Shattered: Tale of the Forgotten King – Our E3 2016 Preview
By Alex Avard
We chatted with Redlock Studio about building the world of Shattered: Tale of The Forgotten King.
Square Enix may have brought their A game to E3 with plenty of Final Fantasy and Deus Ex goodness, but there was also a bunch of cool indie stuff via the Square Enix Collective at the show floor too. The Square Enix Collective is the Japanese publisher’s curation project, which works with and supports independent developers by helping them get crowdfunded. One such developer is Redlock Studio, who were at E3 this year to show off their upcoming 2.5D platforming-action game; Shattered: Tales of the Forgotten King.
Flying over all the way from Lyon in France, where they’re based, the four members of the team were rightfully shattered themselves, but their passion for the project shone throughout my conversations with Maxime Beisser Rene (Creative Director), Laurent Chorier (Technical Director), Amélie Vinay (Lead Character Artist) and Antoine Besnard (Developer).
As a 2.5D platformer with 3D boss fights, the very format of Shattered sounds ambitious, but the studio apparently had this genre-bending aspiration in mind for the game from the beginning. “We really played on the fact that we could use the Unreal Engine 4 to do something more with the 2D platforming” says Besnard, “The game’s core mechanics remain the same, it’s just about viewing the world from different angles.” Indeed, the trailer I was able to see for the game showcases both angles nicely, with the metroidvania-stlye platforming juxtaposed effectively against teasing snippets of intense fights with epic bosses in a 3D environment.
“This is, we think, one of the most effective parts of the game”, says Chorier, “as one minute you are fighting enemies the same size as your character from a 2.5 perspective, and then you suddenly find yourself in a big arena with a boss who’s ten times bigger than you. The camera switch is there to notify you of the rising danger, similar to the fog-filled doors in Dark Souls.”
Speaking of Dark Souls, the team make it very clear that From Software has been a huge inspiration to them as they work on Shattered, especially with regards to their cryptic approach to lore-heavy storytelling. “We encourage the player to search for the story themselves,” Besnard explains, “There are many optional puzzles which allow you discover the lore and learn more about the world of the game, and hopefully players will be eager to experience this.”
I’m even told that the bosses the player fights speak in an ancient runic language (made up by Redlock) that, through a bit of detective work, can be translated by inquisitive players looking to understand what it is that these enemies are actually saying to them.
On top of this, Rene tells me that there are 5 different endings to the game, though the game is designed to be replayed in order to achieve the “true” finale, and each play-through won’t be the same as the last. “In fact there are some bosses you cannot even fight until you complete the game at least once because you are not strong enough”, he reveals.
Though Redlock are preparing for a 2018 release date for Shattered; Tales of the Forgotten King, it certainly looks like it’s coming along nicely, with some truly gorgeous visuals and a clearly visible commitment to crafting an absorbing universe. The studio are planning to launch a Kickstarter for the game shortly, though don’t expect any early access opportunities, as Besnard insists that they don’t want to spoil any of the story until you can play the entire experience from start to end.
Next: Mario & Sonic At The Rio 2016 Olympic Games Review
From what we’ve seen so far, it looks like Square Enix’s decision to welcome Shattered into their collective was a damn good call.