This Is An Interview From http://www.1up.com

1UP: For the Krypt, which will be returning from Deadly Alliance -- will it feature all new items, or will it feature some of the same stuff from before?

Boon: Oh, we're not going to repeat any of the previous items.

1UP: So will it be another 600 kind of thing?

Boon: We have this whole new Konquest adventure mode, and we're going to hide a lot in there. So we're going to have about the same amount of hidden stuff, but it's not going to all be in the Krypt. We're going to distribute it in different places.

1UP: Will the Krypt work the same as it did before, with the points or Koins?

Boon: Yeah, and in the Konquest mode, you not only earn the coins and points and stuff like that, but you also find some of the hidden stuff in there.

1UP: Would you say that will be the main way to earn hidden stuff?

Boon: You'll earn points in all the other modes, but the Konquest mode will be the main one.

1UP: Is there any online way to earn points?

Boon: No, I think the points system is really kind of like the single-player experience.

1UP: I saw the background weapons you can find in some of the levels. Do you know approximately how many of these there are going to be?

Boon: The exact number isn't down yet; right now we have like four or five of them in, but we're going to be adding to the backgrounds all the way up to August. So at the moment I think we have about four or five. I know we have the war hammer, thorax, the jewel, and red dragon.

1UP: When you get these, does that change your fighting style? Will it be like a fourth style?

Boon: Exactly. It's like a firing fighting style when you pick it up. [The weapons] are way more powerful than the normal weapons that are in the game, so we really wanted to give a big advantage to the guy who manages to get his hands on one of those weapons.

1UP: Will every character have three default styles again -- is that the same?

Boon: Yeah.

1UP: Because of all the weapons and different tiers you can go on and things like that, do you anticipate fights will last longer?

Podlasek: It kind of depends on the skill level of where people are at and stuff like that, but I don't think they'll be dramatically longer. They may be a little bit longer just because there's more stuff going on with the background, weapons, death traps and stuff like that. The death traps I'm sure will make some of the rounds end really quickly. If you manage to maneuver someone in there, I don't care how much power he had...

1UP: If they fall into a death trap, that's one round they are dead for, not the whole match, right?

Boon: One round, yeah. It's not two out of three.

1UP: With the new environments, I hear you'll be able to move a little more freely around. How will that work? Will there be an 8-way run in there?

Boon: I think the people who have played Deadly Alliance will notice off the bat how much quicker and more fluid the movement is.

1UP: So it's more subtle things; there's no button that you hold down so you can then run?

Boon: Oh, no, nothing like that. We're really trying to keep it simple, like you can use the analog stick now to move around as well. There's a lot more maneuvering, trying to get behind something or in front of something...we've added some nuances that I think seasoned players are going to notice. We have these fighting stake indicators, which kind of reveal when you are vulnerable during an attack, and also when you can't block, and when you're in the danger zone. I think that's going to educate people a little bit more, [on things like] the risks that you're taking when you do power moves and what have you. So there are going to be a lot of subtleties like that.

1UP: Are there going to be lots of little indicators going off all the time?

Boon: The lights are very subtle up in the power bar area, so if you're paying attention to them, you're going to see them going off, but it's not like they're flashing like this [makes flashing motions with his hands].

1UP: I saw how in Konquest mode how you can customize that character as you go through...

Boon: Yeah, throughout the Konquest mode, you're kind of learning people's fighting styles, and acquiring money and stuff like that. But you can assign those fighting styles to that character that you are creating. He starts out as this 13-year-old kid and when you're done playing the game, he's like an old man, and then you get to pick the styles that you like the best as the ones that you're going to have when that character is online.

Podlasek: So it's not a full blown create-a-player where you're doing faces -- it's not at that level. It's more about simply gaining experience and fighting styles and moves.

1UP: Would you then be able to customize the other characters? Like take say Sub-Zero and give him a fighting style that he doesn't have?

Boon: No, it's really focused on the Konquest guy.

1UP: Does that guy have a name?

Boon: We're calling him Sujinko right now, but obviously the final name will be up to the player.

1UP: But you'll be able to take him online, as well?

Boon: Oh yeah, definitely.

1UP: So he will kind of be a generic character that you can basically give whatever styles you want -- will that incorporate every style in the game that you can pick from?

Boon: For the most part, yes.

1UP: Back to the levels, with the different tiers, will it be possible to move about these at will, or is it simply if you get hit through them, you'll go down to a different level?

Boon: Yeah, they're mainly like reactions; when you go from one tier to the next, that's usually a bad thing for you. You got hit and thrown over. The other guy's going to jump down too, but it's usually a bad thing.

1UP: So the other guy jumps down automatically -– there's no way to keep them on separate levels?

Boon: No, there are some pretty dramatic, like 50 to 70 feet drops, with people hitting roofs on the way down.

1UP: Let's talk a little about the Chess Kombat mode. People have compared it to Archon and Wrath Unleashed. Do you think there are any similarities between those games and yours?

Podlasek: Probably a little bit. I mean, we don't like to compare directly to other games; it's more just different characters, they have different styles, they have different abilities. You can put them there, and you move your different pieces, and stuff like that, but it's not like chess where you have to be a hardcore chess player. It's fun, you can pick it up and play, and you don't have to know all the rules of chess.

Boon: We looked at Stratego, Chess, Checkers, Archon, just everything. And everything we liked about those games we put in there, and everything we weren't crazy about we left out.

1UP: How will the individual characters differ in that? Just with the Chess gameplay, will you move one character at a time, and each has a different ability?

Boon: Exactly. There are different pieces. There's the equivalent of a pawn piece, a queen...

1UP: So each character represents a different chess piece then?

Boon: Yeah, exactly. And you select which guys you want to play the various pieces.

1UP: Will you pick your set of pieces -– every character -– at the beginning?

Boon: Yeah.

1UP: Finally, can we anticipate another beast-like boss character at the end of the single-player game?

Boon: Yeah.

1UP: Any hints there?

Boon: Well, the Dragon King is the big bizarre -- he's our Goro, he's our Motaro. He's going to play a huge part of the story. In the opening FMV, you're going to see everything.

Podlasek: Plus in Konquest, there're all these little cut scenes that progress the story, and tie in to the deception, and all that stuff. He's got a really cool background when you fight him.