The story of A Plague Tale: Requiem takes place in the French region of Provence six months after the events narrated in Innocence. Hugo and Amicia meet his mother, Beatrice, and Lucas, a young alchemist. In this new setting, which is in stark contrast to that of Guyenne, the Rune brothers enjoy a period of rest as they head to a large city where they must meet an alchemist who will examine Hugo. The boy continues to live with the curse that has given him the power to control the rats, the same ones that invaded Guyenne and continue to spread.
Amicia and Hugo’s period of peace will soon come crashing down when death and destruction return with a barrage of rats. The brothers are forced to flee again and this time their destination is a mysterious island in the Mediterranean Sea that may hold the answer to save Hugo. Again, your survival is at stake.
After their experience in Innocence, Amicia and Hugo’s personalities and abilities have evolved a lot and fast. “Amicia learns to fight and kill and Hugo learns to use her power. And that is not strictly limited to her physical abilities, it also means dealing with the morality of her actions and the trauma that such violence can cause, ”explains Asobo Studio. Amicia has been hardened in combat and now, in addition to an improved version of the slingshot, she uses a crossbow, while Hugo begins to be aware of the danger that she has with the power that she begins to use at the end of Innocence.
The opponents have not evolved, but rather change. In Innocence the enemies were the Inquisition and the soldiers subjected to a hierarchy, while in Requiem the brothers of Rune face mercenaries and smugglers, more violent and unpredictable. In this sense, one of the points that has been improved has been the intelligence of the enemies and their reactions to each situation.
On a gameplay level, one of Asobo Studio’s goals with A Plague Tale: Requiem has been to offer players more tools and combinations of tools, as well as ways to approach situations in the game. Granting more freedom can mean losing some of the pace of the game, so the studio has worked more on sequences with more open gameplay. It has also been sought not to lose the narrative sensitivity, so the dialogue between the protagonists and their reaction to the player’s actions has been maintained.