The sentiments of a startup team
Author: Storyteller JerryAt the Xbox game conference in June this year, a turn-based RPG game with 3A-level graphics was announced – “Light and Shadow: Expedition 33”.At the subsequent Cologne Game Show, this game left an extremely deep impression on me, and I couldn’t help but murmur: This group of European game makers are really determined to make a Japanese RPG game with such a pure flavor.
The team that developed this game is called Sandfall Interactive, and “Light and Shadow: Expedition 33” is also their first game. However, the reason that supports them to make such a game is not the impulse of young people.
In fact, the backbone of the team is almost all developers who have worked at Ubisoft for several years. The company’s founder and CEO: Guillaume Broche once worked at Ubisoft Shanghai.The first stop of the latest internal demo release event of “Light and Shadow: Expedition 33” was chosen to be Shanghai, China, which Broche is familiar with. Jihe was also fortunate to participate and get a glimpse of the new look of this game.
A romantic fantasy from France
The first thing that impressed me about “Light and Shadow: Expedition 33” was its artistic texture and visual performance.
It seems that we have forgotten for a long time that leading graphics were once the artistic hallmark of turn-based RPGs, especially those in Japan. Today, we often think that high-standard graphics are the standard for action AAA games. Sandfall Interactive Studio seems to want to revive the glory of classic RPGs in terms of graphics performance.
In fact, they did it: in various previous trailers, we have seen the colorful underwater world; and in this internal demonstration, Guillaume Broche showed us a brand new island.It can be seen that the team put a lot of thought into the artistic presentation of the scene: the mountains shrouded in mist, from real to virtual, present a hazy watercolor texture.
In fact, the game’s art style is inspired by the “Belle Époque” of the late 19th century. This is a concept that is closer to the “Victorian Era” in Britain: the achievements and progress brought by the Industrial Revolution have entered thousands of households, and the shadow of war has not yet shrouded Europe. Technology, art, and literature all ushered in a rapid leap forward in France at that time.
The fantasy style presented in “Light and Shadow: Expedition 33” originated from the “Belle Époque” in France. It combines the exquisiteness and meticulousness similar to steampunk with the dreamy and romantic colors of classical oil paintings, which is very exciting.
Take turn-based action to the extreme
When seeing the battle scenes of this game for the first time, many players may think of “Persona 5”, and in fact it is true.
This studio, like ATLUS, tries to use quick feedback to add a full sense of impact to turn-based combat. However, in actual operation, this game actually borrows more from games such as “Mario & Luigi RPG”, such as QTE input and avoidance of skills. In many cases, I even think that the improvements made in “Light and Shadow: Expedition 33” are more radical than those of its predecessors.
In our turn, in addition to releasing attacks, skills and magic, we can also use pistols to aim and shoot. However, unlike other turn-based RPGs that directly switch targets when shooting, in Expedition 33, we can really aim at any part of the enemy freely.
Even the game clearly encourages us to guess “where the monsters might be weak” by looking at their shapes and the luminous bodies on their bodies. Using a pistol to directly attack the weak points can cause considerable damage in battle.
In terms of the means of dealing with enemy attacks, the action of this game is also more complex. At the moment when the enemy is about to release a move, we can choose to “defend” or “dodge”. The time judgment window of “defend” is larger, but it cannot completely avoid damage; as for “dodge”, although the opportunity for perfect triggering is very short, once the whole team triggers it perfectly, it can reward a timely counterattack and action point recovery.
In the subsequent more intense battles, players will definitely encounter group attacks and multi-stage attacks. Even certain specific moves require us to use more complex evasion techniques. These designs undoubtedly expand the complexity of the game’s combat in terms of action.
In fact, there have always been some players who are very disgusted with the design of adding a lot of QTEs to turn-based games. After the press conference, I also found an opportunity to catch up with Guillaume Broche and communicate with him about my concerns about QTE design. Broche told me very confidently that at least in the test, everyone’s feedback on this design is very good.
“The risk of QTE design is not the action itself, but the boredom caused by repeated operations.” This is a consensus we reached during the communication. It seems that Sandfall Interactive Studio is determined to use rich design to keep this combat system fresh for players at all times.
Questions raised by high-concept settings
“I will be 33 next year. Hopefully I can finish this game before I am 33.”
When someone asked, “Why is the game named “Expedition 33”? “, the producer said this jokingly.
In fact, the story setting of “Light and Shadow: Expedition 33” is full of a high-concept texture. In this world, a painted mother was born, and every year when she wakes up, she will write a number on the counting stone. When she writes 34, all humans over the age of 34 will turn into a wisp of smoke and disappear.
As the number gets smaller and smaller, generations of expeditions try to prevent the disaster from expanding further. Now it is the turn of Expedition 33, and they only have one year left to live.
Behind such a grand concept, I couldn’t help but care about the specific stories of the characters in the game. In the previous trailer, the distorted Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe that was cut off from the sky were also shown… These images further increased my curiosity.
As for the story, Guillaume Broche is still tight-lipped: “We have always been pursuing stories that can create rich emotional experiences. Including the sadness of parting and the joy of reunion. What exactly happened in this world? I look forward to players actually experiencing it after the game is officially released!”
Epilogue: “Inheritance” and “Self”In recent years, with the popularity of games such as “Sea of Stars” and “Resonance of Fate”, a saying has emerged, called “JRPGs made by Europeans and Americans”. When faced with these games, people will affirm their reproduction of those classic JRPGs of the old times; and some people will also examine their works more closely to see if they can perfectly restore the spiritual core of those classics.I think that “Light and Shadow: Expedition 33”, which will be released in 2025, is undoubtedly one of them. Undoubtedly, it will also be taken out for scrutiny: Is the JRPG you made authentic?But I think the creators at Sandfall Interactive understand this very well.
I am undoubtedly a big fan of the Final Fantasy series and Lost Odyssey. Those classic JRPGs have had a profound influence on me. But what we want to do is not to completely reproduce a game like that. In the final analysis, we still want to make a role-playing game that belongs to us.
The above is the main content of this preview of “Light and Shadow: Expedition 33”.I am very grateful for this opportunity to directly contact the game’s creative team. From what I have learned so far: Sandfall Interactive has strongly revived the familiar turn-based adventure experience at all levels, but at the same time, they are very clear about what kind of work they will eventually present.This makes me look forward to the day when “Light and Shadow: Expedition 33” is officially released.