According to Path of Exile 2 game director Jonathan Rogers, the game draws plenty of inspiration from across the video game landscape, including Elden Ring and the broader action genre for its boss fights and Civilization V for its end-game map. Revealed during the end-game presentation and discussed during the press roundtable, the topic first appeared after a story boss fight in which the player character comes face to face with a massive structure with over a dozen unique attacks and different phases. When asked in a formidable post-presentation press interview about his broader inspirations, Rogers stated the following.
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“Honestly, it would be very difficult for me to come up with just one game because we draw inspiration [a lot] and there are accidental influences everywhere. Map in the game, right? I told the artists I wanted it to look like Civiliation V! These are things you wouldn’t normally expect to affect an ARPG. We draw inspiration from everywhere and it’s hard to even put together a whole list.” “Obviously the newest action games, because they were getting closer to the fighting stuff we were doing, like Elden Ring. I just play every genre of video game, I’m not limited to just ARPG games. But I think probably, oddly enough, single-player action games are probably my favorite genre.” “It’s really what I love, so these types of games draw a lot of inspiration when it comes to boss design and stuff like that. We really want the bosses in PoE 2 to be world-class in terms of action games. There are a lot of interesting mechanics, a lot of skills, and creating such a boss takes a lot of work. In PoE 2 we also have to include the ability to dodge, right? So there are more factors to consider regarding the type of action game. We have to be an action game and a statistics game at the same time, which is quite difficult.” We noted the advantages of PoE 2’s boss design in our game preview, which you can read in full here. Path of Exile 2 is scheduled for release on December 6 on PC and consoles.
