Interview Rise of the Argonauts interview at RPG Vault

Tags: Rise of the Argonauts

<a href=http://www.codemasters.com/games/?gameid=2481>Rise of the Argonauts</a> is ... yes, how did you guess? ... an action RPG. You can never have too many of those. Anyway, it's an action RPG loosely based on the famous ancient epic. The website informs you that RotA immerses gamers in a gladiatorial adventure, set in wondrously imagined vision of ancient Greece with deep exploration, epic quests, and brutal combat! If you are dying to learn more, <a href=http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/810/810321p1.html>here is a detailed 3-page interview</a>:
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<blockquote>In Rise of the Argonauts, you take on the role of Jason, a young warrior king whose wife is assassinated on their wedding day. In an attempt to bring her back, he sets out aboard his massive warship, the Argo, in search of the Golden Fleece. Along the way, he will encounter an all-star cast of characters from ancient Greek mythology...</blockquote>If I may ask, what exactly was wrong with the original setup? Why the extra "assassinated bride" drama? Is it supposed to make Jason more likable as a character as of opposite Jason who simply wanted the crown?
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<blockquote> The catalyst for Jason's journey is the shocking assassination of his wife on their wedding day. After grimly hunting the assassin through his own palace and ultimately exacting his savage vengeance, he is left gutted, wracked with guilt and anger - and his wife remains dead. It is then his Uncle Pelias tells him of the Golden Fleece, hidden away on the primordial isle of Colchis, and its ability to unmake the fabric of life and death. Jason immediately knows what he must do. After attaining the blessing of the gods Hermes, Athena, Ares and Apollo, and leaving his uncle Pelias to reign over his kingdom in his absence...</blockquote>*sigh*
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<blockquote>In examining combat, we really wanted to convey a sense of weight, impact and lethality that is so prevalent in the stories of the time; just read a battle sequence from The Iliad to get a sense of what we're talking about. Therefore, we felt that we not only needed real-time combat...</blockquote>Makes sense. You can't convey impact and lethality without real-time combat.
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<blockquote>This led us to a physics-driven approach to combat, where power and resistance are more important than damage and hit points. </blockquote>How Xtreme!
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<blockquote>...we knew we needed robust storytelling tools and a means to make meaningful narrative choices...</blockquote>Looks like meaningful choices are all the rage these days.
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<blockquote>...we've created an entirely new experience that will really appeal to fans of both RPG and action / adventure games alike.</blockquote>Perpetuum Mobile of the gaming industry.
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<blockquote>We are always seeking to design "clever" reinterpretations of creatures, places, NPCs, etc., leveraging familiar elements to ensure that the player can identify them, and then taking them in entirely new directions.
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For example, in myth, Daedelus is the greatest engineer of the ancient Greek world, but he is often represented as a thin and wiry scholar. In our game, he is an avatar of Hephaestus, a great worker of metals, and thus equal parts artisan and smithy. Our version is strong and stocky, reinforcing not only the tone and style, but also the logic of the world.</blockquote>Thanks, that's very thoughtful. I don't need any skinny nerds on my ship. It's a "cool people only" party, if you know what I mean.
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<blockquote>At its core, Jason's character development is centered around the concept of dedicating deeds to the gods.
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Any <b>meaningful</b> action within the world can trigger a deed. <b>Killing 20 Dryads</b>, discovering a secret grove, saving hunters from certain death, and successfully outwitting, intimidating, or earning the respect of an NPC are but a small sampling of events that will grant deeds.</blockquote>Sounds meaningful indeed.
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And then they ask how games are relevant to people going on a killing spree... I've alredy got the urge to hamstring a few devs and watch them crawl on broken glass...
*sigh* The warm and fuzzy feelings devs wake in me...

 

How come revenge is always exacted?

 

Why can't they portray Jason as the adulterous jerk he was who cast out his wife, who saved his ass thrice over, just to screw some princess? I guess Greek mythology wasn't too politically correct....especially Theseus...the man who killed bandits and brutally raped their daughters...and was hailed as a hero for doing so....I wonder how that would go over in modern Western society......

 

If I felt like I was capable of actually making an RPG, I would set it in real Greek mythology, with many of the NPCs taken faithfully from existing Greek myths. No good/evil shit, but the game would track your "epicness," much as Darklands did with fame. The ending cinematic/slideshow would be an abridged version of a myth made up of your epic deeds. That would be a badass game . . .

 

So this is a rehash of Titan Quest, with maybe a dash of God of War? I can't fucking wait.

 

So instead of X dammage and Y hit points we will have A number of power and B number of resistance?

And abut the meaningfull choices, what if I kill 18 dryads and hurt another?

 

Great. Just great. Looks like raping Greek mythology is fashionable this season.

 

Ehh, I know I'll be the minority here in saying this, but I think I might enjoy this one. From the sounds of things it's much more Action than it is RPG, however, they seem to realize that you can't just half-ass combat like most action rpgs do. Though I do worry about the story elements though. So far nothing has interested me there.

Or perhaps I'm just buying into the hype well before there really is any hype, or news. Or anything. I guess I'll figure out whether or not to buy it in due time, but I'm going to keep my eye on it.

 

Reaching

Man, they are really reaching for brand inspiration these days... I mean come on! A Greek Mythology Action RPG? You don't have to be a genius at marketing to know this game is destined for the landfill even if it ever gets made. I really would like to know who their target audience is? It can't be that much bigger than the hardcore TB RPG crowd... Who in this day and age would care about some half-assed reskinning of dungeon siege?

PS. Rape was a pretty acceptable form of punishment a ways back, and seems to still be alive and 'humping' in parts of Africa.

 

Indeed, nowadays developers are more and more concerned about not getting the dooming label by the ESRB/other authority, which would surely find their game in case they intended to portray things more realistically than needed, besides teh kids need to learn "sane principles", and the Greek mythology has a lot of those, too bad they're mostly masked by massacres (not for me, I love massacres, but the ESRB and similars obviously don't).

So it ends up always at the same point: maximizing your sales at the expense of gameplay experience.