Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader Interview

With Lionheart set for a late summer release date and our last interview with Reflexive being close to a year ago, we thought we’d get an update on how the development progress has been going. Enjoy!

GB: Last time we spoke with you, Lionheart was close to being “feature complete”. Can you tell us where you stand in the development cycle of the game now? Are you on target for an August release date?

IH: We are in the final stages of bug fixing and multiplayer testing. Multiplayer bugs are definitely are largest outstanding problem at the moment, but we are squashing those right and left. There is no more new content being added, and we are tightening up the quests, game play, spells, experience values, and just about everything else that comes with putting an RPG together. We’ll make it.

GB: How has the multiplayer aspect of the game turned out? Is it still cooperative-only (no PvP)?

IH: It has turned out very well! Actually, the game is a blast to play with other people, especially ones that are into working together. One of the best scenarios I have put together is when one person is a ranged character with some thought magic spells (for direct damage and area affect spells) or divine healing spells and at least one other person is a melee character (one-handed, two-handed or unarmed). The melee guy buffs up his AC and melee attacks as much as possible using buffing spells, traits, perks, magical items and skill points, with a few points in the absorb spirit spell. The ranged character buffs up his ranged weapon skill and some magical direct damage, and they go to work. The melee guy wades in, slaughtering everything, while the ranged guy plunks them off. They are usually busy with the melee guy and the ranged character can do a lot of critical hits from range. After the battle, the melee guy sucks the spirit from the corpses, giving himself some much needed health. Really a blast!

And yes, it is cooperative only, just as we designed from the beginning.

GB: What foes will players be facing throughout the game? Care to elaborate on some of the more powerful adversaries?

ED: There are a wide variety of adversaries in Lionheart. Many enemies in the dungeons will be generally hostile to any intruders no matter what your business is. Other monsters and characters will be your adversaries if you are pursuing a specific faction path, while it’s possible to befriend that same group if you choose another faction point. For instance, the Inquisition asks you to rescue a captured Inquisitor who is being held hostage by a particularly vicious tribe of goblins. If you rescue the Inquisitor, you will likely have to fight the goblins, unless you have a very high diplomacy. Alternatively, if you wanted to play a meaner character, you could become friends with the goblins and do quests for them, for instance the Khan himself might ask you to take care of a powerful bounty hunter who has been killing goblins outside of the village.

Beyond the hordes of undead, goblins, trolls, and other enemies you’ll fight in Lionheart, there is a powerful group of ‘˜demon spirits’ that oppose you. While I don’t want to spoil too much, I can say that they each take a different form and wield their own special power and are pretty tough boss monsters. In my opinion, these ‘˜demons’ constitute some of the most challenging and fun encounters in the game.

GB: Can you tell us a bit about some of the in-game characters that have been announced, such as Isabel Forfienda, Miguel Cervantes, and Gorond?

ED: Most of the NPCs that offer to accompany you have something they want to accomplish and have their own agenda. Miguel Cervantes has been hunting a dangerous spirit across the streets of Barcelona and when you encounter him he asks you to help him join his cause. The problem is, no one else can see the spirit that haunts Miguel, so you will have to trust him and follow him across the city. Suffice it to say, the city guard have had enough of Miguel’s antics, and it will fall to you to keep him out of trouble. I won’t get into specifics of how the quest resolves, because that’s entirely up to you..

Another character who needs your aid is Hernan Cortes. After a disastrous expedition to the New World, Cortes is penniless and in serious debt to a moneylender in Barcelona. He has a daring plan to raise money to save his last remaining ship, but it will require remarkable bravery on your part to even begin the expedition, because Cortes lost his arm during the expedition and is unable to wield his sword. The quest to help Cortes is a fairly large one and I think one of the most rewarding in the game.

ED: We wanted the four races to be equal in power. They all have the potential to be any kind of character, since SPECIAL is a classless system, any of the races can pursue melee, magic, sneaking, or diplomacy. We introduced a new type of Trait into Lionheart’s SPECIAL system called Racial Traits to give the three tainted races a unique twist. The Racial Traits were designed to give you advantages and disadvantages that were almost equally balanced, but a player that wanted to mold a specific kind of character will find plenty of choice among the different traits. Since the three tainted races get to choose a racial trait, the balancing factor is that they suffer from discrimination in the major cities from normal humans. A demokin, sylvant, or feralkin character can expect to be ignored by some and disliked by others, and in some cases this results in some higher prices with a few of the merchants. This persecution won’t prevent you from doing business though. We designed the ‘˜tainted’ idea to further the roleplaying aspect of the game. It helps to paint a picture of the social climate of Barcelona and abroad. In general, normal people and especially those within the Inquisition are suspicious or outright fearful of magic use. Those that are tainted usually show the outward manifestation of magic (i.e. horns, pointed ears, forked tongue) and are generally shunned.

If you decide to play a pureblood human, you still have access to normal traits like Heavy Handed or Gifted, many of the original ones that were in the original Fallout game (though some have been modified slightly to fit Lionheart). As a human, you won’t encounter any discrimination from normal humans, but since a pureblood human isn’t tainted you won’t be able to choose a Racial Trait when you create a character.

GB: In our last interview, we were told that there would be “Artifact” items that players could find. What exactly differentiates these items from normal magic items, and can you give us an example or two?

IH: (Artifact) items are those items that either have great powers all by themselves, or are intertwined with Earth history in such a way as to be considered a relic by most players that would come across them. Here is a perfect example of an artifact that is taken right from Earth history (depending upon your religion.):

Bleeding Lance
Touching this lance immediately fills your mind with images of suffering and penance, erasing all doubt that this is the artifact originally used to spear Christ when he was on the Cross. While the lance has the texture of wood, it has the resonance of steel. Whoever carries it adds 5 to their Armor Class, 5 skill points to their Divine Protective Branch, 1 to their Critical Chance, and 1 to their Fortune. An unseen force prohibits it from being used as a weapon.

GB: Have you included any areas outside of Europe that the player will travel to? If so, can you give us an idea of where else the game might take us?

IH: Yes, the game will take you to many places on the Earth, including places outside of the continent of Europe. While the game starts off in Barcelona, and many of your adventures in the first part of the game take place in Spain and France, there are other locations near the end of the game that the player will go to. We’re still not telling where these are, however.

GB: To conclude, can you tell us what specific goal the player is trying to accomplish by the end of the game?

IH: Let’s see.was it to save the girl? Salvage your kingdom? Or perhaps save the world? Or was it to kill everyone in Europe? The real answer to your question is nope, I can’t tell you that. I don’t like giving out spoilers.

ED: I can! You see, it all starts when the character wakes up to find.*sniper gunshot*

A sincere thank you to both Ion and Eric for answering our questions!