During Devstream 178 live at PAX East this year. In the midst of all the new announcements for Warframe, there was an amazing new trailer for Soulframe, that was filled with never-before-seen gameplay, characters and enemies. It was a trailer that really caught people’s eyes, mine included and I was able to ask some questions that Geoff Crookes, the Community Director for the upcoming MMO was able to answer. Here is what we learned!

Soulframe Fey Pact Trailer Q&A

To start this off, I wanted to clarify how the game’s writing would be handled. Considering most of the dialogue and narration has been rhyming akin to poetry: “Something I noticed with the writing for Soulframe, is that for its narration, there is a lot of rhyming. Will this type of writing be woven into its core experience in dialogue and quests?”

And Geoff responded with:

It won’t be used in all cases, but when we want to convey importance and a sense of history to the world especially.

I do enjoy the poetic format of most of the dialogue we have heard so far. So, it is great to hear it will be used for the more important moments, as to not lose its impact. I also asked the following: “What kind of importance will the Beaver and Bear revealed in the new trailer have in the main narrative of the game?” considering the game in many trailers has the wildlife as their main form of NPCs.

And Geoff explained the following:

Soulframe’s core theme is the restoration of nature, its collision with industry, and reforging the bond we all once had with the soil beneath our feet and the natural world around us. That includes building new relationships with nature’s inhabitants! We can’t get too specific on the roles each character plays in the main narrative; we want those initial meetings (whether they be peaceful or confrontational) to be discovered by the player. But yes, they are definitely all important.

Following this up, I asked the following for the gameplay we saw in the trailer: “The Fey Pact gameplay we saw had crazy aerial fiery bow and arrow gameplay. Is that considered something akin to an ultimate ability? If so, what are the rest of the Fey Pacts abilities like?”

To which Geoff explained:

We’re still in a refining stage to the game and using our early access for feedback, but that is the idea yes and absolutely this would carry over to other pacts as well.

So far, we have only seen this one form of ultimate-like abilities and it will be exciting to see more of these as time goes on in Soulframe. But when it comes other gameplay aspects. The Envoys are able to throw their swords and recall them, similar to the glaive in their older title Dark Sector, and the recent God of War games. So, I asked the following: “The sword toss and recall skill seems to be a staple of the ranged gameplay alongside the recently revealed bow. Will there be any way to augment it? Maybe add a form of rebound?”

And Geoff did confirm the following:

We are playing with ideas for progression but can’t commit on how just yet.

So, while there is not a form of customization for that ability, it is great to hear its not off the table for now. Finally, I asked about the enemies in Soulframe. Mainly a new one they revealed: “Also, the new floating enemy showed in the latest trailer seems “alien” in a way. Will there be other foes like it throughout the experience of Soulframe?”

Geoff promptly responded in a cryptic way:

Good catch, we have ambitions to get creative with the type of enemies you will encounter in this world… perhaps unexpectedly so.

The main antagonistic force of the game is called the “Ode” and in the TennoCon 2023 it was shown they can taint the wildlife and make them look deformed and alien-like.

Soulframe, we do have breakdowns of information you can find here. If you would like to watch the Fey Pact trailer again, you can find it here.

Special thank you to Geoff Crookes for his time and Digital Extremes for the opportunity.