Lionheart Q&A Coeur D Alene ID

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3DA: Please introduce yourself and your position in the production of Lionheart.

Hi, I'm Bryce Baker, a designer here at Reflexive Entertainment.

3DA: What kind of RPG elements are implemented? is there anything new Lionheart brings to the genre or is everything essentially building on what works?

Lionheart is a classic RPG in the tradition of Black Isle's Fallout and Baldur's Gate series. We've built the game around the SPECIAL system used in Fallout and have worked to emulate a lot of the nuances that made it and its sequels so popular with gamers - multiple endings for quests, for instance. Black Isle has been very successful with RPG's for nearly a decade and have done a lot to refine the genre. So I guess it's a case of not fixing what isn't broken.

3DA: What are the four player races, and how does the game change from race to race?

There's your stock human characters and also four races of magical human hybrids: Demokins are descended from bloodlines polluted with an infernal spirit, Sylvants arose from persons possessed by a woodland spirit, and Feralkins are the product of the union of an animal spirit and a human. Different races will have different traits available to them and also varying ability scores. Members of the 'tainted races' will also have to deal with the prejudices of many NPC's, particularly members of the Inquisition.

3DA: How indepth is the singleplayer mode? What could be the expected average completion time in hours?

Like most modern RPG's there is a 'golden path' and numerous side areas and quests for those inclined to take their time with the game. The first maybe third of the game will also play entirely differently for players depending on which factions they align with. All told, I'd imagine the average player will take something like 40 hours to get through the game.

3DA: It is said over 30 spells will be included, could you go into more depth about a few of these more unique spells?

We actually have close to 60 divided between three large classes and 12 subspecialties. The hands-down favorite among the designers at Reflexive is a necromantic spell that allows you to raise from the dead anything from a chicken to Shakespeare. So if you've found a monster that kicked your butt you can bring it back to life to spread the love for a few minutes. If direct damage is your thing, we also have a wide variety of elemental spells that hurl fireballs, cold spikes or electrical bolts to get the job done.

3DA: What are the technical features in Lionheart, graphical and sound?

Well, one of the neat things that our proprietary Velocity engine is doing at real time is converting 3D characters into 2D sprites and anti-aliasing them into the scenes around them. This means that the characters look fantastic and don't take up very much room for their animations, what they are carrying, etc. Our machine specs are a bit higher than what your local library probably has sitting around, but not too bad for the graphical feast that Lionheart really is. We don't require a 3D card, or any special audio equipment to get the most from the game...though, in my opinion, louder is always better.

3DA: What sort of enemies will the player go up against?

There's a pretty wide range. We have some of the classics from the genre - wolves, goblins, some very good-looking larger winged beasties. No rats, though. The artists also came up with some very nice desert monsters that should look familiar to fans of Fallout. Umm, what else? Titans, a whole slew of undead, various thugs and villains, spirits, twisted animals... it's a long list.