Home > EXCLUSIVE: Fractured Soul Developer Interviewed
Originally published on Link's Hideaway.
Fractured Soul recently released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop and we managed to snag an interview with the games developer - Endgame Studios. While we do not usually post about non-Zelda topics here on Link's Hideaway, we have recently decided to delve into this realm due to the recent lack of Zelda news. For those unaware of what Fractured Soul consists of - take a peak at the official trailer below.
Does it have you interested? Do you want to know where the screen swapping concept came from? Well just take a peak at our developer Q & A after the break.
1. This might be a common one, but what sparked the idea of screen swapping?
Initially, it was Ikaruga that got us thinking around the concept of duality. Duality seemed like a natural fit for the DS at the time, and so too the 3DS now. So Fractured Soul behaves like Ikaruga as a platformer spread across two screens.
2. Why did you decide to tell the story the way that you did?
We've made no secret of the fact that there's no heavy story to wade through in Fractured Soul. Initially there was, but we found - like in most platform games - that 99% of people were just frantically mashing the A button to skip through the cutscenes and get to the action. So we figured we'd give people what they wanted and get straight to the action. Story never interrupts gameplay in Fractured Soul - the gameplay is king for us. So we tell our story in small paragraphs on the loading screen. One or two critics haven't appreciated this, but the gamers have so far responded well. I mean, would you prefer we spent time writing story or improving gameplay? I know what I'd prefer!
3: The game is very challenging, did this sway your reasoning to limit the amount of controls?
Exactly. Switching screens is a very important action in Fractured Soul. It is a new control and it's a new skill that needs to be learned. You feel great when you learn it, a real sense of accomplishment. In concentrating on the screen switching, we didn't want to pull people away from that and have them think about many other different buttons they needed to be pressing.
4: Any reason why you decided to leave the 3D and touch aspects out of the game?
We omitted the Stereoscopic 3D simply because it would have hurt the eyes to switching between a stereoscopic screen and a regular screen. It wouldn't have worked at all. Again, one or two critics have come down on us for that, but really, it would have been a terrible decision to include it. We had touch screen controls for a while (to pan the camera around to find secrets) but it interrupted the flow of the game, and Fractured Soul is all about flow and rhythm. If you're looking for marketing bullet points, Fractured Soul isn't your game. We sacrificed those for better gameplay.
5. If you were to create a sequel, what would you change?
We would probably opt for 2D graphics rather than 3D. We pushed the 3DS GPU to its limit so there's no room left to move with it in 3D now. As much as we'd love to do an epic sequel, if we were to target eShop again, we'd probably do something with an appropriate amount of content (i.e. less content, lower price point). We are surprised by how difficult some people are finding the game, but then other people have no trouble with it at all, so that's something we'd need to think about as well - should we try to make it more inclusive or stick to the hardcore difficulty? Ultimately, the fans will drive these decisions.
So there you have it straight from the developer. Were there any questions you wanted answered? Got any complaints? Let us know in the comments and we will be sure to update you if Endgame Studios should comment.
About the Author:
Austin Dickson
Austin Dickson has been around the Zelda fandom for years. He started Link's Hideaway as a small personal project, which later turned into something of which he never thought possible. He enjoys writing articles, guides, walkthroughs, and developing the different Concealed Gaming network sites.
