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[March Climber]

Twitch Streamer Asmongold managed to get an exclusive half hour interview with one of the lead developers about their future plans for Wayfinder right after this news recently came out:



Here are notes of the interview:

• The game will now be a single player game with a lobby system, similar to something like Granblue Relink.
• Due to the deal with Digital Extremes, DE were the ones who received the majority of the funds from purchases. Airship is offering refunds now on Steam through heavy cooperation, and Airship is attempting to work with PlayStation owners to try and help them refund also if they choose to.
  • The problem is that DE holds all of the purchasing 'receipts' and since their publishing branch is gone, this is making it extremely difficult.
• He made absolutely sure not to place the blame solely on Digital Extremes. They were unaware that DE would cut/kill their publishing branch and leave them and a few other unannounced projects in limbo.
• For the people who won't refund, they will find another way to compensate (possibly hinting towards a free purchase to one of their other games)
• Once DE cut the cord with publishing, they couldn't afford the server upkeep so they decided to do the best they could with this single player change.
• For now, they took the game down on all platforms so that no one will feel slighted by buying it. They will do a re-release on June 11th and any early access buyers will be able to play on May 31st.
• They will continue working on the game with good patches and updates they have lined up, but they will be pivoting more towards an experience that suits a single player experience (less MMO-style grinding systems, loot drops will be much better, more focus on fun gameplay, etc)
• They want to do long term support for the game and they are worried about how the future looks, especially due to their negative public perception surrounding the game. They do not want to give up on it and just leave with money like other publishers/developers would do. They are doing their best to continue updating the game, just in this new single player form.
• To ensure that this game is being seen as a single player experience, all in game microtransactions have been removed. All battlepasses removed too. This will be an ARPG first and foremost that they want people to go back to and enjoy like any other single player game.
• They are interested in server support, DLC, and mod support but they can only do so much with how much they have with income. They want to take this as far as something like No Mans Sky, but they will see what happens.
• On release, they will have a huge content update with new areas, enemies, dungeons, weapons, items, etc.
• Their other option was to just close everything and piss off everyone, but they felt that was not the right option to do. Instead, they will just have to take a hit to the chin publicly, bunker down, and make a good game.

 

[Mossybrew]

I totally forgot this game even existed. I played a few hours and figured I'd come back some other time and then it just completely slipped from my mind.

 

[april6e]

I dunno how to feel about this. Them removing the battle pass/mtx is good but why didn't they just do that in the first place? Also, this craters my interest in the game because they are going to lose a ton of money from refunds, ruining player trust and having no mtx which then makes me have zero confidence they can properly support the game.

 

[March Climber]

I totally forgot this game even existed. I played a few hours and figured I'd come back some other time and then it just completely slipped from my mind.

It was in early access-limbo after the fallout with DE. As long as they release well and make sure it's content rich, it should hopefully land on it's feet as a good video game.

I dunno how to feel about this. Them removing the battle pass/mtx is good but why didn't they just do that in the first place?

The game wasn't subscription based and we don't know if it was them or DE that wanted the inclusion, or a mix of both. They're trying to avoid the absolute scummiest moves possible. Before Wayfinder, Airship Syndicate was known for making good 8/10 rated single player games and this project has been a roller coaster of potentially ruining any good and growing reputation they had amongst gamers.

Also, this craters my interest in the game because it comes across as dropping financial support for the game regardless of what they said about them supporting it going forward.

That's the unfortunate part as this has been the sentiment online. I don't know what the better call is for them to make, but I completely understand the consumer-side of things where people are wanting their money back because they paid for an online ever-evolving MMO experience.

To be honest I felt a bit crushed by this too. I hope they can at least make a decent campaign with what they're releasing.

 

[AzekZero]

Them removing the battle pass/mtx is good but why didn't they just do that in the first place?

5% because gamers in 2024 are more vocally against GAAS than in 2019-2021 (probably when Wayfinder was greenlit.)
95% because the market is completely saturated.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

waiting for Men_In_Boxes counteroffer

 

[nikos]

I bought this on day one. Didn't play it too much because of various issues that I've been waiting to be patched. I'm not really interested in it as a single player game but will give it another shot.

It's a shame because the game had potential. Hopefully it has a good co-op system.

 

[dorkimoe]

funny they denied my refund request when i bought it (didn’t realize you had to have ps+). They denied cuz i played it…but played it I opened it and realized I couldn’t play cuz of ps+ lol

Maybe ill try again

 

[March Climber]

funny they denied my refund request when i bought it (didn’t realize you had to have ps+). They denied cuz i played it…but played it I opened it and realized I couldn’t play cuz of ps+ lol

Maybe ill try again

I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not to wait a little bit until they make an announcement on it. They are currently in talks with Sony regarding refunds, so I worry about your second request being made too soon.

 

[paolo11]

How good is this game anyway?

 

[Spukc]

How good is this game anyway?

Same question i don’t mind playing an offline mmo

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Bought EA because it looked interesting, completed all content up until they expanded on the story and thought I'd return after a while when more content would've been added.

Then I saw Asmongolds video yesterday and went to their Discord to check.

Have absolutely zero interest in the game now that it becomes a sp game. Co-op doesn't seem to be getting matchmaking, so that's a deal-breaker for me.

Would be nice if they can get refunds for Playstation working, but wouldn't be bothered if they can't work it out.

Shame though, I liked the original concept.

 

[dorkimoe]

How good is this game anyway?

i didnt play enough to make a judgement, but the art style was cool, and gameplay was good just dont know how deep the content is.

 

[March Climber]

How good is this game anyway?

Same question i don’t mind playing an offline mmo

The last time I played the game, it had two gameplay loops:

1) A big hub town with a giant portal to dungeons, similar to Dot Hack GU series. Much like the Dot Hack 'word' system, you are able to put in different combinations of glyphs before entering a dungeon that would randomize and modify it. Like Dot Hack, this feature was needed in order to complete specific quests, side quests, and find secrets.

2) The open zone sections that were in the opposite direction of the hub town/portal. This part felt more like a traditional MMO, with world bosses, exploration, and enemy respawn timers.

To me personally, #1 is the best part of the game and you can tell they put a lot of thought and effort into it. I don't know if the dev team ever played the Dot Hack series as they have only referenced Vindictus before, so they might have incidentally created a system that is highly comparable to the Dot Hack series and aren't aware of this.

The gameplay is that of an action RPG, smooth and responsive. It's not as fast as Vindictus but not as slow/deliberate as something like a Souls game. It's sort of in the middle gameplay-feel wise. There is jumping, vaulting, dodge rolls, blocking, parries, counters, interrupt skills, AOE skills, aimed skills, etc.

Here's an example of raw dungeon gameplay of the Warrior class, no commentary:

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Downloaded this again the other day and I have to say it is a fun dungeon crawler with INSANE production values. You can see how much content they created thinking this was going to go the SAS route but with the single player and host based co-op dungeons it just feels like a newer "WoW" (art style, model density, etc).

At $24 I think this is a great price for the amount of content you can enjoy.

 

[midasmulligan]

Yeah, really enjoyable, put about 15 hours in. Waiting till 1.0 this month to dive deeper

 

[jcorb]

Haven't played the game yet, but this *seems* like a great move?

I mean, multiplayer would certainly be nice (hopefully P2P will be possible?), but it didn't necessarily look like the kind of live-service game I would see myself playing for months or years on-end.

Hopefully a single-player launch goes well, and maybe get some DLC or an expansion out of it, could potentially be a great model.

Time will tell, I suppose.

 

[Calico345]

Interesting. I will wait and see how it looks when released as a single player game.