One of the biggest surprises for us this year was Don’t Nod Entertainment’s Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. Not only was the game’s story well crafted, it also featured a semi-open world that was bursting with content to comb through.

After finishing the game and getting one of the good (?) endings, we knew we had to chat with the studio! In our Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden interview with Don’t Nod, we ask about DLC, whether this is the start of a franchise, and lots more!

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Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Interview – MP1st:

MP1st: I have to admit, I was caught a bit off-guard by how big Banisher’s world is. How long did Don’t Nod develop the game from start to finish?

Stéphane Beauverger, Narrative Director: It is not easy to define the full development time for a game, it really depends how you consider it. From scratch? From the very first idea written down with a pencil and a paper during the first conception phase? From the first playable sequence? And even after the release, people are still working on the game, like working on patches. Let’s say that it took between four and five years to create Banishers.

MP1st: For its first AAA project, Banishers is very ambitious. What prompted Don’t Nod to create an open-world game of sorts right away instead of, say, a more linear, single-player game?

Beauverger: Banishers is not an AAA game, it’s a nicely crafted AA game – and we are proud of it. We have the will and passion to deliver a great experience to the audience, hence the large size of the map, and the huge amount of content. The game structure also depends on the nature of the game we make. Story-driven games like Life is Strange or Tell Me Why are more in need of a linear structure. With Banishers, we felt it was necessary to open the world and let the players investigate the mysteries of New Eden at their own pace, and in the order they were more comfortable with. Hence the more open structure of the game.

MP1st: How much of an influence was God of War? I mean, it’s evident in combat, but what areas of that game did some of the dev team think “we really need this kind of mechanic in Banishers.” Is it the semi open world but linear quest structure? The game’s world?

Simon Svoboda, Lead Level Designer: When we create something, we’re often influenced by what we read, watch, and play, and Banishers is no exception; God of War is a masterpiece that had an influence on us, among other fantastic titles. But when we were making Banishers, we didn’t look too much at other games to define what was missing, it was a constant reflection on what we were trying to convey and the overall experience.

MP1st: Are there any secrets or Easter eggs that are quite hard to obtain?

Beauverger: Of course, there are. We won’t spoil anything, but here is a hint about a secret in the game: somewhere in the mountains, there is an abandoned and haunted manor. And haunted manors often rhyme with secret doors, don’t they? 🙂About the Easter eggs, there are too many to be listed, but DON’T NOD fans may find a few references to previous games. For instance, in the prologue, have you checked the brooch which belonged to Charles Davenport? May be familiar to Vampyr’s fans. Same thing for the name of the gang Arter Carty belonged to when he was living in London. And there are many more to be spotted.

MP1st: Is New Game+ part of the post-release plans?

Mathieu Bourgain, Lead Systems Designer: NG+ may make sense if players can’t get all the rewards in a single playthrough, or if character respec is limited. However, we have chosen to allow players to get all the rewards in a single playthrough and respec their characters at will.

With enough investment, Banishers allows you to experiment with all the gameplay possibilities around combat efficiency without having to start a new run. That’s why we’ve chosen to focus our resources and attention on the first playthrough of the game; we think the benefits of an NG+ for Banishers are small. The game still has good replay value if you want to explore other narrative choices and endings.

MP1st: What gameplay mechanic(s) did Don’t Nod want to include in the game but couldn’t due to time constraints or it didn’t fit the narrative? The game has tons of haunts, and the inspiration of where some come from is clear. For a game with so many of them, one has to wonder if there was anything that they wanted to do that maybe they didn’t have enough time or just couldn’t get working.

Bourgain: At some point during development, players were supposed to be able to sacrifice or banish citizens without solving their whole haunting case. It was a more open system where players could find some hints about a haunting case and decide to close it as soon as they were confident to have enough information to make an informed decision. But it was a little nightmare to implement and make work. There were so many possibilities and branchings that the system had to be modified and simplified.

• Related Reading: Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Endings Guide – How to Get All the Different Outcomes

MP1st: With multiple endings, which one is canon if we indeed get a sequel? Or is Don’t Nod following in Mass Effect’s footsteps that your chosen ending will carry over to the next game?

Beauverger: A very good question. But I’m afraid we have not decided yet. I could be tempted to say “one of the endings with Antea gone for good” but that’s only a personal preference, not an editorial one.

MP1st: Is the studio planning a sequel? Maybe a DLC to expand on the story or ending? Or is Banishers more of a one-off thing?

Beauverger: We always consider our games as the first step of a franchise. As a Narrative director, it is part of my job to think ahead about future possible games taking place in the same universe. But such decisions are not made only by creative teams, more teams are included in the process!

MP1st: Does the studio see Banishers as the start of a franchise?

Beauverger: see answer above

MP1st: Playing through the game, I was aiming for Antea’s resurrection, so I had to “Blame” (Sacrifice) a lot of humans even if I didn’t want to, or there were times I felt that ghosts needed to be banished due to what they did, or they are just simply evil, but I couldn’t since i needed humans to be sacrificed. Has the studio thought of allowing a player to do both? I understand that might be too hard to implement  as a title update, but maybe in a sequel of some sort?

Beauverger: No, we wanted the players to be forced to choose, and allowing them to punish multiple suspects in a single case would have endangered that tension created by the choices you have to make. For us, it is always satisfying and “ferociously fun” to watch streaming players being struck by such cases, and having to think out loud for long minutes before making a decision. That’s what the game is about, really 🙂

MP1st: With Banishers having “Ghosts” in the title and tackling spirits, ghosts and whatnot, one might assume that it was an action-horror game, but it really isn’t. Did Don’t Nod consider Banishers to be a more horror-centric game before or did the studio purposefully didn’t want it to be classified as a horror game (not discounting some of the disturbing bosses and character designs).

Beauverger: We never wanted to make a horror game with Banishers. We wanted to make a dark fantasy game, maybe with a bit of fear from time to time, but definitely not with some gory or jump-scare effects. We exploited more the melancholic, sad, sometimes tragic aspect of ghost stories, more than their more horrific aspects.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is available now for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. You can check our review of the game here.