Interview Seal of Evil Q&A of Evil

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Liu Jiang; Object Software; Seal of Evil

<b>Exitium</b> scored us <A href="http://www.rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=109">an interview</a> with <b>Liu Jiang</b> of <A href="http://eng.objectgames.com/">Object Software</a> covering their upcoming Chinese setting CRPG, <A href="http://eng.objectgames.com/soe/">Seal of Evil</a>. Here's a little on item sets and crafting:
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<blockquote><b>10. </b><i>In Prince of Qin, there were certain unique weapons that when used together with other items became more powerful and had more attributes, and in games like Diablo 2 and Sacred, there are set items and unique items. Does Seal of Evil have any such equipment? If so, how easy is it to find these items?</i>
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Yes, SOE retains the concept of hidden or concealed attributes on items. In other words, some items have hidden or concealed attributes which will take effect only after the carrier item has been activated.
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Different from POQ, SOE also has set items. If you find a set of such equipment and equip it on yourself, you will obtain extra awarded attributes. There are two kinds of set items: one is ready-made equipment, such as Witch’s Silk Clothes, Silk Headband and Cloth Shoes (the same Five-element attribute). To obtain these kinds of set items, you should keep your eyes on what you obtain over the course of the game; the other is set items made from the same animal or beast, e.g. panther's paw, skin, bone and etc.</blockquote>
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Making set items from bits of the same animal sounds like a damned nifty addition to the crafting system that we saw in <A href="http://www.strategyfirst.com/games/GameContent.asp?iGameID=37&sLanguageCode=EN&sSection=Overview">Prince of Qin</a>.
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[voodoo1man]

We felt that the criticism of the translation was a bit unfair because we were deliberately trying to create a very Chinese flavor to the dialogue... We have also engaged a professional sound studio in Taipei to handle the voice acting which we are confident will be greatly improved as compared to Prince of Qin.

Yay! My number one complaint is addressed! I'm a happy camper. On the subject of translation in POQ, I did find it pretty weird. Not poor, just weird - trying to express something as far removed as Chinese in English is very verbose. The lack of economy is unnatural, and a little bit unsettling. It'll be interesting to see what their writer comes up with.

Thirdly we think that with interest in China and things Chinese growing rapidly around the world there should be a receptive audience in the west for Chinese themed games just as there has been for Chinese themed movies.

The problem with foreign (well, at least North American) interest in China and things Chinese is that it is very shallow, like their current understanding. Most of the popular Chinese movies are just action flicks from Hong Kong, and the appreciation of Chinese fashion and culture seems to be limited to those hair-braiding sticks, adapted cuisine, and (as Exitium was keen to demonstrate) Fung Shui. Most people I know confuse things of Chinese origin with those of other Asian countries, and vice-versa, on a regular basis. Prince of Qin went into Ancient Chinese myth and history in some detail, which most Americans don't seem to be too prepared for (we need more good introductory books and historical fiction and more translations). It will be funny to see what a North American's concept of Ancient China looks like when Bioware's Jade Empire comes out (boy, they sure are focusing a lot on kung fu, aren't they?). On the other hand, many RPG players aren't most Americans, so Seal of Evil is probably in a good position.