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Helldivers 2 veterans are making a Fire Emblem-style strategy RPG complete with 'horny' romance thanks to Baldur's Gate 3 and Hades 2
Helldivers 2 veterans formed a new company to develop a narrative-heavy strategy RPG with romance, inspired by Fire Emblem, Annapurna's emotionally poignant games, and the desire for a game that reflects the narrative's themes of perfectionism and OCD.
A group of Helldivers 2 veterans has spun off into another company to make a "narrative heavy" strategy RPG like Fire Emblem, complete with romance because one developer wants "the game to be horny."
Talking to Inverse, former Helldivers 2 lead writer Russ Nickel talks about the inspirations that informed his approach to the popular co-op shooter, D&D, and more. As the interview comes to a close, the chat shifts to what's next for the former Arrowhead Game Studios staffer.
"We just decided to spin off into our own company and we're making a tactics strategy RPG like Fire Emblem," Nickel says. "But it's very narrative-heavy, so Fire Emblem if it were published by Annapurna. So a deeply indie, emotionally poignant tactics game, that's also of course very funny with character-based comedy."
Nickel goes on to say that the idea is that the medium reflects the narrative and vice versa. While Helldivers 2 does "a really good job of that," the team is considering what that looks like for a tactical RPG.
"It's so much thinking, so much moving the pieces to be this master chess player," he says. "I'm someone who has OCD that I'm very medicated for, so I'm like an extreme perfectionist, and I'm constantly fighting against my perfectionism.
"So I thought a tactics game could be really cool because you're constantly trying to do the exact right formulating with all your pieces. So just like a silly little example, in the game when you replay a battle you can't just hit replay battle, because what does that even mean? Those people are already dead. That doesn't make any sense.
"So what replaying a battle actually is, after the battle, it's the main character just sitting at camp being like 'Oh my God, what did I do wrong? I messed that up so bad, can I do better?' The whole thing is about perfectionism, OCD, and overthinking, and maybe learning that that's not quite so good."
Whatever you do, though, don't expect a live service game like Helldivers 2. Nickel says it's a team of six right now, so the capacity isn't there, as much as he'll miss the feeling of updating a game. What you can expect, though, is romance.
"I definitely want the game to be horny," he says with a laugh. "Everyone's talking about that lately. Baldur's Gate 3 was so incredible. The Hades 2 character art is insane. So yeah, I hope there will be romance."
Nickel, you have our interest.