In 3 seperate threads I’ll post about each one of Crossbeam STudios 3 up and coming Wii games. This comes from a new and rising studio that only has 30 people developing. Yet there is quite a bit of talent in here and I’m excited to start seeing more about the products as soon as a developer takes them up.
In this first discussion we’ll talk about their premeir project Orb.
The Series
Orb is an entirely new series being developed exclusively for the Nintendo Wii by Crossbeam Studios. The game is an action adventure and will have similar elements to that of hte popular series saling over 50 million units, Zelda. The game is split up into 6 series which makes it a very expansive world.
Storyline
The story originated from a series of dreams that Crossbeam founder Greg Szemiot had. Inspired and moved by these images in his sleep, Greg put pen to paper and came up with a draft of a storyline. When he and his friends decided to make a game, the story Greg had written was the natural choice for it, and as Orb came along and more people had their hand in its progress, it found itself in its current story, one of a bitter war led against a nation by a brutal army, the Kulon. The nation Delphire eventually falls to Kulon, as the latter tears through the former’s people, striking down men, women and children indiscriminately, and ultimately one particularly fierce Kulon warrior crowns himself as ruler of the land. Continuing his arrogant power trip, the self-imposed king decides that he’d rather like to control everybody’s lives and souls in every way possible, including (but not limited to) their beliefs; ah, religion, the most powerful weapon known to man. There is a problem with this though: in the world of Orb there are Imanti, ‘Guardians of Faith’, who, well, guard the faith. Our glorious leader decides that one such way to control belief would be to go straight to the source and kidnap an Imanti, which he happily does. However, he doesn’t reckon upon this particular Imanti having trainees underneath him, who aren’t too thrilled that their mentor has been whipped from beneath their noses. They set off after him but, as with any great tale, they may be letting themselves in for far more than they bargained for…It is this storyline, full of death and destruction, that is making Orb teeter between being rated as a teen or mature game.
To dwell in the massive land of Delphire (which has had its entire topography changed at least once), races with unique cultures, religions, affiliations and pasts have been thought up – around 200 years worth of history has been written for the land, in fact, and via sidequests players will be able to explore this history. As well as the playable characters, there are a further 50 or so important inhabitants of the land, who each have a personal back-story envisioned. As if this wasn’t enough, a further 100 characters will play some role in the title, and the team have even studied quantum mechanics, anthropology, religion, martial arts and Celtic ancestory in great detail in order to create the greatest story and game that they could – it’s safe to say that this wasn’t patched together over a rushed coffee at the last minute before a Monday morning meeting.(link)
Gameplay
Such a promising sounding storyline requires deep gameplay to match it, and this seems to be what we will be getting with Orb. In addition to the in-depth weaponry system mentioned earlier, there is an intricate magic system, which involves fighting, healing and environmental effects – use of magic will be incorporated into puzzles. There are 30 separate locations with 70 interconnecting areas to go through with six playable characters, and Crossbeam have been thinking hard about how to create a greater sense of freedom to traverse these locations – there are plans to have multiple ways to do things, each with their own separate risks, with one such example given being how to get over a river. Hypothetically, you could take a boat, which could have the capacity to get attacked or sunk, you could swim and risk drowning, you could use magic to walk or fly across the water, but it could run out and leave you in a deadly situation, or you might even choose to use magic to breath underwater – but you run the risk of getting eaten by a fish! All this adds to their goal of creating a game so deep that not everything can be absorbed in just one playthrough because there’s simply so much to do - 'epic' is one adjective they would like people to be able to use to describe it. In the words of Greg Szemiot, Crossbeam director and one of the lead designers of Orb: “It’s up to the player to be ready and plan ahead, but also to just go for it at times.”
Characters
Over a dozen main characters are supposed to fill the game. Only 3 I know of have been announced as playable but of those 12 they may all be playable. Here is a list and description of some of those characters:
Dyces- One of the main characters for Orb, he seems to be a somewhat dark character due to a traumatic childhood of some kind, little else is known.
Mahten - One of the three main characters of Orb who is depicted as using some type of chain-whip weapon, due to the little information released, little is known about him also.
Simique - The last of the three main characters of Orb, like the others little is known of her. She has green eyes and is depicted wearing her brown hair in pig tails.
Maron - A mysterious woman carrying a sword
Miya - A bow and dagger wielding maiden
Thera - A redheaded woman who is a ruler of some kind
Darsie - A woman with incredibly long hair.
Moteh - All that is known is that it is a name of someone in the game. Some believe it is the name of the kidnapped Imanti the students are following after, however, recent updates to the Crossbeam Studios website have shown this to be false.
Strysis - In a recent update to the Crossbeam Sutdios website, the name of the Imanti has been revealed as Strysis. Nothing else is known about this character.
Graphics
The style will be pretty close to that of Zelda and Final Fantasy. Only one screenshot has been released which is PC designed which will represent what the game is supposed to look like:
Also though a lot of cool concept art has been released really showing off the depth this game will have.
Many others also fill the web.
Orb truly does look like a good game but it’s in all hope that Crossbeam Studios can deliver. The up and rising company is still sketchy on if they are going to ever be able to get any of their projects out but they work hard night and day until a publisher picks them up which from what they say have a lot of devs looking into them. Could they be the next Bungie? Who knows. But Orb is very intriguing and hopefully for more facts and and data soon.
Next time I’ll go over Crossbeam Studios Sci Fi game Thorn.
__________________
