Last week, Ubisoft brought together dozens of members of the gaming media to play a few hours of Mario+Rabbids Sparks of Hope’s near-complete build. It goes without saying that the event was a lot of fun. More information on the strategy RPG will be published soon.
First, I was lucky enough to do something cooler in San Francisco that morning. At Ubisoft Milan, he was able to spend time with Davide Soliani. David was the creative director of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and Donkey Kong Adventure, where he is now the spark of hope for Mario + Rabbids.
Perhaps more importantly, Davide is a passionate gamer who takes pleasure in his projects. In our brief time together, we learned about his approach to development, his delight in working with Nintendo (and his mixed feelings when he first pitched to Shigeru Miyamoto), Sparks of Hope. We were able to talk about what to expect in etc. As with the game itself, Davide had some surprises.
name: How long after Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was completed did you start coming up with ideas and changes for Sparks of Hope?
David: In the meantime, we were focused on Donkey Kong Adventures, a DLC for Kingdom Battle…yes, it was a DLC, but we worked on quite a lot of the combat system to create Donkey’s specific skill set, so almost 1.5 It felt like a game. Kong long hop. So the carrying, grabbing, throwing, and other abilities that Donkey Kong used in combat were, in a way, the first spark of creativity to come up with something to attach to the spark of hope. So, in 2017, we released Kingdom Battle. A year later, we released Donkey Kong Adventure. And a few months after the release of DK, I decided to embark on my Sparks of Hope adventure. So it took some time.
name: When you saw Donkey Kong starting to take over, were you also thinking about how other characters could tackle this? What about Luigi’s skills? What are Princess Peach’s skills?
David: As players (because we are players, first of all), we want to include every possible Mario character in our game. Of course, we have to make decisions. But definitely what I wanted to do in comparison to its predecessor was make sure that the skill set, like weapons and techniques, really defines the kind of character the player can control. We divided his nine heroes into his three main archetypes his categories. Fighters, mages (best at doing it to one enemy), and supporters (best at helping teammates, controlling enemies, and reliably neutralizing them). their function or movement ability) – control the situation on the battlefield. And each of these character archetypes has its own hero role… Ultimately, the big challenge for us is crafting each hero in a way that can create synergies with other heroes. In addition, the hero’s sidekick Spark is also a module element that can be leveled up. So they’re stronger and can take advantage of the synergy even more compared to the first game to keep two on each single hero. doing.
name: The demo allowed us to play with sparks a bit. If you’re using a character who may not have a particular specialization, I like the fact that you can compensate for that with sparks like you can in other RPGs with specific weapons and armor. In your opinion, did the sparks act as upgrades to your character’s weapons and armor?
David: What we wanted to do was create creatures that could be considered companions. So, like friends. Just like being with your favorite cat or your favorite dog. But at the same time, we wanted these creatures to have meaning in combat and exploration. Exploration will help you find secret areas and solve puzzles. In combat, you can love one character of her in particular, which helps express your playstyle, but Spark adds modular elements that help you take advantage of each hero’s traits, or at the same time. , can help heroes weaknesses. Hero. So for us, sparks were a way of maximizing the player’s play style. Besides, it works as a tool to create humor in certain situations.
name: Do you have specific characters or abilities in mind when designing your levels? You can do it, but if you don’t, it’s going to be a little more difficult.”
David: That’s a very good question. Whether we want the player to be forced to use a particular character, or whether we want the player to enjoy the character they prefer throughout the game, that is a challenge for us. It’s about finding the sweet spot… it could potentially offer something new or a different strategy, and some heroes are better at dealing with those enemies than others. , making it suitable for use against such foes. All of these factors were important to us, but we always try to say: You can finish the fight. ’ But… it could be a lot easier with that change. So it’s a mixture of two things. There are fights that suggest using certain heroes and sparks, but at the same time, if you want to keep your team intact, you can do so.
name: Were there any levels that you found particularly good when building Sparks of Hope?
David: On each planet, we try to offer different kinds of experiences. All in all, I think each brings something new, so he can’t pick just one.
name: The development history of Mario+Rabbids and the connection with Mr. Miyamoto who created several games before him is well known. How does it feel to be able to work with Mario characters in developing this game, is it behind the joy of loving these characters in the past, or is the business in development his approach is it?
David: Business is irreplaceable to me. [Laughs.] Miyamoto is my idol. When he first arrived in Milan for his 2000, 2001 presentation of The Wind Waker, I had his 39-degree fever and spent eight hours in the rain until he arrived at the hotel. I was waiting. Hello, let’s give him a present. So I’m that kind of guy. When I first met you at the Kingdom Battle presentation, I was really scared. I wanted to run anywhere to escape the situation. A lot of emotions for me. I got scared. joy. happiness. Respect. But business is my last thought. Of course, it exists because we need to… do quality games, but business isn’t really a driving force for me.
name: Is Nintendo overlooking its development, or is it something like “we have these characters, please develop the best game you can”?
David: Basically, when we started working with Nintendo in 2013, we never stopped working together. So far, let’s say “partnerships”. I did Kingdom Battle and then Donkey Kong Adventure right after that, so I never stopped working with them. And then, of course, Sparks of Hope, due for release on October 20th. And we are working on DLC. So it doesn’t change much. We are developers. We send them something to play with. They give us feedback as counselors, so there is a mutual relationship. It was a great pleasure for me to see how much he has really changed in these eight years. It’s the level of trust we get from Nintendo. It will be very powerful. It makes us all very happy.
name: I’m more of a tactical RPG fan than Mario. I like that the game focuses more on combat, tactics, and party optimization than I thought it would. What games did you look at to inspire the gameplay portion of Sparks of Hope?
David: I think we need to talk about the first game to get the big picture. I was looking at games such as worms. two-dimensional worm. In terms of tactical approach, I think it was great. We were watching … Mario Kart because we wanted to create that kind of Mario atmosphere. There was also an XCOM drop. To be honest, with Sparks of Hope, we were mainly looking at making Kingdom Battle better. Our big rival was Kingdom Battle because we loved its combat system. Changing and evolving it was a risky business that we simply couldn’t take on. So while Sparks of Hope feels like it’s built on the foundation of Kingdom Battle, it offers an entirely different experience, including exploration, which is the glue that holds it all together. If I had to think about another game that inspired us with Sparks of Hope, I’d say, in a way, in a very distant way, Breath of the Wild. Moving from Kingdom Battles to the freedom of movement found in Sparks of Hope’s combat system, you act directly in combat to do something very specific. So it’s a bit like driving. All you’re currently doing in combat is moving and pressing buttons for the actions you want, rather than selecting and browsing.
name: What about character evolution? What were your thoughts on the cut?
David: If there’s one thing guiding our decision, it’s the ability to create synergies over the years.At the same time, we wanted to introduce new characters and also use new characters from the Nintendo universe. Bowser, for example, is included because I wanted someone who could destroy the battlefield at some point if she used her skill points well. At the same time, Rabbids Peach is a character that was loved by everyone in the first game, so I wanted to create a new character that could match Rabbids Peach’s charisma. It wasn’t easy, but I think I found the perfect recipe at Rabbids Rosalina. Rabbids Rosalina is a completely different character, but a show stealer. And Edge is an even more different character than all the others, a very different Rabbids from all that has ever existed, inspired by the old Japanese RPG game of hers. So I think we’re evolving Rabbids… to offer a wider range of emotions.
name: What can we expect from the DLC?
David: The reason is a new character, and this character is Rayman. So there’s an all-new adventure that revolves around some of the Rabbids heroes we’ve already introduced, like Rabbids Peach and Rabbids Mario, doing fun and incredible things with Rayman. When he first joined Ubisoft in 1999, his first game was his Rayman in his color on the Game Boy. So, working on Rayman again in ’22 and ’23 is like a dream come true.
name: Of course, Rabbids came from Rayman, so if you can get him into the Rabbids game, things come full circle.
David: yes.
name: Already guessing where to go now that the release of Sparks of Hope is fast approaching?
David: The super-famous writer George Martin said there are two types of writers. i am a gardener So I have a passion. i have a goal It can see quite far, but loves to change direction depending on the situation. For example, we are developing a prototype of a game and have found the mechanics to be very fun, challenging and these mechanics can change the direction of your decisions.
name: What do players really hope to get out of Sparks of Hope?
David: If there’s something I want players to get out of this game, I want them to feel the evolution. If players return, we want them to feel the evolution from Kingdom Battle to Donkey Kong his adventures to Sparks of Hope. And if you enjoy this evolution, we hope you will continue to ride with us in the future.
Mario + Rabbids Spark of Hope Nintendo Switch will go standard on October 20th. gold editionPreviews are coming soon, but for more on the game, check out the latest issue of Pure Nintendo Magazine.
