The Story of Bistun guarantees to supply a narrative of fable and magic set in opposition to the backdrop of Persian mythology when it launches for Xbox subsequent month.
The poem ‘Khosrow and Shirin’ tells of a tragic romance, and it’s the inspiration behind action-adventure recreation The Story of Bistun. We reached out to the builders to search out out extra, with Black Dice Video games’ Ehsan Tahmoures and Majid Rahmani having been form sufficient to reply our questions.
What’s The Story of Bistun?
The Story of Bistun is an action-adventure recreation with a wealthy story, impressed by the Persian poem ‘Khosrow and Shirin’. It’s in growth from Black Dice Video games and is printed by IMGN.Professional.
When does The Story of Bistun launch?
We don’t have too lengthy to attend for The Story of Bistun, which launches for Xbox One subsequent month on July thirteenth!
What’s it about?
So, we all know that The Story of Bistun is impressed by the twelfth century Persian poem ‘Khosrow and Shirin’, which tells of a tragic romance. “Within the poems, as you may guess from the title, the king of Persia (Khosrow) and the princess of Armenia (Shirin) are the 2 principal characters,” Tahmoures and Rahmani clarify. “The unique story is about their amorous affairs that finish tragically. However, on this lengthy poem, one other character has remained within the minds of individuals greater than the opposite characters regardless of his brief presence. The story of The Story of Bistun is a couple of stone carver (Farhad) who dares to perform an not possible process to succeed in his love: constructing a passage, alone, via a mountain,” Tahmoures and Rahmani proceed. “That is the purpose that distinguishes Farhad from different characters: doing one thing very onerous to attain a aim. For us at Black Dice Video games, a small crew, growing indie video games by adapting tales from Persian myths has been our ardour for thus lengthy. And Farhad’s dedication via his journey impressed us to maintain on and begin our tales with this particular Persian fable.”
So, we play as that stone carver, who wakes up on Mount Bistun with no reminiscence of how he got here to be there. In the meantime, a mysterious blight is corrupting the world, making monsters out of the wildlife. “The supply of the blight is a titan-sized deev” (a demonic creature) “named Bistun, who’s guarding a mysterious hidden realm known as the Revelations Realm. The blight is a illness that has appeared in Talisman Stones and as glowing tentacles across the timber and which has troubled nature throughout Persia,” Tahmoures and Rahmani say. “Farhad has to destroy these Talisman Stones to assist nature, and in return, he’ll obtain magical pomegranates. Farhad will bear in mind elements of his forgotten reminiscences by consuming these divine fruits. He’ll do not forget that he was in love with a princess who’s now caught within the Revelations Realm, captivated by Bistun deev. However is that this the entire story?” Tahmoures and Rahmani ask. “No! Why does Bistun deev attempt to pollute nature? And why has Farhad gotten amnesia and misplaced his reminiscences?”
Based on the sport’s Steam web page, the story will likely be instructed by an omniscient narrator, “who recounts the stone carver’s steps and particulars his innermost ideas.” The stone carver can even apparently have the ability to bear in mind elements of his previous by sculpting statues, and by filling the sport’s hub space with reminders of his experiences.
How does The Story of Bistun play?
Exploration and fight are “each important elements of the sport’s core loop,” Tahmoures and Rahmani clarify. “Fight largely serves as a pace-breaker throughout exploration and story beats, whereas in exploration you could find three sorts of collectibles alongside your journey. These collectibles all are story-related however one focuses on the backstory and the world of the sport, whereas the opposite two are associated to the primary character and his persona. The third a part of the core loop, nevertheless,” Tahmoures and Rahmani add, “is the Revelation Realm. All that occurs on this realm is story content material. Development of the story and the sport itself is closely carried over by Revelation Realm sequences.”
It’s an attention-grabbing concept, to characteristic parts impressed by Persian mythology within the recreation — and this extends to its enemies, too. “We tried to design enemies based mostly on Persian folklore. For instance, deev and Parry are each legendary creatures in Persian legends and we put them in our recreation,” Tahmoures and Rahmani say. “Nonetheless, we did not merely give attention to the folkloric side of enemies but in addition by way of gameplay, so we designed each melee and mid-range enemies. Though the fight system of the sport isn’t that complicated, we nonetheless needed enemies to one way or the other function a counter capability to the character.” There are six sorts of enemies to face: “some melee enemies swarm on the participant whereas others are powerful, extra highly effective deevs in virtually one-to-one battles. Relating to the mid-range enemies, there are troopers that struggle with spears and shields. Parry, as talked about above, is one other mid-ranged enemy that casts a magical orb which follows the participant for a particular time.”
What’s the world like?
Our character will journey between the true world, on Mount Bistun, and the world of forgotten reminiscences: the Revelations Realm. “The sport’s hub is a peaceable foggy mountain the place Farhad can dig via Mount Bistun, discuss to NPCs, carve statues, engrave inscriptions, discover Reminiscence stones, and uncover revelations,” Tahmoures and Rahmani say. “Utilizing Reminiscence stones, Farhad discovers a darkish hidden realm the place a mysterious whisper guides him to the Fortress of Oblivion: a dreadful place the place a large deev wanders round it.”
Any information on The Story of Bistun achievements?
We don’t but have The Story of Bistun achievements, however Tahmoures and Rahmani gave us an concept of the design course of behind them. “The Additional Credit YouTube channel has an impressive episode on designing achievements in its earlier seasons; it was one in all our sources of inspiration,” Tahmoures and Rahmani start. “Alongside it there have been some scientific articles about rewards and achievements each in human life and video video games. We even have years of expertise as players looking trophies and achievements! Primarily based on the aforementioned sources, we needed some achievements that gamers will ultimately acquire simply by following the story and ending the sport. Nonetheless, most of them should not seen within the achievements part of the console or PC so as to not spoil something. However,” Tahmoures and Rahmani proceed, “there are some non-obligatory actions within the recreation that gamers might do or miss, like amassing collectibles. So we devoted elements of our achievements to non-obligatory duties, however we choose gamers to do them. So we have teased a few of them within the achievements menu and have let a few of them keep hidden. Lastly,” Tahmoures and Rahmani conclude, “there are some issues that we are able to say are simply aesthetic. Issues that after they happen it’s possible you’ll suppose, ‘that may very well be cool if I get an achievement there’. And so right here it’s, an achievement pop-up. They’re there for gamers who need to full the sport or attain 100% achievement-wise, with out overwhelming the gamers a lot.”
Out of all that, what are they most excited for gamers to expertise when The Story of Bistun launches? “Since there are few video video games based mostly on Persian mythology, we’re most excited to learn how a lot the gamers are concerned with it,” Tahmoures and Rahmani reply. “Are they anticipating extra?”
What do you suppose? Will you be heading to Mount Bistun to uncover its mysteries and get well your reminiscences? Tell us within the feedback!
