Beyond Good and Evil 2 trailer breakdown with Michel Ancel hints at story plot point
Michel Ancel narrowly skirts around spoiler territory.
If you played Beyond Good and Evil when it released back in 2003, or even the HD edition in 2011, you're probably as psyched as I am by the trailer for the sequel that dropped at Ubisoft's E3 press conference.
The trailer was entirely cinematic, but that doesn't mean there aren't Easter eggs or hints at the game's story to be found.
In the video above, Michel Ancel talks us through the trailer and how sections of it pertain to the gameplay.
Interestingly, Ancel describes the backdrop of the trailer as a "very vertical city" that they wanted to "establish clearly" as it's "based on the level design of the game."
He goes into more detail on the social set- up of the universe with regards to the hybrids and their place in the world, and "even between hybrids...there is a social system" akin to a hierarchy.
There's a bunch of Easter eggs in the trailer that Ancel encourages viewers to ferret out and they've made a good start over on the Ubisoft forum.
Knox's escape from the bar at the start demonstrates the type of "dynamic move you can do...and how you can extract yourself from very dangerous situations," explained Ancel. "[You can] jump and use the verticality of the city" to get around.
Exploration won't be limited to just planets. Players will also be going to space this time around.
"The technology here that we have has allowed us to go seamlessly between the ground, interiors, and space. There's no transition, no loading [screen], nothing like that."
Comparing the social classes in the game's universe to the mishmash crew on the ship, Ancel said that, "[The] message behind the trailer is that whatever...your skin colour, origin, if you are an hydrid - whatever you are, you are part of the same team and you will share the adventure.
"That's a very important message for us. And that's exactly the heart of Beyond Good and Evil."
Hinting at what might be an important plot point in the trailer during the treasure map scene in the closing section, Ancel commented, "if you look in the background, there is even a planet that is going to be destroyed by this magnetic field. [It's] very powerful. And I don't want to say [too much] about that now. I don't want to spoil anything about the game."
So muse on that at your leisure.
Ubisoft hasn't given us a release date for the game yet, but for now, it's enough to know that it's definitely in development and is 100% happening.