{"id":26316,"date":"2022-11-30T11:30:02","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T10:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1747621"},"modified":"2022-11-30T14:11:11","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T13:11:11","slug":"marvels-midnight-suns-friendship-system-explained-is-there-romance","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/marvels-midnight-suns-friendship-system-explained-is-there-romance\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns friendship system explained: Is there romance?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Rob Leane\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 30 November 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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With the tactical new game Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns<\/a> launching soon, RadioTimes.com<\/a> hopped on a Zoom call with Jake Solomon (the game\u2019s Creative Director) and Garth DeAngelis (its Senior Franchise Producer). You can see some highlights from our chat in the video above!<\/p>\n

Both of these fine folk have worked extensively on the XCOM franchise before, and now they\u2019re using their skills to make a Marvel game filled with fan-favourite superheroes, supernatural threats and \u2014 surprisingly enough \u2014 plenty of opportunities for the player to make friends with iconic Marvel characters.<\/p>\n

Playing as a new character called The Hunter, you\u2019ll be able to befriend Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and several other famous faces from comic-book lore (the Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns cast<\/a> is full of them), finding time for levity and laughs as the Marvel universe bands together to face a dark new threat.<\/p>\n

As Solomon explains, \u201cwe were always thinking about, outside of combat, having some type of friendship system. And we knew that no games have really done that in the Marvel Universe. And so, we were looking at games like Fire Emblem and Persona. I remember playing those very early on. Japanese RPGs do a much better job, and they\u2019ve done, historically, a better job of gamifying [and] making design systems out of relationships and friendship. And I think that those were inspirations for us to kind of do that on the Marvel side.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeAngelis added: \u201cWe have a lot of people on the team that are big fans of those those types of games, and we haven\u2019t seen anything like that at Marvel [before now]. So we just knew we wanted to provide an avenue for the player to hang out with these heroes, who they grew up knowing and loving. Not just watching alongside them, but actually engaging with them in dialogues.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is the friendship system in Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch in Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns.<\/span><\/figcaption> Marvel\/Firaxis<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

DeAngelis told us that the development team ideated \u201ca lot of different systems\u201d before they landed on the core concept of \u201cthese dialogues that you can have, the hangouts that you can do, with these heroes\u201d between missions.<\/p>\n

DeAngelis offered some examples, saying, \u201cYou\u2019re gonna go talk to Steve Rogers, and he\u2019s gonna give you an inspirational anecdote about what it takes to be a great leader. He\u2019s trying to inspire you. Or you go talk to Robbie Reyes [Ghost Rider] about his brother that he\u2019s worrying about. They\u2019re all super interesting, and they\u2019ve super different personalities, and the writing team have nailed each of those personalities. So every time you choose to engage with these dialogues with these heroes, it\u2019s something new, it\u2019s fresh, and it\u2019s not empty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solomon said there is \u201ca massive amount of \u2013 optional, for the most part \u2013 stuff you can check in about with the heroes, conversations they\u2019re gonna have.\u201d We asked if it would be anything like Mass Effect, a game where you\u2019re encouraged to visit all of your squad-mates between each level.<\/p>\n

To that, Solomon said, \u201cyou kind of have to walk around The Abbey [the game\u2019s main HQ] \u2013 you wake up in your room and walk around, because you want to see what new abilities you\u2019ve earned, and maybe you want to go upgrade some of those, maybe you\u2019ll check in the War Room to see what\u2019s going on there. And as you\u2019re making that daily cycle, we try to sprinkle in stuff, and so it\u2019s part of your daily routine. It\u2019s definitely not the case that you\u2019re gonna have to, like, take the elevator down to the engine room to check in on Garrus and he\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019m busy at this time. Come see me tomorrow\u2019. [When that happens in Mass Effect] You\u2019re like, \u2018Son of a b***h! I\u2019ve just come all this way\u2019. So we tried not to do that. We try to try to make sure it\u2019s sprinkling in your daily routine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there romance in Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns introduces the Hunter, here chatting with Captain Marvel.<\/span><\/figcaption> Firaxis\/Marvel<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

When you think about RPGs that let you bond with characters between missions, there\u2019s always one question that comes up: can your character romance any of these allies? We asked this duo of developers just that, and they confirmed to us that Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns does not have romance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

When we asked whether we\u2019d be able to forge romantic relationships in the game, Solomon said, \u201cNo. Although, you know\u2026 you get very, very close to them. You become their absolute, their closest, one the closest people in the world to these characters. If you maximise friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making it clear that head-canon is very much an option here, Solomon added: \u201cAnd then whatever stories you tell in your head, I think that that\u2019s perfectly fine. I won\u2019t say that I haven\u2019t told stories in my head when I befriend some of these characters, so I think it\u2019s perfectly fine. Nobody can police your thoughts, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n

At this point DeAngelis chimed in, saying jokingly: \u201cJake is always choosing to hang out at the pool with with these heroes. I don\u2019t know why.\u201d<\/p>\n

To which Solomon replied: \u201cI am. I am. It makes them more comfortable, Garth. That\u2019s why.\u201d<\/p>

What are the benefits to friendship in Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So, if the goal\/purpose isn\u2019t romantic, what is the benefit to players if they put in the time and effort to build friendships in Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns?<\/p>\n

Solomon says: \u201cThere are very, very powerful rewards for developing friendships with heroes. So specifically with that hero that you\u2019re developing a friendship with, they unlock multiple tiers of their passive abilities, which are very, very powerful. And their legendary ability, and their legendary suit, can only be unlocked if they are at maximum friendship level with the Hunter. So that\u2019s a really big investment of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that having multiple friendships, with different characters, will reap rewards on a larger scale. As Solomon puts it, \u201cas you increase friendship with multiple heroes, there\u2019s like an overall friendship level around the entire Abbey, and that unlocks things like giant combo attacks, and all different kinds of rewards for the entire team. There\u2019s always benefits to spending time and building relationships. Just like in real life, there\u2019s always a benefit to building interpersonal relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does The Abbey factor into it?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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The Abbey is a major new location for Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns.<\/span><\/figcaption> Firaxis\/Marvel<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Speaking of the Abbey, the official home base of the Midnight Suns superhero team, Solomon also tells us that there are other things to do around the place on top of befriending heroes.<\/p>\n

Going back to his head-canon chat from earlier, Solomon notes: \u201cYou can certainly customise your room. You can change out paintings and photos and frames, which is great because\u2026 I know it\u2019s stupid, but you can go into Wolverine\u2019s room and change the photos to all be pictures of you by the pool, if you want to. You can do that. I\u2019ve done it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yeah, you can also get massive amounts of upgrades, just like in XCOM. By researching things with with Doctor Strange down in the Forge, you will unlock all different kinds of things to build around the Abbey, all different parts of the Abbey, and everything you build is gonna have a big gameplay impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you could end up building combat items. You could end up sending people on Hero Ops. You can, you know, create a dimensional portal to Limbo where you can go train yourself. There\u2019s all kinds of things you can do to sort of expand the function of the Abbey for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between making friends and customising the Abbey, it sounds like Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns will be keeping us very busy. And that\u2019s before we event get into the tactical, turn-based battles. Oh yes, this is a game you could spent\u00a0a lot\u00a0<\/em>of time with.<\/p>\n

Marvel\u2019s Midnight Suns launches Friday 2nd December for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X\/S. It will hit PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch at an as-yet-unconfirmed later date.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n