Die Höllenkatze ist aus dem Sack.

Diablo 4, Lord of Hatred, heißt die neue Erweiterung, kommt am 28.

April und bringt den Paladin als neue Klasse ins Spiel.

Das hört sich alles ganz gut an.

Das Cinematic haben wir auch schon gesehen.

Und jetzt haben wir noch die Gelegenheit, mit Matt Burns zu reden.

Der ist Lead Narrative Designer an Diablo 4 und kann uns einige Fragen zur Story und zum Paladin beantworten.

Hi Matt, nice to meet you.

Hey, nice to meet you.

How you doing?

Very good, thank you.

And congrats on the great new Cinematic.

Again, a very impressive cinematic as Blizzard is sort of known for As a principal writer, what was your role in it?

Did you work with a cinematics team on this one as well?

Well, first of all, thank you.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

And to answer your question, yes, we work very closely with the cinematics team at Blizzard on all the cinematics.

But for this one in particular, we would sit down every so often through the process and work with the cinematics team, give them feedback on, you know, what's the, how should Mephisto be acting?

Was ist die Geschichte behind the Paladin?

Was kind of abilities should we be showing in the cinematic so that it matches with what the developers are working on for the class itself and the class mechanics and stuff like that and just the visuals and just the theming and the dialogue that's being spoken so we kind of worked on all of that together, and of course the cinematics team is great und die Fidelity von everything they can create zu machen es so cool und interesting.

They did their magic on it.

So, it was a fun, um, really fun process.

I've.

Ich habe mit dem Cinematics-Team für ein paar Jahre auf Cinematics gearbeitet.

Es ist immer so, ich weiß, dass sie so talented sind.

Ja.

Ich bin immer amazet, was sie können.

Aber für den Lord of Hatred expansion, da sind ein paar andere Cinematics auch, in verschiedenen Medien, wie wir in Diabla 4 that we worked with different cinematic directors and artists on as well.

So a lot of very cool stuff coming.

Yeah, I mean, it's always sort of like been a trademark for Blizzard, these very high-fidelity cinematics, starting with the earliest Diablo games, Warcraft games and so on.

What do you think is like the secret ingredient for a Blizzard cinematic that makes it so special?

Ich denke, dass ein von den Prinzipien, von meinem Erfahrung, working auf cinematics, da war immer dieses drive zu create etwas handcrafted.

Give es ein handcrafted feel.

Go in und adjust und massage every detail.

Even Dinge, wenn du die cinematic, Maybe you're happening so fast, but I think subconsciously you're still picking up on just the level of detail and the quality of everything.

And I think when it all comes together, that's what gives it this special extra oomph that just makes you go, wow, that was really cool.

So a lot more in store for the story of Lord of Hatred in terms of cinematics.

Weil es nicht nur die genannten Filme, sondern auch die genannten Filme, die Spieler immer mit dem Spiel lieben.

Exactly, yeah.

As you saw in Vessel of Hatred or in the Diablo 4 base game, we have a number of cinematics throughout the campaign and different kinds of cinematics too.

We have the ones that are more like the top-down view, but there's very unique animations for the characters going on.

And then we have the more traditional cinematics that are going to happen.

So, like with the previous expansion, we're going to have a lot of those in Lord of Hatred.

Yeah, the Inarius Lilith cinematic.

Towards the end of the game, that was like one of the most epic things I've seen in a long time.

That was really amazing.

All right, let's talk about the story of Lord of Hatred, which of course is your main expertise that you're working on.

Mit dem Base Game und mit Vessel of Hatred in Both we've sort of seen like a more open-ended ending of course you had the ending to the story but there was always this okay and this is how it's gonna continue I already sort of know where it's going, did you like what lessons did you take from that and is it gonna be similar with Lord of Hatred or is Lord of Hatred sort of gonna und diese Mephisto-Arch, natürlich ohne zu viel spoilingen.

Sure, that's a great question.

So yeah, for example, Vessel of Hatred was a very important chapter.

And it was always intended that it's going to lead directly into Lord of Hatred, which, as you said, yes, it is this culmination of everything.

It is this final chapter to the story of Mephisto and sort of this Age of Hatred that we call the story so far of Diablo 4.

So there was that cliffhanger ending in order to set up what's going to happen in Lord of Hatred.

But really for Lord of Hatred, our goal is to wrap up all these threads, bring this story to its final exciting ending and have this epic showdown against Mephisto that I think...

Throughout the course of Diablo 4 people were kind of waiting for and expecting.

Mephisto's been around kind of messing with us doing certain things and now we're going to face him for real and also I think nobody really thought that Narell's plan was gonna completely work and she's just gonna go away and never hear anything from him again, right right yeah you know it's it's hard to uh it's hard to deal with primevals yeah it's uh, it's not easy yeah speaking on that um since it's all very focused on lilith and mephisto of course you're not gonna like spoil anything but can you give us a little hint at what the other prime evals might be doing at this at this point um are we maybe gonna see some of them at a later time can you tell us anything.

So sure I can tell you that you know Diablo and Bael are still around you know they're not like gone or anything like that but we've really just been focusing on Mephisto as part of this age of hatred overarching story so for Lord of Hatred it really is about Mephisto and bringing that, story to a close Diablo and Bale are not a part of it, but like I said, they're still, out there they're not gone or anything like that, it's just we really wanted to focus in on Mephisto and all the other characters revolving around him, right?

Like Lilith, his daughter, you know, and Arius and all those characters and really just kind of home in on them.

Yeah, so I was one of those players and I think there were many that at the end of Diablo Fear were sort of like, oh, where's this going?

Will we maybe even be able to join Lilith and fight against Mephisto with her?

I would have gone for that 100%, by the way.

So what role will she play now in Lord of Hatred?

Will she sort of help us against Mephisto?

Is she one of the good guys now?

Yeah.

So, you know, we were fed her blood petals, right?

Yeah.

In Base Game.

She's a part of us.

And even though we defeated her in Hell, there's something of her that lives on inside of us.

And so, you know, as she said, there would be no victory, you know, without her.

She's right.

When we're going to go and face Mephisto in Lord of Hatred, Lilith and our blood bond with her will be a very important and key part to dealing with Mephisto or trying to deal with him.

So we are going to have this relationship with her.

It is, as you might expect, a tense relationship because she's a powerful demon and demons aren't ones to just be nice or to forgive, because we did defeat her in hell and we ruined her plans.

So it'll be really interesting.

I think it's a very fun part of the game, A very interesting part of the game, the story where we try to use this bond with Lilith to help the world and to stop Mephisto.

But she has, like always, she has her own motivations.

You know, it's not like we always see eye to eye on everything.

So this sort of tension is always present.

Und auch diese Frage, wie wir, die Kinder von Lilith sind, was unsere destiny in dieser Welt ist?

Wie viel Influen sie hat über uns, versus wie viel unserer Agency ist unsere eigene.

Aber zu all die Lilith-Fans da werden wir mehr von ihr zu sehen in Lord of Hatred.

Ja, definitiv.

Ja, da wird viel zu sehen.

Und also.

Du werden Dinge über ihr that you didn't learn about in Diablo 4 or Vessel of Hatred.

I mean, mostly Diablo 4, the base game.

You're going to learn new things about her.

And the same goes for Mephisto, too, because he's such a big part of it as well.

We're going to be learning things about him that, until now, we kind of only scratched the surface, right?

But in Lord of Hatred, there are so many more details and elements of their past that are going to come out.

Das ist cool.

Also, weil diese Charaktere sind multilayert.

Sie sind nicht nur, okay, er ist komplett ein schlechter Mann.

Oder vielleicht ist er ein schlechter Mann.

Aber es scheint immer mehr zu sein.

Und es ist interessant, ihn zu lernen, mehr über ihn, glaube ich.

Was ich auch sehr interessant finde, ist, dass ich ein großer Fan von der Grieke Mythologie.

Und die neue Aria, Skowos, ist sehr, sehr inspiriert von der Grieke Mythologie.

So, was kann sie uns über Skowas erzählen?

Wie ist Leben da?

Wie werden wir...

Und was wir da?

Ja, Skobos ist ein sehr cooles Ort.

Das ist, wenn Lilith und Anarius und die anderen Rebel Angels und Demons created Sanctuary, sie kamen, sie kamen in Skobos an zuerst.

Und das ist wo sie die Humanität, wo sie die Firstborn.

Und so Skobos ist cool, weil es all diese sehr ancient Firstborn Ruins everywhere, but combined with sort of more modern, you know, dwellings and cities that are made by the Ascari, who are the, that's the culture that currently lives there, right?

And so we're coming to this place where humanity all began in order to decide what humanity's fate will be going forward, right?

Because Mephisto in the body of Achrod is also coming here to do something in this ancient place that he thinks is going to.

Der Welt, wie er es verändert hat.

Es ist nicht etwas, was wir wollen.

Skobos hat all diese verschiedenen islands.

They each have their own unique and exciting flavor.

Wenn wir da gehen, wir werden viel über die Kultur und wie es funktioniert.

Wir werden sehen die Amazons, die dual casts, die dual orders of Skobos.

Sie haben die Amazons.

Wir werden die Militär.

Of Skobos and the Oracle Order who are more like the spiritual leaders and how they work together but also how Mephisto is when he comes here, how he's like messing with the system, right?

And kind of trying to break it so it doesn't get in his way, So there are some interesting new characters, for example Queen Adriana, who is the Amazon Queen but we also have the old Characters coming back, like Nerelle and Lorath, right?

Yes, so we have a great combination of new and old characters.

So like you just said, Queen Adriona, she's an Amazon who's Queen of Skobos.

And then Oracle Syrah is kind of like the other leader of Skobos.

You know, like I said, she's the spiritual leader.

And they're very interesting and they play a big part in the story.

And yes, as you said Lorath, Nerel, and like we talked about earlier, Lilith, so we have familiar faces coming back, new faces and in a lot of cases there's a connection between them so for instance.

Something I can mention is Lorath has been here before like decades ago he came here with some other Haradrim, he had an adventure here and he met Queen Adriana und sie war jünger, und er hat sich eine Verbindung mit ihr an, so es ist nicht ein komplett neu für die Charaktere.

Es gibt verschiedene Lägersen zwischen ihren und was sie das für sie bedeutet.

So ist Nyrell, ist sie noch eine Ongoing-Theme, dass sie gegen die Mephisto-Corruption ist, or is that something that's been cleansed completely off her?

Can you already tell us something about that, or is that too spoilery?

No, I can talk about that.

I mean, Narell definitely has moved to a different state since Vessel of Hatred.

She overcame this sort of psychological attack that Mephisto was doing to her right.

Und so, wirklich, sie ist mehr wie sie hat sie in dieser Rolle von Haradrim, mehr so als vorher, und putting die needs of Sanctuary vor ihr eigen.

Und, ich denke, dass, Rather than kind of cower from Mephisto after everything he did to her in Vessel of Hatred, she's eager to find a way to strike back.

Yeah.

And it's more like she's on the offensive rather than scared or concerned about what's going to happen.

But the one thing I would say, though, is that even though she's not corrupted or infested by Mephisto or anything like that, as we saw in Vessel of Hatred where he's sort of getting into her head.

Mephisto will always be messing with the people he has encountered, including not just Narell, but everybody.

So it's not like you can just cut the bond that easily between a mortal and a primeval.

Okay, so it'll be interesting to see how that will develop.

Let's talk about the Paladin, which is of course like this huge iconic character in many many fantasies and also has been in Diablo whether it was the Crusader or the Paladin how did you guys envision this character now in this new game how does he fit into this world of Diablo 4, yeah sure so I can talk a little bit about the Paladin Es ist ein sehr cooles Klasse, wie Sie sehen, in den Cinematicen, mit den Abiliten die Paladin hat.

Die Familiar Abiliten hat er.

Was ich kann sagen, dass die Paladin ist...

As you just said, there have been Paladins throughout the different Diablo games and throughout the lore of Diablo, right?

And so this Paladin is a little bit different because rather than being a part of the Zacarum Church or some other big institution like that, these Paladins are more like an independent order of Warriors of Light who are going out to do good in the world.

Because they've seen what has happened in the past to the Zacharum and these other, like I said, big institutions and how inevitably there's a hierarchy gets formed and it leads to corruption and things like that.

And so they've decided, hey, we're not going to do any of that kind of stuff.

We're going to stick to these truths of what the light means and how a person can find it and use it.

And we're going to go and make right what is wrong in the world.

So they're, you know, they're like these wandering warriors of light who stick to these strict oaths in order to prevent themselves from being, you know, corrupted or led astray by any dark forces.

And they also have compared, I think, to other paladins that we've seen or the crusaders, they also have this unique kind of belief in what the light is.

They know what the light is.

They know that angels exist.

And so they see, they don't worship angels, but they see them as these like aspirational figures that are like, oh, these are creatures of pure light.

Maybe they don't always have our best intentions at heart, but there's something to aspire to.

And so it's almost like they have an even closer connection with the light than paladins of the past because they can sometimes even hear...

Der Song der Licht, die in ihren Händen existiert.

So, ja, sie sind sehr interessant und ich denke, sehr fun zu spielen und eine cool, slight evolution von Paladins in den letzten Jahren.

Ja, das ist cool.

Also, weil der Paladin, mit diesem Figur der Licht, Er ist der naturalen Opponent, der natürliche Opposite von Mephisto, der Lord von Deceit und Hade.

Wie spielt das in der Geschichte?

Will die Paladin haben eine unique Ausblick auf was passiert in der Spiel?

Und natürlich, du kannst die Base-Game mit dem Paladin jetzt beginnen, wenn du willst.

will he have something to say about the story of the base game that maybe gives another perspective on things.

Yeah we do have these moments throughout base game vessel of hatred and lord of hatred where the different classes maybe have their own opinions about certain things like there are certain spots right throughout where that comes up so the paladin will definitely, have those kind of moments as well, where they can express maybe what they think about something going on or how they feel about something going on.

Do you have maybe a fun fact about the Paladins, something you can share with us on top of that?

So something to share about that is...

So I'll share a backstory narrative fun fact.

Okay.

One, and it's like, what I'm about to say is true of some paladins, it isn't true of all of them necessarily, but we kind of imagine that.

The paladins go through this training process where established paladins might be wandering through a town one day and they meet someone and they see some potential in them.

Right?

And they take them under their wing and they train in how to become fighters but then there's sort of this rite of passage at the end of it all, where they're asked to basically climb up this mountain, go through this arduous task, and once they reach the top of it, sort of exhausted and maybe starving and sort of in this push to the edge, some of them can sometimes hear what we call the light song, which is something from Diablo lore which is basically like the sound of the light in the universe it's like this music and in hearing it, it sort of changes them and gives them this insight into the light itself but I mention that because, it's like a background lore thing that, maybe isn't, Es ist nicht sicher, wenn man die Paladin in der Spiel selbst spielt.

Ich bin sehr froh.

Also, wenn Sie mit ihnen sprechen, begrüßen Sie die Art und Charakter-Design-Team.

Ich bin ein Paladin-Spieler.

Ich spiele Paladin in fast jeder Spiel.

Ich habe die Art und ich habe gesehen, und das sieht wie der coolste Paladin ich habe, mit dem Hügel und der großen Blattarmor.

Er sieht so cool.

Ich will wirklich in der Klasse spielen.

Ich denke, ihr wird es lieben.

Ja.

Bitte geben meine Regards zu den Team, die das gemacht haben.

Es sieht einfach aus.

Ich werde, ja.

Danke.

Danke, Matt, für uns zu sprechen, über Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred.

Ja, wir sind froh, mehr davon zu sehen und nächstes Jahr zu spielen, wenn es April 28.

Cool, es war mein Glück.

Vielen Dank, dass du mich aufhören und mit mir überraschst.

Ja, egal, egal.

Bis zum nächsten Mal.

Okay, bis zum nächsten Mal.

Und euch da draußen auch vielen Dank fürs Zuschauen und oder Zuhören.

Wir sehen uns im nächsten Video wieder.

Bis dann.