Summary
Enotria: The Last Songis shaping up to be a truly interesting dive into the world of Italian folklore, with a game world that oozes original styling thanks to its heavy influences from Italian architecture and history. Jyamma Games is giving players a better idea of how their creative process has worked for the upcoming Soulslike, with a new Developer Diary that covers everything from character design to animation and level design. It’s clear from Dev Diary #2 that the creative group is interested in building a world that will appeal to those looking to dive into a fantastical world filled with admiration for the Renaissance of Italy and the cultural and theatrical influences that came with it.
Here’s a look at some of the things developers covered in their latest video forEnotria: The Last Song. Those who wish to check out the full video can do so at thegame’s official YouTube channel here.
How Characters Are Designed In Enotria: The Last Song
Italian history is the largest fundamental part of character design in Enotria: The Last Song. Developers first consider the historical implications and how well the design draws influence from Italian history before considering a character good enough to enter the iteration process. From there, characters are meticulously designed and bettered as artists communicate with one another and the rest of the creative team. Once the initial concept for a character is ready to enter the game, it’s given an orthographic character sheet and sent to the 3D modeling team to translate it into the game world.
Artists take great care in communicating with the level design and environment artists to ensure that each character “fits” in the world of Enotria: The Last Song. The environments have great influence over what final design a character will end up with, and developers are constantly considering where a character resides in the game world to help strengthen its overall design.
Although the main influences for Entoria: The Last Song are steeped in Italian art history, the team at Jyamma Games has drawn inspiration from other popular sources of media to help create their character designs. The nod to the Dark Souls series is very apparent, with characters that not only look historically accurate but also feel at home in a Souls-inspired universe. The artists at Enotria: The Last Song also draw influences from Manga, with nods to Berserk and Dorohedoro.
How Is Animation Handled In Enotria: The Last Song?
Rather than opt for traditional frame-by-frame animation techniques, the group at Jyamma Games is employing the use of Mocap to craft the animations for Enotria: The Last Song. This jump to modernized movement capture greatly speeds up the animation process and gives designers and artists a chance to better focus on fine-tuning the animations present without having to spend valuable time building them from the ground up. The use of Mocap also allows actors and actresses to better capture the expressions for a given character, which goes a long way in Enotria: The Last Song, as the game draws heavy influence from Italian Theater. This should give the characters a much more “emotive” feeling, helping to immerse players more into a game world that is influenced by a never-ending play.
Jyamma Games is using the Xsens Mocap Suit to capture their animations, a new-age suit that is capable of expertly capturing all of an actor’s movements wirelessly. This allows much better freedom of movement, giving the team more opportunities to better capture animations that would be otherwise difficult with an array of wires blocking their way.
How Will The Gameplay Differ In Enotria: The Last Song From Other Soulslike Games?
The combat in Enotria: The Last Song will be handled very similarly to the combat in a lot of other Soulslike games on the market. Those who live and breathe the genre may make comparisons to another recently released Soulslike title, Lies of P, which drew heavy influence from the world of Pinocchio, as well as Gothic and Steampunk elements. Enotria: The Last Song is taking the same route, building its game world, characters, and lore by studying Italy’s culturally rich renaissance. Developers are keen on crafting a game that feels satisfying to play, and will keep players engaged through each encounter, willing them to come back and try again should they fail a combat encounter. Jyamma Games states that Enotria: The Last Song will be very hard, but that they are focused on making sure that players feel like they want to push through certain sections rather than feel overly frustrated by them.
One way in which they intend to do this is through the use of the Ardore system. Developers have stated that each enemy and boss within Enotria: The Last Song interacts with Ardore in some way and it’s up for the player to figure out how to best use this system to their advantage. Players will very much be able to progress through the entirety of Enotria: The Last Song without relying heavily on the Ardore system if they wish, but making use of this unique system and its mechanics is paramount to making it through certain encounters easier.
Enotria: The Last Song will be available on September 19th, 2024 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store).
Enotria: The Last Song
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Enotria: The Last Song is an Action RPG SoulsLike set in a fantasy world based off Italian folklore and culture.It aims to take the genre in a new direction, with a vibrant and sun-lit world based off Italian summer where the gameplay allows you to alter the world & enemies in systemic ways.It is defined as a Souls-Like but unlike other souls-likes we are depicting a world based on Italian summer colours, as we call it, ‘‘Summer-Soul’'.The objective is to bring Italian rich past and culture to the fore in a new way that is appealing to the broader public.What we need to convey from the art direction is the colours, vibrancy and general feeling of visiting Italy.Enotria: The Last Song wants to capture the heart & soul of souls-likes fanbase, with rewarding exploration, diverse player builds, varied enemy designs while giving a unique twist.With Ardore, the player always has access to different strategies, allowing them to influence enemies behaviors, dynamically alter the world around them, solve puzzles & harness the very elements of Enotria.
