DeathSpank Preview and Interview

A couple of new DeathSpank-related articles have reached our monitors this afternoon, including a set of hands-on impressions over at The Examiner:

As a DLC title for both Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, DeathSpank’s projected playtime of 12 to 15 hours might seem modest to some, but it’s of little consequence when considering the game offers relatively deep character building, many weapons and upgrades, and Gilbert’s penchant for hilarious dialogue trees. In one conversation, the title character was enjoying the nostalgic musings of an aged warrior only to find out that the old man has gotten senile, confusing dragon-slaying with cat-kicking. Clearly the game presents countless opportunities for poking fun at RPG conventions, and while my 20-minute session revealed moments of laugh-out-loud parody, the story showed a lot of originality without relying on constant genre homages.

The fantastical art style will surely be the highlight of many players. The visuals are cartoony and original, with many backgrounds that border on Okami-esque psychedelia.

And then we have a five-page interview with executive producer Vlad Ceraldi, lead designer Darren Evenson, and RPG designer Dennis Detwiller on Gaming Nexus:

How many traditional RPG elements are actually in DeathSpank? Is it limited to just the numerous wacky items or are there stats and maneuvers to be gained as well?

Dennis: All the traditional bells and whistles of an RPG system are in there. We control a lot of the things with the character in a streamlined fashion using Hero Cards. There are dozens of these in the game. You can select them to upgrade your character stats, and get to choose from three every level you go up in.

In terms of items and equipments: there are hundreds of items. There are different types of items. We have mortal weapons, which are the standard “let’s stick the monster” or “smash him over the head with this sword or club.” We have elemental weapons, which are kind of enchanted weapons with different qualities like fire, ice, etc. We have weapons of justice which are the kind of zany weapons you are talking about. They are these mystically powered weapons like the Thunderstomp Club, which is a boot on the end of the magical item that knocks enemies unconscious. We have ammo, such as fire bolts and ice bolts. We also have items of vanquishing that are one-off magic items that allow you to do things like put out a magical shield around an enemy.

All these things are layer-able. You can throw them together into different combinations and make each combat experience different. We even have a chaining system, and we have unlockable things called runes that allow you to combine two weapons together to get a one-off magical effect. We have pretty much all of the standard things you’ll see in an RPG, but with the DeathSpank flavor.

Vlad: There is the D-pad and the four face buttons. You can map anything you want to these buttons. We have the defaults that we set you up with, but you can map items, weapons or whichever you choose in these slots. You can also combine different weapons together, and the chaining system is totally optional. It’s just there as a damage modifier for those that want to get rewarded for mixing up attacks and using different weapons in different orders.

Although it’s a simple system, it allows another layer for those that want to have a more robust experience and get more kills with their attacks. At the same time, we allow for someone who wants to just button mash, see the content and explore. They will have to be more persistent, and will probably die more often, but death is forgiving and we allow for that sort of gamer to enjoy the experience without having to go and get too complex. We really believe that we cater to both ends of the spectrum as far as gamer style.