Broken Sword Reforged will remain true to the canon, while Parzival's Stone aims to be bolder

In a small cabin hidden in a corner of Gamescom, I spoke with Charles Cecil, the creator of Broken Sword, for over an hour. Even that didn't feel like enough time. Cecil has so many captivating stories about the games and Revolution Software that I could have spent the entire Gamescom just listening and still not have heard them all.

As he showed me the new remastered version of Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged in action, he says to me, "Everyone looks at this and says, 'Isn't it great? It looks just like it did before.'" I immediately agree. With a grin, Cecil changes the graphics, and the game transitions to the pixelated retro graphics of the original release. "That's how it looked back then," he laughs.

"That's why we have to include this toggle, otherwise people would say, 'You didn't really do much, did you?'" He is absolutely right. When I first saw the screenshots of Reforged, I was naturally impressed by the cleanliness, but my nostalgia told me that the game looked damn good back then. Oh, how much my memories deceived me.

As Cecil shows me more of the game, he demonstrates how the team has polished the original animations. George now has real-time shadows as he moves through the scenes, and a halo of light surrounds him. Cecil praises a "brilliant" programmer who had to be resourceful to make the shadows work well in 2D.

"We have great respect for the original," he says to me. "What we want is the same game, but simply much better. We will not change it. We will not alter the art style like they did with Monkey Island."

Revolution Software has added more details to the characters while maintaining their original appearance. The artists were instructed not to reinvent the characters but to use their personalities based on the gameplay and voice recordings to further refine their designs.

These types of graphical improvements have relied on AI in the past, an approach that is increasingly being discussed controversially. Cecil is open and direct about "the somewhat sensitive topic" and explains how the team has used and not used AI. "We use AI as a tool for artists. In the past, humans had to undertake this laborious task of tracing and coloring sprites. It was simply terrible. What's great for the artists is that they can do the foundational work and then utilize AI. AI is now capable of creating the body completely so that [the artists] can focus on facial expressions, drawing hands, and other things that AI cannot do. The things that a human should do to create interesting expressions, convey meaning, and ensure that the eyes look beautiful when they gaze at each other."

While Reforged is working hard to preserve the spirit of the original, Broken Sword - Parzival's Stone takes a slightly more adventurous approach to its art style without losing what fans love. It captures the style of the original games but utilizes a blend of 2D and 3D elements to create a "Super 2D" environment. That's not the only way it wants to bring some changes, as Cecil explains. Parzival's Stone will be somewhat bolder: "It will be a really good point-and-click adventure, I promise you, but it will be more adventurous. In terms of how George and Niko are portrayed, the puzzles, and everything else, it will be somewhat bolder."

Reforged is not the first time the original Broken Sword has been re-released, as Revolution Software already created the Director's Cut for Nintendo Wii and DS in 2009. However, Reforged is not based on that version.

"When we made the Director's Cut, we re-implemented it from the Gameboy Advance version," Cecil explains. "We squeezed in as much as possible into the memory. The animations and dialogues that were not included, hardcore fans asked, 'Why did you remove that?' Well, that's not the right question. The right question is, 'Why didn't you include it when you re-implemented it?' The answer is, 'We didn't have the space.' We decided to go back to the original, which has much more content and is considered canon for hardcore fans, and build upon that. We could incorporate the content from the Director's Cut, but we're not doing it for the initial release."

Revolution Software is keeping this canonical version of the first Broken Sword for Reforged, but that doesn't mean they haven't made some minor changes alongside the much-needed improvement of the game. The team plans to utilize some animations and voice recordings that were created for the original release but never used. Cecil also tells me that the team has addressed any inconsistencies or outdated cultural references that arose and required attention.

For example, when you return to the pub after the bomb explodes in the original version, the stool on which the bomb was placed remains intact. But in Reforged, you can see that the explosion has torn the stool apart. Another example he points out is the animation when the assassin returns to the hotel. He is still wearing his purple jacket, even though Albert had found the jacket earlier. Cecil jokes that there are some things he can't fix, like how Albert can take the jacket to a tailor within ten minutes after the explosion, but he can at least show the assassin in a shirt to indicate that he has taken off his jacket.

"We had a very progressive writer, he was great. In fact, there are so few things that don't feel consistent in the year 2023," says Cecil, but he tells me about a character in Broken Sword where he was concerned that they seemed too stereotypical, a Syrian character. Therefore, minor changes were made to counteract that.

While the team is making some minor changes, one important thing will remain the same. When I ask Cecil if Rolf Saxon, the original voice actor of George Stobbart, will return for Parzival's Stone, he tells me that he wishes for it. Saxon has also expressed the desire to return, so unless something catastrophically goes wrong, we should see him reprising his role as George.

"We find ourselves in an incredible position, having these games, having a wonderful audience, and having a legacy," says Cecil, but he has learned the hard way that transitioning point-and-click to modern audiences was not as simple. "I was absolutely horrified to find out that my assumption that anyone could play point-and-click because it was obvious was completely wrong, especially on mobile devices. Even experienced players would get stuck."

To test the user experience without revealing Revolution Software's actual intentions, the team started testing a low-resolution version of Broken Sword 2 with some new features, such as a hint system. This way, the testers would assume that only the old version was being re-released, rather than suspecting that a high-resolution remaster of the first game was planned.

Cecil was initially not convinced about the idea of a hint system. "When I played adventure games recently, it really annoyed me. Why should I use a hint? What great games do is that you fail, you know why you failed, and you get better and then you succeed. That's gameplay." Interestingly, his own experience with a hint system later changed his opinion. "God knows why, I played Candy Crush. I thought, 'Oh God, there must be three more somewhere, and I can't see them.' Then there was a little flash. I realized that I wasn't being condescended to. It had waited a certain amount of time before displaying the hint."

Therefore, Revolution Software experimented with this hint system in their mock test of Broken Sword 2 and offers a traditional mode for hardcore players who want to figure things out on their own, and a story mode for those who may want a little help. It's the same content but with additional features. There are small sparkles for hints, and if you interact with something that has no use, it will be grayed out. If you combine two items that don't work together, they will also be grayed out. The more you strive to solve puzzles, the more options shrink to make the answer clearer.

The team faced a similar challenge with the touchscreen. Players were confused about which part was highlighted when options were displayed. Therefore, they made the hand transparent to clearly indicate what they had selected. The user experience tests were invaluable to the team.

Reforged and Parzival's Stone will also offer these same features. "[Broken Sword] 1, 2, 5, and 6 will have identical user interfaces, identical icons, you will know that you are in the world of Broken Sword." He acknowledges that this is a different matter for Broken Sword 3 and 4, which are in 3D. Nevertheless, most parts of the series can proudly stand side by side in 4K, as the team has removed the numbers from the titles.