Apex Legends Lead Writer Confirms Season 20’s Ties To Titanfall, Teases New Animated Series

Apex Legends is celebrating two main milestones this month: It’s 20th season, and its fifth birthday. After shadow-dropping in 2019, the free-to-play FPS grew to become an on the spot basic, receiving reward for its lovable characters and its expansive storyline, which has been ongoing for the reason that recreation launched. But the final 5 years have been a very wild journey for developer Ashley Reed, who began out writing content material for Apex’s official web site however now serves as the sport’s lead author. In honor of Apex’s five-year anniversary, GameSpot sat down with Reed to get the inside track on Season 20: Breakout’s narrative arc, speak about among the recreation’s largest plot twists, and discover out what it is like to jot down a narrative with 25 major characters and no ending in sight.Reed–whose title served because the inspiration for Ash’s human name–has labored for Respawn since 2016, beginning out as a content material author for a few of EA’s web sites earlier than being tapped to work as a author for the sport itself, and finally turning into Apex’s lead author in 2021. Despite sharing a reputation with one of many recreation’s most vicious, unempathetic characters, chatting with the true Ashley Reed revealed that she’s personable, humorous, and above all, extremely smitten by her work. But with no new Legend scheduled to affix the roster this season, I used to be curious to be taught precisely why that was the case, what position Reed performs throughout “Legend-less” seasons, and how much plot twists gamers can count on in Season 20 and past.”Typically, with the the anniversary seasons–the first season of the year–we try to let the celebration take center stage, so we try not to introduce a lot of plot-heavy stuff during the anniversary season,” she defined. “Especially this one, it’s a big anniversary! We don’t want to distract from that [by adding a new Legend with a new backstory].”Reed instructed me that another excuse Season 20 has no debut Legend is solely to assist gamers preserve the story straight, as Season 18 and 19 had been extraordinarily lore-heavy. But no new Legend doesn’t suggest no plot growth. When requested who Season 20’s story is targeted on, Reed revealed that Horizon (and doubtlessly, Ash) are on the middle of the sport’s narrative arc this season.Horizon has her eye on a familiar-looking piece of time-travel tech.In the Season 20 launch trailer, Horizon may be seen trying wistfully at what I instantly acknowledged as a part of Jack Cooper’s notorious time-altering wristband from Titanfall 2–or one thing similar to it. Given the truth that Horizon’s major objective is discovering a strategy to time-travel again to her son, Newton, having access to a time-altering piece of expertise might have far-reaching (and doubtlessly disastrous) penalties.”You’re on the right track; I think you saw it,” she instructed me after I inquired concerning the time-traveling tech from the Titanfall sequence. “You get a little hint that something’s going on with Horizon [in the launch trailer]. It may be worth looking at that shot again from the end of the trailer.”Although a brand new season of the sport drops like clockwork each three months, Apex’s storyline hasn’t at all times adopted a predictable sample. It launched with minimal lore, slowly including extra little story tidbits that hinted at future plot points–a course of Reed refers to as “breadcrumbing”–until the narrative floodgates actually opened with the introduction of Season 5’s Broken Ghost questline, which concluded with the revelation that Titanfall 2 antagonist Ash was alive (properly, form of). More not too long ago, the narrative started tangibly bleeding into gameplay itself, with Season 18 that includes a brand-new set of talents for Revenant–and a storyline that defined the place these talents got here from. But telling such a sophisticated story cannot be straightforward, particularly given the frequent addition of recent characters, so I wished to know what the final 5 years have taught Reed about writing an ongoing story for a live-service recreation that does not plan on concluding anytime quickly.”One of the biggest questions we’ve asked over the years is, ‘How can you tell a story without elaborate cutscenes or big story beats that stop everything and take center stage?’ While we’ve had our share of those moments through our awesome trailers, we’ve also found that people are drawn to smaller, subtler stories too,” Reed defined. “We got great reactions from the voicemail we hid below the Mirage Voyage where we hear Mirage talking to his mom, and people were really excited about the mysterious blue door that appeared in the game a couple of seasons ago–and they were right to pay attention to it! Variety is the spice of life, so we’ll always keep trying new things and experimenting with different ways to tell a story, but we’ve discovered a little can go a lot farther than we ever thought possible.”Season 5’s Broken Ghost questline featured Ash, however she would not be part of the Apex Games till Season 11.Despite no new Legend becoming a member of the Apex Games this season, there’s nonetheless loads of narrative enjoyable for gamers to look ahead to. In truth, Season 20 will see the introduction of a brand new sequence of in-game lore drops that Reed known as “vignettes.””We’ve posted radio plays on our social media channels in the past,” Reed mentioned, referring to the totally voiced (however not totally animated) shorts which might be generally posted to Apex’s Twitter account. “They’re usually a bit longer [than vignettes].””[The vignettes are] gonna be the evolution of Apex episodes, we’re moving away from the text-based stuff,” Reed mentioned, referring to the in-game story chapters that presently characteristic sound results and dialogue, however no animation or voice performing. “[Vignettes are] gonna be in-game, fully voiced with animated bits to them.”When requested concerning the change to the brand new vignette format, Reed mentioned Respawn’s objective is to make Apex’s lore obtainable for gamers to have interaction with in-game. Despite an official lore hub being launched throughout final yr’s anniversary celebration, it appears Reed and the remainder of the narrative staff wish to make the story considerably simpler to observe, particularly for brand new gamers.”One of our initiatives this year is to make things more central, because that is one of the things that’s been brought up: It’s hard to keep track of [the game’s narrative],” Reed mentioned of Respawn’s efforts to forestall gamers from getting tousled within the recreation’s many plot threads.Apex’s ongoing storyline final left off with the ultimate episode of the Kill Code animated net sequence, which noticed the Legends face the fallout from Torres “Duardo” Silva’s homicide. Given that arc’s explosive ending, I used to be fairly curious to seek out out if one other Kill Code-esque animated sequence is likely to be on the horizon.”You can expect something that’s very like Kill Code over this next year, like an evolution of that,” Reed confirmed. “Kill Code was our first, ‘Let’s tell a big story across the full year and have that be a foundation for what’s coming in the game!’ kind of thing. We’re pushing that even further this year.””We’re tying more of our [gameplay] features coming this year even more closely to the story, and it is meant to be like a full, year-long experience, and Horizon maybe, possibly, is the cornerstone of it,” Reed elaborated with a mischievous wink.As a human, Ash betrayed Horizon, leaving her to die in a black gap. But the previous colleagues appear to nonetheless work properly collectively contained in the ring.”Duardo is big dead,” Reed confirmed with a chuckle. “I guess that’s how you know if someone is [permanently] dead: Did Revenant do it?”Reed instructed me that Kill Code episodes carried out finest once they had been straight tied to in-game content material, and that though telling a narrative that was considerably divorced from Season 19’s new Legend was creatively liberating, the expertise had its downsides. The plan for 2024’s upcoming animated net sequence is to attach it to Apex’s precise gameplay and seasonal story (together with the launch trailer and vignettes) as a lot as doable.But with Apex’s major antagonist now completely in a deathbox, I started to surprise who may exchange him. Silva’s dying resulted in an enormous energy vacuum–who’s going to fill his footwear and turn into Apex’s subsequent massive dangerous? I put forth Lifeline’s mom Cherisse Che as my guess. She’s a ruthless struggle profiteer who has labored intently with Duardo prior to now, so it appeared like a pure conclusion.”I think it may not be who you expect,” Reed instructed me, clearly holding her playing cards near her chest. “That is what I’ll say about that.”As for the sport’s different murderous robotic, Ash, Reed wished to set the report straight concerning the sword-wielding simulacrum’s title: It wasn’t her thought. The choice to call the character Ashleigh Reid was made lengthy earlier than the true Ashley Reed was answerable for Apex’s plot.”Our director said, ‘Oh, let’s name her Ashleigh Reid!’ and I laughed, and he said, ‘No, I’m serious,'” Reed instructed me, recalling the reminiscence with a smile. “I was like, ‘Do I really want to be associated with someone so mean?’ And then I’m like, ‘Well, that’s the fun…'””So I said, ‘Yeah, you know what? Sure. Let’s do it!’ I had not envisioned a future where I was the lead writer,” Reed defined. “But after [becoming lead writer], it looked like I named her after myself!”Ashley Reed’s title impressed Ash’s human title: Ashleigh Reid.Unsurprisingly, Ash took the highest spot once I requested Reed which Legend she most enjoys writing (although Octane and Loba additionally made the checklist).”I love writing Ash–she’s so mean, even when she’s saying something nice!” Reed mentioned of her in-game namesake.But character design is not all sunshine and roses. When I requested which of the sport’s 25 Legends was essentially the most troublesome to jot down, Reed’s reply stunned me.”The most challenging characters to write are the most well-adjusted ones,” she instructed me, laughing. “You have to invent problems for them to have!”But with no new character debuting this season, I used to be curious to be taught what the long run holds for Respawn’s hit hero shooter and its neverending story.”Writing for a live-service game is a challenge, and I expect it always will be, but solving that puzzle is a big part of what makes the job interesting,” Reed mentioned of her targets for the way forward for Apex’s story. “When Apex first started, one of our biggest pillars was the characters and what their stories brought to the world. That was something unheard of in the battle royale space at the time. We want to keep iterating and learning and experimenting, so the story can make Apex feel like a unique, rich, living place that you want to keep coming back to.”With that in thoughts, I used to be curious what ingredient of the brand new season’s story Reed was most happy with.”I think what I’m most proud of is the tighter connection we have to the design. [Plot points] are coming more into the game,” Reed answered. “We’re coming up with creative solutions for ‘How can we put this in [the game] where it’s immediately accessible and interesting and engaging, while feeling like it’s part of the whole and not, like, a distraction from it?'””There are challenges to it,” she admitted. “But we’re solving the puzzle.”Apex Legends Season 20: Breakout launches on Tuesday, February 13.