GameSpy has got a couple of new Demon Stone interviews. Devin St. Clair is in charge of character design at Stormfront, and this is what he has to say about creating the sorcerer Illius:

Yeah, the caster in the cape can pose a problem. We originally took what I thought was an innovative approach to the sorcerer character where he looked completely out of stereotype. And I felt pretty strong about it just because ... well, because of how you phrased your question. But it didn't get the right response when people saw him so the long coat and staff came back to make the visual impression jive.

Illius is all about projectile magic, and at first that was all he was really good for -- just hang back and lob spells. Felt like weak sauce to quote J. Epps, our design director. So how do you make a magic-user that isn't an effeminate pansy? You let him crack some skulls with that staff of his, and he does! Up-close melee fighting with Illius turns out to be very satisfying and very different from the other characters. Besides, his backstory is that he is a knight from a family of knights. He can't help it if he's got the magic touch, but he ain't afraid to whoop some monster ass up close and personal.

A pure spellcaster would require more tactics, and that obviously has no place in this action RPG. Read everything here (http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/forgotten-realms-demon-stone/544602p2.html).

The second interview (http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/forgotten-realms-demon-stone/545270p1.html) is with the Forgotten Realms novelist R.A. Salvatore, who talks about his workings with the Demon Stone team. He believes that he's done some pretty good work on the story, but he also concludes that gameplay and action is more important in a console game.

Can you talk about the challenges inherent to creating a story for a game versus writing a novel?

Well, obviously you have less space to work with in a video format. In a novel, you can draw out the history of a character and "show" the reader the personality of a character through anecdotes within the larger story. In a video game, we can hint at the history of the characters all we want, but it's up to the player to bring personality to Rannek and the others, through his or her aggressiveness in meeting the challenges.

The same is true of the story. The path has to unwind as we go ... some people may see it, while others might be so entranced by the furious gameplay that they'll care about little else. Which is fine with me; as long as folks are enjoying the game.

Well, that description of Illius sounds alot like how Gandalf was in The Return of the King (the game), all melee tank, not much magic.

Illius has to be good at magic to, since he is the only one in the party who can do ranged attacks. But with the amounts of enemies and melee fighting in the game, he was probably too weak (or boring, since it's a console game) if he couldn't fight.

Well, my guess is that he needs melee capability, since they will have toned down Ilius to force you to use also the other chars at higher level, since everybody nows that high-level sorcerers can eliminate single-handedly entire armies, hence removing the need for the combat skills of the other two chars. Another reason I think they have him toned down, is because on a console, you can't permit yourself to force the player through 30+ spells just to find the one he needs in the middle of combat, not if it is as action-oriented as Demon Stone sounds.