Techland’s upcoming fantasy open-world action RPG could be significantly different fromDying Light 2, going off gameplay clues from a recent job listing. The announcement thatTechland’s next game would be a fantasy RPG set in an open world shocked many of the developer’s fans. Yet the possibility ofDying Light 2’s gameplay in a fantasy open-world game was undeniably alluring. This new job listing, however, could mean Techland’s new game will be taking much less influence fromDying Light 2than expected.
Relatively little has been officially announced regardingTechland’s upcoming fantasy RPG, at this point. Techland made it clear from the game’s confirmation that the game will be “vastly different” from what the studio has made prior. Yet even as it pushed that the new game would be built on “new ideas, passion, and creativity,” it also made clear its new game would be built on the experience Techland has developed working onDying Light 2and other prior games.
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WhileDying Light 2fanshave been expecting the new Techland RPG’s gameplay to deviate in significant ways, few likely would have predicted this latest update. A job listing for the new Techland fantasy RPG lists an interesting qualification. It asks for applicants to have knowledge of recent releases and industry trends, “especially in relation to Open World sRPG.”
Hopefully, the reason why there’s some confusion should be apparent. The term “sRPG” traditionally refers to the strategy-RPG subgenre, which combines classic role-playing game elements with tactical strategy combat.Examples of strategy-RPGsinclude classics likeShining Force,Ogre Battle, andFire Emblem. They typically involve turn-based combat, and while could be considered action-based in certain cases they’re rarely open-world.
The most likely explanation for the confusion is that Techland didn’t mean strategy-RPG at all. Rather, it very likely meant survival-RPG, though that’s not a common usage for “sRPG.” Survival games are typically referred to simply as survival games, whether they have RPG elements or not.Dying Light 2fits this description, though. It’s anopen-world survival action RPG. It crosses into a lot of genres, and Techland is likely carrying over that style of experience into its new fantasy game.
There’s at least a small possibility that Techland’s open-world involves some strategy gameplay. Techland did say that it wanted to createsomething vastly different fromDying Light 2. Still, it makes much more sense for Techland to be making a fantasy survival game, and it’s asking for developers with familiarity with that subgenre. Asking for experience with open-world sRPGs would be odd, as that’s a subgenre that doesn’t really exist. It’s an interesting revelation, nonetheless.
