Very good read. Really liking what they are doing with this.
- same heroine
- same psychological focus
- same cinematic ambition
- but with more combat
- more traversal
- more puzzles
- more exploration
- more agency
- and a bigger interconnected world
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It sounds like they seriously wanted to respond to feedback about Hellblade from people wanting more standard action adventure games.
The title of just Senua really reflects that this is something fresh and new and different. It is a different style of game. I think Hellblade I and Hellblade II had an intention that we delivered on – but this is a different intention.
I love this answer. Hellblade 1&2 were fantastic artistic masterpieces for what they wanted to accomplish, but Senua seeks to be a more enjoyable traditional action heavy game. The map being twice the size is crazy.
So part of that was bringing the entire team together to focus on one project. It’s the first time we’ve done that for over 12 years, since the development of DmC: Devil May Cry. It’s bringing that team together, looking at the technology and the opportunity we had and saying, ‘OK, what game do we want to go and make?’
Also man I do really want a DmC sequel. It’d be a rad partnership between Capcom and Xbox, and I think there’s seriously a place for it as long as Capcom pushes it as a spin-off to push the DMC franchise forward with new ideas (we got some great features in DMC5 that came from DmC) and offer a different experience and not a hard reboot to replace the mainline game.
Yeah, 100% – it’s very deliberate. And it’s not about rushing something out the door – we would never do that – but we want to ship games. Players want to play games, so we want to get on with it. We have the pipelines, we have the technology, we have the team and we had a very clear vision as to what we wanted to build, and that gets you a long way to just get on and execute it.
There is also a relationship between the time it takes and, frankly, the development costs but I think by keeping the timeframe right for the game that you’re making allows you to take creative risks. You’re operating within a box that allows you to continue doing different things, taking creative risks, doing things differently – I think fans appreciate that, and it’s very much part of the DNA of who we are.
Cutting two quotes together but I love the frankness here. I think Obsidian said something similar in their interview. AAA games and 5 - 7 year dev cycles are too restrictive for these studios. It forces a degree of safety and makes it harder for the studios to do what they do that makes them stand out from the crowd. AA and like really high quality 2.5A games on 3 - 4 yr dev cycles is best.
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It’s a lot of things I love to hear. My only complaint from the first two games were the puzzles. Between their type of puzzle where you go back and forth looking at the environment in different angles, their frequency and sameness, they overstayed their welcome. I really hope they have a better grasp at them this time.
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The game needs more combat & the big epic boss battles. IMO this could be better than God Of War