Interview Lionheart posers answered at GameBanshee

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Eric Dallaire; Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader; Reflexive Entertainment

<A href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/">GameBanshee</a> offers up a <A href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/lionheart2-1.php">second interview</a> with <b>Eric Dallaire</b>, that guy over at <a href="http://www.reflexive.net">Reflexive</a> we can blame if the story of <A href="http://lionheart.blackisle.com">Lionheart</a> isn't the coolest thing ever. In it, he introduces one of the nasties you'll encounter, <i>demon spirits</i>. Here's that part:
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<blockquote><b>GameBanshee: What foes will players be facing throughout the game? Care to elaborate on some of the more powerful adversaries?
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SPECIAL ED:</b> There are a wide variety of adversaries in Lionheart. Many enemies in the dungeons will be generally hostile to any intruders no matter what your business is. Other monsters and characters will be your adversaries if you are pursuing a specific faction path, while it?s possible to befriend that same group if you choose another faction point. For instance, the Inquisition asks you to rescue a captured Inquisitor who is being held hostage by a particularly vicious tribe of goblins. If you rescue the Inquisitor, you will likely have to fight the goblins, unless you have a very high diplomacy. Alternatively, if you wanted to play a meaner character, you could become friends with the goblins and do quests for them, for instance the Khan himself might ask you to take care of a powerful bounty hunter who has been killing goblins outside of the village.
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Beyond the hordes of undead, goblins, trolls, and other enemies you?ll fight in Lionheart, there is a powerful group of ?demon spirits? that oppose you. While I don?t want to spoil too much, I can say that they each take a different form and wield their own special power and are pretty tough boss monsters. In my opinion, these ?demons? constitute some of the most challenging and fun encounters in the game.</blockquote>
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<i>Demons</i> are always a good go-to bad guy, I think. They're like cancer, it's hard to come up with a good reason not to kill them.
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Thanks to <b>Eric Dallaire</b> for the word about this.
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[Vault Dweller]

GB: To conclude, can you tell us what specific goal the player is trying to accomplish by the end of the game?

IH: Let’s see…was it to save the girl? Salvage your kingdom? Or perhaps save the world? Or was it to kill everyone in Europe? The real answer to your question is nope, I can’t tell you that. I don’t like giving out spoilers…

ED: I can! You see, it all starts when the character wakes up to find…*sniper gunshot*

 

[Jed]

For instance, the Inquisition asks you to rescue a captured Inquisitor who is being held hostage by a particularly vicious tribe of goblins. If you rescue the Inquisitor, you will likely have to fight the goblins, unless you have a very high diplomacy. Alternatively, if you wanted to play a meaner character, you could become friends with the goblins and do quests for them, for instance the Khan himself might ask you to take care of a powerful bounty hunter who has been killing goblins outside of the village.

Somehow I find it difficult to believe that working for goblins is "meaner" than working for the Inquisition.

 

[DrattedTin]

From the viewpoint of a godloving man, allying yourself with the descendants of Genghis Khan is a great deal worse than the Inquisition.

 

[huh]

I'm probably in minority here, but the setting is one of the few things that keep me from anticipating Lionheart (in addition to the interface and combat system). I just can't take seriously a gameworld where I'm going to meet an NPC called "William Shakespear" who in fact is supposed to be the real William Shakespear who wrote 'Hamlet'. maybe alternate history is just not my cup of tea... too bad for me too, it looks like they've given lots of care to the gameworld and characters and complex crpg interaction. oh, well

 

[huh]

From the viewpoint of a godloving man, allying yourself with the descendants of Genghis Khan is a great deal worse than the Inquisition.

okay, here's a good example of what I meant earlier... goblins are descendants of Genghis Khan? I thought they were magical creatures. besides, being 'godloving' wouldn't make a difference if you are found to be 'heretic' by the Inquisition. it's brutal and senseless toruture and then burning alive for you. contrast that with (probably) quickly getting you head knocked off by goblins if you piss them off. the latter would almost seem like an act of mercy by comparison. now, who sounds more appealing? problems like that..

 

[Jed]

From the viewpoint of a godloving man, allying yourself with the descendants of Genghis Khan is a great deal worse than the Inquisition.

Somehow I think that if there is/was a god, he would pick goblins over the Inquisition any day...unless he's a lawful evil god, of course. But then again, maybe Epicurus had it right:

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence commeth evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him god?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Somehow I find it difficult to believe that working for goblins is "meaner" than working for the Inquisition

Ahhh...sweet choices where the outcome is unclear, where each side is neither right nor wrong, but has a point....

 

[Jed]

Ahhh...sweet choices where the outcome is unclear, where each side is neither right nor wrong, but has a point....

You speak truly.

 

[huh]

well, I'm all for agonizing choices and consequences, and so forth... the thing it seems the game uses some sort of absolute alignment system, so the designers have to assign good/evil shifts with gamplay consequences (like all merchants in every city charging you 100% more because you picked a quest that someone in the office deemed evil), and from the context it sounds like this action is an alignment shifting one. just a speculation - don't know if there are alignments or how it works in the game.

 

[Ausir]

As for goblins and Genghis Khan, in Lionheart the goblins were allied with Batu Khan's Golden Horde, when he invaded Europe, and their society is a twisted copy of the Mongol one (each tribe has a Khan, for example).

 

[Vault Dweller]

Ahhh...sweet choices where the outcome is unclear, where each side is neither right nor wrong, but has a point....

You speak truly.

For it is written in some holy scriptues that thou shalt not make choices for a player but let a player decide what's right and what's wrong.

 

[Jed]

For it is written in some holy scriptues that thou shalt not make choices for a player but let a player decide what's right and what's wrong.

And would this holy scripture be called The RPG Codex? If so, it comes complete with its own Saint!

well, I'm all for agonizing choices and consequences, and so forth... the thing it seems the game uses some sort of absolute alignment system, so the designers have to assign good/evil shifts with gamplay consequences (like all merchants in every city charging you 100% more because you picked a quest that someone in the office deemed evil), and from the context it sounds like this action is an alignment shifting one. just a speculation - don't know if there are alignments or how it works in the game.

Well, if it doesn't further bastardize the SPECIAL system, there should be no such thing as alignment. Rather, NPC reaction should be faction-based.

 

[Psilon]

What happened to karma? NPC reactions are faction-based--or should be--but Fallout tracked your overall goodness/evilness with a cumulative Karma stat.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Somehow I think that if there is/was a god, he would pick goblins over the Inquisition any day...unless he's a lawful evil god, of course.

Keep in mind that the Inquisition in our world was all about "heretics", people who thought differently than the church. The Inquisition in Lionheart actually has a greater purpose since they are dealing with actual demons here, and demonic spirits hiding in people. It;s not about Dominicans pretending there's evil for the sake of power, there actually is evil.