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A Sword of the New World: Granado Espada Q&A Focusing on Unique Player Characters

By integrating a three character party system into the foundations of the game, the developers behind Sword of the New World: Granado Espada have created a uniquely different MMOG that may surprise the world with its popularity. However, the multi-character control (MCC) system is not the only unique aspect of SotNW. As part of the MCC system, you can add other characters to your party whenever you wish, which allows for a huge number of character combinations.

On top of all that, the SotNW developers also created Unique Player Characters (UPCs) that a gamer can recruit through quests of varying lengths. We’ve shown you pictures of one UPC, Panfilo the Chef, in our SotNW preview, but there are over 40 characters to get in the game with more being added! To answer our questions on UPCs, we ran down Jonenee Merriex, Senior Game Master for SotNW. Jon answers our questions concerning UPCs and really lends some details on what UPCs can do for a family.

There are 40 UPCs that you can recruit into your family.

Ten Ton Hammer: Unique Player Characters seem a strange concept for a game based around families…how do these UPCs fit in? Are they temporarily hired? Or will everyone be toting around a UPC in there group?

Jon: First off you have to understand what a UPC is.  A Unique Player Character is a Non-Player Character who has sworn allegiance to your family.  They will stay with you through thick and thin.  They can level, die, and be promoted to Veteran status.  They can learn stances and equip items and armor.  You can even get specific costumes JUST for them.

UPCs are full time companions who have joined your cause either for personal gain or because they believe that YOUR family will make a difference in this new world.  At no point will a UPC ‘leave’ your family unless you decide to delete them.

Ten Ton Hammer: How "unique" will the UPCs be? Will everyone have access to the same UPC, or are there a limited number of UPCs that only the best and brightest can collect?

UPCs can be obtained through quests of varying difficulty.

Jon: Well, everyone one will have UPCs, but with over 40 of them and only 36 Quarters slots, not everyone will have them all.  Generally, you get UPC cards for helping UPCs with quests or missions in game.  There will be several UPCs that will be harder to get than others.  

One in particular is Catherine.  There are several very long and very difficult quests revolving around acquiring Catherine.  She also has an interesting story of her own (like all the UPCs) so by the time you finally get her, she will feel like family.

Advancement with UPCs works just like advancement with a normal member of your family.

Ten Ton Hammer: Will UPCs be stronger, faster, or better combatants than a player's family members? Or are they just offered as a unique and creative alternative to players looking for different gameplay?

Jon: Both.  There are UPCs who are stronger than their base class counter-part, but usually they will have a limited amount of stances or will have some other balancing drawback.  Catherine, for example, can be put together to have high Strength, but her other stats will be lower than her Fighter counter-part.

Ten Ton Hammer: With UPCs will players be able to exceed the three character party limit? Or will the UPC take the place of a family member?

Jon: UPCs are apart of your family and not in addition to your family.  So they will not adjust the number of characters you can take into the world with you.

Ten Ton Hammer: Are UPCs available in guild vs. guild or player vs. player conflicts? Or is that limited to only family members?

Guilds will want to insure that their members have the best UPCs available during PvP conflicts.

Jon: They are a part of your family.  Everything your base classes can do, UPCs can do as well.  They will be a vital part of PvP and many clans will want to ensure that their players get their hands on the harder to get UPCs.

Ten Ton Hammer: How many UPCs are available in SotNW?

Jon: Currently over 40 and the development team is always adding more.

Ten Ton Hammer: Will UPCs have any sort of personality, or will they be more like pets found in games like WoW or EQ?

Jon: MCC isn’t really about having ‘pets’. But more about having 3 characters you are always controlling.  While there are times that you will not want to focus on one character so you can do something else with another.  The longer you ignore that character the more likely they are to die.  Unlike in other games not having a member of your team is a BIG deal.  And while the in game  AI is good, it really isn’t there to allow you to use your characters like ‘pets/heroes’ found in other games.

That said, UPCs work just like the base classes.  If you treat them like a ‘pet’ you will be dead early and often.

Ten Ton Hammer: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, and I hope we can talk to you soon!

Ten Ton Hammer is your unofficial source for Sword of the New World news and features!

Make sure you check out Ten Ton Hammer's Sword of the New World In-Depth Preview!