16 October, 2015

6 Min Read

WARDEN Q&A with Game Director Roman Campos-Oriola

RomanQ&A

Q. Why is he named "The Warden"? Does the name somehow reflect to the gameplay? - CouldBeAlien (Reddit)

A. The Warden is an elite warrior from the Legions and he stands to defend his faction. He studied strategy, tactics and war history, which is a rare privilege. Wardens use the finest armors and weapons created by blacksmiths, they have the knowledge of technology. They are merciless defenders of their people. As for how it translates to the gameplay, they are a balanced mix of offense and defense, as they use their longsword as weapon and shield at the same time.

Q. What advantage does the Warden have and what's its "theme"? - Vilcut the Grimdank (Twitter)

B. The Warden is a jack of all trades, he's very versatile, good for both offense and defense. His main advantages are: good and strong chain attacks, allowing him to deal a lot of damage by combining multiple strikes. He or she also has strong guard break abilities, very efficient to break an enemy's guard and quickly launch a fast attack. Finally, The Warden has a powerful guard that he can maintain longer than other heroes, which means he can efficiently maintain his blocking stance for a long time.

Q. How many weapons does he have? - Mohammed Al-Qaisy

C. In For Honor, a Hero is always tied to a weapon. In our current case, The Warden uses a two-handed German longsword that is used for both attack and defense. Players will be able to customize this weapon to make it unique and to adapt it to their play style.

Q. Has the Warden some kind of unique execution that fits his personality/style?superanonymousgamer (Reddit)

D. Yes. Each Hero has specific execution moves. In the Warden's case, he has the decapitation and also the half-swording move, where he grabs the sword by the blade and sticks the pommel under the enemy's clavicle.

				![Warden_black](https://ubistatic19-a.ubisoft.com/resource/en-AU/game/forhonor/game/Warden_black_221681.jpg "Warden_black")

Q. How different is his (The Warden) fighting style comparing with the others? #TeamLegions - Mevlüt Pentaghast (Facebook)

E. Each Hero has a unique fighting style, and every fighting style is based on a specific weapon and its martial art. All Heroes will share the same foundations (3 attack / defense directions, guard breaks and dodging styles). All abilities based on those foundations are unique to each Hero, and will vary depending on the Hero you chose.

Q. Will the armour actually play a part? - Warren Borne (Facebook)

F. Yes. The different types of armor will have an impact on gameplay, and like every weapon, you will be able to customize your armor and make it unique.

Q. What was your thought process when designing the Warden?Neigh Bird (Twitter)

G. We first looked at the old historical martial arts, especially the German school of fencing, to assimilate the fighting style. Then we needed to translate it into a video game, so we trained with weapon experts, stunt men and our animators, to perfect the moves and integrate them in the game engine.

Our high level idea was to use the longsword as a "medieval M4 assault rifle", a really versatile weapon suited for any situation.

Q. Was it mainly the French Knights that inspired you to create the character or was it a mix of the different knights throughout Europe?Ichigorukia56 (Reddit)

H. It was a mix of different knights, but the main inspiration comes from German Teutonic Knights. Of course, as we are not a historical game, we added our own touch to make them visually unique to For Honor.

Q. Will the Warden be the Longsword class, or will he be the two handed sword class. For example, will he only be able to use the longsword or will you be able to get for example the Zweihänder as a weapon. If he is only Longsword, can you customize how the longsword looks?coma987 (Reddit)

I. Well, the Zweihänder is a specific longsword used mostly in the last period of the Renaissance. Those were probably among the last versions of longswords produced. I have to say that The Warden is more of a Middle-Age knight, if you look at his global look, armor and style: heavy and dark. His weapon is closer to a medieval German longsword from the 14th – 15th century. To specifically answer your question, yes, he will always use a two-handed longsword, but you will be able to customize its look, make it unique, and also improve the power of your sword.

Q. If all of the different knights were sandwiches, what kind of sandwich would the Warden be, and why?Stylepoint99 (Reddit)

J. This is a very good question! All of our Heroes should be compared to sandwiches because they make the best comparisons. In The Warden's case, I would say it's a BLT sandwich (Bacon, lettuce, tomatoes), because it's very well balanced. You have bread, veggies and meat, basically everything to make you succeed. It's a very accessible sandwich, easy to understand, with high quality ingredients. (We will send this to our designers)

Q. Was The Warden design, and combat styles inspired by a character from the movies or other games?Mf For Honor (Forums)

K. Yes and no. There are a lot of great knights pictured in movies and games that are great inspirations, but we wanted to create our own archetype, and make it unique. For Honor happens in an undetermined time and place, so we didn't want to link The Warden to a movie or a historical character. We want players to say "Hey this knight looks really badass! This is For Honor's Warden!"