11-23-2014, 08:50 PM (This post was last modified: 11-29-2014, 01:18 AM by Orix. Edit Reason: Changed "Across" to "Arcturus: The Curse and Loss of Divinity" as per Kim Hakkyu's tweet. )
Hello, everyone. I'll be posting my translation of the entire interview. Long post incoming!
In the G-Star 2014 event held in Pusan, 4Gamer (4G) got a chance to talk with IMC Games about their highly anticipated game "Tree of Savior". This article will try to cover about the different aspects of the game as told by producer and director Kim Se-young (SY) and IMC Games representative Kim Hakkyu (HK), from the 80 classes that make up the game to what the game aims to accomplish in the future.
4G: Thank you for joining us here. First off, how were the tasks for Tree of Savior assigned between the two of you?
HK: At the beginning, I handled the more technical aspects of the game, but I've become more of an adviser to the game's development. Basically, I have entrusted the role of producer and director to Mr. Kim (SY).
4G: Why? I was informed that you were the one who made the game at the start.
SY: Lately, there are many games that don't stand out at first glance, and we wanted to make a game that gives an impression that "it is THAT game". High-end games are abundant in the industry, and they boast stunning graphics, but I feel that the content of those games aren't too different from each other.
4G: I see.
HK: We planned this game's content to resemble the classic ones, but the server and other things related would be high-end. In fact, we wanted the actions of the player to be recorded in databases.
4G: In other words, what a player does in the game can be used in many ways. However, since you said that "aspects of the game would be classic", how about the action factor of the game?
SY: There will be a little action in the game, but it's not as major as it seems. This is not a game centered on action, but we decided to add some to maintain a sense of tension in the game, to an extent.
4G: There are a lot of people who consider this game to be "today's Ragnarok Online", but as someone who helped make the game, what are your thoughts about this?
HK: A lot of people do want to play Ragnarok Online, but since we are already working on something different, I just hope that those people would also give this game a try.
SY: Personally, rather than Ragnarok Online, I wanted to make a game similar to "Arcturus: The Curse and Loss of Divinity". The game adopts a system where the character can jump, and the directional keys can be used to move, as well as use items that you probably would only see in a museum.
HK: Arcturus didn't have that many players and I might not know that much about it, but what I'm sure is that the game's story will be like the story of Arcturus.
4G: Speaking of the story, how was the story of Tree of Savior created? Please do tell about some background info about it.
HK: I only know the monsters and the map from what I've seen, but I do notice the sheer abundance of plant-type mobs in the game. I can describe the story as "a world where the Goddesses that vanished disguise themselves as plantlife".
4G: It seems connected to the title of the game, "Tree of Savior".
SY: Yes. There is a very large tree in the game, and the story involves looking for the secrets it holds.
4G: What is with the goddess disappearing? And isn't the girl with wings on her back in the trailers a goddess?
SY: That is the Goddess of Destiny. She will constantly give challenges to the player, who showed up in her predictions, in the game. We based the story on Lithuanian mythology, but there will be different goddesses who will appear in the game.
4G: That makes one of the many goddesses who suddenly vanished. Well then, please talk about the other features of the game.
SY: Tree of Savior has three main features. First of all, it looks different from other games; there are many options available to players; and players are given a wide degree of freedom, allowing them to do many things in the game. It's hard to explain it concisely, but "we are making MMORPG standards". Players can can accomplish various roles in this game. There are 80 classes to choose from, each with its respective roles.
4G: I feel that the 80 classes are a big factor in the game, but is there a bigger classification than this? How are that many classes organized?
SY: The standard classes are usually composed of the Knight, the Wizard, the Archer and the Healer. Each of these four classes have twenty types each, with 80 all in all.
4G: I see. I notice that some of the classes don't exist in any other game.
SY: I think that there are many that you have not really heard of. For example, the Pied Piper. Like the 'Pied Piper of Hameln', it can control monsters by playing the flute. (Revised -Sana)
4G: That did appear in the trailer. I'm impressed at how it was able to lead on monsters by playing the flute.
SY: This class can play the flute, but can't really play offensive.
4G: By the way, which class does the Pied Piper belong to? Is it the Healer class?
SY: Actually, it's the Archer class. It can move monsters around using a flute, but not only that, it can make them do other actions like attacking. (Revised. -Sana)
4G: Is there anything else?
SY: How about the Corsair, then? This character leads a band of pirates, and anyone who joins his party become pirates too.
4G: Interesting. Please do tell more about the others.
SY: Okay then. There's also the Paladin, a battle healer. Paladins can make pillars of light that prevents mobs from entering the zone but allows players to attack the enemies from inside. Very convenient.
The Linker is a class that links enemies together. Linked enemies take damage every time each individual is attacked. Also, allies can also be linked together, giving a buff that shares the HP of all linked allies among each other.
The Shinobi uses magic that allows him to make doubles of himself.
The Thaumaturge can transforms one part of his body.
4G: How does the Thaumaturge transform its body?
SY: For example, enlarging one's hand increases attack damage and enlarging one's head increases one's Intelligence. Enemies, on the other hand, can be weakened by shrinking them down, which helps in hunting.
4G: So it's a class that grows and shrinks things. Can enemies be enlarged too?
SY: Yes, to the point of exploding.
4G: So it appears you can do things like make monsters bigger or control them with a Pied Piper. (Revised -Sana)
SY: Currently, boss monsters can be shrunken down, but we'd be planning to put a restriction for it.
4G: Are there other classes you want to talk about? We want to hear more about them.
SY: The Murmillo, as a merman, is a class where your stats are boosted when you wear a fish head. It's a close-range fighter, but can also jump from far away to attack. But there's also a risk to it. (Revised -Sana)
The Centurion is a class that can manipulate his party members. He can move players into various formations, and can change a member's positions by double-clicking on them.
4G: The other players can't do anything under the Centurion's formation effect?
SY: Players can move away, breaking the formation and allowing each player to attack individually. Currently, we're trying to reproduce military formations still in use today.
In addition to that, Druids can manipulate plantlife, and can transform into other monsters. The Dievdirbys is a class inspired by an existing Lithuanian occupation that involves creating images out of wood. In the game, images of a deity can be used to warp to other places, but a Dievdirbys can make one if warping is otherwise unavailable.
The Oracle is a class of foresight. It knows where a monster will attack next, and can determine what a monster will drop upon death. Oracles can also transform an undesired mob into another.
Aside from this, there's also a class that can perform out-of-body experiences (lol). The developer blog already posted about this so please do read up.
4G: There's so many classes in the game, isn't it?
SY: Each class has a distinct style of attack, and each has a role to accomplish in the game, so I hope that everyone enjoys playing these classes. A while, when we talked about the Corsair as a class that leads a party of pirates, I forgot to mention that said pirates can bury treasure and use pirate flags, among other things.
4G: That would be interesting to see.
SY: In boss battles, we're trying to avoid scenarios where "certain party setups are needed". Any class composition can surely take down bosses.
4G: However, how will that be possible will all those classes in mind? I'm sure everyone is thinking about this too.
SY: I've considered about that too. It's always interesting to think about it, so I always put those into consideration.
4G: It might have been difficult to balance these classes.
SY: On the issue of balance, for example, 10 classes with the same roles were released, but we make sure that their duties are different at the start, so I feel that the popular discussion of balance can't apply here.
HK: Even though they all attack in some way, people tend to choose the "strongest class", but in this game with lots of classes to choose from, I feel that the issue of balance doesn't appear much.
4G: I see.
HK: There's a variety of classes to choose from, and putting these combinations of classes in a different circumstances solves that problem. We seem to have gone past the developer's expectations, and we're expecting exceptional tactics to show up in the future. We'll be looking forward to what the users will come up with.
4G: Regarding the game in general, will MMO field maps be widely used in the game. Or will the game focus more on instances?
HK: We'll mostly focus on MMO fields. Quest bosses will be under instances, but there will be bosses located on field maps where most of the battles will happen.
4G: Please tell us more about aspects of the game outside of battle.
SY: Since the game is still in its Closed Beta stage, we'll be focusing more on battle. We have many ideas in store, and we're already planning the release of additional features in the future.
4G: I understand. How long will it take until the game finally becomes complete?
HK: We're focusing right now on adding new classes and making ten-minute demos of the classes in action.
4G: By the way, Nexon Korea already has announced that they will release the game on South Korea, but how about Japan?
HK: We're still deciding about that, but it is likely that Nexon may end up handling the Japan server as well.
4G: I see. Well then, any last words for the readers of 4Gamer who are excited for the game's release?
SY: To everyone in Japan, we appreciate your anticipation of the game, and we hope that you enjoy the game when it goes live.
HK: I think it's an honor to see everyone's way of showing their enthusiasm. I hope that Japan's many ways of showing their enjoyment to the game allow us to persevere.
4G: Thank you very much for your time.
In the G-Star 2014 event held in Pusan, 4Gamer (4G) got a chance to talk with IMC Games about their highly anticipated game "Tree of Savior". This article will try to cover about the different aspects of the game as told by producer and director Kim Se-young (SY) and IMC Games representative Kim Hakkyu (HK), from the 80 classes that make up the game to what the game aims to accomplish in the future.
4G: Thank you for joining us here. First off, how were the tasks for Tree of Savior assigned between the two of you?
HK: At the beginning, I handled the more technical aspects of the game, but I've become more of an adviser to the game's development. Basically, I have entrusted the role of producer and director to Mr. Kim (SY).
4G: Why? I was informed that you were the one who made the game at the start.
SY: Lately, there are many games that don't stand out at first glance, and we wanted to make a game that gives an impression that "it is THAT game". High-end games are abundant in the industry, and they boast stunning graphics, but I feel that the content of those games aren't too different from each other.
4G: I see.
HK: We planned this game's content to resemble the classic ones, but the server and other things related would be high-end. In fact, we wanted the actions of the player to be recorded in databases.
4G: In other words, what a player does in the game can be used in many ways. However, since you said that "aspects of the game would be classic", how about the action factor of the game?
SY: There will be a little action in the game, but it's not as major as it seems. This is not a game centered on action, but we decided to add some to maintain a sense of tension in the game, to an extent.
4G: There are a lot of people who consider this game to be "today's Ragnarok Online", but as someone who helped make the game, what are your thoughts about this?
HK: A lot of people do want to play Ragnarok Online, but since we are already working on something different, I just hope that those people would also give this game a try.
SY: Personally, rather than Ragnarok Online, I wanted to make a game similar to "Arcturus: The Curse and Loss of Divinity". The game adopts a system where the character can jump, and the directional keys can be used to move, as well as use items that you probably would only see in a museum.
HK: Arcturus didn't have that many players and I might not know that much about it, but what I'm sure is that the game's story will be like the story of Arcturus.
4G: Speaking of the story, how was the story of Tree of Savior created? Please do tell about some background info about it.
HK: I only know the monsters and the map from what I've seen, but I do notice the sheer abundance of plant-type mobs in the game. I can describe the story as "a world where the Goddesses that vanished disguise themselves as plantlife".
4G: It seems connected to the title of the game, "Tree of Savior".
SY: Yes. There is a very large tree in the game, and the story involves looking for the secrets it holds.
4G: What is with the goddess disappearing? And isn't the girl with wings on her back in the trailers a goddess?
SY: That is the Goddess of Destiny. She will constantly give challenges to the player, who showed up in her predictions, in the game. We based the story on Lithuanian mythology, but there will be different goddesses who will appear in the game.
4G: That makes one of the many goddesses who suddenly vanished. Well then, please talk about the other features of the game.
SY: Tree of Savior has three main features. First of all, it looks different from other games; there are many options available to players; and players are given a wide degree of freedom, allowing them to do many things in the game. It's hard to explain it concisely, but "we are making MMORPG standards". Players can can accomplish various roles in this game. There are 80 classes to choose from, each with its respective roles.
4G: I feel that the 80 classes are a big factor in the game, but is there a bigger classification than this? How are that many classes organized?
SY: The standard classes are usually composed of the Knight, the Wizard, the Archer and the Healer. Each of these four classes have twenty types each, with 80 all in all.
4G: I see. I notice that some of the classes don't exist in any other game.
SY: I think that there are many that you have not really heard of. For example, the Pied Piper. Like the 'Pied Piper of Hameln', it can control monsters by playing the flute. (Revised -Sana)
4G: That did appear in the trailer. I'm impressed at how it was able to lead on monsters by playing the flute.
SY: This class can play the flute, but can't really play offensive.
4G: By the way, which class does the Pied Piper belong to? Is it the Healer class?
SY: Actually, it's the Archer class. It can move monsters around using a flute, but not only that, it can make them do other actions like attacking. (Revised. -Sana)
4G: Is there anything else?
SY: How about the Corsair, then? This character leads a band of pirates, and anyone who joins his party become pirates too.
4G: Interesting. Please do tell more about the others.
SY: Okay then. There's also the Paladin, a battle healer. Paladins can make pillars of light that prevents mobs from entering the zone but allows players to attack the enemies from inside. Very convenient.
The Linker is a class that links enemies together. Linked enemies take damage every time each individual is attacked. Also, allies can also be linked together, giving a buff that shares the HP of all linked allies among each other.
The Shinobi uses magic that allows him to make doubles of himself.
The Thaumaturge can transforms one part of his body.
4G: How does the Thaumaturge transform its body?
SY: For example, enlarging one's hand increases attack damage and enlarging one's head increases one's Intelligence. Enemies, on the other hand, can be weakened by shrinking them down, which helps in hunting.
4G: So it's a class that grows and shrinks things. Can enemies be enlarged too?
SY: Yes, to the point of exploding.
4G: So it appears you can do things like make monsters bigger or control them with a Pied Piper. (Revised -Sana)
SY: Currently, boss monsters can be shrunken down, but we'd be planning to put a restriction for it.
4G: Are there other classes you want to talk about? We want to hear more about them.
SY: The Murmillo, as a merman, is a class where your stats are boosted when you wear a fish head. It's a close-range fighter, but can also jump from far away to attack. But there's also a risk to it. (Revised -Sana)
The Centurion is a class that can manipulate his party members. He can move players into various formations, and can change a member's positions by double-clicking on them.
4G: The other players can't do anything under the Centurion's formation effect?
SY: Players can move away, breaking the formation and allowing each player to attack individually. Currently, we're trying to reproduce military formations still in use today.
In addition to that, Druids can manipulate plantlife, and can transform into other monsters. The Dievdirbys is a class inspired by an existing Lithuanian occupation that involves creating images out of wood. In the game, images of a deity can be used to warp to other places, but a Dievdirbys can make one if warping is otherwise unavailable.
The Oracle is a class of foresight. It knows where a monster will attack next, and can determine what a monster will drop upon death. Oracles can also transform an undesired mob into another.
Aside from this, there's also a class that can perform out-of-body experiences (lol). The developer blog already posted about this so please do read up.
4G: There's so many classes in the game, isn't it?
SY: Each class has a distinct style of attack, and each has a role to accomplish in the game, so I hope that everyone enjoys playing these classes. A while, when we talked about the Corsair as a class that leads a party of pirates, I forgot to mention that said pirates can bury treasure and use pirate flags, among other things.
4G: That would be interesting to see.
SY: In boss battles, we're trying to avoid scenarios where "certain party setups are needed". Any class composition can surely take down bosses.
4G: However, how will that be possible will all those classes in mind? I'm sure everyone is thinking about this too.
SY: I've considered about that too. It's always interesting to think about it, so I always put those into consideration.
4G: It might have been difficult to balance these classes.
SY: On the issue of balance, for example, 10 classes with the same roles were released, but we make sure that their duties are different at the start, so I feel that the popular discussion of balance can't apply here.
HK: Even though they all attack in some way, people tend to choose the "strongest class", but in this game with lots of classes to choose from, I feel that the issue of balance doesn't appear much.
4G: I see.
HK: There's a variety of classes to choose from, and putting these combinations of classes in a different circumstances solves that problem. We seem to have gone past the developer's expectations, and we're expecting exceptional tactics to show up in the future. We'll be looking forward to what the users will come up with.
4G: Regarding the game in general, will MMO field maps be widely used in the game. Or will the game focus more on instances?
HK: We'll mostly focus on MMO fields. Quest bosses will be under instances, but there will be bosses located on field maps where most of the battles will happen.
4G: Please tell us more about aspects of the game outside of battle.
SY: Since the game is still in its Closed Beta stage, we'll be focusing more on battle. We have many ideas in store, and we're already planning the release of additional features in the future.
4G: I understand. How long will it take until the game finally becomes complete?
HK: We're focusing right now on adding new classes and making ten-minute demos of the classes in action.
4G: By the way, Nexon Korea already has announced that they will release the game on South Korea, but how about Japan?
HK: We're still deciding about that, but it is likely that Nexon may end up handling the Japan server as well.
4G: I see. Well then, any last words for the readers of 4Gamer who are excited for the game's release?
SY: To everyone in Japan, we appreciate your anticipation of the game, and we hope that you enjoy the game when it goes live.
HK: I think it's an honor to see everyone's way of showing their enthusiasm. I hope that Japan's many ways of showing their enjoyment to the game allow us to persevere.
4G: Thank you very much for your time.
Fragrant green winds blow across this new, yet somehow old land. This imaginary world is home to dragons and giants, monsters and demihumans. With a burden weighing upon your soul, go forth, o winged one! This land spreads out before you like a blank page, make your mark in it!
