Now showing his new graphics

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For 9 years, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen has been the hope for fans of PvE MMORPGs that a western team will build them something like Everquest or Vanguard back then. But after 9 years in development, the graphics seemed very outdated. You want to change that. The team shows off its new graphics in a new trailer. The reactions are only cautious.

This is the idea of ​​Pantheon:

  • The MMORPG Pantheon was the brainchild of Brad McQuaid, a game developer who worked on Everquest and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. The game was announced in 2014 and has been in pre-alpha since December 2017.
  • Pantheon was supposed to take the spirit of Everquest into a new era: become a hard PvE MMORPG in which you have to plan and act in a group, not just run through like you do in modern WoW. The game advertises an open world in which you can climb almost any surface. The “perception system” should make it possible to find details and clues in the world and even change the world using unique skills.
  • But Brad McQuad died at the age of 50 in 2019, and his heirs are now carrying on the game.

    • MMORPG shows new graphics to reach more players

    This is the developers’ plan: The team identified the graphics and art style as the weak point of the MMORPG. The style of graphics and general look of the MMORPG would have seemed outdated and off-putting to many observers. Therefore, Visionary Realms decided to change the graphic style.

    This decision was presented in the producer letter from August, which we reported on MeinMMO. Now, in September 2023, the changes will be shown in a 5-minute video on YouTube.

    Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen shows the art update in the trailer

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    Graphic style should be timeless and appear fresh for years to come

    Creative Director, Chris Perkins, explains the thinking behind the new graphics:

    Originally Pantheon relied heavily on assets from Unity, they didn’t have much of an opportunity to think about what the game wanted to look like, but then they went down that path.

    Now they have taken the time to think carefully about what Pantheon should look like and have set the goals that the game should look as realistic and good as the established competition, but also have to run smoothly. The result was a “hand-drawn style”.

    New graphic style is already accelerating development

    Director Benjamin Dean adds: Pantheon should have its own identity, but one that is timeless and can last for years. With the new style you can be sure that even a small team can build an entire world. Since the new style was decided on, development has gone much faster.

    The team believes the new art style will appeal to more players from different demographics.

    Fans seem rather disillusioned and disappointed after such a long time

    What are the reactions? Pantheon suffers from the problem of many indie MMORPGs: The games are created without external backers and have to try to win over a community early on: They are then supposed to finance and promote the game. At Pantheon, crowdfunding failed in 2014 and they then had to rely on an investor to start development.

    Crowdfunding studios are going public with MMORPGs that are decades away from release. At the time of presentation, these projects only exist on paper and in the minds of the developers.

    For players, it seems as if the MMORPGs have been in development forever and little is happening. During development, players are fed concept art and unctuous visions of what the MMORPG should become.

    In these years, fans often imagine what a fanatical MMORPG it will be, which will completely blow away all existing MMORPGs like ESO or WoW when it comes out.

    But when the developers come forward after 8 years with something “tangible”, a first trailer or gameplay images, many are disappointed at how little the game has progressed and that it is not as great as imagined.

    Ultimately, Pantheon is an indie MMORPG developed by a small team. Anyone expecting a new WoW will inevitably be disappointed.

    Fans are therefore rather critical of the video. They say: After such a long time, people simply expected more.

    A comment on YouTube sums up the voice of these fans well (via YouTube):

    So I’ve been waiting for the game for almost a decade now (I was a hardcore Everquest gamer back then), but it’s really hard to watch. Unfortunately, I don’t think the game will be released in the near future and when it does, it won’t be anywhere near what we imagined years ago.

    The dream of Pantheon was already shattered in March 2023. The reaction to the first gameplay had now made the graphical revision necessary:

    New MMORPG was considered the great PvE hope for 8 years – but the new gameplay looks terrible

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