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Devil's Third

Tomonobu Itagaki introduces us to Valhalla Studios' first game.

EurogamerOkay that's quite interesting. I understand that the name Devil's Third has a musical significance or origin. Can you explain why you chose the name and what it symbolises for the game?
Tomonobu Itagaki

We had a lot of talk between THQ and Valhalla about the name, and we came up with this title that resonated on a lot of levels, which is why we picked it. The other levels sort of get into the fiction, so I don't know if we want to...

Danny Bilson

Not yet.

Tomonobu Itagaki

As more of the story becomes public, I think it will become clearer what the other meanings of Devil's Third are, but for now we'll stick with the music and... other meanings to be revealed in the future.

EurogamerOkay sure. The trailer looks to show two playable characters. Can you confirm that that's correct, and can you tell me anything about them and what they can do?
Tomonobu Itagaki

So everything you see in the trailer, everyone can do - it's not just one of the two people. The trailer is not about story, it's just to show a bunch of cool things you can do in the game. So everything in there you can do in the game.

So a lot of things you can do - game mechanics, vehicles - obviously aren't shown in the trailer yet, but the trailer was designed to give you a taste of every kind of thing you can do in the game, or at least a glimpse of it. But there's more of course.

EurogamerCan you say what kind of genre Devil's Third is in and how it will sit relative to Mr Itagaki's former products?
Tomonobu Itagaki

So we wanted to make a mainstream game that is a type of game that only Valhalla could make, and something that is kind of a new paradigm in gaming.

Danny Bilson

I can give you a little bit of a clue about this. Everything you saw - if you could imagine that in multiplayer action, you've never played it. I've never played anything like that. And that's only one aspect of it.

EurogamerCool. Now, I've been sitting here looking at Kessler syndrome on Wikipedia since you mentioned it...
Danny Bilson

[Laughs]

EurogamerAnd I don't think I'm any closer to guessing anything about the game. You don't want to give me any more clues about that?
Danny Bilson

Not yet. We've got a long way to go.

EurogamerOkay. You mentioned that you were first interested in working with Valhalla when you saw a multiplayer prototype. Would it be possible to talk a little bit about that prototype and how it grew into the game you've got now?
Danny Bilson

They came in with a design and a plan for an epic game, but the first demo we saw was built and prototyped in multiplayer. The first day we met, we went down to our room where we can play, and most of my executives picked up controllers and were laughing and having a wonderful time in an experience we've never had before in game space.

And I'm only talking about the multiplayer side - I'm not even talking about the deep, epic fiction on the other side and the complete single-player experience.

EurogamerSure. Your frequent use of the word "epic" - a lot of people would use that term to refer to open-world or non-linear titles. Is it that area you're heading in or is it more traditional linear storytelling?
Danny Bilson

I don't think it can be defined either way. I think it gives freedom and aspects of both and structure in others. I wouldn't define it one way or the other, certainly not yet.

EurogamerYou've got guns in there as well as swords. Is there anything you can say about the combat system you've gone for and how the game is controlled?
Tomonobu Itagaki

The Ninja Gaiden games I've worked on before were kind of a hackandslash experience - combat with weapons. And of course there are games like Devil May Cry. So first of all I would say even though you can see things that look like both of those games, I want to make sure people don't confuse it and think that the game we're doing is either a Ninja Gaiden-type game or a Devil May Cry-type game.

Gamers who pay close attention to the trailer will notice there's a substantial difference there. So if you think of it as a shooting game that includes a level of melee combat and fighting that has never been done in a shooting game before, that's a good way to think of it.

The reasons for wanting to do this kind of game are that we were looking at the shooting genre and think someone should take it to the next level, and I think this is a good way to do it.

Also I want to have more realistic elements of military combat - and that's one thing where Danny and I have very similar tastes. We're both very knowledgeable about real military combat weapons. And we like killing each other [laughs].