"It’s about three times bigger than Kona 1."

The original Kona has received its fair share of praise in the time since its launch, but what are the biggest changes or improvements you’ve made to the gameplay with the upcoming sequel?

Technically speaking, we do not reuse much from Kona 1. The main character model and animations are 100% new, and the same goes for all art assets and things like camera control. The game looks and feel more on par with modern titles, but it essentially remains a surreal adventure / investigation game. To us, the most important changes for a game like Kona is where we bring the player, how we bring him there and the story we put forward. In Kona 1, Carl explored the world with a pick-up truck, and went from house to house to progress into Carl’s investigation. In Kona 2, the player has a boat and dogsled to explore a much more diverse world, which leads to your other question.

How large is Kona 2’s map? How much of an emphasis does the game place on exploration?

I’d say it’s about three times bigger than Kona 1, but it really is a tough comparison. Kona 1 had a central open map, most of it was outdoor and houses were relatively small. Kona II has four regions which all offer different degrees of freedom. In some areas there’s more room for exploration, while in others it’s a bit more constrained. An example I can give is that the player will undoubtedly visit Hamilton’s lavish mansion, which really is a huge place to explore, but for the most part remains indoor. Kona II still is a game that’s all about exploration, but it explores more diverse environments this time around.

The investigation mechanics of Kona 2 seem like an intriguing element of the core loop. Can you talk about how those will take shape in the game and what role they play in the game?

The omniscient narrator is one way of giving details to the player that the eye can’t see (or might not have seen).  Then there’s the journal, which kind of says to the player “you haven’t seen everything there”. Both are relatively optional: Some narration can be skipped, you can also turn them all off, and the journal can be ignored if you want to. The core investigation mechanics are: Observing and interacting with things, and talking to a few individuals. You can clear the game without narration or the journal, but not really by ignoring what the world is telling you.

With surviving the harsh environment of Kona 2 being such an important part of the experience, can you tell us about what form that will take on the gameplay front?

While surviving is a key part of the game, its presence is more for the ambience than for difficulty. It sets a climate of urgency, pushing the player to find out what’s happening. I’d say the balance between survival and adventure mechanics is about the same as Kona, but the execution is better. We want the player to “feel” more of the challenges of the world, while not necessarily have Carl killed by it all the time.

"While surviving is a key part of the game, its presence is more for the ambience than for difficulty."

Will the game place much of an emphasis on combat, or is the bulk of the experience focused on things such as exploration and investigation mechanics?

The bulk of the experience is focused on exploration and investigation mechanics. Combat is there, and more diverse than Kona 1, but exploration and investigation are more diverse too, so the balance is approximately the game.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of the game be?

That really depends on the player. Kona I could take between 3 to 9 hours on average. A speed runner could do less and a completionist a bit more. If we look at Kona II with that mindset, I’d say between 6 and 12 hours.

For us, not much. With a team size of 8 developers, we can’t really invest efforts in having a Series X version better than the PS5 version, or the other way around. We have a set of quality standards for high end PCs and PS5/XS, another for mid range PCs and PS4/XB1, and lastly one for low end PCs and Switch. Resolution and stability of framerate can vary from platform to platform, but these changes will happen only at the very end of production, just before the game goes gold.

The PS5 features an incredibly fast SSD with 5.5GB/s raw bandwidth. How can developers take advantage of this, and how does this compare to the Xbox Series X’s 2.4GB/s raw bandwidth?

Seamlessly streaming scenes is not only about hardware. There is CPU and memory cost of integrating assets into scenes on the engine side. This is something we worked a lot on Kona II, and something Unity is working hard on too, but we still can’t stream assets into the world at the speed both of these SSDs can achieve. Technically speaking, you need to stream and activate things on other threads to not feel the hiccup while moving around. Unity way of doing that is with what they call DOTS, something that we use but that is still experimental, not 100% ready yet.  But once we’ll be there, and that will happen, then the benefit of high speed is that we could think of making a game where you ride a plane at its realistic speed in a world as detailed as Kona II. Stream everything around the player without any loading, ever. The faster the hard drive, the quicker the details will come into the scene. But then we will be limited by the ram which will fill up quickly.

Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X boast Zen 2 CPUs, but there is a difference in the processors of both consoles. The Xbox Series X features 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.8GHz, whereas the PS5 features 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz. Your thoughts on this difference?

As explained under the two questions above, we are too small of a studio to even try to leverage a single platform’s techical advantage.

The Xbox Series S features lesser hardware compared to Xbox Series and Microsoft is pushing it as a 1440p/60 FPS console. Do you think it will be able to hold up for the more graphically intensive games as this generation progresses?

Yes. Even if it is a less capable console, it still has much more to offer than PS4 Pro or Xbox One X. Since we develop on PC and support all consoles, its existence make a lot of sense to us.

"Kona 1 could take between 3 to 9 hours on average. A speed runner could do less and a completionist a bit more. If we look at Kona 2 with that mindset, I’d say between 6 and 12 hours."

Super Resolution is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. How do you think this will help game developers?

If by that you mean something like FSR (AMD Fidelity X), then of course this will help. We already use that for Kona II in a way. FSR 2.0 is just a better upscaling algorithm, so supporting it is just a win for everyone.

What frame rate and resolution will the game target on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S?

Kona II supports dynamic, adaptive resolution. It will render at your screen resolution, but under the hood will scale depending on the workload. We might give the option between high frame rate and high resolution in the settings. We have yet to test if 120 FPS is doable somehow.

What are your thoughts on the Steam Deck? Do you have plans for any specific optimizations for the device?

We think it is a really great device, but we have yet to receive our own kit, so we cannot confirm its support yet.

A new slate of high-profile games is coming to Xbox Game Pass for consoles tomorrow. Bandai Namco’s Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown and Focus Home Interactive’s The Surge 2 will be available along with investigative thriller Kona from Parabole. The Surge 2 will also be available for Xbox Game Pass for PC later in March.

On March 24th, Xbox One and PC players get Bleeding Edge, Ninja Theory’s team-based brawler. March 26th marks the arrival of Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid on consoles, which will also be available for Xbox Game Pass for PC later this month. Astroglaster rounds out the remaining PC releases for the month.

Unfortunately, there a number of titles that will be leaving both Game Pass platforms this month. Console players will be losing Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, The Golf Club 2 and LEGO Worlds. PC players will be losing out on Battle Chef Brigade, Kingsway and Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You. Both platforms will lose Operencia: The Stolen Sun, Cities: Skylines and Vampyr in addition to the above.

Kona started out as an Early Access title. As of March 17th, it’s now officially available for PC, Mac and Linux with the developer releasing its second major patch on May 18th. Kona has garnered a strong reaction from its fans but how did it all begin? GamingBolt spoke to Parabole community manager Jean-François Fiset about the game, it’s inspiration and what motivated the ending. If you’re curious about whether Kona is worth a look, then maybe this will help.

"I would say that for a first game, we are doing pretty well and we are very happy with the overall reception."

What inspired the concept behind Kona? What can you tell us about the story?

At first, we simply wanted to drive around a huge snowy map with an old-school yellow snowmobile. During our jumping sessions, we started to talk about what kind of game we could make that would include this beautiful machine. As a Quebec studio, we also noticed how big the industry is here, but almost no game actually take place in our beautiful lands. We contacted a writer friend of ours and with his help, we were able to build a story that would take place in our province with some cultural references and all.

We chose to set the game in 1970 because it was a really important time period in our history and we wanted to tell a little bit about it. However, we also wanted to add some supernatural elements to the experience, so we did some research about myths and legends. This is when we found out about the Wendigo legend from the Cree people, one of the largest First Nation community in Canada. Three years later, here we are with a full game that has a great story to enjoy!

How has the initial reception the game been since its release on PC and PS4?

So far, we received a lot of positive feedback about the game. On Steam, we were able to maintain our ~90% positive review score that we had during early access. Sure, the game has its issues and obviously (and it’s true for all games), not everyone likes Kona. However, I would say that for a first game, we are doing pretty well and we are very happy with the overall reception.

The game relies more on atmospheric horror as opposed to jump scares or tons of blood. How did you go about crafting the same?

We love horror games and movies. However, we believe jump scares are unnecessary to make a good horror experience. You can achieve so much with only ambient sounds and visuals. In the end, players will enjoy it more without having a heart attack every time they turn a corner.

How do the survival elements in Kona work?

There are a lot of great survival games out there and we wanted some elements in Kona. However, we felt it would remove focus from the story if we went full survival. We decided to balance things out to make sure players would explore and really enjoy the story.

"Considering that, we wanted the ending to be open, but also to be complete."

Basically, we limited survival to health (encounters), body temperature (cold weather), stress (affects aim and stamina) and inventory management. In Kona, there is no need to constantly eat, drink, sleep or craft equipment to survive.

When designing the setting, how did you balance between making them feel like “levels” and actual environments to make them seem realistic?

The fact that you drive a truck by yourself instead of a fast-travel feature really helps the player feel like he is in a “real” environment. Also, the fact that you can also go almost anywhere by foot really helps in making the setting as realistic as possible. You don’t feel like you go from a level to another, you are just visiting a village as you would if you were actually there.

Without giving any spoilers, what motivated the ending you ultimately went with?

As you probably know, there will be three other games set in the same universe as Kona. Each game will feature their own characters, game mechanics, designs, settings, etc.

Considering that, we wanted the ending to be open, but also to be complete. This way, for players who only want to play one, two or three of our games, they will still get one, two or three complete experiences. As for players who will play them all, they will easily feel a link between all titles somehow.

Given the number of horror, mystery and survival games on the market, how do you believe Kona stands out?

Kona blends the immersive atmosphere of a modern survival title with the deep storytelling and puzzle-solving aspects of a classic adventure game. By wrapping many gameplay mechanics around its story, Kona blurs the lines between today’s genres. Thanks to this blend and its unique 1970s Northern Canada setting, it truly stands out of the crowd!

"The way I see it is that even though the PS4 Pro is less powerful than the Scorpio, Sony still has a huge advantage."

How long is the overall experience for the player?

We estimate an average between 3 to 6 hours of gameplay to complete the game. However, it really depends on the player’s play-style. We’ve seen a lot of players play for more than 10 hours because they wanted to visit every inch of the map, find all items and unlock all achievements.

Will you ever bring Kona to VR at some point?

There are plans to bring Kona on VR by the end of the year, but at the moment, we still don’t know which VR platform will be supported at launch.

Do you think the iterative consoles (PS4 Pro/Scorpio) are just a one off thing for this generation?

Although Microsoft and Sony are making more powerful versions of their respective console, developers still have to make sure their games run on the regular version. This is why we believe it’s not a new console cycle.

Do you think the PS4 Pro should have been a more aggresive update like Xbox Scorpio?

The way I see it is that even though the PS4 Pro is less powerful than the Scorpio, Sony still has a huge advantage. They released their upgraded version of the PS4 approximately a year before the Scorpio. It means that they had a lot of time to earn more clients who in the end, just want to play a game on a console that answer their immediate needs.

"Obviously, the fact that the Nintendo Switch is not as powerful as a PS4/Xbox One is a challenge."

Do you think the lack of exclusives will hurt the Xbox Scorpio?

The lack of exclusives can hurt a little, but if the full VR support is there on release, it will most likely make up for it.

What is your take on Nintendo Switch’s processing hardware…do you think your studio has a future on it? If not, why?

Obviously, the fact that the Nintendo Switch is not as powerful as a PS4/Xbox One is a challenge. However, now that we know what it’s all about, it will be easier to prepare for it. We want our games to be available to as many players as possible, so we strongly believe that we have a future on the console.

Will the game ever receive any post-launch content like expansions or free updates?

We’d like to, but there is nothing confirmed at the moment.

The Xbox Scorpio and the PS4 Pro (along side the just released Nintendo Switch) represent brand new console hardware by all three major console manufacturers, released at roughly the same time. At any other time, something like this would mark the beginning of a new generation of consoles. But owing to the incremental and iterative nature of the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One Scorpio, that is something that often remains up for debate among gaming enthusiasts.

So when GamingBolt had the chance to sit down and talk to Jean-François Fiset, the Community Manager of Parabole, who are currently working on Kona, we decided to ask him for his take: are the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One Scorpio a new generation? “Although Microsoft and Sony are making more powerful versions of their respective console, developers still have to make sure their games run on the regular version. This is why we believe it’s not a new console cycle,” he said.

We also asked him what he feels about the Xbox One Scorpio-specifically, the fact that in spite of the system being such a radical and dramatic upgrade over the existing Xbox One, it is tied to the base system anyway, meaning that it has no true exclusives of its own. Would something like this not hurt its chances on the market compared to if it had been a true next generation system with its own exclusive games?

According to Fiset, it might- but if the system launches with full VR support right off the bat, the situation can be tempered somewhat, since VR games will be exclusive only to the Xbox One Scorpio in the Xbox ecosystem. “The lack of exclusives can hurt a little, but if the full VR support is there on release, it will most likely make up for it,” he said.

That’s more or less a sensible stance to take, though of course, the question of the viability of VR games for the larger market is one that still remains. This will be something that we will only be sure of more as time goes on.

The PS4 Pro and the Xbox One Scorpio are intriguing prospects, because they are mid generation harxware refreshes that actually add to the original consoles’ capabilities. But how Sony and Microsoft have gone about this process is a stark study in contrasts- where Sony decided to stick to the original PS4 design, and update it moderately, Microsoft have gone ahead with a radical rethink of the Xbox One design and come up with the Scorpio.

Given the Scorpio’s power advantage over the PS4 Pro as a result of these differing approaches, should Sony have followed the Microsoft playbook in this regard, too? Sony has gone for a moderate upgrade with the PS4 Pro and instead resorting to methods such as 4K checkerboard rendering. So should Sony have gone ahead and released a more powerful mid-gen refresh just like the Scorpio? That is what we decided to ask Jean-François Fiset, Community Manager of Parabole, developer of Kona, when he sat down with us for an exclusive interview.

“The way I see it is that even though the PS4 Pro is less powerful than the Scorpio, Sony still has a huge advantage,” he said. “They released their upgraded version of the PS4 approximately a year before the Scorpio. It means that they had a lot of time to earn more clients who in the end, just want to play a game on a console that answer their immediate needs.”

The year long head start the PS4 Pro has is hardly deniable- but of course, adoption of the PS4 Pro has been a bit on the slower side, especially since Sony themselves have de-emphasized it in marketing, leaving it to the more informed core gamers to scope it out themselves. Will this headstart actually matter against the Scorpio? Ultimately, is the more radically overhauled Scorpio even competing with the PS4 Pro? That is all something that remains to be seen.

Stay tuned for our complete with the developers of Kona later this week. In the meantime, check out the game’s announcement trailer below.