Hunchman801 wrote:We know that both the Dream Forest (only referred to as the jungle so far) an Band Land will appear in Origins, but are there any other worlds from the original game you'd like to see? Or maybe levels from Rayman 2 and 3?
My favourite R1 worlds are Band Land and Picture City; I think that music and art are very rich concepts for a game environment, and there’s plenty of untapped potential in both of them (just off the top of my head: Band Land could feature labyrinthine networks of interconnected flutes, and oceans composed of churning sheet music, while Picture City could include sections where Rayman makes his way through environments inspired by the work of specific artists or their artistic movements, or perhaps even other art forms such as filmmaking [or game development, if they want to go meta]). Guillaume Bonamy’s artwork hinted at such expansion: one of his pieces was a concept for a Picture City cavern, complete with ink waterfall and pencil stalagmites, stalactites and columns. I hope the reintroduced R1 locations in Origins will contain numerous fresh ideas of this sort, and it would be great if they were accompanied by some throwbacks and narrative links to the other games (I’m thinking of Space Mama and Zaroff).
The Dream Forest, the Blue Mountains and the Caves of Skops are all examples of staple platforming environments – very similar worlds could definitely appear in Origins, even if they aren’t given the same name. We know there will be a forest world (which probably will be the Dream Forest, judging by the ‘Primordial Forest’ reference); there will also be a mountain world (which to me looks rather similar to the Blue Mountains; those floating landmasses are something we haven’t seen outside R1); and there will also be a cave world (it was shown in the trailer, and I’d forgotten about it until now; I think it has a reasonable chance of being the Caves of Skops). It’s clear that Candy Château won’t be coming back, as it’s too similar to the food world (unless the Château itself is actually located there); I’m not too troubled by this, as I found it one of the less interesting worlds in R1.
The levels I liked best in Rayman 2 were the most mystical ones: the Sanctuaries of Water and Ice, Stone and Fire, and Rock and Lava, and (if you can call it a level) the Hall of Doors. I don’t think it would make sense for any of the Sanctuaries to return, as they’re specifically linked to the plot of Rayman 2, but I’d love to see more Sanctuaries or similar environments, as well as a 2D version of the Hall of Doors – any redesigns to accomodate new levels could be justified by the simple fact that it’s a magical dimension warp.
In Rayman 3, my favourite levels were again the most magical ones: the Fairy Council, the Land of the Livid Dead and the Longest Shortcut. I think the Council stands a good chance of coming back, as it’s the location of the Heart of the World, which lies at the centre of any self-respecting Rayman game. The Land of the Livid Dead might have some overlap with the Land of the Dead – at this point it’s hard to say whether that might hinder its chances of returning – but the Palmito backstory is definitely something worth exploring, and the Celtic environment has plenty of untapped potential. As for the Longest Shrotcut (whose alternate name is the far more poetic Temple of the Grand Minimus), I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see it return in some form; the glimpse of mysterious Teensie architecture at the end of the third part is something I think the developers may want to follow up on, and the puzzle format will always make for an interesting change of pace in what looks like an otherwise hectic platforming experience.
I would also be very pleased to see some of the aforementioned Guillaume Bonamy pieces realised in game form; while it looks like I might get my wish regarding Band Land, what about the World of Toys, the Temporal Palace and the Organic World? My only experience with these environments comes from those drawings and the watered-down GBA port of RRR1, but I really like them all the same – I wonder if they will ever get their chance to shine.
Hunchman801 wrote:I would personally love to see the Caves of Skops again; in any case, Dango is right about the Blue Mountains (unless both worlds are the same), and I fear that Picture City and the Candy Château might be hard to adapt among the very stylised imaginary worlds from Origins we've already seen (see the food world and what happened to Band Land).
As for Rayman 2 and Rayman 3, as a huge fan of the Sanctuary of Stone and Fire and the Land of the Livid Dead I'd love to see them “back”, but once again I doubt it.
In any case, there's no way we're not having plums and piranhas in Origins.
I wouldn’t be so quick to judge the redesigned Band Land; we’ve only seen
one piece of concept art (which happens to have been photographed from a Dutch angle), and while it doesn’t look quite as spectacular as the vistas we imagined as laying behind the pixellated backdrops of the original game, it certainly shows that the developers are willing to take the initiative and try to make this work. Looking closely at the artwork, I can see a drum platform which looks quite close to the drums which acted as flooring in R1, so I expect the levels will use plenty of similar objects and platforms (sliding sheet music, flutes etc); while the trumpet which hovers oddly in the background looks a bit out-of-place, I really like the tangible music which seems to waft from it (and will probably look great in motion); the flared trumpet bells which bloom organically from the darkness look very nice to me, and remind me of the flute trees in R1; overall, I get the impression that this concept is for a dark and stormy level (like the fourth phase of Bongo Hills); I hope and expect that the revitalised Band Land will also feature levels more along the lines of the first phase Bongo Hills, with its richly detailed background and wide range of interactive music-inspired surroundings.
