Untold Legends: The Warrior's Code - Special, Rollenspiel, PSP

Rob Hill: Players responded very well to BoB as it was the beginning of this franchise and is the number three highest selling PSP game to date. They had several things they liked about the game and some things they didn’t like as much. We listened to what they were asking for during the entire development of The Warrior’s Code. Most of the concerns

Rob Hill: The storyline is fully integrated into the game play for The Warrior’s Code. It doesn’t branch or change with each play through. What this instead allowed us to do was make much more interesting quests then in the previous game.

4Players: Without randomly generated dungeons, how do we get as much replay value as was found in Brotherhood? Can we expect different endings, varying storylines or the like?

The reason we went away from random dungeons is that we wanted to make then environments more detailed and interesting. It also allowed us to balance population with much more accuracy. We were able to group up various NPC’s to create much more strategic combat situations.

Rob Hill: Untold Legends: The Warrior’s Code takes place in a different part of the same world that was introduced in Brotherhood of the Blade.  As we wanted to focus on new realms, characters, and events, we decided to move to a different part of the world entirely.  While the stories aren’t necessarily linked, there are some ties that, while subtle, should stand out to those played through Brotherhood of Blade.

4Players: Apart from the evil oppressor who is looking for shape shifters not much is know about the story. Can you reveal the plot in more detail?

The Warrior’s Code begins eighteen years after the hostile takeover of Koryn Thal, the capital city of once prosperous and peaceful empire.  In the passing years since the Warlord’s invasion, the realm has become

As they progress through the world, the players happen upon the last groups of free peoples in the realm including a very secret and ancient order of monks and a group of resistance fighters who have fought against the Warlord since the invasion of their lands.  Determined to bring peace and end the suffering of their people and their human cousins, the players take upon themselves the dangerous task of venturing into the Underworld (a very mysterious and deadly nether world) to weaken the Warlord’s seeming god-like power.               

4Players: While the presentation from its predecessor felt unfinished and dialogue lacked a touch of fantasy, The Warrior’s Code improves on this aspect. Did you hire an author with a history in fantasy writing? How many cinematics and voice overs will there be?

Rob Hill: One of the main goals of The Warriors Code is to tell a compelling fantasy story. We are using many devices to achieve this. For starters we have interstitial movies that provide a third person account of what is going on around the characters as they progress through the game. These are hand drawn and animated to add a dramatic flair to the story. There are roughly 5 of these, most occuring between the various acts.

We are also using in game cut-scenes for elements that occur around the characters in real time. These use all of the in game models and are quite compelling. Each character is specifically animated for their role in each of the cut scenes. Every character also speaks all of their dialogue throughout the game.

4Players: Changeling forms, a huge catalogue of special attacks as well as charged and opportunity attacks offer a lot of tactical choices. To which degree does The Warrior’s Code require players to be tactical? Can they still mindlessly slash through the monsters instead?

Every piece of dialogue in the game is fully voiced.

Rob Hill: People who have already played the first game will quickly recognize the game play style. This is an action role playing game through and through. We have added combat mechanics like Attacks of Opportunity and Charged Attacks that add depth to the combat system, but using them is not required. Players can merely choose to use them to their advantage if they want to. This allows them to play exactly as they did before by simply attacking and using their various spells.

In addition, All of the characters deal additional damage while in changeling form, as well as see an increase in movement speed and various resistances. Additional bonuses, such as improved regeneration, higher critical hits, and greater experience gain, are unique to each of the characters.

4Players: How does travelling work in this installation? Can players warp to any previously visited point at any time? Will they have to travel back and forth at all or does the story continuously take you to new places?

Changeling forms also bring with them exclusive special abilities, all of which are devastating to nearby monsters.

4Players: The preview code reveals a lot of music. Who did the soundtrack and how much score is there going to be?

Rob Hill: Laura Karpman did the music for the game. It is streamed from the disc and sounds tremendous. There is roughly 60 mins of music total.

4Players: How long to you think it will take players to see the credits rolling by?

Rob Hill: We anticipate about 20-24 hours of game play per character. Keep in mind that you can go back and play through the game as each one of the different characters.

Rob Hill: Players can indeed travel to any place that they have previously visited via the in game map. The primary time that a player has to travel back and forth is if they wish to buy and sell from the merchant. There are a couple of instances where the story will require this though. Players will sometimes have return to town to get new quests. We have a

4Players: There are a few instances where multiple choices are offered during dialogues. Additionally to giving a description of the dungeon ahead, do NPCs also offer information about secrets, hidden places etc.?

Rob Hill: There really aren’t any secret or hidden places per se. The environments themselves branch so a player can choose to explore them fully or not. The extra dialogue that the NPC’s offer is primarily to add story flavour. If someone wishes to know more about the world and it’s inhabitants, they can listen to this extra text. If not, they don’t need to.

4Players: Thank you very much for the interview and good luck with the game!