The free-to-play MMORPG Mist Legacy is out now on Steam Early Access.
The game features super old-school turn-based combat, a really unique top-down world map perspective, and a stat system that dictates everything that you can do from equipping gear, exploring towns, crafting materials, and more. The developer recently launched a new intro adventure that helps new players learn the ropes and stay alive in this very unique MMO experience.
We sat down for a chat with Francois Desrosiers, the game’s director, to learn more about the project.
Before we get into Mist Legacy, let’s talk a bit about Virtys. How large is the studio? Is there any interesting backstory about its formation that you’d like to share?
Virtys is a core team of three persons that have worked together since the end of the ’90s. The way we operate is that we direct the game development with a few employees, and we rely on freelancers to produce what we can’t do in-house. This gave us the chance to work with people from everywhere in the world.
Virtys previously released Therian Saga. What lessons did your team learn from developing Therian Saga that was applied to Mist Legacy?
One of the things that Therian Saga taught us is how much it’s important to listen to your community. Many players have a very wide range of experiences and play many more games than you can as a game designer. So, every comment you get from a player about an idea you had is a hint that needs to be considered.
What were some of your inspirations for Mist Legacy?
We are old-school gamers, coming from the time of text-based MUD and Ultima Online. So, these games have an influence on us for sure. As for more recent influences, as strange as it may seem, we played Breath of the Wild just before we started the project, so we were kind of trying at first to create a seamless world that gives this feeling of exploration and discovery, but in an MMO.
The game is currently free to play in Early Access. Is the final version also going to be free-to-play?
Yes. We really believe it’s the best system for a game like ours. We have devised our monetization so that the free-to-play model will allow a player to test the game and then unlock features when he knows that he likes the game. We want to offer non-aggressive and non-stressful ownership for the game, everything you buy is permanent, so you can take a break and come back anytime without losing anything.
Can you tell us more about the game world and characters?
There is a lot we can’t share yet. The game currently starts in Ordval, a province of a kingdom named Pireiria. The game world will expand with updates after the game is released, allowing the player to learn more about the backstory through quest lines.
I dig the retro art style. Who is responsible for the art design? They deserve a high-five.
We wanted to find something that feels similar to old TSR (ADnD 2nd Edition) illustrations with a more modern twist. As the writing style is not that serious, we needed to keep a colorful style, but we did not want to get too close to the “Mobile/WoW style” that is used by a lot of other games.
When can we expect the full release?
The game will get out of early access soon. It will not mean the game will stop expanding, but that the game’s basics will not change anymore. As an MMO, we expect to be building our content with trimestral updates after our release. Currently, in Early Access, we have content updates weekly or biweekly.
Do you have anything else that you’d like to add for our readers?
Well, we would be very happy to welcome you to the game. The community is friendly and very helpful to new players. We are in the final stretch of Early Access so now is the best time to test the game and to help us fine-tune our content before we release the game.
