In a recent interview, senior world designer Leonard Boyarsky said that the Diablo III team doesn't have a shortage of ideas, that they have a "fairly decent" list of things they really want to do with the Diablo III property.
"We've talked about some places in flavor texts of some legendary items that you haven't been to and we talked about lost civilizations," Boyarsky said. "So there's always a lot of places we can go to on the map, but I think there's more to the story in terms of what's going to happen, what's the ultimate end to the sage of the humans, angels and demons."
One of the paths the Diablo III team wants to take is the redemption of Leah's soul. There wasn't a place for that story line in Reaper of Souls; the expansion is all about the Black Soulstone and Malthael. He really couldn't talk about anything specific either, and even admitted that the things they talk about last week are probably different than what they're discussing this week. But yes, they plan to address the Leah storyline eventually.
Earlier in the interview, he was asked about how the team approached the expansion pack given that players have already defeated Diablo. He said it was tough – how do you top defeating the ultimate evil? Eventually, they decided that the angel of death would be an excellent choice. Who would be just as scary as Diablo?
"That's always a challenge when creating a series of books or games," he said. "You know, at [a] certain point you fight the ultimate evil and when you create a new installment, you have to fight extra-ultimate evil. But I'm really happy with how Malthael turned out. You can even argue that he is not... well he's definitely not a villain in his own mind."
He said good characters in fiction aren't evil in their own minds. They think what they're doing is the right thing, whereas the hero finds the actions completely wrong.
The interview also talks about how mankind is now stuck between angels and demons. That path was planned almost since day one, with the hero representing mankind and its quest to do the right thing. Neither angel nor demon really care about humans other than how they can be used as pawns in the never-ending battle between good and evil.
"One of the things about Diablo, I believe that your character is truly a hero and he's doing his best for mankind agenda," he said. "I believe that your hero represents good and that angels represent self-serving good if that makes any sense. Except for Tyrael they don't even think beyond their struggle with Hell, which is what defines them. It's what turned Tyrael around."
To read the full interview, head here.
Stay tuned for our own interview with Blizzard.
