Codex Interview RPG Codex Interview: Chaos Chronicles

[Cynic]

If they pull this off, this game will be incline incarenate.

 

[FeelTheRads]

nothing funny or folk-ish

yes, 'cause what we need these days is more grimdark

Well the game is called Chaos Chronicles and it's about a party traveling into a shadowy land that has conquered by evil long ago, yes?

Since you're new here, you must realize something about the Codex:

First, there is only Disney and "grimdark". ABSOLUTELY nothing in between.
Second, if "grimdark" is overused it means NOBODY should ever use it, it can't be done right ever, and suddenly its complete opposite is true monocle for true monocled gentlemen.

 

[mote]

A great use of NPC agenda I recalled is Vigil in Arcanum... he is bent about you visiting his cult and whatever, and usually I'm not interested in that, so we clash so badly that on most playthroughs end up killing him... also, he is a jerk that always try to "handle things for me", I answer rudely and he gets pissed. Good times.

No, Virgil is a nice dude.

He's like the fantasy version of a Mormon.

 

[General Maxson]

nothing funny or folk-ish

yes, 'cause what we need these days is more grimdark

Well the game is called Chaos Chronicles and it's about a party traveling into a shadowy land that has conquered by evil long ago, yes?

Since you're new here, you must realize something about the Codex:

First, there is only Disney and "grimdark". ABSOLUTELY nothing in between.
Second, if "grimdark" is overused it means NOBODY should ever use it, it can't be done right ever, and suddenly its complete opposite is true monocle for true monocled gentlemen.

Only "grimdark" I have problem with is Gears of War style grimdark and Bioware grimdark. Like in Dragon Age. Why? 'Cause it's shit. No atmosphere, bleak and mostly shitty looking, no interesting things, "grimdark" version of their monsters are just really uglier orcs and other stereotypical monsters blatantly copied, violence that feels "forced" and is actually ridiculous. And "mature" choices that are actually also ridiculous and retarded. Don't know why so much hate for nicely made grimdark. For example Darklands. Man that's a great setting. Dark castles, witches, saints, gothic cathedrals, demons villages etc. Also Diablo 1 is awesome as far as settings go. Much more interesting than standard high fantasy as it's been a lot less explored and redone (only humans and demons (with some hints of angel existence and other christian "mythology", saints, "real alchemy" etc.). Now, I think that they can pull of a great setting with this game, as they seem to want to put emphasis on darker atmosphere and interesting and deadly exploration. What I've seen so far on screenshots looks really great. Even the worldmap seems sinister and dangerous with a few very scattered "safe houses" whether they are small villages or inns for weary travelers...

I think D&D in such style is rarely made in games, if ever. And it's a pity. Not everything has to be +6 epic adventure to be interesting.

 

[almondblight]

In fact you could pick a side in the druids versus hunter scene. It led of course to killing the other side. However, there were also (mild) consequences, if you decided to go along with treehuggers. In Baldur's Gate (the city), a brother or maybe a friend - I haven't played BG for quite a long time - appeared, accused you of murder and promptly attacked, leaving a powerful crossbow on his body.

Yeah, you could pick either side in all of those scenarios. The problem is, the game ends up telling you which decision is the right one, because one group will turn hostile and start attacking you when you say "let's talk about this" (the druids attack you for wanting to talk, the mercenary sent after the artist does, and the lumberjacks do). If, say, the druids wanted to take him in for his crimes, but he decided to fight against them instead, with neither side attacking you (why would they?), the player would have been left with a real choice, instead of being given the answer.

 

[Alex_Steel]

It seems really promising. If the world ends in December I'll be very fucking pissed off!

 

[Jashiin]

Please don't fick this auf

 

[felipepepe]

Only "grimdark" I have problem with is Gears of War style grimdark and Bioware grimdark. Like in Dragon Age. Why? 'Cause it's shit. No atmosphere, bleak and mostly shitty looking, no interesting things, "grimdark" version of their monsters are just really uglier orcs and other stereotypical monsters blatantly copied, violence that feels "forced" and is actually ridiculous.

Surely you jest.

 

[HobGoblin42]

I'd really like to see something similar in Chaos Chronicles. A legendary place that requires some effort to find but is incredibly rewarding when you finally do find it would be great.
Also, will you be able to kill anyone you meet and (possibly) suffer consequences for it?

We already planned such places/dungeons, but right now this content is on our nice-to-have list.

You can't attack any people in the city, but there will be some multiple choice events that can possible lead to a combat inside 'civil' areas (like in a tavern for example). Those outcomes will not have any influence on the epic storyline, but you'll unlock or mess up future opportunities for sidequests.

HobGoblin42
can you clarify on this ?
thanks

NPC members of your party could enable additional options in dialogues and they all have their own personal quest that can't be acquired without them. But this part of the game is definitely still work in progress, therefore I can't tell so much about that yet.

But this description made me laugh hardly:
Current project description is the biggest incline (idea change during one game development) I ever heard of!

There was a time where we needed to conceal our original intentions. If you start to pitch your project to publishers for the first time, you definitely don't want to tell them about a hardcore niche target audience.

 

[JarlFrank]

Please don't fick this auf

Your awkward translation of fuck this up into German made me laugh hard. Brofist for this.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Please don't fick this auf

Your awkward translation of fuck this up into German made me laugh hard. Brofist for this.

I thought he was talking about flicking the bean or something.

 

[groke]

"hey guys sorry for reals about fucking Jagged Alliance in the ass pls buy our new game we are legit just look at our oldskool gamezzz"

 

[HobGoblin42]

Regarding Grimdark (I know it's a term from W40k), a guy named Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) invented that stuff more than 500 (!) years ago:

So, and another screenshot of Chaos Chronicles

Grimdark or Disney, make your decision. We can live with both as long as nobody says Anime .

 

[felipepepe]

Grimdark or Disney, make your decision. We can live with both as long as nobody says Anime .

We'll leave that one for the 3DS spinoff game.

 

[JarlFrank]

I don't care how to label that shit. I'll just call it awesome

Also, Bosch is more like what a medieval priest would dream up when he passes out drunk after fucking the blacksmith's wife and feeling guilty about it rather than grimdark. It's much, much more on the weird side than the grimdark side.

 

[felipepepe]

Mr. Awor Szurkrarz works are probably one of the best examples of a grimdark person artist...

 

[General Maxson]

HobGoblin42 - keep that sinister and dark D&D tone, it hasn't been done much (if at all).

I mean when you really think about it, would it not feel dangerous facing orcs in combat if such a thing really existed, most of the people would shit themselves if such monsters appeared and started roaming the world. It's a cool take on D&D. And as far as I could see from the screenshots you do not "overdo" it, there isn't "forced" darkness and violence, everything seems cool. I mean how would people imagine that an "evil, sacrificial" temple or tomb abandoned after a hundred years would look like? Surely there would be no rainbows... :D

I must ask one thing though. Will there be any kind of dwarven ruins or abandoned settlements to explore? Like Mines of Moria from LOTR, or something like that? I always wanted to visit something dwarven from Tolkien or D&D but the games never gave much about them, they are pretty underused as a setting/race/dungeon. Little is known about their undermountain homes etc. Always we get elven woods and fairies and things like that...

 

[HobGoblin42]

HobGoblin42
I must ask one thing though. Will there be any kind of dwarven ruins or abandoned settlements to explore?

I can confirm a large dwarven tomb, but since I don't want to do drop any content spoiler that's all I can say.

 

[felipepepe]

HobGoblin42 , do you have any more info on the prestige classes? I would like to have an idea on how many there are and what is the purpose you're trying to achiev with them... is it a way to allow further customization/replace multiclassing, a rare & special reward to empower characters, a automatic upgrade from basic classes...

Also, will there be quest & itens pre-requisite for prestige classes, like finding the ultra-hidden dragon that gives you a vial of his blood so you can be a Dragon Disciple (dumb example, I know). On this I liked how Dragon Age actually made some prestige classes hard to obtain, instead of just having people magically turning into a Arcane Archer because yes.

 

[Stabwound]

I said it before, this game virtually popped up out of the blue and is now my #1 most anticipated game, and I donated to the Wasteland 2 kickstarter. Everything I read about this game sounds great, except for the 3D fully-rotating camera which I'm not a fan of in any game. That's not a huge deal, though.

We are offering an open world gameplay. You can walk wherever you want as long as you survive the encounters. Our world map is very similar to games like Ultima or Phantasie. While walking through the wilderness you will discover more and more locations . The main plot will lead you to some specific locations, but you decide when to go there.​

Yes, many locations are not relevant for the main plot of the story, but provide secrets and hidden treasure. Most of those secrets/treasures are linked with some side-quest. I think about 30% of the content in Chaos Chronicles is more or less optional.​

This game looks and sounds incredibly promising. I'm very optimistic about it considering the devs seem to be sincere about the game, and it looks like it's already well in development. I hope that these guys are able to follow through on the promises and the game lives up to the hype, and that everyone supports it. It sounds like the successor to the games that have been virtually dead since Baldur's Gate and its RTWP combat.

I absolutely love this concept art:

 

[Cynic]

One thing is bugging me, and, I mean probably it shouldn't but I have to say it. The name. Chaos Chronicles. Honestly it kind of sounds like a bad JRPG. Does this somehow sound better in German? Because it sounds pretty lame and derivative in English. A simple change like Chronicles of Chaos just makes it sound a bit more weighty and serious. I think the words Chronicles and Chaos are way over used and kind of childish but perhaps that's just me. Maybe it has some kind of marketability that I'm unaware of.

 

[Cynic]

Also, Bosch is more like what a medieval priest would dream up when he passes out drunk after fucking the blacksmith's son and feeling guilty about it rather than grimdark. It's much, much more on the weird side than the grimdark side.

Fixed

 

[Surf Solar]

So are these 2d backdrops or not? The screenshots in the article dont show up for me.
The last screenshot doesnt look like prerendered 2d to me.

 

[FeelTheRads]

It's 3D. It was never said to have 2D backgrounds.

 

[Twinkle]

Looks great. If it manages to play half as good as it looks it would definitely be a serious incline.