Might & Magic X: Legacy Interview
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Ubisoft is the first AAA publisher to venture into old school RPGs. What motivated this move, and how long has Might & Magic X Legacy been in development? To what extent did the Kickstarter-driven "old-school renaissance" and the success of such titles as Legend of Grimrock influence your decision to make the game?
Might & Magic X - Legacy has been in development for almost 7 months. To be honest, this title was in our minds for a long time... It was hard for us to be sure there was an audience for such titles, but many Kickstarter successes (all those old-school IPs and genres) and also the triumph of games like Legend of Grimrock (kudos to Almost Human guys, and thanks for this great title!) have proved the audience IS there.
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To you, what are the essential features of a Might & Magic game that you aim to preserve in Legacy? What about the series attracts you personally, and which of the Might & Magic games influence the new game the most?
To us, Might & Magic RPGs are about a party of adventurers exploring a large world in first-person view, meeting a variety of characters, visiting cities, and of course exploring dungeons and fighting monsters in turn-based combat. The specifics may vary from one game to the next (for instance Might & Magic 6 introduced free movement while the earlier games were grid-based), but these basic ingredients were always there and they are still at the core of Might & Magic X - Legacy.
Since there have been several "eras" as far as the gameplay of the series is concerned, we had to think hard about the kind of game we wanted to make. Several pitches were made, more or less faithful to the original games, but we finally decided to go for a gameplay similar to the World of Xeen episodes. We still kept some ideas of the later games, notably our skill system is similar (though not identical) to the skill system featured in Might & Magic 6-7.
To build on the previous question, are there any aspects of the older Might & Magic titles that you believe have not aged well? Apart from the updated graphical presentation, what are the modern conventions and "upgrades" that you intend to introduce to Might & Magic X's mechanics and gameplay?
One of the strengths of the Might & Magic RPG series is the fact the previous games always aimed for greater accessibility. MM2 introduced the automap feature, MM3 had one of the very first questlogs maybe even THE first one. The series quickly embraced mouse control, icons and colors to make the information clearer, etc. Thanks to that, a game like World of Xeen remains very playable today and has aged better than other RPGs of its time (not speaking of the technical side of course).
For Might & Magic X - Legacy, we tried to maintain this tradition of accessibility. Accessibility, by the way, is not to be confused with simplification. Accessibility is not about making the game less complex, but making it easier to use and understand. So Might & Magic X has detailed tooltips, clear signs and feedback, drag-and-drop interface, quick-action bar, etc. Nothing extraordinary, but important features players are used to finding in modern RPGs.
One thing we didn't keep from the older games is the need to "validate" your level-up by spending gold in a training center. This seemed a little too old-school and in a grid-based game would have meant a tedious amount of backtracking.
