Hello everyone! This is Kevin Choteau, Game Director at Asobo and very excited about everything we’ve worked on to bring you A Plague Tale: Requiem! The game releases on October 18 on PlayStation 5, three years after its prequel, Innocence. Time has therefore passed, and the same goes for our two heroes, Amicia and Hugo, whom we will find in Requiem six months after saying goodbye to them in Innocence. They are both children, subject to constant development, so you can expect them to have changed! And that will impact how you play with them… Let’s take a look at that now.
The end of innocence
Hugo and Amicia have had to evolve a lot, and quickly to face the trials that life imposes on them. They are confronted with the extreme cruelty of their time and experience atrocities and events far greater than themselves. So their personalities and abilities evolve in the process. Amicia learns to fight and kill, and Hugo learns to use his power. And that doesn’t strictly involve physical skills, it also means dealing with the morality of their actions and the trauma that such an amount of violence can cause.
Following the events of Innocence, Amicia is more battle hardened. This is evident when looking at her new weapon set, which includes not only an upgraded version of the sling she used in Innocence, but also a crossbow, a weapon of war.
Hugo was really just a spectator at the start of Innocence, learning about the world and marveling at everything. But he becomes active as he becomes aware of the danger: he has an extraordinary power which he began to use at the end of Innocence, and he continues in this way in Requiem.
Our two heroes have therefore matured and are ready for action. But that’s a lot to ask of two kids, and taking on those roles means developing a sense of darkness. This will be part of how they can use their abilities: weighing their actions and the amount of darkness they let in will be the key to getting out of it.
Amicia Abilities
Learning to control yourself will be one of Amicia’s main challenges. Her trauma resurfaces and she must face how far she can go to protect her brother. His fight to learn and accept to use force and to kill can lead him to take a liking to it. Requiem constantly puts her in a position to question the limits of survival and protection instincts. She has overcome the hesitation, but the risk for her of sinking completely into violence is real.
This internal conflict arises in a context where threats are unleashed. In Innocence, the opponents were the Inquisition and fairly organized English soldiers. In Requiem, Amicia and Hugo will face more violent and unpredictable mercenaries and smugglers. Our team has put a lot of effort into designing its intelligence and reactions to each situation. Their ability to adapt to Amicia movements will truly challenge players!
Amicia will have to control this risk of escalation, and this will be made possible by the agency given to players to approach situations and resolve them. The range of tools she can use will expand, with new alchemical recipes, her upgraded sling, and a crossbow. But more importantly, a whole new spatial dynamic will be introduced.
Amicia will rely heavily on resources specific to the environment and make them its strongest asset. She will develop guerrilla approaches to surprise and harass their opponents, using what is available in the environment to her advantage, from tarps to slow down enemies to tall flammable grass. In terms of gameplay, this results in much more open encounters than what we had in Innocence, accommodating the much larger environments introduced in this new chapter. This means that the danger can be approached in several ways, in a context where there is much to explore. You can compose your own mix of alchemy, stealth and action, using a knife in melee combat if need be! Not only does this prevent escalation if done right, but it allows Amicia and Hugo to evolve from a more vulnerable survival attitude to growing confidence in the face of enemies.
Hugo’s Abilities
Hugo’s supernatural power perfectly represents the duality between their children’s souls and the huge stakes he and his sister become responsible for. There is a dizzying dimension brought by the rats which is an essential aspect of the game: there is this gigantic, unstoppable force, it’s scary but you have to fight it to survive.
The risk of Hugo losing control while fighting him makes it all the more intimidating. We were able to witness this in Innocence, and it becomes a significant threat in Requiem. He could destroy an entire city…! We reach a scale of threat and fear that was not possible in the days of Innocence.
Psychologically too, there is a significant impact in using his powers: Hugo manages to share the perception and feelings of rats… Each time he does, it hurts him a little more. It also impacts the player’s experience and teaches them to be careful. At the same time, there is a certain vicious pleasure in unleashing this power… but the consequences follow and there is a price to pay! It’s a story of moral dilemmas, with the progress of the Macula and the lives of people dear to Hugo at stake.
I hope you’re as excited as I am to play the next chapter of Amicia and Hugo! Our team still has so much to share with you ahead of release, so stay tuned for more! A Plague Tale: Requiem is out October 18 on PlayStation 5. You can Pre-order now to get exclusive bonuses.
