Bound by Flame Coming to PS3, PS4 in 2014

Hello, PlayStation.Blog readers! This is Walid, producer at Spiders Studio.

I’m very proud to tell you about Spiders’ latest game, and our first RPG for PS4: Bound by Flame. We’re planning to release our baby in Q2 2014 for PS3 and PS4. Today, we chose to unveil an overview trailer to show you some of the most important features of the game.

After watching this trailer, we can dig a little deeper into what this is all about!

Bound by Flame is an action-RPG set in a dark fantasy universe. In this world, evil wizards, the seven Icelords, have taken over, raising an army of undead and wiping out the living. Your character, who can be male or female, is named Vulcan. Vulcan is a mercenary and explosives expert — a very unlucky one, might I add — that gets himself possessed by a powerful fire demon. I won’t go into details on how that happens; you’ll have to play to find out yourself.

Working on Bound by Flame has been a blast. I mean, this is dark fantasy, right? Truckloads of big and ugly monsters, all sorts of magic, and some of the meanest, badass bosses you’ve ever seen.

In Bound by Flame, you better be prepared before you charge into a fight. Wait, no, scratch that. You’d better not charge into a fight at all. Sneak instead, booby trap the place, or fireball the hobblers to pieces. That’s what I’d recommend. Well, that’s how I would do it, anyway, but I guess that’s because I’m a chicken. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t an infiltration game, it’s just that we’ve made the fights hard and demanding. It’s no walk in the park.

If you still insist on going hand-to-hand with your enemies, you might want to pick a massive weapon for an efficient skull bashing. I personally favor the hammer, because it’s heavy and it smashes shields like glass. Bound by Flame has this concept of breaking attacks; you can break an enemy’s attack if you have enough breaking power, or he can break yours. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that a hammer packs a lot of breaking power. You might also enjoy waving an axe around or just chopping slices out of your foes with a sword.

I said that I liked hammers, but I also like the other combat stances, and especially the two-daggers fighting style. It’s a high speed, high DPS fighting style perfectly suited for my advanced hit-and-run techniques (especially the running part).

Did I mention that you can dodge in this fighting style? If you get the timing right, you can turn your character into a blur that’s impossible to hit. The two daggers are a little less efficient against some heavier enemies though, but when I stumble on one of these guys, I just switch back to my hammer — simple and easy.

Anywho, no matter what my fighting style, I never forget to light my weapon on fire for a nice, undead BBQ.

We at Spiders put a lot of time and effort into giving you guys a challenging and fine-tuned gameplay experience. With variety in mind, we developed different fighting styles as well as an in-depth equipment upgrade and customization system; all of your equipment, from sword to boots, can be upgraded through crafting, as long as you gather enough ingredients. We really wanted you guys to feel like you could build the armor and the weapons you want to wear and use. Also, keep in mind that upgrading is not for looks only, and each of the customizations you’ll make will directly impact your characteristics and dramatically influence combat outcome.

You can expect resistance on the way — every enemy has its own specific attacks. Even the basic ones can be a hassle, some can resist physical damage while others resists magical damage, or are poisonous. Or just plain evil.

We like our monsters big and somewhat fluffy. Dark fantasy is so much fun to work with. The first thing we asked ourselves when the production began was “How can we make big monsters?” and then we went on and did some very big and very ugly ones.

We also threw some companions into the mix so you wouldn’t feel alone in the fight. Keep an eye on them so they don’t fall victim to enemy blades. You might even score some romances with some of them!

I really hope you’ll enjoy playing Bound by Flame as much as we enjoyed making it. Don’t hesitate to visit the official website or Spiders Devblog for more info, and the official Facebook page. I’ll stop by sometime to answer comments, so if you have any question, just ask!