Buenos Aires is the home of a mid-sized development studio called Sabarasa Entertainment. You may not have heard about them before, but theyre hoping to become a well-known name in gaming circles around the world. Mazes of Fate, which Graffiti Entertainment published for the Game Boy Advance in early December, is one of their first big international releases. N-Philes sat down with Sabarasa CEO Javier Otaegui, to learn more about Mazes of Fate and his companys future.
N-Philes: Could you please introduce yourself for us?
Javier Otaegui: My name is Javier Otaegui and Im the CEO of Sabarasa Entertainment, a medium-sized studio from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and also the director of Mazes of Fate.
N-Philes: Could you please tell us a bit about Mazes of Fate? Whats it about, who are the main characters, how is the story told, and so on?
Otaegui: Mazes of Fate is first-person RPG with a deep storyline. Its a very ambitious project. We really wanted to do something never done on Game Boy Advance before. The game tells a twisted story that takes place in the Kingdom of Karsh a God-forgotten place where things seem to get worse every day.
The story is told in five different chapters where the player will find the truth about the events that take place across the Kingdom. You can start with any of three pre-set heroes or create your custom one. During the adventure you will have six different unlockable characters that will join (and quit if they dont agree with your decisions) your party. The story is long and includes many important decisions the player must take as he discovers more about the truth. There are more than 100 interactive dialogs with very colorful characters, which will guide you through the events of the game.
N-Philes: How do the games combat and leveling systems work?
Otaegui: We tried to keep the system simple yet powerful in choices. Combat is real-time, and controlled with a replenishing readiness orb. Combat is ruled by three basic stats, your base attack, base defense and might. Each opponents attack and defense couple to determine the outcome of each attack, and measures how powerful the blow will be.
The levelling system is skills-oriented; there are no pre-established classes. This way there are many different ways of playing Mazes of Fate. We wanted it to have a good replayability value. There are a total of 19 skills, including combat, physical, magic and rogue ones. Every time you pass a level, you are granted three skill points to which you can use to increase any of the available skills. There are special unlockable skills which can provide a real impact on the characters progress.
N-Philes: I read that you took inspiration for Mazes of Fate from several classic RPGs. Could you name a few of them and how those games impacted this one?
Otaegui: What we did is to take the best component of many different classic RPGs in order to create a new and original blend of styles. Mazes of Fate is inspired by many different console and PC games and sagas: Lands of Lore, Chrono Trigger, Fallout, Final Fantasy, Knights of the Old Republic, and Eye of the Beholder. We wanted to have an open world, with interesting characters and dynamic dialog trees with lots of dungeons, intricate puzzles and lots of secrets, with a great plot and a strong grand finale.
N-Philes: What were some other sources of inspiration for Mazes of Fate?
Otaegui: Apart from other games, Mazes of Fate was inspired by South America and its deep culture. The unique graphic style of Mazes of Fate was inspired by combining Western Anime and South American drawing styles. I think people will appreciate this new aesthetical proposal, which combines the best from each world, thus giving fresh air to the GBA genre. For the avid eye, you will find lots of references to many different cultures of the world, with a special South-American touch.
N-Philes: What makes Mazes unique? What will RPG fans love about the game?
Otaegui: This is no ordinary game, Mazes of Fate really pushes the limits of the GBA and offers a drastically new experience for RPG fans. Mazes of Fate explores uncharted waters, and to do this we analyzed in depth the best gameplay, story and aesthetic elements from the best RPGs out there. RPG fans will love to have a game that is really about role-playing, with a deep, dark and twisted story: will find themselves making tough decisions and testing their innermost values. In short: intense top-quality role-playing.
N-Philes:Mazes of Fate is billed as a first-person RPG. Is the entire game from a first-person perspective?
Otaegui: All the action and dialog views are first-person, and the travel maps (both town and world maps) are top-down.
N-Philes: First-person RPGs arent seen very often. What convinced you to take on such an unusual direction with the game?
Otaegui: First-person RPGs have not been successfully implemented on GBA so far. We thought we could bring a good vision about how first-persons for GBA should be made. We analyzed very deeply the situation and we saw that we could create something that was like no other game before in terms of quality. To be able to bring top-quality was the main reason, as well as the immersion that first-person brings. We are not married to first-person though, and for each platform and project we will analyze the best possible option.
N-Philes: When did this project start? How long did it take to complete?
Otaegui: The project started on 2003, and it took approximately 2½ years to complete.
N-Philes: Were there any difficulties in developing Mazes of Fate on the Game Boy Advance?
Otaegui: The biggest difficulty was being a new studio with little track record, coming from a region with no console game development history at all. Distance only made matters worse. So yes, finding a publisher that could trust in a South American developer with little track record was the most difficult part of it. Fortunately we ran into Graffiti who trusted us and gave us the opportunity to bring Mazes of Fate to the whole world.
N-Philes: Sabarasa is billed as a co-developer. What was your role in the games development? What role did Graffiti Entertainment play?
Otaegui: Sabarasa is the studio that developed the game, and Graffiti Entertainment is our publisher, who helped us to finish the game so it could be commercially launched for GBA.
N-Philes: With the popularity of the DS, were there any discussions about bringing it to that platform? Could we maybe see a DS release of the game?
Otaegui: We are definitely thinking of the DS, but not for porting exactly this game: we have already started pre-production work for Mazes of Fate 2 for DS.
N-Philes: How big was the development team behind Mazes?
Otaegui: The core development team was approximately of 15 persons, with some external collaborators.
N-Philes: What other games has Sabarasa worked on?
Otaegui: We have worked mostly on local titles as well as some contract content-creation projects for different American and European games, but Mazes of Fate is our first international title. We plan to continue working on Nintendo platforms on international titles in the future.
N-Philes: What is it that drew you to the GBA as the platform for Mazes of Fate?
Otaegui: When we started working on this title, the GBA was the best option for a small unknown developer like us. This console is a great gaming platform and it allowed us to create a high quality game with the limited resources we had. We really wanted to create a great and memorable game, that's why we chose the GBA for MoF. Of course if we had started the project a couple of years later, we would have chosen the DS.
N-Philes: What can we expect to see after Mazes of Fate?
Otaegui: Our main efforts are focused to Mazes of Fate 2 for DS, but we might start thinking about creating Wii games in the short term as well. As a side note, we will release a couple casual games on 2007 as well.
N-Philes: Why are you excited to tackle the DS and Wii for your next projects?
Otaegui: We are so excited because both DS and Wii are fantastic gaming consoles. The DS is a perfect console for RPGs, and we think that a Mazes of Fate for DS can be a great game. Wii is very exciting as well as it will empower us the developers to create new ways of playing our beloved genres. We want to build Mazes of Fate as a major RPG franchise, and we believe that DS and Wii are our way to go.
N-Philes: What would you say is your favorite game, or top 3 games if you can't narrow it down, and why?
Otaegui: If only one choice I would have to say Fallout, because it was a true inflection point for RPGs: its openness, its role system, its combat, the zillions of characters and quests, it was a true revolution for the genre. My other choices are: Chrono Trigger for SNES, for its beautifully told story, the combat system, and the time paradoxes; and to name a recent title, Zelda: The Minish Cap for its almost-perfectly designed gameplay, magical story and characters, great levels, and excellent pixel art.
N-Philes: Thank you very much for your time!
Otaegui: Thank you very much for this space!
Mazes of Fate, developed by Sabarasa Entertainment and published by Graffiti Entertainment, is now available on the Game Boy Advance. Check out Adrian's review for more information on the game!
