LEGO Horizon Adventures is shouldering the responsibility of broadening the successful PlayStation IP’s appeal much further, and it’s attempting to do that in several ways. Part of that is, of course, the fact that it will also release for Nintendo Switch, but with its LEGO theming, it’s also clearly going for a much younger audience than the main Horizon series. But with LEGO Horizon Adventures set to retell the story of Horizon Zero Dawn, how exactly is it going to keep its contents suitable for a younger audience, especially considering how stark and apocalyptic some of the late-game narrative reveals can get?
Speaking during a recent interview with GamesIndustry, James Windeler, narrative director at Guerrilla – which is co-developing the game alongside Studio Gobo – touched on the same, revealing that LEGO Horizon Adventures is going to take a lot of creative liberties with Zero Dawn’s story. Specifically, Windeler explained that some of the original story’s darker elements are going to be either removed or de-emphasized in the upcoming LEGO game, while the general tone is, of course, also going to be much more lighthearted.
“We have tried to keep as much of the story as possible,” he said. “A lot of what happens in the world, like the destruction of the old world… that’s a pretty heavy theme for an eight-year-old. So we needed to find ways to keep that present in the story, because it is essential to Horizon. But it is also not something we leaned on. You won’t find some of those devastating reveals from the first game, like those corporate masterminds dead around the table or anything like that.
“There are moments from the first game that packs a really heavy emotional punch, that we’ve found, I think, a very good way to represent faithfully, but undercut them with comedy that keeps things light-hearted. This stuff is present, but it’s certainly not surface. This is a much simpler version, but it has a lot of echoes from the original.”
Windeler added that though LEGO Horizon Adventures’ tone is going to be different from the main Horizon series, the characters “remain core to who they are”, which, as per him, is thanks in part to the fact that many of the original actors are reprising their roles.
“It has still got to feel like Horizon,” he said. “We have definitely bent the rules a lot. But the characters remain core to who they are. I think we’ve found a really good balance with it. We have a lot of help. Ashley Burch is back as the voice of Aloy, and JB Blanc as Rost. And you would have heard the exuberance to their performances. It is different to what the other games are, but they’re still recognizable. They’re part of it and they bought into it, and that’s been a huge boon to us.”
LEGO Horizon Adventures is due out this Holiday for PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. A specific release date hasn’t yet been announced.
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