Rise of the Argonauts: Q&A

It has been just over a year since we first saw Rise of the Argonauts and a couple of months since we first got to play it. We still had myriad unanswered questions about the scope, plot, and ideas behind the game after having gotten a bit more info at E3 2008, so we put some of them to Ed Del Castillo, president of Liquid Entertainment.

GameSpot UK: According to the crew list, you seem to be playing fast and loose with the mythology. Is this going to be a theme for the game?

Ed Del Castillo: Well, we use these great myths and legends as our inspiration--our starting point--but we're making our own take on it where it serves gameplay, the story, and the player experience. The Jason myth is one of the only places in Greek myth that you get such a confluence of great heroes, so we're kind of assembling the X-Men of mythology. There's a rich backstory, there's incredible characters, but we're also using artistic license to take it to the next level--we couldn't pass up that opportunity.

GSUK: Will the game feature stories from across the whole range of Greek myth and legend? Or will it stick fairly closely to the tales of the Argo and her crew?

EDC: The story is a completely revamped telling of the Greek myth to get the Golden Fleece. It will cross into other myth territory, but we try to keep that to a minimum. While we don't necessarily want to be an educational tool, we would like to inspire people to learn more about Greek myth.

GSUK: The gods always played a central role in Greek mythology, often taking situations entirely out of the hands of the central characters. What sort of influence do they have in the game?

EDC: The gods play a symbiotic role with man, which we begin to explore in this game. At first, Jason sees the gods as taskmasters, but as he progresses, he and the player can start to see the gods playing more of a servile role. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Gods in our interpretation are the whetstones that sharpen the human spirit to achieve its full potential.

GSUK: What sort of abilities will be bestowed on Jason by the four gods he can follow? Will it be viable to try to balance all four?

EDC: [There are] some really cool abilities that will be both passive (meaning that they always work) and active (meaning that the player has to turn them on); all mappable to the D pad on consoles. The powers are in line with the ethos of a given god, and they serve the greater narrative in some way. Sure, it'll be viable to try and balance all four if that's how you want to play--that will all depend on how the player wants to progress Jason. One example of a god power that Ares will bestow upon Jason is the Ares Armour. Once mapped to the D pad, Jason can call upon a shining metal suit of armour that will make Jason invulnerable to enemy attack for a period of time.

GSUK: What other factors will govern your character development?

EDC: As Jason accomplishes things in the world, they will be recorded as deeds. These deeds can be dedicated to gods at shrines, which is the main way to earn a god's favour toward you. The more favour you have with gods, the more powers they unlock for you. How you respond in your interaction with characters also affects the favour of the gods. Furthermore, there are different weapons (swords, maces, and spears) and armour to pick up-- each with its own special power/ability.

GSUK: Can you tell us which mythological beasts players are likely to face as they control the crew of the Argo?

EDC: We take the myth creatures very seriously, so you shouldn't expect this to be a menagerie of creatures all thrown together one room after another for the sake of it. We take care to interpret and craft each beast and character individually, but, for instance, we have new takes on the Minotaur, Manticore, and Medusa--just to throw out the Ms.

GSUK: What can you tell us about the dynamics of the combat system and the way that items interact with each other?

EDC: For combat, we looked more to games like Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry than we did to our role-playing game contemporaries. We want players to get excited when they fight, to experience this fast-paced, brutal combat. We buried the stats, health points, and other numbers as much as possible and replaced them with in-world visual queues for a slicker, more immersive, real-time experience. Combat in our game both looks and feels really cool. It's pretty bloody and gruesome where appropriate too.

GSUK: How important a role does equipment play in your quest? And, what items do we have to look forward to?

EDC: Equipment is obviously important; it needs to be fun to obtain and cool to use, but it's not the key to the game. We don't have items just for the sake of it. We give the player gear that makes sense, so that everything they come across has an appropriate content, relevance, and use--what you choose to pick up and how you choose to use it is up to you. Jason will pick up different weapons, which have special abilities throughout the game, but gain enough favour with any of the Gods, and they will even offer Jason the chance to gain the ultimate weapon; be it mace, sword, or spear. GSUK: What role will Medea, and Jason's relationship with her, play in Rise of the Argonauts?

EDC: Medea is a powerful ex-sorceress of Hecate's who is now trying to hunt down and kill Hecate's presence throughout the world. Teaming up with Jason starts as a mutual benefit, but Jason's ongoing interactions with her cause her to evolve into a much deeper ally.

GSUK: Finally, what, in your view, will make Rise of the Argonauts stand out from its competitors?

EDC: We have a rich, compelling story for the player first and foremost, and all the gameplay mechanics serve this experience. If you're playing this game to kill 5,367 boars and rats or to min max your character, you're going to be disappointed. Instead, we have streamlined RPG features, slick, brutal real-time combat, and a truly compelling world that begs to be explored. But the crucial design decision, which we took early on, was that everything in the game is there to support a compelling, narrative experience. To borrow the cliche, it's kind of an all-killer, no-filler approach. There are no needless collection tasks, there are no overwhelming stats; we try to keep as much as possible as seamless and in-game as possible. Everything has a context, a relevance, [and] a consequence as the player progresses through this beautiful world as inspired by the Greek mythologies. We think this kind of play is the future.