Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy has just been released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, and we had the chance at gamescom to speak to David Dedeine, co-founder of Asobo and game director, and Anna Demetriou, Sophia’s voice actor, about this big moment for the franchise.
The story being told in Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is a prequel that centers on Sophia and her journey to the Minotaur’s island to confront a mythical creature at the heart of a devastating curse. It’s an emotional tale not only for the players, but for Demetriou herself.
“I think sometimes in the acting world, there’s a phrase of a character being on center or off center for whoever is playing them,” Demetriou said. “For me, Sophia is very much on center. She feels very close to me. This means it hasn’t been so much of a stretch to access her or play her. I think we’ve also delved into her backstory and, as you leave Resonance and you sit in what that game shows you, it makes sense in how you are then led to the Requiem version of her. If there was never anything again, to me, she makes sense and is complete.”
Demetriou, after revealing that Just Cause was an important title that helped welcome her into the world of games, said she brought a lot of herself to Sophia and had a great relationship with Resonance’s lead writer, Carol Ann Bañuls.
“What was actually really nice on [Resonance] and quite a unique experience was that the person who had originally written Sophia’s character in A Plague Tale: Requiem was not the one writing on Resonance,” Demetriou said. “We had the amazing Carol Ann Bañuls on this one, who I got on with so well professionally and personally. It all felt very naturally collaborative as I’d already played this character and she was coming to it new.
“This led to a lot of moments of us saying, ‘Okay, how can we blend what I know about this character already and what you’re bringing to this character that’s new and makes something fresh with it together?’ She was also so open to, ‘Do you like this line? Do you think that she would say something like this?’ And I would say, ‘Yeah, I like it too!’ Or, ‘How about we try twisting it, and maybe try this instead?’ And she was always up for it. I don’t always have that creative freedom as an actor, so it was nice to feel that we got to do this together a lot of the time.”
We then chatted with Dedeine about this new story and how it being a prequel offered some interesting challenges.
“There are a lot of different dimensions on this because did not want to disappoint people, as we knew since the beginning that Amicia and Hugo were gone,” Dedeine said. “It was not possible to continue on the same vein, and we knew that if we tried to mimic what we did in the past, it would definitely be a wrong move.
“Even in A Plague Tale: Requiem, when we decided to go for the ending we chose, we knew it was the end for a lot of things. So for this, we wanted to open the window a little bit, get some fresh air, and change a little bit the tone too because it’s seven years in a row that we’ve been walking in this universe. However, that concept is a bit complicated because you need to redefine things, and sometimes you fall back too easily on the existing rail and sometimes you try to go too far in the other direction. I think that was the trickiest part, finding this balance between adding the right amount of new flavor while keeping the spirit and the tone we had in the previous games.”
One of the biggest changes in this game compared to the previous one is the absence of the iconic swarms of rats. Dedeine assures fans that they shouldn’t be worried, because something just as sinister has taken their place.
“There is something very special that replaces the rats, and in a much more dynamic way,” Dedeine said. “It’s also something we haven’t shown because we want to keep it a big surprise, but I think it’s something interesting and innovative. I’m curious to see how people are going to react.”
Speaking of players reacting, that is happening right now as Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is now available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. In our review, we said it is a “prequel spinoff that takes a lot of interesting chances with the series, following a new protagonist, refocusing its encounters around melee combat, and even introducing a whole new way to haunt your dreams.”