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We chat with Assistant Design Director Jimmy Sedota about Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight.
"Hello everyone, I'm Alex here with Gamereactor. I've been checking out Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight.
This is luckily actually my second time playing it, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time, I have to say.
I really like what you guys have gone for here. It's almost like a mix between Arkham and a mix between the classic Lego Batman style."
"Now, some people hearing that might think, well I wanted Arkham, or I wanted full Lego Batman like it used to be.
How do you go about, this might be a really tough question, but for the first one, how do you go about pleasing everybody in that sense?
Yeah, I think one of our goals is always to make a game and an experience that all types of fans will like."
"All types of gamers and players, whether that's casual fans, whether that's Lego players, whether that's Batman fans, as well as more experienced gamers or higher skilled gamers.
And so we really start with, when we're looking at the gameplay and the combat as an example, we're taking reference from all kinds of things.
So of course we're looking at the Arkham series, we love those games, Rocksteady did a great job with that."
"But we really made it our own, and we built what we believe is the best combat experience for Lego Batman.
And so when we approach that, we want to make sure that it is accessible, and that players that are maybe lower skilled players can still have fun and enjoy using the different gadgets, and the humor that we add in the combat, the silly takedowns, all those things we want to make sure do appeal to a broad audience."
"But then we also wanted to add more depth in the gameplay, really to appeal to a higher skilled ceiling type of player.
So the gadgets, using the gadgets, the upgrades that we provide for those gadgets, some of them will add more mechanical depth as well.
For players that want that.
We were talking about the Arkham style and the combat, especially with something that you touched on."
"I like the combat in this game, because as you say, it gets you that emulated feel of Arkham, but you've added stuff onto it.
Could you talk a bit more about how you balance that for a Lego game?
Because it's got perhaps a younger leaning audience, I would say, especially for the lower difficulties.
But you've added stuff that also helps more experienced people. How do you go about balancing that aspect?
It's a great point you're bringing about the difficulty settings."
"So we have Classic, which is a little bit more of a casual experience for those that want it.
And then we have Caped Crusader, which is more your medium difficulty.
And then of course, Dark Knight, so really can raise that challenge and bring a lot more challenge to the combat experience.
You have limited lives, and if you lose all those lives, you get reset back to a previous checkpoint."
"So that was a really big part of how we looked to balance it, so we could provide something for different types of players.
I think when we were developing the combat, we wanted to make the controls more accessible.
So for example, we have a dedicated takedown button and focus button, where other games, sometimes you have to hit multiple buttons at the same time."
"So I think that's one example where we wanted it to be a little bit easier to do.
We have all the gadgets and the way the gadgets interact in combat and in gameplay.
Co-op is a big deal for us, right?
And so how do we build a combat system that's supportive of co-op, but still is a flow combat system?
And we're really delighted about how we were able to deliver that."
"I think it's really, really creative.
And something that I was noticing as well when I was playing is how creative you guys get with sort of the Lego building solutions of things that you come up with.
Do you have a team of people that knows if these bricks go together?
Or do you just think, you know what, we'll put this drill in, or we'll put a massive fist that punches open a door?
Yeah, we have a really talented art team."
"We have people that, even outside of the art team, that just love Lego.
We really are a passionate team that love Lego.
So yeah, we have people that are just amazing at putting together these builds that would work in real life.
I said to you a bit before the interview, Lego Batman, for me, is very, very interesting."
"Because I think you look at the Batman character, and you don't necessarily always associate it with something like Lego.
But we've seen time and time again, this proves so, so popular.
Why do you think that is?
Because in a lot of Batman media, he's not that funny."
"He's not that jovial.
But when you put him in Lego, it just seems like everything clicks.
Yeah, I think from the original Lego Batman, those first three games, and now in this one, I think probably the biggest thing that comes to mind is the humor."
"And it's that TT humor that we are so good at.
The way that we've written the story, the way that we write the dialogue, the way that we treat those characters.
We always want to be true to the source material.
We love DC, and we love Batman."
"But yeah, we put our TT twist on it to make it kind of light and something that is a lot of fun.
I wanted to talk a bit about something that got revealed last week, at the time of recording that is, which is the absolute Batman suit.
And I thought that was really, really cool, because I think there's a lot of nostalgia going into a game like this."
"But I think it shows that you guys aren't just relying on that nostalgia.
Are there any other ways you can talk about it in the way that you're making this something that's brand new, I guess?
Yeah, so we are looking at 85 plus years of Batman history.
And so there's a lot to draw from."
"And we wanted to make sure that we looked at everything.
So some of the more recent films, some of the earlier, like the Dark Knight trilogy, all the way back to the 66 television series, all the way back to the first Detective comic.
And so we wanted to make sure that it was all relevant and that it all made its way into the game."
"So a big part of that was the story.
So it's our original telling of the legend of Batman.
And we were able to look at all these iconic moments from some of the more recent films, like the Batman, as well as some of the earlier stuff, Batman 89, Batman Forever, all that stuff."
"And we were able to weave that together to create a cohesive story that does tell that legend of Batman.
From young Bruce Wayne working through Nanda Parbat, becoming Batman, meeting Jim Gordon, meeting all the different characters and members of the Bat family.
It's been fantastic to do."
"And it's something where we want to make sure that we reference as much as we can.
Like we have jam-packed this game full of references.
Casual fans will see things that they know and love.
Hardcore fans, fans of the comics, fans of the animated series, fans of the films."
"There's so much that we were able to get into this game.
There is, as you say, there's so much packed into it.
But it's one Bruce Wayne for this.
And we've had a lot of portrayals of Bruce Wayne, a lot of portrayals of Batman."
"A lot of different voices.
How do you decide on nailing down which one is going to be the one that you sort of emulate?
Because Christian Bale compared to Battington, compared to Batfleck, even those three really recent ones, massively different."
"What do you look upon, I guess, the most in nailing down which Bruce you want to have, I guess?
Yeah, so the writing team, the cut scene team, the narrative team, they look at all those different versions.
And then we really try to form what we think is Lego Batman, his own character."
"And he's got some of those different elements from those other versions of it.
But when we sit down to write it, we write it as one character.
We've cast Shai Matheson as the voice of Batman.
I think he's done a fantastic job of bringing a new version in his new take on how we approach Batman."
"And I guess we've got Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight.
We've had absolute Batman.
The Batman is being pretty popular and people are really looking forward to the sequel.
There's probably going to be a new Batman soon."
"Are we in sort of a Batman renaissance, would you say?
And why do you think people are now being drawn to this guy?
I think Batman is always cool.
He's always awesome."
"When I was a little kid, I loved Batman.
When I was a teenager, I loved the animated series.
And I think he's just such a beloved character.
And then all the other characters, all the other members of the Bat family, I think there's just so many different rich characters."
"And then, of course, you have all of the villains.
The villains in DC are just so iconic.
And so I think it's one of those things where he's always good.
He's always relevant."
"And people always love to experience him, whether that's in films or televisions or games.
I know we're talking specifically about Batman today, but the way that DC is forming at the minute, would you guys ever consider something like a sort of, I guess, the new DCU collaborative Lego effort where you can bring something like TT did with the Marvel games, for example, bringing all of those heroes in at once?
Is that something that you'd ever sort of consider, I guess?
I mean, we're always looking at what ways that we can work with DC."
"We love DC.
So we've got things like the DLC coming out in September.
We've got the Mayhem Collection where you'll get to play as Joker and Harley.
There'll be a new mission there as well as a new game mode."
"So we're always looking for how we can just continue to bring the best Lego games we can to our fans.
And DC in particular is something that I've been personally very privileged, I feel very privileged to have worked on that.
Just a little fun one then for you, I guess, to wrap up."
"If you could serve as a henchperson in any one of the villains, because I think some of them have quite nice perks.
I was playing through one of the missions and you got a ball pit, I think, if you served Falcone.
So which one would you sort of align yourself with?
That's a great question."
"I like food. I love food. I love to cook.
So maybe Condiment King.
Yeah, I like that.
I think I'd go Kite Man just because when it's a sunny day."
"Classic. Kite Man is great. Yeah.
Jimmy, thank you so much for your time.
It was a pleasure. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you."
