TERA's David Noonan talks story, gameplay

TERA was one of the big winners at this year's E3, and the action fantasy MMORPG continues to ride that wave with a set of newly released video interviews taped on the show floor. TheGameNet's Nadine Heimann interviews lead writer David Noonan, who drops a few interesting nuggets about TERA's gameplay and story.

For starters, Noonan clears up a question many fans have had regarding Westernization and the game's plot. Despite the fact that the majority of TERA's development is happening at Bluehole Studio in Seoul, South Korea, the game's quests will have a distinctly American flavor since Noonan spends one week out of every month traveling to the far east to collaborate directly with Bluehole's designers.

He also points out that the game's quests will feature upwards of two million words, and that players could play through the TERA's lengthy storyline twice without repeating any quest content.

Check out the full interview on YouTube, and don't forget to watch the shorter "personality" piece as well.

Reader Comments (10)

Not a very good interview, can't wait for the game though it looks pretty incredible. Hopefully about all the "it's not repetitive" talk is true and not just bs.

I like this game, but it's looking to be a one trick pony in the extreme.

The gameplay is literally its only claim to fame until they finally decide to give us some information about this enigmatic political system.

mmm I think it's unique (as well) in MMO's for bewbie physics, too.

Or does AoC have that? /ponder

Have to agree with Raze, the poltical system could make this game something excellent. The combat is nice, but it's not exactly innovative.

While the non-targetting system itself isnt exactly innovative, the combat is ANYTHING but 'done before'. I couldn't really explain it in words well, you'd have to play it yourself. It is extremely smooth and definitely not something you will find in other MMOs (at least not done well).
This is a good example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMd5w5acATs&feature=related
It's a combat demo so you are in god mode, but the point is the same. Its not an MMO with action elements, its an Action game wrapped in an MMO shell.

That said, still waiting anxiously for political system news :/

Ah, that does look quite different!

I'd only seen earlier videos from a caster's POV, so it seemed quite boring and predicatble. I'm interested now.

Thanks for the link!

Yeah, boob physics have been done in MMOs already. It's actually far from unique, a KMMO staple from the recent churnouts.

Looks pretty cool. I'm gonna give it a try!

looking forward to this game, I like how they are trying to do something different.

Does anyone else hate it when the characters don't strafe smoothly? In the combat demo posted above the character juts left and right when it is moving. I believe this is a more asian style of movement. I am just relieved the character isn't plastered to the ground like guild wars. The jumping looks very smooth and might even play into the gameplay.

I am very excited to hear more about TERA. It is viscerally stunning to say the least.

TERA's David Noonan talks story, gameplay

Reader Comments (10)

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 8:18PM Zontix said

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Posted: Jul 16th 2010 10:03PM Somnicide said

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Posted: Jul 16th 2010 9:35PM blueimpact said

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