By Kieron Gillen on April 21st, 2008 at 10:29 am.
Yesterday we were being a little conspiracy-ist theory about what 1C: Ino-Co were working on alongside Majesty. We suddenly realised we may have been missing something – 1C are publishing the forthcoming King’s Bounty: The Legend, a reboot of the proto-Heroes of Might and Magic game. Except it’s not it – the developers aren’t 1C: Ino-Co, but rather Katauri Interactive, which is basically what The Space Rangers 2 team did next. And, to be honest, coming from the Space Rangers 2 team is I need to get a bit excited about something – but that it’s just received the press award from the recent Russian KRI show is another promising sign.
There’s also a little prehistory to this one too, it seems. It wasn’t originally a King’s Bounty Game – it was actually a project called Battlelords, which seemed to have changed titles when they got the licence. There’s a long tradition of this, of course – for example, System Shock 2 existing as a new-fiction sci-fi game before EA gave them the keys to Shodan and friends. But picking up old PC licences does seem to be something of a trend in Russia – presumably this is buying a little brand recognition at what you have to presume is a relatively reasonable price.
Oh – here’s a video of it in action…
Where does this leave us?
1) There’s another turn-based adventuring game to look forward to.
2) We still don’t know what 1C: Ino-Co’s second game is.
3) I probably should do some kind of retrospective feature on Space Rangers.
21/04/2008 at 10:34 fluffy bunny says:
Ah, King’s Bounty. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. It looks really sweet, and knowing how much I loved Space Rangers 2 (which I bought as a part of my eternal hunt for more games like Star Control 2), I’m pretty sure Katauri has what it takes to make this a hit.
21/04/2008 at 11:35 Thelps says:
I before E EXCEPT AFTER C! Pfft, for shame, Gillen, for shame.
As for this game, it looks rather entertaining. I’ve been waiting for a suitable Heroes of M&M replacement for some time, and the graphics look rather pleasing, which is a fitting departure from Might and Magic’s bargain-basement style visuals and animations. I particularly remember Heroes 4 where everyone walked around like they’d just shat themselves and were trying very hard not to smear it all over their pants.
21/04/2008 at 11:49 Homunculus says:
Perhaps a combined retrospective / preview, as Space Rangers 2 is apparently receiving a substantial addon imminently.
21/04/2008 at 12:16 J says:
Turned based giant squid combat…there’s your future of videogames folks.
21/04/2008 at 13:46 18Rabbit says:
Looks like a Heroes of Might and Magic meets RPG. That could pretty awesome.
21/04/2008 at 14:58 Nick says:
This makes me happy.. this and whatever Stardock are up to will hopefully scratch my fantasy TBS itch.
21/04/2008 at 15:55 HikariExpress says:
Maybe it’s just me, but this game reminds me of Shining Force. And this is a good thing.
21/04/2008 at 18:36 Chiablo says:
So it’s Might and Magic 5 with bosses?
21/04/2008 at 18:55 Kieron Gillen says:
Except hopefully not a bit nob.
KG
21/04/2008 at 19:10 fluffy bunny says:
It’s perhaps worth noting that only the fights are turn-based. Exploration is done in real-time, and enemies move around and stuff (it also seems there will be some “dynamic world”-elements, like in Space Rangers).
21/04/2008 at 19:57 RichPowers says:
I was sold on the picture of the giant squid attacking the ship. If your game features giant marauding squids, I’ll buy it no questions asked (I’m looking at you C&C Red Alert).
Too bad I never installed Space Rangers 2. The version I had was Starforced. My friend shouted at me not to install it as I reached for the CD. Too bad it wasn’t a slow-mo dive accompanied by “NOOOOOO IT’S STARFORCED!!!”
21/04/2008 at 20:57 HikariExpress says:
@fluffy bunny: Which is why I said it reminds me of Shining Force (except for the enemies moving around, that’s more like Earthbound). But then again, perhaps I should stop name-dropping jRPGs to a bunch of PC-centric blokes on a PC-centric website, that’s just not a very good idea.
21/04/2008 at 21:25 fluffy bunny says:
HikariExpress: I was mainly responding to the idea that this was “HoMM5 with boss-battles”, though I should probably made that clear to begin with.
21/04/2008 at 23:19 Nick says:
Shining Force was more of a Strategy RPG, thus not gash unlike most jRPGs.
¬_¬
22/04/2008 at 01:00 HikariExpress says:
@Nick: You don’t need to give me that nasty look, I actually agree with you. Shining Force (for being the only Strategy RPG with actual exploration) and Earthbound (for its quirky sense of humor) are pretty much the only jRPGs I care about.
22/04/2008 at 02:56 Nick says:
It’s not a nasty look, it’s “shifty eyes”! I don’t think all jrapgs are rubbish (Golden Sun/2 and Chronotrigger I love) I was just being facetious
22/04/2008 at 03:42 InVinoVeritas says:
No one here has any love for any of the Shin Megami Tensei games (especially Nocturne)? JRPG’s at their finest, IMHO.
22/04/2008 at 14:18 HikariExpress says:
@Nick: Ah yes, Chrono Trigger! Silly me, how could I forget that one?
@InVinoVeritas: The SMT series? Never gave them a shot, even though I heard great things about them. Oh, and I really like your nickname. =)
23/04/2008 at 01:26 MeestaNob! says:
I’ve never heard of these guys or Space wotsit or any of that, but I reckon a turn based HoMM that doesnt look like an 80s port and boss fights against giant turtles means I’ll be buying this asap.
23/04/2008 at 07:34 fluffy bunny says:
http://www.crpg.ru/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=2287
First review (in russian, but the score says it all). Gah, why do we have to wait so long before we get this game?
24/06/2008 at 15:09 it-ogo says:
King’s Bounty was especially popular in Russia… Not even because of itself but because of free amateur non-licenced sequel “King’s Bounty 2″ by russian programmer. The main difference – kb2 was used random map generator.