Might & Magic X - Interview @ Worthplaying

Wortplaying tossed up some questions to Ubisoft about Might & Magic X and got some replies.

Q: To you, which features are now outdated? How do you keep the balance between “old school” sensibilities and today’s "state of the art" standards?

A: One of the strengths of the Might & Magic RPG series is the fact the previous games always aimed for greater accessibility. MM2 introduced the automap feature, MM3 had one of the very first questlogs – maybe even THE first one. The series quickly embraced mouse control, icons and colors to make the information clearer, etc. Thanks to that, a game like World of Xeen remains very playable today and has aged better than other RPGs of its time (not speaking of the technical side of course).

For Might & Magic X - Legacy, we tried to maintain this tradition of accessibility. Accessibility, by the way, is not to be confused with simplification. Accessibility is not about making the game less complex, but making it easier to use and understand. So Might & Magic X has detailed tooltips, clear signs and feedback, drag-and-drop interface, quick-action bar, etc. Nothing extraordinary, but important features players are used to finding in modern RPGs.

One thing we didn’t keep from the older games is the need to “validate” your level-up by spending gold in a training center. This seemed a little too old-school and in a grid-based game would have meant a tedious amount of backtracking.