical gameplay with fast-paced auto battles and an engaging, compelling narrative. Presented in a unique graphical style derived from the Art Nouveau movement, it’s a beautiful example of the evolution of a classic genre. The game features an extensive singleplayer, narrative-driven campaign, plus multiple competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes for endless replay value.
Top-down bullet hell shooter where you stop the clone army from taking over the world by one way: kill. them. all. Fight your way through hordes of powerful enemies, execute combat strategies with quick reflexes to take on the biggest of the baddies.
A relaxing puzzle escape game where you make your way through a variety of hand-crafted 3D dioramas, look for useful objects, find hidden clues and solve fun puzzles! Unravel this mysterious adventure about chaos, order and the surreal.
Forge, run, and fight as a team! In this frantic co-op game, you’ll have to work alongside your friends to craft legendary weapons and prepare the heroes for an epic battle. Coordinate, manage resources, and keep things under control as chaos unfolds!
A stunning reimagining of the beloved masterpiece and narrative beginning to The Erdrick Trilogy. Years ago, the great hero Ortega bid farewell to his wife and child as he set off on a quest to defeat the villainous Archfiend, Baramos – he failed. Now, Ortega’s only child is summoned by the king of Aliahan and entrusted with a mission of the highest import: to take on Ortega’s quest, vanquish Baramos, and save the world.
In Heretic’s Fork, your role will involve not only managing the current population of Hell but also implement innovative strategies to help streamline its operations, tasked with punishing sinners by using a state-of-the-art computer system developed by DeusVult Inc.
Brace yourselves– ININ is coming in guns blazin’ for the 2nd volume of Irem arcade classics! With iconic titles Air Duel, GunForce, and GunForce II, this is one action-packed collection you can’t miss.
Twinsen is back in this remake featuring a new stylish makeover and modernised gameplay. Faithful to the original game, Little Big Adventure – Twinsen’s Quest takes you on an epic journey on a small planet harbouring both magic and technology.
An updated version of Rage of the Dragons, originally released in 2002 for arcades. It was a unique and innovative game, mainly due to its highly praised visuals and technical aspects at the time. With beautiful scenery and animations, incredible moves and an acclaimed soundtrack, it’s a must-have for any fighting game lover.
A cute “clear the screen” modern arcade game that features co-op gameplay for up to four players. Recover the missing golden blender through 100 platform-jumping, puzzle-solving levels in story mode – consisting of handcrafted levels and a ton of fruity critters!
A story-driven cozy puzzle game, which might remind you of the warm times spent with your grandparents or loved ones on getting to know the many, sometimes unexpected stories from their lives.
VED – November 14 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Xbox Play Anywhere
A story-driven RPG featuring stunning hand-drawn art and animation combined with a unique teleporting system, turn-based combat mechanics and rogue-lite elements. Immerse yourself in a fantastical world with a rich storytelling experience, dozens of irreversible consequences and alternative endings, and gameplay that’s easy to learn but difficult to master!
A 3D device-hacking puzzle game in a cyberpunk setting. In the future, people no longer trust computer networks and prefer to use physical devices to store important information. You are a professional hacker of such Data Vaults. Use your wits and powers of observation to discover the secret hidden within the walls of this laboratory.
An action-packed roguelite where chess meets fast-paced combat. You play as the Black King, wielding a sword to fight your way through waves of White enemies in a single epic level, all while seeking to free your army from the enemy’s grasp.
Once in a generation, the gods come together to postpone the apocalypse. But this time, the god of communication started a bunch of heavenly fights and then went AWOL. With the sky splitting and the gods in disarray, who’s gonna join the Bizzyboys to help save the world?
A 2.5D platformer with logical puzzles that you should to solve. In the game, you control the robot DR12 that must get to the professor to save him from the evil robot who wants to escape from the lab. To get to the professor’s room, you need to solve logical puzzles.
A thrilling action roguelike mixed with a deck-builder set in an alternate-history Paris, where political unrest collides with cosmic terror. Take control of René, a Parisian caught in a deadly struggle among four factions while being manipulated by the mysterious Lady Bliss, an interdimensional being with her dark motives.
Madness is the repetition of the same action repeatedly, in the hope of a change. The challenge that Repit throws at your nerves is not everyone is ready to accept and only a few will be able to reach the end
Earth’s monuments are under attack, conventional human arsenal is ineffective against the extraterrestrial invaders. Fortunately, the sports club, armed with enhanced sports equipment, is ready to defend our planet alongside the ingenious Dr. McLabby!
The launch of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is fast approaching on November 14. We had the opportunity to sit down for an interview with the game’s producer, Masaaki Hayasaka, to chat about this stunning remake that brings back the iconic masterpiece in HD-2D.
Masaaki Hayasaka Producer, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
How HD-2D graphics draw out the full potential of this retro classic
PlayStation Blog:HD-2D has become much more popular since games like Octopath Traveler. What are some of the unique characteristics of this visual style?
In a nutshell, HD-2D is a visual style that combines pixelated characters with 3D backgrounds. Personally, I think this style works better in retro titles. When the original game first came out, players roamed the world while picturing how beautiful the landscapes must be. HD-2D actually brings that world to life.
Even though the game adopts HD-2D, it is still immediately recognizable as Dragon Quest III. What do you think are the most important aspects needed to achieve the iconic Dragon Quest-style?
The most obvious is the color palette. Dragon Quest games are characterized by rich, vivid colors, so we aimed to fully embrace that in the remake as well. If you compare the original game and the HD-2D remake side-by-side, the graphics will look completely different. Even so, the color palettes are similar so it shouldn’t feel far off from what OG players remember.
Built in tandem with Yuji Horii
What sort of discussions did you have with Yuji Horii (creator of the Dragon Quest franchise), during development?
We connected regularly from the early phases of planning till the very end of development. We exchanged a lot of details. We discussed everything from new features like the Monster Arena and additional narrative episodes, to the game balance of battles, and even the size of the character pixels.
Did you make any changes based on Yuji Horii’s recommendations?
He made a comment around the blurring of the game background, and I find that particularly memorable. Background blur in games is usually referred to as depth of field, which is a technique also used in photography. In HD-2D, depth of field is extremely important. We had previous experience working on HD-2D games, so we thought we’d already mastered the sense of implementing background blur. However, when we showed it to Horii-san, he said that the blur was far too intense, and it made him feel like there was something wrong with his eyes. He then asked us to dial back the intensity. We were quite shocked, in a good way, by his suggestion from a player’s point of view. However, as a result, this change made Dragon Quest III stand out from other HD-2D titles, so his recommendation was on point.
So, different games leverage HD-2D in various ways?
Absolutely. The only common thread between all HD-2D titles is that they place pixelated characters in a 3D world. Otherwise, every title is completely unique. For example, Octopath Traveler incorporates pixels in the background as well, but Dragon Quest III does not. The characters’ body proportions and pixel size also vary depending on the title. Dragon Quest III is the first-ever HD-2D title to integrate a world map where players can actually wander around.
Is the distance between towns the same as the original?
The layout of the buildings is exactly the same, but the scale of the map and distances have been changed. The most difficult part of the development process was scaling the map. If we had made the map as dense as the original, the game would have felt too compact in both volume and appearance. On the other hand, if we made the map too large, it would lose its perfect pacing and slow down the game. We spent a lot of time adjusting to find the ideal balance in terms of both look and feel. If you watch the teaser trailer that was released at the time of the announcement, you will notice that the scale is completely different from the finished version.
The passion behind the new character customization feature
In the remake, players can customize the appearance, like hair color, of party members. Why did you decide to add this new feature?
In the original, when you changed a character’s vocation from Martial Artist to a Mage, the young man suddenly turned into an old man and there was no way to alter it. I personally felt that was a bit strange. Character creators or customization is very common in modern games, so I thought players would find it a bit confusing if we kept it like the original. Character customization was intended to make the game feel more modern.
To tell you the truth, out of all the new features we added in the remake, I’m most passionate about the character customization. I proposed it to the development team, and even when they refused, saying it was unnecessary, I kept pushing that it was absolutely crucial [laughs]. I spent about three months working on it, so it would mean a lot to me if players spent some time creating their own distinct characters.
Even though you can change their appearance, the main colors for each vocation are the same as the original. How did you decide what to change and what to leave untouched?
I believed it was important to respect the vocation colors that Akira Toriyama originally designed. We didn’t change any of the main colors, so it’s easier for players to distinguish between each vocation at a glance. However, we wanted to give players the freedom to play around with hats and hairstyles as a fun new feature.
