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With the community split in the middle on whether or not the newest Heroes game has to stay true to its sci-fi roots or embrace its fantasy elements, the devs at Unfrozen try to reconcile both camps in its latest dev post.
Posting on Steam, Unfrozen explains that the devs are going to reconcile the sci-fi roots of Heroes of Might and Magic with the high fantasy elements that fans enjoy from the later entries into the series in their upcoming soft reboot game Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era. The game, which Unfrozen describes as an “unreboot,” brings players back to the world of Enroth, the setting of the first two games of the series.
Unfrozen states in the post that HOMM Olden Era will make use of unreliable narrators and in-universe characters for the exposition of the world. This means players will be able to read in-game flavor text presented as words written by in-universe characters, thus making the narration and text more subjective rather than stated as an objective truth.
This, according to Unfrozen, will help “keep everyone happy” by allowing different worldviews to exist simultaneously within the game world. The perspective of one faction, for example, will definitely be different compared to another, with their worldviews differing in their understanding of the world, each faction having their own myths and stories, that help diversify the world's lore and setting.
So, even if there are some objective truths in the game, the way characters in this world will interpret them might differ, and it will be up to the player to believe what they want to believe, or discover the truth for themselves by reading between the lines, seeing through biases and prejudices, and finding out what really is happening in the world by being discerning about the game's campaigns and scenarios.
Through the Eyes of an Old Minotaur
The developers revealed that HOMM Olden Era will utilize a scholarly Old Minotaur as its (or one of its) unreliable narrators. The Old Minotaur is the scribe who wrote all of the unit descriptions in the game, and thus his descriptions may show signs of biases, as the Old Minotaur might at times question the cultures of other factions he might not agree with.
This will be true both for the campaign, the one-off game scenarios, and the game's flavor text, which means the devs will be leaving a whole lot of text for players to pore over in their search for the truth in the game.
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Is Heroes of Might and Magic Sci-Fi or High Fantasy?
For many fans of Heroes of Might and Magic, the game falls into the high fantasy genre, and many fans do not like any sci-fi elements being written into the game at all. The most notorious example is when New World Computing, the developers of Heroes of Might & Magic III, removed the planned Forge faction because of its overtly sci-fi themes, in spite of it being in line with Might and Magic lore.
The Heroes of Might & Magic franchise has always been marketed as and presented with a primarily fantasy aesthetic – all of its sci-fi elements are tucked away deep within the campaign texts or presented as small easter eggs for Might and Magic fans to find. This is in stark contrast to the older Might and Magic games – the original series HOMM spun out of – which were more forward when it came to the use of sci-fi elements.
Thus, many Heroes fans never realized that Might and Magic actually have sci-fi in the lore, as they were never explicitly exposed to this aspect of the series. And thus, there are many Heroes fans who find the sci-fi elements to be extremely immersion-breaking. Heroes IV and beyond therefore expressed less of its sci-fi DNA and leaned more heavily into its fantasy elements.
Now, Unfrozen wants to stay true to the Might and Magic roots of HOMM Olden Era while still catering to the high fantasy sensibilities of the series' later audience. Whether or not this solution will actually appease both camps of the lore conflict. Taking a middle ground almost always leads to dissatisfaction from both sides, but we'll see for sure when HOMM Olden Era enters early access in 2025.
Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era is currently under development by Unfrozen, and will be published by Ubisoft when the game comes out sometime in 2025. You can find out more about the game through the game's social media channels, including Facebook, X, YouTube, as well as on the game's official website and official Discord community.
