Sony Online Entertainment announced today that development has begun on Champions: Return to Arms. The sequel to Champions of Norrath, the PlayStation 2 action role-playing prequel to the EverQuest MMORPG games, will be on display next week at E3 and will arrive in stores in Q1 2005.

　　Champions: Return to Arms will pick up where Norrath left off, after the titular heroes have vanquished the evil god Innoruuk. Dogged and despicable, Innoruuk's followers resurrect him, forcing the champions to embark on another quest to vanquish the nasty deity.

　　Like its predecessor, Champions will be developed by Snowblind Studios, the company behind Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. The game will feature more of the same hack-and-slash gameplay and fantasy adventure, with more than 100 hours of gameplay for each character. Hundreds of new items and spells will also be on tap, as will two new character races.

　　Players will be able to import their Norrath character to fight Champions' new menagerie of monsters and interact with its large number of non-player characters. The upper level limit for these characters will be increased to 80.

　　Champions: Return to Arms will also feature the original game's online features, which allowed up to four people to quest simultaneously. A quartet of gamers can also join forces offline via the PS2 multitap.

　　Recently, GameSpot had the chance to sit down with Clint Worley and Todd Carson, the game's respective producer and assistant producer, to talk about Return to Arms. Hear what they had to say in our Q&A.