Log in member
We've been closely following the development of the Japanese & Spanish-flavoured action-RPG by Wiggin Industries and in Barcelona we got a new update with a couple of surprises. Watch the full video to check out some gameplay from the latest demo build and a soundtrack that might sound very familiar to you...
"Hi Gamereactor friends, this is the Barcelona Game Fest, this is day 2, and I'm here joined by Robert, who is an old acquaintance of ours, and we're talking about Bestiario of course, and we got an update by El Yuste a year ago, but you know the game changed a lot as of late, so what can you tell me is new and has progressed in the demo, people are going to have their hands on here."
"Yeah, so the game evolved a lot since last year, so it's basically a different game now, we've been working a lot on the actual combat system, feedback system, Bestiario is a bit special in the sense of how it's been developed, because it's actively developed by a very influential person with El Yuste and with us, the thing is we did not really have a prototype phase, the prototype phase is what we are delivering to everyone, the backers, the subscribers from El Yuste, and the entire combat system is basically reworked, so right now we have a high-rewarding, high-mobility mechanism where you actually use your environment and your skills to leverage the combat, and it's a very fast-paced combat, so you can actually finish a normal combat from the overworld in one turn, so if you play your cards well, you finish in one turn, so the new demo is going to be released for the backers, for the Kickstarter backers, like the super backers, but after some period of time, maybe two weeks of polish, and we are going to deliver it to everyone, so now the demo is fully playable here, you have a lot of skills, you have a lot of systems, sometimes it's buggy, sometimes it's not, it's an alpha, but in general, I mean, it's almost an hour of gameplay, so yeah."
"And later today we have, of course, Ohori-san on stage, and we're going to be talking Alundra, and I remember when we first met, you told me that Alundra was a big inspiration, Ohori-san as well, but of course this is turn-based, so what can you tell me, as of now, remains as the essence of Alundra in this game?
Is it the exploration, is it the puzzles, is it the way you move, is it the difficulty?
The difficulty is one of the things that I speak always with Ohori-san, he's always saying that Alundra did not succeed well in the time where Alundra was released, because it was a very difficult game, which, believe me, it is a very difficult game, but it's amazing."
"I think that if Alundra was released today, because of the Dark Souls theming and the Dark Souls influence, a trend, I would say that Alundra would be an instant success.
So, what does Bestiario have about influences from Alundra?
Verticality. I think one of the things that we have to work a lot on it, of course, but we want to add verticality, there is a jumping mechanism, and Alundra is excellent at that, and it's a 2D game that has verticality."
"It's very deep.
Yeah, you can jump, there are different levels, in 2D games in the 1990s, it's almost like Mega Drive, like Landstalker, Ohori's first video game, was actually doing that in a Mega Drive system, which was completely mind-blowing at the time.
So, we kind of want to add this puzzle verticality in the game, where you have to jump, and you have to do all of these things."
"But yeah, it's a work in progress, Ohori-san is helping me a lot, and yeah, it's actually being amazing.
I would never have believed that my first big commercial video game was going to be like this, because one of the biggest announcements that we have in this event, which almost nobody from the team knew even, is that Noriyuki Iwadare..."
"I was about to ask about that.
Not only you get support and input from Ohori-san, but also you're getting the music by one of my, if not my, favorite composers in Japan.
Yes. So, a year ago I met, well, actually not a year ago, less than a year ago, I met Noriyuki Iwadare in Japan, and I showed him our work, our video game, and he said, you know, I was going to ask him to collaborate on the music, and to hire him."
"But he just came forward, out of nowhere, composed a theme...
And, you know, he's the composer for the people that doesn't know.
You didn't have any objection to that?
No, yeah. So, he's the composer of Ace Attorney, he's the composer of Kid Icarus: Uprising, Kid Icarus, even Space Invaders from the original series, and one of my favorite RPGs from all time, which is Lunar and Grandia."
"He's the composer of Grandia, Grandia II, Grandia III, Lunar, Lunar 2, so he's an amazing composer.
And, I don't know, I mean, it's humbling to have all of these people in the project. It's crazy.
Lots of Japanese flavor to it, but at the same time, lots of Spanish cultural references and flavors.
So, final question. Do you fear, do you think there is some risk in having a lot of Spanish and also Latin American references, and things meant to be understood by Spanish-speaking countries, or do you think it's a plus for you, as for Blasphemous it was, to be very local on the lore?
I think Mauri had it spot on, Mauri from The Game Kitchen. He had it spot on the first time that he did Blasphemous, and actually I was thinking, yeah, it's a problem, but after being in the Tokyo Game Show last year, showing the game, the feedback that we are getting from non-Spanish speakers is that, what El Yuste wrote with this, because he's the writer of the story, and the creative director, my co-worker, he achieved one of the things that Japanese RPGs did back then, which is their own cultural things, and the theming, put it in a game."
"And we did the same, and it's not like, it's organic, it's there, and every single thing in the game is a Spanish reference.
And you can actually, Isaac (Loulogio)'s work, it's amazing, so he actually transmits anime-style thing without being anime, it has its own personality, and Japanese people really do appreciate all of this.
I think you want to stop this interview now, because Ohori-san is actually watching us in the background, and I'm going to have the pleasure to have him on stage in a couple of hours."
"So thank you so much, Robert, looking forward to seeing more progress.
When are you guys going to release?
2026, by the end of 2026, and if there is no Persona released between those dates, maybe 2026 by the end.
I wouldn't be so sure, but anyway, lovely to catch up with you. Enjoy the show."
