The first Berserker Ben Starr and studio CEO speak: Tough Games, AI, etc.

I’ve been enjoying my first Berserker: Khazan, a soul-like dark fantasy action game released on March 27. At this year’s Game Developers Conference, I sat down with some of the development teams to talk about the latest games in the Dungeon & Fighter series, and more, and more, from Souls On Souls of Souls of Souls of Souls of Souls of Souls to to to to to to th the industry.

I have been with Myeongjin Yun and Ben Starr (the voice of the nominal character Khazan) and many other iconic game characters (including Clive), including Final Fantasy XVI’s lead character Clive.

We talked about where they are in the game, how they play new stadiums like crowded souls, and where AI is in their respective fields. For clarity, this interview has been easily edited.

Sean Booker: What are dungeons and fighters, and what does it have to do with the first Berserker Kazan?

Myongjin Yun: So basically Dungeon & Fighter is an action RPG that has been in service for 20 years as of this year in South Korea. Khazan actually plays the core part of the story. So there is this iconic class in dungeons and fighters called Demon Killers, who have a cursed red arm. It’s part of the legend, basically, Hazan is “Like the Core” and why all demon killers have that red arm.

Then, with the first Berserker: Kazan, we wanted to get a deeper look at the story and then go into the universe, for example, you know, what role Khazan plays in building the Dungeon & Fighter Universe. How does his story expand?

SB: Ben, what attracted you to this project?

Ben Starr: Cool, cool project. I remember thinking it was the first glimpse ever, I thought it was the coolest game in the Game Awards a few years ago, and I just thought it was the coolest game, and I was a huge fan of this type of game, like Hardcore Action RPGS, and I was deeply in love with me. After I had a blind audition for the game, I knew exactly what it was because I already kept the tag on it a bit like a fan. Then, I just saw what they were doing with stories – I think with most actors, all they had to do is tell good stories and be good characters, which is really fun. I love, you know, is a breeding protagonist who is on the road to revenge, but it’s really unique and cool, I love the art style.

The key to this story I really liked is the dynamics of Blade Phantom, and I was very good with Anthony Howell, who played Blade Phantom, and I think he is an amazing, great actor. Working with him is just this incredible gift.

SB: Would you say people need to be familiar with dungeons and fighters to play the first Berserker, if not, they want to go, where they want to point out in the IP?

mine: Even if you don’t know the dungeon and fighter IP at all, you can definitely play and enjoy Khazan. Settings, learning curves and even stories are made by newbies considering dungeons and fighter IP. Of course, if you know the original story, you’ll have a lot of fun stuff like this and there is an Easter egg here. For example, in the original dungeons and fighters, when Kazan is exiled to the mountain, the story ends there, and after that, we don’t have that much detailed information. But here, it will expand on the setup, so what if Khazan did not die in that exiled snow mountain? What if he is alive? What if he just continues to take revenge?

SB: Dungeon and Fighter games are usually beaten ‘Em Ups, and there is a fighting game. Now, together with Khazan, we will enter a soul-like action game. Why transition to this new type?

mine: We wanted to find a way to immerse everyone in the story and let them truly experience the meaning of playing dungeons and fighters. But if you watch the original game, it’s a pixel game. It’s also side scrolling, which is not the most popular type at the moment. So we’re thinking, if we think about genres, would it be the best way to attract these players?

Of course, you know, we want 3D and have this particular art style. We did draw inspiration from games like Dark Souls, Sekiro, and Nioh, as I actually liked these games as well, but then, it did get closer to the original Dungeon & Fighter, which is its core hardcore Action RPG. So we really just want to emphasize the feeling of playing the original and being true to that, so that’s what it feels like to end up being Hassan.

SB: In these more stubborn action games, a discussion about difficulty setting is underway. Not only does Khazan have simple mode options, but it also has this lacrosse subsystem where you can continue to compete with your boss and still improve. What do you think of difficulties?

mine: It’s an interesting story because last year on Gamescom, I was asked if we were going to add the difficulty setting and then I said no, we won’t do that. But, like last December, winter actually added a simple pattern, right? When we first thought about the difficulty setting and kept working, we hope the player really felt the difficulties Khazan was going through, all the difficulties he faced, but then we really thought about ourselves, like, what do we want? Like, how do we want the players to feel at the end of all this?

Of course, it’s a sense of accomplishment to go through all these challenges and get better, but then we also want to make this experience easier for players and let more people know what it feels like to be immersed in dungeons and fighters.

There was a lot of internal discussion about whether we should add the difficulty setting, but ultimately we decided to do so. Personally, I like Souls Games, but I won’t say I’m an expert master player in Souls games. Keeping this in mind, we hope that players who may not be very good at controlling or dodging will also be able to make progress through repetitions and make them truly feel progress so that they can enjoy the game as well.

BS: I was just impressed by the way the team constantly interacts with the players and engages with the team. Considering the fact that this is a hardcore action RPG for single players, the fact that you keep disappearing as a team, this is the version of the game, go play and give us feedback – you have a very pleasant conversation with the public and how you listen to the people they want, the people they want and the things they want and the things they don’t want, it’s fun.

When you think about how we use the word “hardcore”, you can immediately think that “this game is not for me”. But it is, “Yes, you can actually choose to play the game you want” [has] It’s really cute.

SB: As the person behind the scenes, what do you think about the development of AI in the gaming industry?

mine: Of course, we know what AI can do and the moral arguments around us, and it is definitely in sound performance and all of that. Personally, I feel that in the space of game making, in the space of developing games, AI will certainly increase accessibility and allow smaller teams to come up with good ideas and develop new games in many different types of forms and really bring their ideas to life.

But we also need to be very aware that we are in this very confusing middle ground here. There are many debates about whether this is moral or not. We have seen a lot of copyright infringement, so we really need to learn where to delineate lines and how to operate within the security boundaries. So it certainly has great potential, but it also involves more discussion.

BS: Yes, that’s the same thing, that is, AI is not bad in nature, and that’s what human fingerprints do. AI is also a very toxic word because it is almost no longer related to AI, but about everything around it. You can walk around now and you will hear many conversations about the importance of machine learning and its valuable content.

I’m an actor and it’s obviously a very hot topic for what we’re doing. I think what Sag-Aftra is doing now, what the actors are fighting for is very important, and they raise the importance of the public sphere very well. Ultimately, AI is not a problem. AI can be a great tool for people to use in their right hand, but like every dystopian apocalypse movie from the 90s. Just like Skynet, man, is it coming? It needs to be in the right hands. It works in the right way, useful and excellent, but as you said, it has to be regulated.

The technology is so fast that regulations can’t keep up, we need to make sure we’re putting things in place, so when the technology does get to the level where we’re doing something crazy, we’ve already made those regulations and we’re not reacting [by] Stop these things from happening first.

SB: What are you playing now when you are not working in Khazan?

mine: As a developer, I first entered the industry because I like games and I love playing games, but it’s ironic because I can’t play a lot of games. You’ll hear a lot of other developers say, “Oh, I love playing games,” but these days, like games, it’s actually more research, so you’ll hear a lot of developers say that. I don’t want this comment to sound too businessy, but I’ve actually been playing Khazan and it’s great.

BS: I recently bought myself a steam deck. I’ve been very young since I was a kid, and that’s my main game and still my main console. But I found myself traveling so much that I was like “I need to get the steam deck”.

Here I was a vampire survivor for 4 hours. I did about 3 hours of half-life 2, but it still remains the same. My words, that game persisted. And I think they have RTX there. The game series has really attracted me over the past few months, and it’s the rise of Golden Idols and Golden Idols.

I just think they are great, even in the same idea of ​​video games, even in the three games I listed, they tell the story in a completely different way. The Vampire Survivors didn’t really tell a story at all, but it was so nice, how we interacted with it and showed us the story in all of these ways, and I think the Golden Idol series is really very, very special.