Rusty Hearts Interview
It’s no secret that the GamerGaia team enjoy Rusty Hearts, and we’re going to guess that if you've gotten a closed beta key you are too. So, to continue on our string of Rusty Hearts coverage, Tina Lauro and I spoke with Mark Hill, game producer for Rusty Hearts, and gained some further insight on Rusty the game through interesting answers to questions surrounding the design choices that Perfect World Entertainment took with the title and the details of the closed beta.
Nino - What’s it like to work at Perfect World Entertainment?
Mark Hill - It’s great! You know, what’s great about it is that we have a lot of really dedicated people that really care about the games, and they really care about the fans and the players. We come from a perspective of really listening to our players and making positive changes based off their feedback. We have the ability to make those changes here, so it’s really cool. Along with the very rapid expansion of the company, it’s really exciting and it’s great to work here.
Nino - So what can you tell us about Rusty Hearts in general?
Mark Hill -[Something players would take away after playing Rusty Hearts] would be the whole new gameplay experience that it offers. It’s different from not only most of our other games, but a lot of other free-to-play MMOs on the market. It’s something completely new and fresh and that’s what we’re most excited about. We've already seen a lot of great feedback on things like the action orientation of the game and the strong campaign style that a lot of players are really into. So, I guess just the uniqueness of the game is one thing that I really hope they come away with.
Tina - The game industry is very obsessed with making characters that are really original and customizable, and have the player really feel like they have ownership of the character. What made you decide to make the player pick from set character models that you don’t edit physically?
Mark Hill - Well I actually read your preview too, and I think you brought it up that you’d like to see more customization, right?
Tina - Right!
Mark Hill - Right, along those lines: even though you do pick from one of the three main characters, the reason you do that is because the game is very narrative-driven, and these characters are actual personalities within the story, within the game, and within the development of the story. What I've said before is if you played God of War, God of War would not be the same game if you didn't play as Kratos. If you went through a character creation process and picked someone that looked like you or something, and you just played as a random person it would’ve really been a much different and much lesser experience.
I feel the same way about Rusty Hearts; the three characters we have now represent actual personalities within the game and they actually have their own backgrounds and reasons for being there. So that’s why it’s not your traditional MMORPG, where you go through that whole character creation process. Along those same lines though, there’s a lot of customization in the game. There are a lot of different costume options, everything from different hair colors, hair styles, shirt, shoes, pants, and everything like that. You can also change some of the stats, as well as the complete look of your character. It has all the gear customization too, there are thousands of pieces of gear that you can equip and find as they drop in the dungeons. As you grow with the character you’ll definitely be making it your own and it will be highly customized.
What you see right now with the content in the closed beta is only the beginning of the game. It’s only the first twenty levels and the first few dungeon groups. So, it’s just scratching the surface of what’s actually going to be possible in open beta and beyond.
Tina - So hairstyles and maybe recoloring outfits - is that something that I can get excited for in the future?
Mark Hill - Yeah definitely! If you are a person that likes to outfit their character, there’s a lot of full body costumes and sets, and you can mix and match those sets. So as you progress through the game and as you unlock more quests, and as you gather new materials that allow you to make these new items and costumes, you’re not really going to look like everyone else. You know, you’ll have the same body shape and be the same person, but as far as costumes and how you look, and even how you play as far as how much defense and magic power, all these different combinations are what you're going to be able to try out with your gear.
Tina - I would really love to know what inspired you to make a game like Rusty Hearts; I’m a really big MMO fan but I've never played anything like it and I really love it for that reason.
Mark Hill - Well definitely, we wanted to make something new. We wanted to make something new, not only in the Perfect World library, but something that’s not really fully available in the West and the U.S. or anything like that so far. Rusty Hearts definitely fills that void; you know there are a lot of MMORPG fans and they know exactly what to expect and they know what types of games they like. Then there’s other people that may not be so into the "get a quest, grind, level up" and going on big dungeon raids and things like that, but they do want to get into an online game with a lot of friends and party up with people that is easy to get into and have a lot of fun. That’s what Rusty Hearts does; it’s very quick to get into and very fun right away. You don’t have to wait a long time before you’re in the action.
Tina - Can fans be expecting any sort of DLC or expansions sometime in the future?
Mark Hill - Yeah, absolutely; I mean, even in the open beta we’re going to be offering some new things that aren't really offered in the closed beta, and even beyond that we have a long line of new patches and upcoming updates. They’ll add things like new quests, costumes, and characters; they'll progress the story and anything like that. What you’re seeing right now in the closed beta is only the very tip of the iceberg, and there are some very nice things coming out.
Tina - So, what can you tell us about that fourth character that we’ve seen images of and we’ve seen highlighted but not playable in the beta? Is there anything that you can tell us about her?
Mark Hill - Well I would love to, but I can’t tell you a lot. I can tell you that she’s very exciting and that she adds a whole new kind of element. I would love to tell you a lot more, but I just can’t at this point. Yeah I’m sorry; Christine (the lovely PR Representative that organised the interview) is glaring at me she won’t let me. [Laughs] If it was up to me I’d tell you all about her, but it’ll be really cool; it’ll be worth the wait, and she’ll be really cool.
Nino - So, Rusty Hearts revolves around a conflict between, vampires against humans and half-vampires. Can you tell us how that will affect the gameplay and the storyline?
Mark Hill - You know anime, right? And anime fans are all about the story. The backgrounds and the characters all have to be fully realized and developed. That’s one of the things that us and the development studio are really proud of; of this really unique and really big and fully immersive story. So the writing has to do with the battle between vampires, humans, and half-vampires. The main antagonist is named Lord Vlad and he’s kind of the ultimate goal that the characters are going after, and they all have their own specific reasons for doing so that become exposed as you progress through the story.
So what the story does is that it allows us to come up with all these really weird and funky enemies and all these kinds of crazy scenarios and cool looking dungeons and areas. That allows us to fully explore the whole vision of the story and express it in gameplay. It’s not just that we’re fighting regular bad guys that look like humans, but they’re bad guys. You get a whole range of different types of monsters; there’s humanoid monsters and just crazy monsters. It allows us to open it up a lot more in both story and gameplay.
Nino – So what inspired Rusty Hearts’ cel-shaded art style and it’s awesome soundtrack?
Mark Hill - I’m glad that you mentioned that - a lot of people haven’t really experienced the music for whatever reason, like if they play on mute or something, or played it at a show. But the music is awesome and personally it’s one of my favorite things about the whole game. It sets a really good mood when you’re in that outer hub world, and when you’re in the dungeons, it really ramps up and there are all the different songs and it’s really really exciting. That’s where the music’s inspiration really came from, was to put the players in a certain mindset regarding the different situations they’re in.
So if you’re in the hub world and you’re walking around and meeting or just talking with NPCs or getting quests, it’s very smooth and lullaby-ish and kind of jazzy, but then when you get into the dungeons, you start getting attacked and you start fighting; the music ramps up and starts to convey a message of action. So I’m very glad that you liked that.
Cel-shaded animation is really cool and personally I’m a big sucker for it and I love it in Rusty Hearts. It allows the game - even when you’re in a dungeon with three other players and there’s tons of enemies and everyone is casting spells and getting hit and attacking - it keeps the game really bright and really crisp and clean at the same time. It doesn't look murky and it’s not like you ever can’t really tell what’s going on. It’s just really bright and really colorful; that’s another thing that allows us to fully explore and fully develop the world that has been created for Rusty Hearts. It breaks down all the barriers for us. Also the cel-shaded animation is easy on system requirements, so you don’t need the newest, craziest PC setup to run it, and a lot of that has to do with the cel-shaded animation.
Nino – Cool! Is there anything else you’d like to tell the players?
Mark Hill - So, our closed beta is going on right now. It’s great and we’ve got a lot of people in there, so if you people want to go in and get in some guilds, we just had our first few guilds starting up [in the last few days]. Party up and meet some new people, go through some dungeons; you’re fully welcome to do it right now. We’ll be holding closed beta for a while, gathering feedback and we hope you like it. We hope many people will come in and help us test the closed beta as soon as possible.
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