Dungeon Siege III Interviews

With the release planned for next week in Europe and the week after in North America, and most of the demo versions of the game out (European console users will have to wait until the 22nd), you may be interested in hearing some of the thoughts of the developers at Obsidian on Dungeon Siege III, and we rounded up two very recent interviews for you.

First, Suicide Girls quizzes lead designer Nathaniel Chapman. Here’s an excerpt:

KD: What were the essential elements of the earlier games that you wanted to preserve?

NC: I think the critical thing that people remember from the first Dungeon Siege games is tons of loot. When fans started talking to us on forums the thing they brought up most often was having a really in-depth loot system and having a ton of loot that the player can collect and optimize. That was something we definitely wanted to keep. Also, Dungeon Siege is kind of a no-drama game; it’s not really complex. None of the games were too complex to get for a new gamer or someone who doesn’t want to get into a ton of complexity. Within that, we found ways to provide the RPG customization that you find in our other games while trying to keep the barrier-to-entry low for people who aren’t used to a ton of stats and a ton of abilities in other RPGs.

KD: The original Dungeon Siege almost played itself it was so automated, but Dungeon Siege 3 is almost arcade-y, very twitchy, action-oriented. Were there some non-RPG games that inspired the gameplay in this?

NC: Oh definitely. I play a ton of fighting and action games like Devil May Cry and God of War and games like that. Our [inaudible] director was also a big fighting game player. So there are definitely influences from that. Obviously, we still wanted it to play like a Dungeon Siege game. The biggest change for the franchise is this is the first one that’s coming out on [home] consoles. So we really felt like having a game with a whole bunch of classes wasn’t going to be something that console gamers really wanted to play. It also wasn’t something we really wanted to do. We wanted to have you take much more control of a single character. So really there was an influence from those kinds of action-y games, but it was also part of bringing it forward for console players and people who want more of an intense action experience in the game.

And second, Square Enix Members has a Youtube “Fan Powered Q&A interview” with associate producer Alvin Nelson, tech designer Matt Festa, sound designer Andrew Dearing and technical artist Jean-Eric Khalife: