Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader Interview

Article Index

Eschalon: Book II

Publisher:Interplay Entertainment
Developer:Reflexive Entertainment
Release Date:2003-08-13
Genre:
  • Role-Playing
Platforms: Theme: Perspective:
  • Isometric
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GB: Other than the available traits, what advantages/disadvantages are there to playing any of the four races?

ED: We wanted the four races to be equal in power. They all have the potential to be any kind of character, since SPECIAL is a classless system, any of the races can pursue melee, magic, sneaking, or diplomacy. We introduced a new type of Trait into Lionheart's SPECIAL system called Racial Traits to give the three tainted races a unique twist. The Racial Traits were designed to give you advantages and disadvantages that were almost equally balanced, but a player that wanted to mold a specific kind of character will find plenty of choice among the different traits. Since the three tainted races get to choose a racial trait, the balancing factor is that they suffer from discrimination in the major cities from normal humans. A demokin, sylvant, or feralkin character can expect to be ignored by some and disliked by others, and in some cases this results in some higher prices with a few of the merchants. This persecution won't prevent you from doing business though. We designed the '˜tainted' idea to further the roleplaying aspect of the game. It helps to paint a picture of the social climate of Barcelona and abroad. In general, normal people and especially those within the Inquisition are suspicious or outright fearful of magic use. Those that are tainted usually show the outward manifestation of magic (i.e. horns, pointed ears, forked tongue) and are generally shunned.

If you decide to play a pureblood human, you still have access to normal traits like Heavy Handed or Gifted, many of the original ones that were in the original Fallout game (though some have been modified slightly to fit Lionheart). As a human, you won't encounter any discrimination from normal humans, but since a pureblood human isn't tainted you won't be able to choose a Racial Trait when you create a character.



GB: In our last interview, we were told that there would be "Artifact" items that players could find. What exactly differentiates these items from normal magic items, and can you give us an example or two?

IH: (Artifact) items are those items that either have great powers all by themselves, or are intertwined with Earth history in such a way as to be considered a relic by most players that would come across them. Here is a perfect example of an artifact that is taken right from Earth history (depending upon your religion.):

    Bleeding Lance
    Touching this lance immediately fills your mind with images of suffering and penance, erasing all doubt that this is the artifact originally used to spear Christ when he was on the Cross. While the lance has the texture of wood, it has the resonance of steel. Whoever carries it adds 5 to their Armor Class, 5 skill points to their Divine Protective Branch, 1 to their Critical Chance, and 1 to their Fortune. An unseen force prohibits it from being used as a weapon.


GB: Have you included any areas outside of Europe that the player will travel to? If so, can you give us an idea of where else the game might take us?

IH: Yes, the game will take you to many places on the Earth, including places outside of the continent of Europe. While the game starts off in Barcelona, and many of your adventures in the first part of the game take place in Spain and France, there are other locations near the end of the game that the player will go to. We're still not telling where these are, however.


GB: To conclude, can you tell us what specific goal the player is trying to accomplish by the end of the game?

IH: Let's see.was it to save the girl? Salvage your kingdom? Or perhaps save the world? Or was it to kill everyone in Europe? The real answer to your question is nope, I can't tell you that. I don't like giving out spoilers.

ED: I can! You see, it all starts when the character wakes up to find.*sniper gunshot*



A sincere thank you to both Ion and Eric for answering our questions!