The influences have come full circle. Now, instead of a comic full of JRPG flavour, it's a JRPG with graphic novel seasoning. For example, panels featuring Madureira's art display during certain combat moves, making the battle system feel like a hybrid of comic action sequences and videogames.
Madureira feels passionate about making a Western JRPG. "Why aren't people in the states making these games?" he asks. "There's a lot of love for these old games but there aren't many studios that are willing to do it, so we kind of took it upon ourselves to do something."
Outside the classically orchestrated combat though, Airship Syndicate are looking to make Nightwar a little different from traditional JRPGs. "We have randomly generated dungeons, we have randomly generated loot, and the dungeons are more action-based," notes Madureira, citing Diablo as a point of reference.
Interactive stories vs linear narrative
Changing the Battle Chasers universe from a linear comic narrative to an interactive adventure game has been quite the challenge for Airship Syndicate. "It's more open-ended. We want people to replay dungeons and try different things, and that breaks the linear narrative of a comic book," Madureira explains.
"It's hard finding the balance," he says. "Darksiders was definitely a little more linear. It had cinematic moments that were presented in a linear fashion and it was a little easier to tell a robust story there. But with Battle Chasers we're keeping it a little more high level."
Battle Chasers fans will discover that the narrative unfolds in a way they're not used to. Now they'll be finding out about the ‘arcanepunk' world through the environment and collected items rather than just conversation. It's been an opportunity for Madureira to build his world beyond what's capable in comic panels, which place emphasis on lean, direct storytelling.
