The Sword Coast Legends news keeps pouring in, this time in the form of an interview with MMORPG.com. Unlike the short FAQ on their forums and the relatively soft question and answer session they released earlier this week, this latest interview digs a little deeper and required n-Space’s Dan Tudge and Wizards of the Coast’s Nathan Stewart to give some comparatively verbose replies.
Tudge says the game will launch with six of D&D 5E’s twelve classes, the cleric, fighter, paladin, ranger, rogue, and wizard; and with five of the nine playable races: Dwarf, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, and Human. Tudge defends these decisions by explaining that n-Space is an indie developer, and has to think about what it can manage while shipping on time and providing a quality game.
There was also an interesting question about how Sword Coast Legends stacks up against Neverwinter Nights, another, older 3D D&D RPG set in the Sword Coast.
MMORPG: How does Sword Coast Legends compare to Neverwinter Nights, as many will likely draw comparisons?
Tudge: Right now a lot of people are talking about how Sword Coast Legends feels reminiscent of Neverwinter Nights (NWN); it’s a comparison that is definitely warranted. SCL is a classic Forgotten Realms adventure on the Sword Coast. It features tactical pause and play combat with an isometric camera in real-time 3D environments (vs. pre-rendered backgrounds). However, it’s the inclusion of DM mode where comparisons to NWN are probably the strongest. Despite both having DM capability, players will find the DM experience in SCL quite different from NWN, finding instead a system that enables DMs to quickly jump in and immediately start playing in real-time. All told, our inspiration has come from many sources, from a lifetime of playing D&D on the tabletop and to the legacy of so many great RPGs such as Dragon Age: Origins and the Baldur’s Gate series—inspiration that will enviably invoke comparisons the more of SCL we show to the world.
Sword Coast Legends looks like it could be the DM-friendly, module-based Neverwinter Nights successor that D&D fans have been hoping for. Those who can’t wait until its release later this year can browse the game’s official home page to occupy themselves until then.
