Elderand is a promising Metroidvania developed by Mantra and Sinergia Games which boasts a number of interesting features to help it stand out within the genre. As a metroidvania, Elderand involves plenty of exploration and challenging combat, while a more traditional RPG progression system allows for much more involved character customization than usual for the genre.
The Best War Games recently spoke with Will Fernandes, Elderand's creative director and game designer about the game's history, its various influences and design choices, and Elderand's future plans. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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Q: How did Elderand take shape in the early days? What inspired the team to make this game?
A: The idea to create Elderand was born 8 years ago. Back then, there weren’t many Metroidvanias out there besides the classics. I always loved Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SOTN) and wanted to create something that had the same essence.
Q: Elderand won several awards at one of Brazil's biggest gaming events. How did this early success affect the game's development? Were you surprised by the reception?
A: It was great to have a good reception at the events. I was a little surprised at the beginning because it was just me doing everything. The good reception gave me the confidence and strength to pursue my goals with this project. The big change happened when we got an investment to create the game. It made it possible to hire more talented professionals to help with development.
Q: What gameplay elements do you feel are most important for a good Metroidvania?
A: Exploration for sure. The world needs to be carefully orchestrated to deliver the best experience possible to the player. The second one is the controls. The controls for the players need to feel great. The combat has to be engaging, funny and juicy. After all, you’re going to spend a lot of time interacting with the controls during play. The last one is the progression. I love when Metroidvanias give you the opportunity to get so strong that you can become a god at the game’s end. But there needs to be steady progression so that the difficulty doesn’t rise too quickly or that your journey is a cakewalk.
Q: These kinds of games demand finely-tuned mechanics in order to create a satisfying gaming experience. What was the most challenging thing to perfect when developing Elderand?
A: I would say developing the player's movement. For me, making a solid jump is always something that is difficult to do. Combat as well. We have a lot of weapons and types of attacks, which can make it hard to calibrate the inputs. For instance, trying to guess what the player is going to do on every frame. It requires a lot of testing and alterations.
Q: Elderand is described as "a love letter to Castlevania." What about this classic influenced Elderand?
A: SOTN is our bible. The controls, secrets, level design, memorable bosses, and enemies are all perfect. We also love the colorful gothic style, which we took inspiration from for Elderand.
Q: Besides Castlevania, what other influences helped shape Elderand's identity?
A: Lovecraft is one of the deepest influences when it comes to world design and lore. Dark Souls and Diablo have some design elements that I love, so I brought them into Elderand too.
Q: Elderand holds some Soulslike influences, how does the game appeal to fans of that genre?
A: I really love Soulslike games. In Elderand you need to be careful to approach some enemies. The combat looks simple, but it’s deeper than you think. There are many ways to play Elderand. The player can express themself through the combat.
Most importantly, Elderand is not a Soulslike, so don’t expect bonfires that revive enemies or “souls” that you lose if you die. It's not about dying. Not every enemy will be painful to beat. Some enemies exist just because it feels good to smash them and have some time to relax.
Q: What makes 2D games like Elderand work so well with some Soulslike features?
A: The exploration of Soulslike game is very similar to Metroidvanias. You have connected rooms, shortcuts, secrets, and the main thing, you are rewarded by exploring.
Q: Players will encounter a number of unique bosses and creatures throughout Elderand. Do you have any favorites in terms of gameplay or design?
It’s a tough question. I love the design of Sserthris because he’s very intimidating.
Q: This style of game can be brutally challenging. How do you strike a balance between too frustrating and too easy?
A: That’s something critical. The game needs to be fair. The player needs to understand why he died and how he died. Also, I think that it’s important to avoid unnecessary repetition, like when you die at the boss, but the save is so far that you must walk the entire way again to fight the boss. Just make the way shorter.
The difficulty of the game depends on how powerful the player can be. If you give tools to the player that makes them very strong, then the enemies and everything else need to be challenging to engage the player. It’s a difficult thing to do well.
Q: The game features some highly detailed hand-drawn environments. Are there any areas you're particularly proud of in terms of execution?
A: All of them, but Omulore is outstanding. If you closely look at the background, you will see several layers of details.
Q: Was there anything you tried when developing the game that won't be making it into the final version?
A: We had to scale back a lot of content because we were running into feature creep and probably would still be far away from release. We had something similar to the “Familiars” from SOTN, that we had to cut out. Maybe it will be a DLC. Who knows?
Q: Can you talk a little about Elderand's plot and why our hero is fighting their way through this terrifying place?
A: The hero is not really a hero. He’s a mercenary trying to execute a target. But he wasn’t expecting to fight against a cult and terrible creatures in a mystical place.
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Q: There are a variety of weapons available in Elderand. Will players need to frequently switch weapons to succeed, or is it more about finding a favorite weapon and building on that?
A: We designed Elderand so that players don’t need to switch their weapons every time to have success. We want players to play how they want to play. But you can have amazing results combining different builds and changing between them.
Q: Is DLC on the table for Elderand? Will there possibly be new enemies, weapons, or challenges introduced to the game post-release?
A: It’s possible, but right now we’re focused on the launch.
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Elderand releases on February 16 for Nintendo Switch and PC.
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