Cabal II has been very quiet since going into Open Beta a couple of weeks back, and Korean website ThisIsGame.com has published a new interview with developer ESTsoft to have some questions answered, including what the future holds. Note that only selected questions were translated.
Q: The combat and animations in Cabal II seems mild compared to its predecessor’s. Is there a change in design philosophy?
A: Cabal II has different design aspects compared to Cabal, hence the change in combat. Cabal was meant to be an entry-level game (easy for gamers to get in), with focus on personal combat. Hence, there were many AOE attacks, something similar to Dynasty Warriors.
The philosophy for Cabal II is to allow players who have progressed from that entry-level and want to experience a more immersed gameplay. Therefore, parties will see the roles of tanks, DPS and healing being prominent. Action tempo is lowered to allow all party members to keep up with each other, not just focused on personal combat.
However, the direction of action still has not really changed. Since it is just the Open Beta now, it is still early to announce all the skills.
Q: Although there is combo in Cabal II, the familiar chained combo is missing.
A: While chained combo is a very fun system, it does not make the whole game. Cabal II originally has chained combo before CBT 2, but we found out that players are too focused on it, hence ignoring map awareness and party members. Cabal II is positioned as a traditional MMORPG, so we eventually we eliminated the feature.
Q: Cabal II has made big changes since Cabal, are there players who complained about them?
A: To say everyone is satisfied with Cabal II would be a lie. There are those who wanted Cabal II to be similar to Cabal, but there are also those who are optimistic about Cabal II’s changes.
Q: In traditional MMORPGs, the endgame content usually comprises of dungeon raids and PvP. What about Cabal II?
A: Our focus for endgame content will be on PvP features, as we want everyone to be able to experience it. During our game planning, we considered gamers’ game time as the main catalyst.
To gather enough players and complete endgame dungeons, it will take a total of around 2 hours, which will place gamers like the working crowd at a disadvantage.
Q: The battle arena map is designed somewhat similar to League of Legend and Dota’s. What will the future PvP maps be like?
A: The next battlefield will be designed with inspiration from the movie, Cube. 2 teams will wander from room to room, each room with its own boss. There will be many rooms to choose from, some tougher, some easier and some will lead teams further away from the goal. While the first battlefield (arena) map is more on team strategies, this new one will focus on choices made.
Q: Will there be other PvP features other than the battlefield maps?
A: We are still designing the 1 Vs 1 arena. We will then scale accordingly to increase the player headcount.
Q: Cabal II has many more cut-scenes compared to Cabal.
A: For Cabal, the team did spend a lot of time on the storyline. However, perhaps due to how it was expressed, players tend to ignore or missed it. Hence, in order to avoid the same problem in Cabal II, we spent more time on storytelling.
This eventually led to more development time and resources spent, but to allow players to immerse in the game, this step is unavoidable.
Q: What does the future hold for Cabal II?
A: We will be having our second content update in January 2013. Items include increased level cap, new areas, and the “Battle Mode” system from Cabal will also be added. The secret behind the game’s opening scene will also be revealed.
