The release date for Immortals of Aveum is hurling closer, and developers Ascendant Studios are teasing more details of what fans can expect from the larger narrative of the deep world the team has created. The team has been doing their best to share as much as they can without spoiling the larger story surrounding the Everwar, the larger conflict in the game.
The team has shared the high-fantasy narrative for Immortals of Aveum in two separate interviews. One was between the game’s lead writer, Michael Kirkblade, and another one with the game director, Bret Robbins. The two share their approaches to shaping the world of Immortals, and how they wanted to take a different approach to the high-fantasy genre.
Immortals of Aveum Team Takes Unique Approach to High-Fantasy
The interview with Robbins took place with Ascendant Studios’ Community Content Manager, Tesschka, as they sat down to discover their unique approach the creating a fantasy world for Immortals of Aveum. One question Robbins has repeated in several interviews, and this one, was his decision to do away with the medieval dialect many would expect in a fantasy setting, as a way to make them relatable to the audience. He wanted to feel as realistic as possible, creating a deeper story that audience members could connect with.
“I wanted them to be people that the audience can immediately sort of understand and empathize with,” Robbins said. “I saw examples of movies, especially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where you be in a very fantastic environment like in something like Guardians of the Galaxy or some of the Thor movies. Even though the setting was very unconventional, either far from science fiction or high fantasy, the characters inhabiting that world felt very relatable.” These are similar things that Robbins had shared with me when I sat down with him during a press event for Immortals.
Later, in this same interview, Robbins would also say the characters from Star Wars shared this same feeling, and they were a perfect example of wanting to create these modern characters in fantastical locations. The team has been pushing these concepts for quite some time, eager to show off the brief interactions with the main character, Jak, and the many characters he will meet as he traverses the frontlines of the Everwar.
Although the Everwar is mentioned often when the developers talk about Immortals of Aveum, we only know small details about it. To help flesh out this concept, the lead writer, Kirkblade, worked with Robbins close to the start of the game and help to add these many details, and he had to share the team he spent working on it in a recent interview.
Kirkblade talks more granularly about many of the characters that Jak will meet but highlights the importance of making the conflict feel significant throughout the narrative. It was one of the ways the team attempted to make the game feel grounded, despite the high-fantasy setting. “By always having the characters take the war seriously,” Kirkblade said. “While Jak and his friends are funny people, the war and its stakes are real for them. They’re also big personalities, all of them, and they make each other laugh in the trenches to keep their spirits up.”
We’ll have to check these details out for ourselves when we get a chance to sit down and play Immortals of Aveum from start to finish. The game will release to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on August 22, 2023.
