New Asgard’s Wrath 2 developer diary blog and video released

A new developer diary blog and video have been released for Asgard’s Wrath 2 and dive into mortal heroes, living weapons, and followers and how they influence the game’s complex combat system while providing a variety of playstyles. You can watch the developer diary video above and read below for more info:

We’re just over two months out from the December 15 launch date of Asgard’s Wrath 2, and we’ve been giving the community a sneak peek at all that the epic adventure has in store. First, Oculus Studios Senior Producer Mari Kyle took us behind the scenes, laying out the backstory of the Cosmic Guardian and the role that god-scale mode plays in the game. Next, she gave us a deep dive on Asgard’s Wrath 2’s asynchronously social dungeon-crawling mode, The Uncharted Rifts. And today, she’s back for a look at the Mortal Heroes and Animal Warrior Followers that flesh out the world of Asgard’s Wrath 2.

“We have a ton of great heroes in Asgard’s Wrath 2 that each have really unique playstyles,” Kyle explains. “You start with Abraxas—you’ve been introduced to him. We have Alvilda, who is a ranger who is kind of like this rogue-type character, and also Djehuty, who is an undead scribe.”

Each hero in Asgard’s Wrath 2 has distinct weaponry focused on a specific set of tactical strengths. Many of these weapons also transform dynamically at the press of a button to maximize the player’s options in combat.

“You also quickly get introduced to Cyrene, who’s your second playable hero,” says Kyle. “She’s fully designed so that you can get a lot of distance between yourself and the other enemies and take them down pretty easily with her different, very cool living weapons.”

A river naiad who’s fated to take down a god, Cyrene’s been hunted all her life. She’s designed around fluidity and movement, unlike Abraxas who’s designed around strength and defense.

“Because Cyrene’s saga is all about balance and nature and restoration, her floating weapons are these protean sea creatures,” Kyle notes. “The first is the Seething Jellix named Ephyra, a jellyfish-type creature that she can throw into an area and it works as a turret—it’ll shoot out poisoned projectiles at anything that passes. If you have upgrades to your skill tree, you can also shoot a projectile at it from your harp, and then it’ll explode causing a massive AoE (Area of Effect) damage on nearby enemies.”

Of course, the harp, which you can charge to fire deadly projectiles by strumming, is a powerful weapon in its own right.

“Her harp, which is shaped like a squid, actually can change into a shield as well,” Kyle explains. “But if you have it with the harp and the strings facing upwards, you can use it not only as a musical instrument to communicate with other creatures to solve puzzles, but you can also fire projectiles at enemies.”

Her last weapon is her protean sword, which can also be thrown. And if a player wants to take a more melee-centric approach, they can throw the harp to temporarily stun enemies so they can run in to perform melee attacks with her sword.

“Whenever you pull the trigger to use this sword, it’ll spit out a tongue that’s lined with these fangs,” adds Kyle. “So she has melee options if you need them, and that sword also functions like a grapple.”

Combined, these weapons make Cyrene a ranged powerhouse whose combat is focused on movement and dodging the projectiles of her enemies while assailing them with a barrage of her own attacks.

Next, Kyle shifts gears to focus on the game’s Followers, which have been upgraded for the sequel with newly improved AI. A new Synergy system keeps Followers aware of everything the player is doing during combat, so they can respond appropriately and feel like a true companion assisting players in battle. Each Follower has their own strengths and weaknesses, which means players will have to strategically develop their Followers and choose them carefully to enhance their playstyle and best support them in different types of fights.

Among these new Followers, you’ll meet Subira, the game’s panther companion, while she’s held in captivity.

“You use your godly powers to help her and also convert her into a warrior Follower,” Kyle says. “Subira is an awesome combat companion. She’s really nimble and fast. When I’m fighting in combat, she’s just this shadow moving around the corners and taking out enemies one by one.”

In combat, Subira is a deadly assassin. She dual-wields Kpingas, and through skill tree upgrades, she can be pushed to be more offensive and attack with deadly backstabs and status ailments—or she can be pushed to be more defensive and help distract enemies with decoys.

“Subira has this really unique ability called shadow-shifting,” notes Kyle. “She can shift these stones called Kivuli Stones that you’ll find throughout the game and make them go in and out of existence. When these massive stones are blocking your paths forward, she can shift them so you can move straight through them and get to an area on the other side. There’s a ton of really cool ways to use her abilities, and she is an integral companion in Asgard’s Wrath 2.”

Next you’ll meet Pa’akhet, who was born into captivity as a hunting falcon for a military commander in Set’s army.

“He’s very loyal, constantly talks about how great you are and how great the god within you is, which is very contrary to Subira who’s just with you because you helped her a little bit,” says Kyle. “Pa’akhet is more of a defensive, healing character. He’s not as strong a fighter as Subira, but he has the ability to heal you in a way that Subira can’t. You can upgrade his skill tree so that he’s more balanced towards being a healer, or you can upgrade some of his combat options so he’s a better fighter.”

And just as Subira has unique powers to help the player while solving puzzles or in combat, Pa’akhet has some tricks up his own proverbial sleeve.

“Where Subira uses a lot of her shadow abilities in her combat, Pa’akhet uses a ton of his whirlwind abilities. You’ll see him jump high into the sky when he’s bringing his spear down to his enemies or moving swiftly around the space and he can quickly come to your aid to heal you in your battles. With his special ability, he can summon these whirlwind blocks. Once you hop onto them, you can control them just with your joystick. You can reach new areas, you can set them on levers so that they can open up new paths—his ability is really great for navigation in those spaces.”

We’ve also introduced Follower Inspiration—a gauge that fills as the player fights and inspires the Follower with their actions. Once Follower Inspiration is full, the player can unleash it to provide both the player and the Follower with a special ability that empowers them in combat and allows them to work together in a new way to rapidly take down foes. Each Follower’s Inspiration ability is radically different, and they can all dramatically change the flow of combat.

“With Subira, it’s actually a shadow stepping ability,” Kyle says. “So she can shift both you and her out of reality so that you’re temporarily invulnerable as you’re in combat.” Not to worry, though: Your weapons remain in reality so you can continue to deal damage.

Last but not least, every Follower can now also be transformed into a mount—which comes in clutch as the player traverses the massive maps of Asgard’s Wrath 2. You have full control of these mounts and full access to your weaponry while you’re on them.

“Subira can shift into this massive panther that you can just hop onto and ride across the desert on,” Kyle explains. “And with Pa’akhet, he can switch into a bird that you can grapple to and soar around the maps with.”

“You can also use skill points for your Followers,” Kyle adds. “So as you use skill points for them, they have different buffs, but they also can unlock different finishers for them too—those’ll be unlocked through your skill tree as you go through the game.”

“With all these different characters in the shape of Mortal Heroes or Followers, we really wanted to think about all these different variations so that you can really tailor your combat and your Asgard’s Wrath experience to your own playstyle and to your own needs. I can’t wait for you to explore them all this winter in Asgard’s Wrath 2.”

Tune in next month for a new deep dive where we’ll look at Asgard’s Wrath 2’s various RPG systems, from crafting and cooking to hunting, fishing, and more.

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