06/24/05 >> Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows

Genre: 3D Action RPG

Developer: Midway

Publisher: Midway

Official site

In 1985, if you were to ask a typical kid what the fastest way to lose the quarters in his pocket, he would have undoubtedly said "Gauntlet." If you've played the classic adcade game, you know exactly what we're talking about. Fast forward 20 years and Midway is getting ready to release Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. GPM had a chance to interview lead Designer Josh Sawyer about the exciting game. A big thanks goes to Natalie Salzman for helping us put this together.

Please introduce yourself and the game Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. 

My name is Josh Sawyer and I am the Lead Designer on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows at Midway San Diego. 

Unlike previous gauntlet titles, Seven Sorrows actually has a story that the player is involved with.  Tell us a bit about the story. 

Prior to the beginning of the game, three of the four immortal heroes (the warrior, wizard, and elf) conspired to murder a powerful emperor.  They failed and were crucified to a magical tree at the bottom of the world.  The valkyrie, oath-bound to stand by the warrior’s side, stayed at the tree for two centuries until, for mysterious reasons, the tree collapses.  The quartet set out to find out what has become of the emperor.

They learn that the emperor, overcome with regret over seven acts of cruelty, is attempting to merge himself with the magical energy of the world.  He believes that if he can do this, he will be able to reverse the effects of his worst act, the murder of his lover, Cusirimay.  Unfortunately, merging oneself with the energy of the world is potentially dangerous to the world itself.  To prevent the emperor from tearing the planet apart, the heroes set out to undo his seven sorrows and set his mind at rest.

When looking at the screenshots and video, it’s obvious that things have changed.  Was there ever a time during development to make Seven Sorrows a top down 3D adventure?  Or was it clear from the start that the camera angle was going to change? 

We knew the camera angle had to change.  In the past few years, there has been plenty of high profile action RPGs with essentially top down cameras.  It can get a little boring looking straight down at the top of your character's head and repeating floor textures.  We wanted to give players the opportunity to see their characters from a variety of angles in majestic environments.  We're really focused on bold combo-driven combat, and seeing your character performing a lot of stylish moves is very satisfying.

Previously, only four playable classes were available.  However, with Seven Sorrows, you’ve introduced 2 new classes (Lancer and Tradegian).  Tell us a bit about these new classes and why they were added. 

The lancer is a character who specializes in polearm combat.  His moves cover a great deal of ground and do incredible damage, but he lacks good crowd control combos.  In the story, he's an arrogant nobleman from a Greco-African styled land called Ajanaku Orile.  He was once a cavalry officer who rode on the back of the mythic "Great Ones", huge and terrifying beasts that were considered unstoppable.  The arrogance of the lancer corps eventually provoked a conflict with Ajanku Orile's imperial allies.  In the end, the lancer corps was destroyed, the Great Ones were exterminated, and the great library and academy of the lancers was ruined.

The tragedian focuses on unarmed combat.  This is sort of a misnomer, because she's always using some form of gauntlet or bladed glove, but her moves are all driving punches and sweeping kicks.  She is from the same land as the lancer, but has a much different background.  She was a performer of tragedies who became part of a terrorist network when the empire began destroying the great works and artists of her culture.  She was eventually captured and tortured for information, released a decade later.  In the game, she wears a mask to cover her horribly mutilated face and communicates using a form of sign language called Harlot's Tongue.

The engine powering Seven Sorrows looks very good.  Is this a licensed engine or was it written in-house? 

The underlying engine is RenderWare, but we have completely re-written the renderer.  It supports a lot of nice effects like glow, bloom, and specular highlighting.  We also support HD video modes (720p on Xbox), progressive scan (480p on PS2) and a widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio (both platforms).

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy received mixed reviews from both critics and fans.  What changes are being made to Seven Sorrows? 

Obviously, the game is still at its best when it is being played with a bunch of friends, but the overall style and emphasis is much different.  The game still has one-hit mooks that you can plow through and it still has generators and Death, but we also have a full story mode, an involved combat system, and more varied "combat puzzles": mixed and matched groups of distinct enemies that pose different challenges to the players.  The art style is also more mature than it has been in previous Gauntlet titles.

Let’s talk about one the Seven Sorrows’ coolest features: co-op.  Will the story change any for co-op?  Will there be any modes exclusive to co-op? 

Really, our story mode is intended to be played as a two-player co-op game.  You can play it as a single-player game, with the necessary story characters appearing for cutscenes and skits, but it's always more fun with a friend.  In the story mode, one or two players can go through the story, alternating between the different pairs of characters (warrior and valkyrie, wizard and elf, lancer and tragedian).  In advance mode, it's a free-for-all.  The story elements are removed, and up to four players can combine in any manner to focus on the action, item collection, and character advancement.

Will you be able to play a 4-player game via LAN, or is it online only? 

We only support online play through GameSpy for PS2 and Xbox Live! for Xbox.  

Will you be able to customize your character?  If so, how in-depth is the customization? 

Customization mostly comes in how you choose to build your character and select your equipment.  When your character advances, you can choose to bolster old skills or learn new ones.  For example, the warrior is the master of the Great Cleave weapon style.  He starts out with a solid three-hit clearing combo that uses the Strong button (X on Xbox, Square on PS2) and ends with a circular spin called Isle Bite.  A lot of enemies will block strong attacks, though, so that clearing move isn't always a great solution for dealing with crowds.  When you advance, you can choose to buy a new combo off of Isle Bite: Isle Defense.  This combo branches off of Strong with Break (Y on Xbox, Triangle on PS2).  Break moves always break blocks, no matter what, but Isle Defense also juggles targets that aren't blocking.  If a group of foes try to turtle against Isle Bite, you can finish with Isle Defense, causing a long stumble reaction or launching anyone who was caught off-guard.

You can also find a pretty wide variety of weapons and shields.  Character appearance also chances significantly based on the armor type that they wear.  In his base outfit, the elf looks like a fairly ordinary guy (for an elf) in a cloth outfit.  When he puts on massive armor, he is covered in sweeping plates of black metal that make him look more like Batman than Legolas.

Give us an example of the types of weapons and class skills are available to each of the six classes. 

Characters always have basic weapons for each of their styles, but they can find dozens of different variants. For example, the wizard starts with a fairly basic Magic style weapon from his culture, a skull mounted on the top of a stout rod.  He can also find a Druid's Staff, which looks like a deer skull, complete with antlers, on a long pole.  This weapon is a Sunder item, which helps bypass armor.  The warrior starts with a basic two-handed cleaving axe from his homeland, but can find weapons like the almost comically-huge Gwaedmae cleaver.  It looks like a giant blade crudely fastened to a wooden backing.  It doesn't do as much damage as a standard weapon, but it has a much higher chance of causing a critical hit for double damage.

Class skills are like super attacks, used for special occasions. It takes a full mana bar to perform a class skill.  The valkyrie's class skill is Flock, which calls down a flock of ravens on surrounding enemies, effectively removing them from combat while they take damage over time.  The warrior's class skill, Retribution, performs a magical counterattack on enemies who hit him, causing damage and hurling them away.

Roughly how many class skills, items, and weapons will be in the game? 

Each character has one class skill and two junction skills.   The total number of base items is around one hundred, with thousands of statistical variations derived out of them.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Balancing the single-player and multi-player experiences along with making the game accessible and deep has been very challenging, but we hope we can satisfy both old fans and new players with Seven Sorrows.

Interview by Alex Hammond