Might & Magic IX Preview

So they finally caught up with Ultima. Good ol’ Might & Magic is back with the 9th in the series, set to come out this Spring. CGO has some new info from the game with a nicely crafted preview and some additional screenage. And here’s some loquaciousness:

Your party of four characters will be able to acquire NPCs along the way, and not just merchants and non-combatants either. Dickinson points out that while you’ll still be able to hire the merchant, you can also hire a mercenary to fight for you. Your own characters will be more unique, too, with more customized career paths. At the start of the game, you’ll pick only a general “might” or “magic” path. During play, you’ll make decisions for your characters that will lead them towards more specialized classes. Then, through promotion quests, you’ll be able to specialize even further, your Fighter becoming perhaps a Paladin, or your Thief an Assassin. “The ‘teacher system’ drove us nuts. Drove everybody nuts,” says Dickinson, so gone are the days of hunting in every side street of every village for that elusive Bow Master trainer. Now, there are guilds in the towns where you can find the teachers you need.

Sounds like a lot of developers are going with the Dungeon Siege model of character creation these days…. start off with an intent, then build on it. Pretty similar to how it is in life.