Interviews
“Seal of Evil” Lets YOU Decide Your Fate; Product Manager Liu Jiang Talks About This Unique Action/RPG
“The game player's choice will decide the fate of Liang Hu, which will later decide the ending of the whole game.”
Disgusting creatures, heartless enemy soldiers, horrifying supernatural enemy forces – just another day in the life of those who inhabit the world of Seal of Evil, an action/RPG with a twist. What’s the twist, you ask? Unlike cola bottlers, who “twist” their drinks with artificial lime and lemon flavor, Seal of Evil is naturally sweetened with party-based gameplay. There, I see your eyebrows rising. Now you’re intrigued.
We wanted to know just what it meant for a game to be a party-based action/RPG. How much strategy is involved? Is it more advantageous to work in a group than to go into battle alone? No one can deny the triumphs Link made in The Legend of Zelda, but could Cloud have gone crazy and saved the world entirely on his own? I think not.
It took some serious spell-casting, but in time we were able to convince Liu Jiang (Product Manager) to tell us more about this intriguing action/RPG. What follows is very evil. Reading it might break the seal…forever!
Seal of Evil is unique in that it's a party-based action/RPG. Most action/RPGs
are a solo affair with one main character. How does having more than one
character to utilize change the experience?
Liu Jiang: The key point for a party is coordination and that is our characteristic. First: the disadvantage for a single character lies in the fact that you can only act one role with only one characteristic, which results in a narrow experience or being powerful in every aspect. Individuality is lacking. While the advantage for a party is that every character has his unique specialty, which means that our players will have various and extensive experience.
Second: individuality leads to coordination. Teamwork helps to offset disadvantages. It is also quite interesting to arrange team members and offset their weak points while developing their strong points in the battle.
The story revolves around
Princess Lan Wei and her quest to stop the evil Ying Zheng from destroying
China. Tell us more about her story and the kinds of attacks/gameplay features
she brings to the battlefield.
LJ: The story of the game is set during the Warring States period in Chinese history at the time when Ying Zheng, the King of Qin, had launched his campaign against the other six states. The main story line is the adventure of Lan Wei, the Princess of the Baiyue, a minority race who lived in the Baiyue territory bordering the state of Qin. She and her friends set off trying to piece together the Empyrian Stones which are five pieces of a magic slate which seals the soul of the evil Chinese God, Chi You. They do so in the belief it will bring back to life Lan Wei’s father but in the process discover they have freed the soul of Chi You and his followers. The main objective is then to seal the soul of Chi You again and save the world.
Lan Wei plays the role of a Witch in Baiyue. She uses ancient spells and dances so as to activate the five element skills when in a battle. Lan Wei is also proficient in Wood Skills, Fire Skills and Curse Skills. The Fire based skills have great attack power, while the Wood based skills would not only cause damage to enemies but also slow down and/or poison them. Curse Skills deprive the enemies of their fighting force.
Explain how Seal
of Evil's non-linear story works and how the player can change its course.
LJ: We should say the storyline is linear, but there are many interesting side quests for players. Players’ choices will affect the end of the game. For example, the game player’s choice will decide the fate of Liang Hu, which will later decide the ending of the whole game.
Who are the other playable characters? Do they have significance to the story
as well?
LJ: Two characters, Lan Wei and Liang Hu, are available at first. With the plot development, more playable characters will appear in the game, including Yan Hong, Cai Xin and Gai Nie. For example, in the memory-recalling quest, the parents of Cai Xin and the Pontiff are available for players to control. With no doubt, these characters will play a very important role in the game.
Can you alternate
between characters during the game?
LJ: Yes, there will be at most 5 members in a team. While at most 3 characters are available for players to control in the game, the remaining two cannot be seen. Team Members Chosen interface can be opened to decide who will appear on the scene. (Lan Wei must appear once she is in the team.)
What professions
are available?
LJ: Five characters represent five professions in our game: Wizard (Lan Wei), Liang Hu (Beastman), Yan Hong (Priest), Swordsman (Cai Xin) and Paladin (Gai Nie)
New weapons and
artifacts may be forged with raw materials -- how do you obtain the raw
materials?
LJ:
Killing monsters, collecting from the wilderness or you can obtain them from a
treasure chest or from the quest awards.
What do the
artifacts do?
LJ: The superior equipment can be only obtained through item creation, which is extremely important in the game. If players don’t pay enough attention to this they will find it difficult to progress in the game.
Spells are based
on five elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Do they have a
positive/negative effect on each other? Fire trumps wood -- what can trump
metal?
LJ: Metal produces Water, Water produces Wood, Wood produces Fire, Fire produces Earth, and Earth Produces Metal.
Metal restrains Wood, Wood Restrains Earth, Earth restrains Water, Water restrains Fire, and Fire restrains Metal.
This is the ancient theory of the Five Elements and the early Chinese philosophers believed the whole world revolved around this concept.
What kinds of spells have
been created using those elements?
LJ: The game doesn’t provide extensive magic, but every character has their own skills and each skill varies greatly. So you may regard each skill as “a series of skills”. Skills are classified into main skills and sub-skills. One main skill will have different effects when it is used together with different sub-skills.
It will cost Mana when players use a skill. And there is no magic tool.
Are spells learned through experience, or gained by equipping an item?
LJ: Most skills are learned all by yourself after reaching a certain level. Some special skills, for example item creation, are taught by the NPCs.
Do your spells
increase in strength as your characters gain experience points?
LJ: HP max. and MP max. will increase when leveling up.
Are there any
items or armor that will enhance or make you impervious to a particular type of
magic?
LJ: When you make the items or armor, they will have different attributes attached to them according to the raw materials. These attributes will make you have some defenses on particular types of magic.
Armor and helmets are two of
the accessories available. Can you give us an idea of how much protection you
can get from armor (does it cover your chest, legs, etc.) and what the
statistics ratings are?
LJ: There are so many item creation combinations and each one makes the armor and helmets protection different. The higher level the armor is, the stronger protection it will have. Yes, armor covers your chest and legs. There are no official statistics ratings. However, you can find the attribute of the armor in the game interface.
I would like to mention that most of the equipment in the game is provided in kits. If you have collected a complete kit of equipment and equipped it on yourself, you'll be awarded with a certain attribute.
Once you have equipped a complete kit of equipment, the window frame of your equipment interface changes. And then you can inquire about the awarded attribute points of the principal articles (normally on a weapon or a piece of armor.
There are two types of uniforms in the game; one is the ready-made type, such as the robe, hat, and shoes (of the same five elements) of a wizard. The other is uniforms made from congenetic materials, such as that made of paws, furs and bones of a leopard you killed.
In the game each character
is provided with a uniform, which includes a weapon, helmet, armor, and boots.
The 20 uniforms are hidden in the treasure boxes scattered in the game world for
gamers to explore for.
Thank you for your time.
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