Blue Protocol – September Interview Details

So, the CEDEC 2020 event recently took place in Japan. CEDEC specifically standing for Computer Entertainment Developers Conference for those of you that didn’t know. I didn’t so I figured it was worth mentioning.
Bandai Namco and the Blue Protocol team were present and went on to answer a variety of different questions, elaborating on additional features and content that was present in the Closed Beta test.

First touched on were the visuals. Blue Protocol is being built on Unreal Engine 4 as opposed to Unreal Engine 3 like Elyon and other MMOs and features cel-shaded graphics with an emphasis on character expression.
Many players are concerned whenever MMOs are developed using Unreal Engine 3 and it stands to reason as to why: They’re clunky, unoptimized messes for the most part. Utilizing the strengths of Unreal Engine 4 allows Blue Protocol to compete with other MMOs released “overseas.” Their words.

They went on to elaborate on why they went with a cel-shaded graphical style: It was because they wanted the game to feel like you were playing through a theatrical movie as opposed to a video game.
Which is an interesting route to take for sure, but if you’ve played through some of their JRPGs – or heck, JRPGs in general then it makes sense. JRPGs are more about telling a story than they are about gameplay.
Square with Final Fantasy, Bandai with the Tales of games. Konami with the Suikoden games. They were all about telling a deep, rich story as opposed to wowing you with flashy graphics and combat.
And if there’s anything you know about me, it’s that I love a good story in my games. It’s why I love Final Fantasy XIV so much and why we’re playing through ESO and Guild Wars 2 currently.

Then they went on to detail the world setting. Originally they’d planned to make Blue Protocol a scifi MMO, but after playing around with the game they realized that isn’t the direction they wanted to take the game.
Instead, the theme “What if Human beings around the 16th century, like soldiers wearing armor, suddenly acquired useful technology and made space suits?” And things just took off from there.
He thought it’d be an interesting idea, taking things that wouldn’t be capable of coexisting within the same world, the same time, and meshing them together.
They further went on to expand on the character issues: Making an Anime-themed MMO came with its own selection of issues.
A cel-shaded game limited what they could realistically do, but they really wanted to bring their game-their characters to life, and so they went on to focus on character expressions.
Small things relating to how characters can express themselves give a sense of life to the game – creating a unique feeling that would otherwise be absent.

They then went on to discuss the AI and how it pertains to meaningful combat, recognizes parties as opposed to solo players and more, but that was way too technical for me.
Over the course of their interviews, though, they went on to post a plethora of different images relating to what they were talking about, however unfortunately none of it featured new content, areas or monsters.
Nevertheless, the Blue Protocol team and Bandai Namco both have shown that they’re very vocal about their game and are more than happy providing a flow of constant information regarding the development of the game going into the future.