Under the direction of designers and programmers Rémi Boutin, Christophe de Labrouhe and Matthew Isidore, Ubisoft Montpellier started from the principle that a metroidvania must offer a solid challenge, while asking itself from the start the question of accessibility. Accessibility first anchored in the basic design of the game, which implies the absence of QTE or mechanics based on the recognition of a color signal, without forgetting the presence of large texts by default. The game’s menus will also offer a variety of options allowing everyone to compose their own formula according to their needs.
For example, everyone is free to check the specific assistance box for platform sequences or to increase the level of aiming assistance. Internal tests, for example, showed that wall jumping presented quite a bit of difficulty for platform game neophytes. It is also possible to facilitate specific mechanics such as dodging and parrying, or to configure the health of enemies, the damage caused by them or by the environment. The general idea is therefore to be able to go through a game that is difficult by default, but in which we can relax a specific element related to combat, platforms or exploration.
Duty of memory
Another good idea from Ubisoft Montpellier, the possibility of activating (even temporarily) a guide mode which allows the player to obtain clear indications on their next objectives via the map. Nothing worse than having to put a metroidvania aside for a while and coming back to it having lost the thread. Another discovery validated by the team, a memory aid functionality which takes the form of a screenshot that the player can place anywhere on the game map, the aim being to be able to easily visualize what a particular object looks like. or such location on the map. Ubisoft Montpellier assures us that once the concept of this mechanic is assimilated, players can no longer do without it. We also find elaborate visual options such as high contrast mode, a first in a Ubisoft game, which is intended for visually impaired players. Note that most of these accessibility options will be available in the playable demo coming on January 11.
Let us add in passing that the PC configurations were recently published on the Ubisoft blog. The game will run at a minimum of 60 frames per second on the lowest performance machines (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Switch, Amazon Luna) and up to 120 frames per second on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC.