With Remnant II scheduled to launch on July 25th (though early access actually begins sooner than that for those who purchased the Ultimate Edition), I had the chance to interview Gunfire's Design Director John Pearl and Principal Designer Ben Cureton as a follow-up to Kai's Summer Game Fest chat with Principal Level Designer Cindy To.

　　The Q&A has been split into lore, combat, and gameplay related answers (available in this article) and tech related responses (which have their own article, where we reveal that Remnant II runs on Unreal Engine 5, among other things). Without further ado, here's the transcript, slightly edited and condensed for clarity.

　　According to the lore, how many years have passed since the first game? Will there be several returning characters in Remnant II?

　　John Pearl: Just over 2 decades have passed since the events of the DLC, Subject 2923. The earth has changed, and the Root has gone into remission. The inhabitants of Ward 13 have moved out of that old bunker from the first game and built a town near the surrounding docks. Returning players will find quite a few familiar faces, including some surprises as well as some new ones to meet in the new Ward 13.

　　How did you select the canon choices from the first game? Was there a narrative reason, or did you simply pick the most common player actions?

　　John Pearl: Allowing players to have multiple choices of how to deal with or complete a story makes it tough to say if there is a definitive version of any encounter. At Gunfire Games, when we set up those choices in Remnant (Remnant: From the Ashes), we had an idea in the back of our minds of which were the canonical outcomes, then coming back for Remnant II, we carried those through. Due to how we designed the game, we’ve found that a lot of players went through Remnant several times, allowing them to see multiple outcomes, so it’s hard to even say which were the most common choices made.

　　The branching storylines are a big feature of Remnant II. Can you talk about how they work? How much replayability do you believe they can bring to the table?

　　John Pearl: The story structure of Remnant II is much more complex than Remnant. In Remnant, there was a linear story arc that led the player through the Root-infested Earth, then eventually to other worlds in search of the fabled ‘Founder Ford.’ In that game, the order of worlds the player encountered was static, and each world had its own story that tied into the greater story arc. In Remnant II, there is a high-level story arc that eventually takes the player to other worlds; however, those worlds will be encountered in a random order and instead of a world having a single storyline, there’s 2 completely unique ones and which story players get is random. So, 2 people playing the game separately may not only have traveled to the worlds in a different order, but also seen a different storyline in each world. This doesn’t even consider all the non-story related locations and events that could potentially show up in one game vs another. Encouraging replayability and players experiencing new things on subsequent playthroughs was a huge edict for us when making Remnant, but we really expanded that idea even more with Remnant II!

　　Are the environments going to be larger in this sequel? Does verticality play a bigger factor?

　　John Pearl: We set out to make the visuals of the worlds much more varied in feeling than the first game, and with that, we are expanding the size of the areas. We’ve added more open spaces but also kept some of the tighter spaces. There’s a much wider variety of locations than the first game, both in look and feel. Verticality now plays a much bigger role as we’ve added a contextual jump, allowing the player to leap across gaps and chasms to explore new areas that would not have been accessible in the first game.

　　Can you explain how scaling works in Remnant II in various situations, such as solo and co-op?

　　Ben Cureton: Scaling works similarly to Remnant, where the world gets tougher as you get stronger. In the original game, we calculated your total Item Level (Weapons and Armor). However, since Armor can no longer be upgraded, it's not factored into the equation. On the flip side, Archetype Levels are factored in. Since they automatically rise with experience gain, this motivates the player to upgrade their weapons to maintain pace and/or exceed the current challenge.

　　How many weapons are in the game, and which ones are returning from Remnant: From the Ashes?

　　Ben Cureton: More. That's the theme of Remnant II: more weapons. A lot more. We will leave the exact number up to players to discover, but we can say with certainty that there are a lot of weapons to play with. We brought back a lot of fan favorites (including almost every standard weapon from the original game + DLC), we refreshed the behaviors on any returning Boss/Special weapon to make them even more appealing, and then we added a whole slew of awesome new tools for you to enjoy.

　　Can you talk about the “Mutator Slot” and what it entails?

　　Ben Cureton: The Mutator Slot is available on each weapon (both Firearm and Melee) and it allows you to customize the behavior of that weapon. You can think of them similarly to Armor Set Bonuses from Remnant, except instead of just 1, now you can have 3 slotted total. They each come with a basic effect that can be upgraded 10 times.

　　At max level, they gain an additional bonus. Part of the design goal of Mutators was to grant players even more flexibility with their builds, but it also helped move Armor Set Bonuses off armor so that players could enjoy the most important part of surviving the apocalypse...’FASHION!’

　　Is there going to be a greater emphasis on differences between various damage types?

　　Ben Cureton: There are now 4 core damage types; Ranged, Melee, Mod, and Skill, and a handful of subtypes, such as Elemental, Physical, etc. Each Archetype specializes in one or more of the Core types (e.g., Gunslinger focuses on Ranged, while the Handler has both Ranged and Skill, compared to the Medic, who has all 4, but at a reduced amount). Focusing on a specific damage type (or types) can really help you boost your offense. Combining Archetypes for damage stacking is always a good option, but also making a build with a more well-rounded spread can be highly beneficial as well.

　　What are the extents of the improvements made to melee in Remnant II?

　　Ben Cureton: The first thing we did was tighten up the responsiveness of the initial button press and release. Every melee attack in the game now executes between 5-8 frames faster, giving melee a much crisper feel. We also adjusted the speed of each melee animation along with their transition windows (follow-up attack, evade, move, etc). After the core feel was in a solid place, we rebalanced every weapon to have unique stats between each type (so no two swords will ever be the same) and ensured that the damage output was worth the risk. Melee weapons, on average, now inflict about the same damage as a sidearm but obviously require no ammo. The charge attacks now cost stamina but deal about 20-25% more DPS. Melee was never meant to be the star of the show, but we absolutely want it to be effective and powerful.

　　In addition to reworking the animation sets for old classics (such as the Flail, Claw, and even Unarmed), we also added brand new melee weapon types, such as the Broadsword, Katana, and Staff.

　　During a recent developer stream, someone mentioned the ability to “upgrade shields.” Did it refer to physical shields?

　　Ben Cureton: We don't have the traditional ‘Sword and Board’ type shields, but players will have a few other shield-related options. The first is access to an ‘over-shield’ mechanic that acts as additional health. This isn't a core/always-present mechanic like in other games. You'll have to find skills and items that allow you to obtain the over-shield.

　　Secondly, there are a handful of different skill and mod-based shield options. For example, the player may be able to summon a wall to protect themselves from incoming fire, or put up a barrier that slows projectiles and increases defenses, etc.

　　Will stealth be a factor in Remnant II?

　　Ben Cureton: While pure stealth gameplay isn't a focus for us, players can, in some cases, eliminate enemies before major fights break out. The planning and execution of a pre-fight strategy is ever present and can be leveraged, but we don't lean into the more traditional stealth gameplay.

　　Will there be some way to “farm” specific events or bosses, perhaps after you've completed the campaign?

　　John Pearl: Like Remnant, once you complete a world for the first time, the ability to play adventure mode for that world is unlocked. This allows players to replay a given world as many times as they want. Since this option shows up right away upon completion of a world, this means players don’t have to wait until they complete the game to start ‘farming.’ Ultimately, this gives them the opportunity to chase down the harder to find items, events, and bosses at their leisure.

　　Is there a respec feature at launch?

　　Ben Cureton: Players can respec their Traits any time they want if they have the resources to purchase an Orb of Undoing from Wally. It is available from the beginning of the game.

　　Why did you stick with the three-player group? Is there a chance that the party size may be expanded to allow even more epic boss fights at some point in the future?

　　John Pearl: Three feels like the right group size for our game. We’ve built the world so that a maximum of three players feel like they have the room they need to maneuver around and never feel cramped. On the flip side, the world never feels too spread out or empty for someone playing alone. Never say never in game development, but we currently have no plans to increase the number of players.

　　What kind of post-launch support can players expect? Are you going to add more archetypes, worlds, storylines, etc.?

　　John Pearl: We’re looking to support the game well after launch with updates as well as paid DLC. We’re not currently discussing details on DLC other than to say we are doing some. We’ll have more info to discuss on it later.

　　Ben Cureton: On the progression side, besides just balance patches, we also want to include as many useful quality of life (QOL) features as we can. Of course, balance and QOL stuff would be totally free of charge.

　　Are you planning a simultaneous launch with cross-play?

　　John Pearl: Cross-play is not something we’re talking about right now.

　　Thank you for your time.