Mage Knight’s Chris Wren talks about Apocalypse
By Michael Lafferty

“… anyone who enjoys fast-paced RPG adventuring will find a lot to like in this game”

An army of pure evil is on the march and heroes are enjoined to battle the Apocalypse Dragon, a five-headed monstrosity reborn and set loose on the unsuspecting world.

Ok, that sounds good. … hold on, buckling on the breastplate now … where did I put that sword imbued with arcane magestone power? … got it … now, where are we meeting?

Mage Knight Apocalypse is the tale of five heroes joining forces with other legends to stop the forces of Chaos from rolling across the land. The PC title, from Namco, is slated for release in 2006.

Mage Knight: Apocalypse’s Chris Wren, senior producer at Namco, chatted with GameZone.com about the title.

Question: Apocalypse follows the events of the first title in the series. How familiar will players need to be with the events of that title in order to follow what is happening in this title? 

Chris: ‘The Storyline for the game is fairly self contained, and anyone who enjoys fast-paced RPG adventuring will find a lot to like in this game regardless of how familiar they were with the Mage Knight Universe prior to playing Apocalypse. With that in mind, we are making a strong effort to open up the world of Mage Knight to the players throughout their adventure. Each region of the game is filled with NPCs in towns and on missions to help paint a picture of the current state of the Mage Knight world. Throughout your adventure you will learn quite a bit about each of the five playable characters, their personal backgrounds as well as the histories of their people. For example, each of the six regions of the game pertain to existing regions within the land of Mage Knight, and while in those regions the player will be exposed to the politics and histories of the people who live there. The story we are telling is epic and we think anyone who enjoys battling through a fantasy world will like what Mage Knight Apocalypse has to offer.”  

Q: The screens for the title look amazing. What sort of graphics engine is this title using and what did that particular engine allow you to do to make the look of the game unique? Is the game played from the third-person, isometric perspective, or will players have the option of going into first-person mode?

Chris: “To really capture the essence of the story, we felt the graphics had to be exceptional. We worked with Interserv International (the developer) to get us the level of quality we were after. We put a special emphasis on the look of the characters and the detail in the levels. For the characters, we not only aimed high for the poly counts and animation bones but also layered in shader effects like normal mapping and dynamic shading to really bring them to life. On the environments we are using lightmaps to blend distant features into the landscape seamlessly, and cool effects like reflective water and animated fog to make the scenes more immersive. Combine all this with the really imaginative characters and locations of the Mage Knight Universe and we have a really beautiful and unique fantasy world.”   

Q: Tell us a little about the AI of the title. In a previous GameZone interview (http://pc.gamezone.com/news/06_03_05_02_02PM.htm) it was mentioned that this is a party-based RPG, and in the single-player game, the computer controls the AI of party members. Do they think independently of the main character, function on an assist-style of cooperative play, or will the lead of the party issue commands to the different members, almost like a tactical strategy title? What about enemy AI? Will it call for support, retreats, or are the beasts one wages war against mindless and just attack?

Chris: “For Friendly AI, we wanted the focus of the players’ attention to be on their own character's actions with the other Party members acting more like a support role. We didn't want to bog down the player with a lot of micromanagement of their party members, like outfitting them and adjusting their play styles, so much of this is automated. We do want the player to focus on how to use their party effectively though and to this end we have some really easy to use commands to tell the party members to attack a specific target or to behave more defensively or aggressively. Party members will advance alongside your character and naturally upgrade their weaponry and armor and abilities which will let them hold their own against enemies as well as heal and protect the player. 

“Enemies come in all flavors; their AI involves several layers strategy which can change depending on the situation. Some enemy units work as a group and protect each other and deal out damage similar to the party members, other enemies are lone wolves, patrolling a region just looking for a fight. All enemies have certain thresholds which will alter their immediate behavior, having low health will prompt some types to flee, and others to become enraged. Those that flee have to potential to call in some help from nearby buddies and return to the fight. We have the addition of elemental resistances and magic which will add some complexity to combat, certain creatures are immune to various attacks, and some of them can recognize that you might be resistant as well and might change up their strategy based on this. In all, the enemies that you encounter will have a lot of variety in how they behave and it is up to the player to figure out how to combat each type and group effectively through experience.”

Q: The game has it's origins in table-top strategy. Do the rulesets used in the table-top iteration have a profound effect on the video-game mechanics? Will environmental elements play into battles in terms of line-of-sight, ambushes and the like?

Chris: “Our main goal with this game was to make a great action RPG set in the Mage Knight Universe and not necessarily a direct port of the tabletop game to the PC. The tabletop game does offer us some great strategies and abilities for the characters of the world, which we are taking advantage of, but the focus is more on providing a visceral adventure through a really beautiful world with a lot of loot and monstrous creatures to battle along the way. Each friendly or enemy NAP you come across is taken directly from the tabletop game, they will exhibit behaviors similar to their tabletop cousins, but in real-time with cool effects and robust AI set in a detailed environment. We do have line of sight rules in effect for ranged units and ambushes are definitely set up in some of the missions, so again it's not the tabletop game, but for those things that make sense for our game we look for ways to adapt them.” 

Q: Tell us a little about the game's sound engine and the musical orchestration and effects. Who did the musical score for the title? Does the game use voice actors or is most of the story text-driven?

Chris: “We are using some cool sound technology to blend in sound effects for the environments so that it is not just a linear soundtrack as you wander around the world, but rather a dynamic one, which will be different every time you experience it. We have a San Francisco-based house doing our sound design, Dsonic, and they are responsible for our music, sound effects and coordinating our voiceover sessions. There is quite a lot of dialogue for the game, and anything that is directly related to the main storyline will have in-game dialogues and cinematics involving voiceover.”

Q: Since the last GZ interview, you have implemented PvP into the code. Are we talking about general multiplayer PvP formats like Last Man Standing and Capture the Flag, or have you integrated some unique multiplayer PvP elements into the game?

Chris: “We are not settled on our final Multiplayer design yet. We know that you will have cooperative adventuring with up to five players, but beyond that we cannot comment on the potential for PvP, except to say that we are considering it.”

Q: How vast is the world and will players have to attain a certain skill level to venture into parts of it? Is the game seamless or are there zones that players will follow the story path into? Is the gameplay linear or does it have open-ended elements? 

Chris: “There are six regions to the game, each one is very unique in its inhabitants, environment and architecture. There are three major missions per region, each of which are large environments with multiple objectives, and each of the first five regions comes with a town specific to that region filled with Naps and things to do. The campaign is fairly linear, you will need to finish a set of missions in one region before you can advance to the next region. We do have a lot of alternative missions which are designed around getting special loot or advancing your character in each region. These types of quests are not required to complete the campaign, but will be there for the players looking for more fun things to do in particular region. Each region has a specialty so to look for certain reagents or to perform certain functions, the player will re-visit towns and other environments as part of advancing their character.”   

Q: How do players advance equipment? Do players get better gear through quests, drops or through in-game NPC craftsmen?

Chris: “There are vendors in all of the towns of the game who sell all sorts of equipment, from magic reagents to weapon and armor. In addition to this, there are drops from all of the enemies of the world. We have a random drop system which allows for re-visiting missions to get different/better loot, each mission has boss like creatures and minions which will have some of the better items available in a region. Crafting is something we have the player do in towns at places like the forge and the cauldron. Forges allow players to imbue their armor and weaponry with magestones found whilst adventuring to enhance their properties. The Cauldron is the place where players can make potions out of the reagents that they gather from the environments and enemies.”

Q: What are your favorite elements of this title? What aspects do you feel set this apart and will draw players to this world? 

Chris: “Mage Knight is a title in which we are taking the best elements of games we like and putting them together in a really compelling adventure. We have a lot of character customization through armor and weaponry, we have a lot of cool loot to collect and craft in the world, a really dynamic skill tree for each character, and a wealth of rich environments and creatures to fight. While none of this is independently revolutionary, when you put it all together in the Mage Knight Universe and you create something really very special.”

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