Dungeon Siege III Interview
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GB: But how accommodating is the game for you to backtrack when you need to? If you're midway through the game, can you go back to an earlier area without much trouble? Rich: Yeah, we never lock you off.
GB: Never?
Rich: Well I guess I shouldn't say never. There are a couple of places where once you go past a certain point, there's no going back; but [these points] are more toward the very end and very start of the game. Pretty much the entire middle majority of the game you're never blocked from going backwards. So if there's a quest and you think, "Oh, I missed that or I didn't find that guy, or I just didn't care about that quest at the time," you can totally go back and do it.
GB: Each region retains a static difficulty, though, right? So if you backtrack to an area that housed level 10 opponents, there are still level 10 opponents there on your return?
Rich: Yeah, for the most part. With bosses, we tend to try and scale them to something that's an appropriate challenge for the player; usually upward, not downward. If you get to it too early, well, maybe you shouldn't have come there quite yet.
We don't want to lock you out of going there. But you might get the sense of, "Yeah, this is a little tougher than what it's supposed to be, but I really want to take down this boss." If you come to a boss at a higher level than the minimum level to fight it, then boss encounters will often tune up.
GB: If there's a boss that you just absolutely cannot beat, do enemies respawn in previous areas so that you can go back and grind out another level or two?
Rich: Yeah, you can level up and get more loot, or go back to town and buy that sweet sword that you saw on the merchant.
GB: So enemies do respawn?
Rich: Yeah. We try to keep them out aways, though. We don't want them literally right behind your back as you go. But if you backtrack, you'll find that they're there again.
GB: Jumping to something else, how many different types of weapons are in the game? I noticed that there were some rifles and muskets -
Rich: Mm-hmm, some guns.
GB: and a lot of different swords. There are zweihanders, shamshirs, and some more exotic weaponry. It seems like there's a fairly large variety.
Rich: Yeah, there is. Each of the characters has three unique weapon types just for them. And yes, one of them does use guns. [laughter] Anjali uses the spear, and then she also has bracelets and anklets that kind of serve as her weapons in her elemental form. We really didn't want to put something in her hand. We wanted her to be throwing fire around and manipulating fire, rather than having her swinging a weapon. So we went with these bracelets and anklets that you'll see light up for her weapons in that stance.
GB: Do any of the weapons overlap? I know you said that there are three unique weapons for each character class, but can a character use a unique weapon outside of those three types even if they're not proficient with it?
Rich: No, they don't overlap. Actually, all of the gear is unique to a specific character, except for rings and amulets - those can be worn by any character and the stats on them will just cater to different characters better than others.
GB: Are there any minimum stat or level requirements on the items? I haven't seen any yet.
Rich: No, there are no level or stat requirements on the items. If you get lucky, the system will provide some nice loot for you. But it's typically appropriate for where your character is at. You're not going to see a sword tuned for a level 30 drop while you're at level 5 or anything like that. But if a really good item does drop, you can always use it.
