Video curtosey of Steparu.
All that I can say is... EKUSUKARIBAAAAAAA
...Oh, and
[Image: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LV4STRlm6d0/UCFjjQozR4I/AAAAAAAAAPg/vhtpxvNb1iY/s1600/berserk+02.jpg]
http://vindictushq.com/archives/6227
Well, here's your first look into Hurk's gameplay design.
Prior experience of interviewees
Project Manager-PM of Vella and Twilight Desert
Animator- Kraken and Havan
Illustrator – Lakiora, Havan, Nighthawk set, Pirate set and several other sets.
Modeler – Karok, Kai, Succubus, Iset
-The trailer had motions that were specifically made for the promotion. The developers stressed the fact that he does not have any kind of clash.
-Hurk is in his 20s and, unlike the other male characters who didn’t go with the conventional handsome look, Hurk will be designed to better appeal to a wider audience.
-Basic development for Hurk is currently complete; they’re putting finishing touches to his attacks because of the unique way it chains with each other. He is planned to be on the test server mid-July.
-Character development isn’t necessarily done in a planned order but several ideas are tested and developed and they decide on which character is ready to develop for release, Hurk has been released later than other original character due to the fact that a two-handed sword character is a very generic theme in the fantasy world and they didn’t want to release anything that wouldn’t be able to stand out as unique. There currently are several ideas for characters that are being tested.
-The animator spent a lot of time trying to find the right amount of momentum speed and weight for Hurk’s motions and spent countless hours practicing with a hockey stick or sledgehammer. He feels that it was worth all the muscle cramps and dents on the floor it caused and takes pride in the result.
-His attacks have very long hit recoil.
-Armor design for Hurk is centered around the theme that he is a wandering mercenary which allows them to work beyond the boundaries of medieval armor and work on a wanderer theme. So his armors will not be anything like the well-polished knight armor Keaghan sports.
-They are interested in making story quests for Hurk’s background but this is something that is not yet confirmed. If they do decide to do it, they will also include story quests for existing characters as well.
-While more detail will be revealed in the teaser site, they did mention one thing that might provide a hint to his past; all of his skills are written in Hangul or Chinese Characters.
-Hurk will not follow the basic model of normal attack-smash-evasion that existing characters were based on. His attacks and smashes will be able to be chained right in to each other and each smash will have its own pros and cons instead of the way the last smash is usually the most powerful smash for previous characters.
-Between smashing things and slicing things, his motions are better described as smashing.
-Hurk may be an easy character to use against normal monsters, sweeping through them like a juggernaut. Bosses, however, are a different story. His long recoils and slow speed will require the player to use all his abilities properly to perform well.
-Hurk has three types of unique survival skills; one is based on a cooldown, another requires SP, and the last one ‘Iron Wall’ is a conditional skill. He also has a very long ranged quick evasion skill.
-Iron Wall can be used with certain attacks and also works with his evasion skill but requires him to be facing the attack. It grants him super-armor and reduced damage received.
-‘Vengeance’ is a skill that is based on using Iron Wall. When Hurk successfully uses Iron Wall, it will increase the damage of his next attack and also make it heal him. It can be considered as retaliation after using Iron Wall.
-Iron Wall cannot block unblockable attacks and only works on melee attacks, this is where his evasion is put to use. Iron Wall is intended to be used against quick melee attacks.
-One of his SP skills is a buff called ‘Berserk’. It increased his attack during its duration. But the duration can be extended by using Iron Wall. Keeping up Berserk will be one way to differentiate skilled players.
-He has an SP skill which can be used to parry an attack and cause the target to lose balance. Party members will be able to safely attack during this time and Hurk has a skill that his specifically made to use in this situation.
-Will is needed to improve Iron Wall.
-Another SP skill is one he can charge. The longer he charges, the higher the damage. It also deals more damage against downed enemies.
-Other attacks include a dash attack, counter attack and a powerful one-hit skill that is similar to Kai’s Atomic but the kind of skills Hurk prioritizes on will depend on whether he’s playing in a party or solo and also depends on the type of monster he his fighting.
-When asked if players will find his play-style too similar to Vella and Karok they answered that his style is completely different and if anything, Hurk might feel unnatural to an experienced vindictus/mabinogi heroes player.
-All of his motions are made for him and he does not have any recycled motions.
-Hurk has skill ranks available for all his smashes and it is important to understand how each smash works and use them accordingly. For example, in one of the scenes of early development there was a scene where Hurk penetrates a monster with his sword. One of his smashes does this.
-While they can’t reveal any details on his 4 SP skill they did mention that is will be a bloody display.
-One of the challenges in designing his gameplay was that they wanted to keep his attack speed at a believable level but were also concerned that making him too slow will cause players to avoid using him and they wanted promote his action at the same time. So they compromised in making him slow but added ways to cancel his delays and gave him various skills in order to prevent his gameplay from feeling dull.
-Since a lot of importance was put in to the feel of impact on his skills, they also made several monster reactions which are unique to when they are hit by Hurk. Looks like they did a lot of experimenting on this part. One of the things mentioned was a chain reaction situation like.. a knocking down bowling pins.
-As for imagery, he was designed around the idea of making him looking appealing in first sight, but also a tough bad-ass displaying gut and gore during combat.
-The modeler had trouble sticking to the criteria of making him ‘handsome’ ‘muscular’ and ‘young’. Many people complained that Kai looked too ugly so for Hurk she went with an ‘Italian’ look.
-His looks will be highly customizable so players can go from clean-shaved dandy to old western scruffy beard depending on their choice.
-All of his weapons are designed based on a designated frame. But to prevent making all of them look alike they went with various designs from basic two-hand sword concepts to ones that look almost like a blunt weapon or another that looks grotesque. Basically anything within the boundaries of what defines a greatsword.
-He does not have any special gauntlet skill or moves unlike some have predicted. The well armored left arm is a basic design concept for him since he uses a greatsword.
-The armor he’s wearing in the images and trailer is his unique lv 60 armor. They say it is the equivalent of Vella’s White Shark.
-No plans for Keaghan-themed gear or avatars
-Hurk is taller than Lann and smaller than Karok. His transformation models are completely new.
-There is nothing decided on what his 2nd weapon will be but some of the ideas that are being tossed around include a gauntlet, gunblade, and giant axe.
-The voice actor for Hurk worked very enthusiastically on his voice to the point that he strained his throat too much which caused problems for his following schedule.
-They were very surprised at how many players were waiting for a character that only existed in a single concept illustration and two letters [í—ˆí¬] but feel that they are now ready to meet this expectation without falling in to the trap that can result from using a widely overused concept like a greatsword.
Been waiting for this. Going to hop on the game again once he comes out. Until everything becomes stale again.
Edit: The character development oriented story quests is a step in the right direction. It should not be always about hacking your way through the game.
Not sure what this means.
I know that I'm only promoting theoretical speculations here, but... How do you think Hurk should play out? What do you think his second weapon would be?
-There is nothing decided on what his 2nd weapon will be but some of the ideas that are being tossed around include a gauntlet, gunblade, and giant axe.