Piranha Bytes have released many cult classic RPG video games over the years, including its much-loved Gothic and Risen series. Elex 2 is the studio's most recent action role-playing experience in an immersive open-world game setting and celebrated its 1st anniversary on March 1. Elex 2 followed the story of protagonist Jax who gradually regain his abilities while players freely decide whether to join forces with Magalan's many rival factions in the battle against the Skyands.
Game Rant recently spoke to Piranha Bytes game designer Jenny Pankratz and THQ Nordic's Florian Emmerich about Elex 2's anniversary, the re-release of classic action RPG Risen, the upcoming Gothic remake by Alkimia Interactive, and more. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Looking back at your Gothic, Risen, and Elex games, how do you feel your RPGs have grown and evolved over the last 16 years, and what have you learned during that time?
Pankratz: A lot, I would say. During the Gothic days, I still was a fan of the series and knew the guys working on it. I really loved the franchise. I had a PC, it was quite bad, so I needed a new one, and asked my father to buy me one. He did, so I played it more than 20 times.
I began at Piranha Bytes in about 2008. Working on the Gothic series was quite chaotic, so what we learned first is to plan and develop games without crunch, for example. This is very important if you want to stay in the industry, and it's much better for our health. I think we rock this.
With Gothic 3, it was a really huge project. It was a very difficult project, and the expectations were very high. With the Risen series, we wanted to show that we can create games without many bugs and role-playing games that are really working. The Elex series took all those experiences with a passion to create really, really huge worlds and make a solid role-playing game, and I think we did this.
Q: What are the features you are most proud of when looking back at the Gothic, Risen, and Elex games?
Pankratz: There was one thing - some people call it old school - but I think it's the most important and best thing we have. We create games where you can be the player character. I will give you an example. If you walk into a forest, for example, and you see something glowing in the dark and a huge mutant but you just had a rusty weapon and some kind of leather jacket, would you really fight against this mutant? I would say, no, you wouldn't. You would maybe try to sneak if you can, maybe you would run away and come back later, maybe you would call for help.
We want the player to think about, what would you really do? Not what the game wants you to do. This is the most important thing about Piranha Bytes' games. We often ask people, what do you like most about our games? Some people say the atmosphere. And then we say, yeah, but what is atmosphere? We think that the most important thing is that we create games we want to play by ourselves and that we have fun with during development. We think people who will play the game afterward will also have fun then.
Q: So are you saying that’s what your games kind of create for the player - this sense of options for them?
Pankratz: Yeah, there are different types of players out there. Some of them like to fight most of the time. Some just walk around the world and look at what's beautiful and collect flowers, for example, and some just want to play the storyline. Gameplay mechanics, to show the player what the best thing to do next is, in modern games is often very linear. We don't like these linear things. We like free freedom and open-world elements, and we like that the players don’t ask themselves, 'what do you want me as a player to do?' We want the player to ask themselves, 'can I do this, is it okay?' 'What consequences will the game have if I really try to? There are a lot of consequences in our games, and this is a good thing, I think.
Q: March 1st marks the 1st anniversary of Elex 2’s release. What’s it like to look back and see Elex 2 turning 1 already and does the studio have any special plans to celebrate this, either in or out of the game?
Pankratz: This is difficult because we released the game when we were still all working at home. We had a big party in the summer, so it was the end of summer 2022. It was not an easy time for us because of Coronavirus and stuff like this. We don't feel like it is really an anniversary because the party was earlier, I would say.
In the wintertime, we released a Direct X 12 version of the game that really is much better than the Direct X 11 version, I don't know if you played it. This was also a huge step for us, and now we just enjoy the actual Steam reviews. They are quite good and we really like them. So, the longer people play our game, the more they like it.
Q: What do you think were Elex 2’s main strengths?
Pankratz: Of course, it's a role-playing game where you can fly. It’s a really unique thing and something that fits very well in our world. Vertical gameplay and a huge, open, interesting world are its biggest strengths, I think, and we tried to put many different kinds of role-playing game features into It. There are so many little things you can find in the world as the landscape changes. Very often, there are so many different kinds of characters, quests, riddles, and stuff to collect. Its variety is one of the other things I really like.
Q: Can you speak to what Piranha Bytes has been doing since the release of Elex 2?
Pankratz: Of course, yes. We patched a lot of things at first and then, of course, if you are a studio that is creating one game at a time, you have to continue with another project and this is what we are still doing. We are working on another project. Of course, it will be a role-playing game again, but one important thing is that we want to increase some things, even in techniques and graphics. We are still in the process of evaluating what kind of new techniques could help us to increase the production values on the one hand and the game on the other hand. This is the process that is still ongoing.
Q: Why did you decide to re-release Risen and do you think there’s a demand for a re-release or even a remastering of your other previous titles, in addition to the Gothic remake currently happening?
Emmerich: THQ Nordic has the so-called asset care strategy. We’re aiming to make a lot of our games – especially old and beloved classics – available to a wider group of players. This means, we make games available on platforms or systems, where they have never been available before or where some technical adjustments are necessary, like making an older PC game run on modern Windows systems - or porting Risen to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch.
We truly believe in our franchises and games, and we want to make sure players who didn’t have the chance to play them when they were first released can check them out now without any barriers or obstacles. Risen being a game with a very large community, it was an easy choice, and we are really happy about the response so far.
Q: Why do you think the Gothic games are so popular, and how has their legacy influenced your later games?
Pankratz: The Gothic series and the first Gothic were developed because there were some friends who had the idea to make the coolest game that ever existed. Before there were role-playing gamers, there were tabletop games and live role-playing games. I was even part of some of those live role-playing games. And this idea took some elements of those tabletop games, which were very unique ideas, and put it into the game.
And this is still something that works very well. To create a world where you can decide almost everything, where you can go almost everywhere. And although you can do this, it's not a generic game. And this is something we still have to do nowadays and still want to do because it's something that made our games popular. If people ask me, and they say yeah, maybe you can you make a game like God of War or Horizon, then I answer no. The games we are creating are similar to Bethesda games. They're similar to Fallout or Skyrim, but they are less generic. And this is something that made Gothic good and something that we still make.
Q: How do you feel about another studio remaking Gothic, one of your earliest titles?
Pankratz: This is quite cool, I think. Reinhard Pollice is the Producer, and we know Reinhard very well. He made a new studio Alkimia Interactive, and while they are doing the remake, we can do another role-playing game, a new one. This is good for everyone I think, because we will have two cool games in the end and I like to create new things.
Q: What similarities or differences do you think your games have when compared to other video games that might be considered as belonging to the Eurojank genre?
Pankratz: Of course, we do open-world role-playing games, so there are many inspirations we have from other games, We have the Bethesda games I told you about before, but also some other things like maybe Marvel Lego. They had the little Iron Man who could fly all around Manhattan, and this idea we took into the game to create the jetpack, for example. So yeah, we have inspirations from other games, but also from books and films like Dune for example.
We also like adventure games. Sometimes, it's a good idea to take adventure ideas to create role-playing game quests. It makes quests more interesting, and then you have more riddles. It's also less generic. We also play all other games like The Witcher series, for example, but we are about 35 people and a lot more work at CD Projekt Red. So we have to take some ideas and little things and put them in our game like they did before with the Gothic series.
Q: Did the Lego games or other sources inspire you in any other ways? Was it mainly that particular Iron Man character and the jetpack for Elex, or was there anything else about them that inspired you?
Pankratz: Of course, it's always a little bit of Tolkien and Lord of the Rings. We played a lot of different Lord of the Rings games. And there are also some special things like the film, do you know Equilibrium? It's about a world where people have to take pills, so they feel nothing. And if they forget to take the pills, they get their feelings back, and this idea we put into the Elex franchise.
Q: Where might RPG fans less familiar with your games begin if they are interested in exploring your gaming catalog further? For example, can RPG fans enjoy Elex 2 if they haven’t played Elex, or where might they begin?
Pankratz: Wherever they want, I would say. Of course, it's maybe more interesting to play the first game first, but you can begin wherever you want. Elex 2 is a little bit more, I’d maybe say easy, because the first game was really hard. You can change a lot of things in the menu, so you can decide how many creatures will fight against you at one time, or you can make it much easier with different settings. But it was quite hard and Elex 2 is easier for beginners to follow the storyline because we have more quests that lead you through the story if you want to.
Q: Is there anything else that you'd like to add today?
Pankratz: Thank you very much for asking me and having us today. I'm really looking forward to showing you what we are doing next, but it'll take some time.
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Elex 2 is available to play on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X.