作者：Mark Brown

开发商Chair Entertainment对《无尽之剑 2》这款iOS续集游戏有一些更具雄心的计划，例如植入具有非线性特点的庞大世界，更多强大的敌手和怪物，以及多人联合作战等模式。

该工作室创意总监Donald Mustard在最近的媒体采访中介绍了这款新游戏的个性化设置、故事内容，以及公司发展计划等情况。以下是游戏邦编译的访谈内容：

让我们开门见山切入话题吧，请问《无尽之剑 2》有何创新之处呢？

《无尽之剑 2》在玩法上与《无尽之剑》的一个最大不同之处在于，它有3个可供玩家选择的不同战斗类型。

你可以像原版游戏一样，带上一剑一盾就与敌人过招，但也可以手持双刃，以更敏捷的玩法体验游戏。

如果你没有盾牌就无法阻挡敌人的袭击，但我们还添加了另外一个“躲避”按钮可以让玩家躲过一劫。它的玩法更具技巧性，更注重躲避和防御技能，你还可以开启威力更大的连击功能。

我们还引进了重型武器，让玩家以这些巨斧和狼牙棒为装备重创敌人。虽然身负这些重装备会削弱玩家躲避敌人的灵敏性，但玩家却可以有所选择地在前后左右及中间等方位阻挡敌人进攻。

假如你的定向阻挡技能够高，你甚至可以抵御游戏中的每一次敌人袭击。这种技能还可以让你在躲避敌人的间隙对其造成定向损害。

无尽之剑 2(from pocketgamer)

那么玩家会受困于刚开始时在游戏中的武器选择类型吗，还是说可以在历险过程中更换武器？

不会。玩家在游戏中有三类武器，你可以根据自己所携带的装备决定游戏玩法。

玩家可以根据自己的需要制定战斗策略，如果遇到了一个难以招架的劲敌，可以卸下原来的武器换上更重的装备阻止敌人。这可以让玩家想出更有策略性有深度的招术，但同时也允许玩家根据自己的喜好进行战斗。

这款游戏的另一个重要功能就是武器锻造系统，它支持玩家制造个性化的装备。

多数道具和武器上都有一个宝石凹孔，游戏中有许多独特的宝石，玩家可以通过在商店购买宝石，或者拾取敌人掉落的宝石，用这些五颜六色的宝石以及特殊威力装饰自己的武器。

但是，点触屏幕在游戏场景中前行和返回原路的操作方法，还是和原版《无尽之剑》相同对吗？

我对含有虚拟摇杆/按钮，或者那些模拟传统控制器玩法的游戏并不感兴趣，触摸屏创新了人们与游戏的互动方式，我们原版的《无尽之剑》也是专为触摸屏控制方式而设计的。

《无尽之剑 2》的界面导航方式与原版游戏一样，但它的游戏场景要比原版游戏要大许多倍，而且更具非线性特点。

这款游戏中将有许多God King级别的boss需要玩家对付，而且它们很可能让玩家不断丧命。原版游戏中只有一个God King，而《无尽之剑 2》中却有6个超级boss，玩家可以按自己的顺序灭掉这些boss。

这款游戏与原版《无尽之剑》以及最近发布的小说内容有何关联？（游戏邦注：畅销书作家Sanderson根据该游戏撰写了小说《Infinity Blade: Awakening》）

它基本上吻合原版《无尽之剑》和小说中的故事背景，延续了游戏主角杀死God King之后的剧情。

在游戏中，《无尽之剑》主角Siris认为如果要挑战具有不死之身的敌手那他就需要同盟，所以就起程去寻找传说中的“无尽之剑”铸造者Worker of Secrets。

Siris得知Worker of Secrets被困在“Vault of Tears”这个地方，所以Siris开始向该地出发，到这里就是《无尽之剑 2》故事的开端。

这篇小说从玩家杀死God King开始叙述故事，其剧情与《无尽之剑 2》颇有重叠之处。如果你想知道《无尽之剑 2》开篇的内容，不妨先去看下这本书。

无尽之剑 2 (from pocketgamer)

故事剧情是这个版本的重点内容吗？我感觉原版游戏似乎并不重视故事元素。

这款新游戏当然会更重视故事元素，开发原版《无尽之剑》时，我们的目标就是先作好铺垫，以便将来打响名牌时展开更多假想，所以原版游戏侧重于塑造游戏世界和讲述故事背景。

《无尽之剑 2》也同样如此，我们希望玩家看出其游戏世界经过了精心设计和周全考虑，其中还有许多剧情支撑玩家的一切行动。我们甚至还在游戏中提及原版游戏中的情节，扩展了这款游戏内容。

总之，这款游戏会有更直接的叙事方式，它开篇的第一句话是用Pangean语（游戏邦注：这是《无尽之剑》游戏世界中的一个虚构的语言）叙述，但很快就会过渡到英语。

因为新版游戏中有更多对话，更多过场动画，我们希望玩家跳过这种虚构的语言快速融入游戏环境。

《无尽之剑 2》是否有社交功能？

和《无尽之剑》一样，我们在发布后会持续推出新功能和内容。所以这款游戏刚发布时将主要关注庞大而漫长的单人战役，但我们很快就会更新游戏内容，植入“Clash Mobs”这个新功能。

在这个功能中，游戏会出现一个威力无敌的怪物，它可能有1000万个攻击点，它的战斗力可以保持12甚至20个小时。如果超过了这个时间玩家还没有将其消灭，它就会逃之夭夭。

玩家有30秒的时间尽可能对其发起攻击，系统将保存玩家对其造成的杀伤力，当另一个玩家接着打这个怪物时，它可能就会只剩下1万个甚至更少的攻击点。

假如是成千上万的玩家联合起来攻击这个怪物，所有参与者都会获得特殊奖励，比如一件道具、许多金子或者一些宝石等。

这也是《无尽之剑 2》发布后很快就会添加的重要新功能。

无尽之剑 2 (from pocketgamer)

那么经典的玩家与玩家多人模式呢？原版游戏有这个模式，但这个续集版本好像没有。

我们很满意《无尽之剑》中的多人模式，有许多玩家现在仍然乐在其中。但我现在还不确定并肩作战、同步多人模式对手机游戏来说究竟是否可行。

所以我们将来还会进一步观察多人模式，并有针对性地对其进行调整。我们都希望扩展多人玩法（无论是竞争型还是协作型）的理念，但这种设置却需要玩家在同一时间采取行动。

而玩家其实很难找到大家都能同步作战的片刻，毕竟这并非我们使用移动设备玩游戏的习惯。

苹果iOS 5引进了一些对游戏极有用的新功能，《无尽之剑 2》会采用iOS 5的新功能吗？

我觉得iOS 5功能很棒。iCloud确实很好，我可以在一件武器中嵌入一颗宝石，然后换用iPad 2玩游戏时可以看到宝石已经在武器上了。

我认为在不同设备间无缝保存、载入和同步玩家角色资料这个功能很强大。我们强烈建议希望获得最佳游戏体验的玩家升级到iOS 5操作系统，这样到时候就可以用上iCloud等其他全新功能。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Chair Entertainment talks narrative developments, gameplay enhancements, and social features for Infinity Blade 2

by Mark Brown

Infinity Blade is back. And, just like the tenacious hero of the first game, it’s returning bigger, bolder, and all-in-all stronger for the experience.

Developer Chair Entertainment has some ambitious plans for the follow-up, including a more expansive world with a less linear path, more bad guys than you can shake a gesture-driven stick at, and monsters that will take you and a few thousand friends to topple.

We sat down with the studio’s creative director Donald Mustard to talk Infinity Blade 2 and delve deep into its strong focus on customisation and story, as well as the studio’s ambitious plans for future content.

Pocket Gamer: Let’s leap right in. Infinity Blade 2 – what’s new?

Donald Mustard: Probably one of the biggest gameplay differences in Infinity Blade 2 is that there are now three different combat styles that you can choose between as you’re playing the game.

You can equip a sword and a shield just like the first game, but you can also equip dual swords, which puts you in a different play mode where you’re much quicker.

You don’t have a shield so you can’t block, but we’ve added another ‘dodge’ button so you can duck under attacks. It’s a much more acrobatic style that relies more on dodging and parrying, and you can open up much bigger combo chains.

We also introduce the heavy weapon style, where you can equip these big axes and maces that do massive damage to your enemies. You’re kind of weighed down under the weight of those weapons and can no longer dodge, but in that style you can block directionally so I can block to the left, block to the right and block centre.

If you’re good enough, you can literally block every attack in the game, because of your directional blocking. It allows you also to do these massive parry breaks on enemies where you can do directional damage.

So are you stuck with the class you pick at the beginning, or can you swap throughout the adventure?

You’re not stuck with it, no. There’s now three categories of weapons and that style will be based on the weapon you equip.

It allows you to strategically plan out your fights. You might come up against an enemy and go, ‘You know what? I have a tough time dodging this enemy’s attacks so I want to pick a heavier weapon so I can block.’ It allows for a much deeper, strategic play, but also allows you to gravitate to the style of play you prefer.

One of the other really big features is the ability to customise all of your gear with a weapon forging system we’ve introduced.

Most items and weapons have gem slots in them, and there are hundreds of unique gems in the game that you can find and buy in the store and get from enemy drops that will allow you to customise your weapons with all kinds of cool and unique perks and bonuses and stat boosts.

But the underlying formula, of tapping to move between environments and looping back around at the end, will be the same, right?

You know, I’m not a huge fan – at all – of games that use a simulated joystick or buttons or try and emulate the type of gameplay that we’d see on a traditional controller. Having these touchscreen is a huge opportunity to discover new ways to interact with games and that’s why we very deliberately designed Infinity Blade the way we did.

Navigation in the environment works exactly the same as it did in the first game, but Infinity Blade 2 is many times bigger than the first and it’s much more non-linear.

We’re going to continue with the bloodline style of gameplay – where there will be God King-esque bosses that will cause you to actually die and have to come back after time – but where the first game had one God King, we have six uber bosses in Infinity Blade 2. Players will be able to tackle those bosses in any order that makes sense.

How does the game’s story tie-in to the first game, and the book (the recently released novel Infinity Blade Awakening)

The game pretty much picks up right after the events of Infinity Blade and the the events of the novel, from a fictional standpoint, with someone in this vast bloodline of heroes finally defeating the God King.

Siris [as the person you were playing as when you completed Infinity Blade has been retroactively named] decides that he needs allies if he’s going to attempt to fight the deathless, and so he sets off in search of the ‘Worker of Secrets’ who is purportedly the creator of the Infinity Blade.

Siris finds that the Worker of Secrets is trapped in this place called the Vault of Tears, and so Siris begins to head there and that’s where you’ll find yourself in the opening act of Infinity Blade 2.

The book picks up immediately after you kill the God King, and actually leads up to and overlaps a little bit of the opening of Infinity Blade 2. So if you want to know what’s happening at the start of Infinity Blade 2, go read the book!

Is the story going to be a big focus this time around? I felt like narrative took a back seat in the first game.

We definitely have much more story this time. Our goal with Infinity Blade was to set the stage for what this world could be and some of the much larger fiction we were hoping to get into if the brand took off. More focused on the world and telling a story with the environment.

That’s very much the same in Infinity Blade 2. We want to make sure that the world feels like its very considered, and there’s a lot of fiction bolstering everything you’re seeing and doing. We’re even alluding to things in the first game that will hopefully make sense down the road and further expansions of the franchise.

That being said, there’s a much more direct narrative this time. So much so that in the second game the first line is in Pangean (Infinity Blade’s fictional language) and then we quickly transition to English.

There’s so much more dialogue in the game this time, and so many more cut-scenes, that we wanted you to be able to follow along without having to listen to our made-up language.

Will Infinity Blade 2 have any social features?

Much like we did with the first Infinity Blade we have many features and content plans in the coming months. So right at launch the game will primarily be focused on this vast, lengthy single-player campaign. However, pretty quickly after launch we’ll be updating the game with a new feature that we’re calling Clash Mobs.

So imagine we’ll have an event where there’s a monster that’s got amazingly huge number of hit points – say 10 million – and that monster will be available to fight for 12 or 24 hours. At the end of that, if its not killed, it will run away.

You’ll get one 30 second chance to do as much damage to that enemy. The damage that you’ve done will be saved persistently, so when the next person fights the boss it will have 10,000 or so fewer hit points.

And then, collectively, if a couple hundred thousand or a million people band together and defeat this guy, they’ll all get a unique reward – an item or lots of gold or some cool gem.

That’s a big new feature that’s coming soon after launch.

What about classic, player on player multiplayer? We saw that in an update for the first game, but it looks like it’s absent in the sequel.

We were really happy with the multiplayer that we put out for Infinity Blade 1, and we have thousands of people playing it all the time that love the multiplayer. But what I don’t know is if head to head, synchronous multiplayer is the right way to be making multiplayer stuff for mobile devices.

So we will be looking at multiplayer again in the future and we’ll be adjusting it accordingly. We want to expand the idea of playing together – whether that’s competitively or cooperatively – but doing that in a way that’s not tied to you having to do it at exactly the same time.

It’s just too hard to find two or five minutes where you’re both able to sync up. That’s not the way we use these devices right now.

Apple’s new iOS 5 has introduced some cool new features for games. Will we see any of that sort of stuff in Infinity Blade 2?

I think iOS 5 is incredible. iCloud is really cool, but it’s one thing to see it in a book and another to be playing Infinity Blade 2 on my iPhone 4S, and I forge a gem into one of my weapons and I pick up my iPad 2 and there it is, with my weapon equipped with that gem forged into my slot.

I think having my character profile save, load, and sync seamlessly across devices instantly is huge. We very highly recommend that people upgrade their devices to iOS 5 before playing Infinity Blade 2, if you want it optimal, highest performing, with iCloud and other features.（source:pocketgamer）