Today, I'll answer a few of questions that came up during testing concerning Sylvanr, the goddess, and religion in general in Whisper.

Q1: She talks? - Zachary R.

A1: Sword of Mana was an RPG that made use of goddess statues as save/heal points for the player. While I didn't want to restrict saving, I did want to implement points to heal at since consumable healing items were removed and it seemed un-necessary to make the player use skills to heal all of the time. The statues fit neatly into the setting, and thus, were implement.


However, Sylvanr was supposed to be much more hands-on than her mute counterpart in SoM. The characters are her amusement, and the player should feel that she is always watching, and perhaps laughing. As such, she was given a variety of lines for anytime she interacts with the player. The goal is that, through the course of the game, she never feels absent.


Q2: Pana has the option to pray in certain places. Isn't that a bit much? - Anon

A2: This was definitely an area I watched carefully. Trying to remove all similarities to any religion was literally impossible, though, so I decided to take the opposite approach.

Each prayer in Whisper is derived from a different source and time. One is as recent as 1995 and comes from a Native American tradition. Another was penned by Mahatma Gandhi, and still others are centuries old. What's interesting is that all of them, despite their origins, share a common theme.


Q3: Why worry about a detailed religion in a Zoids game? - Anon

A3: Because the game centers around an alternate take on the Zoidaryans (or Ancient Zoidians in the anime). They weren't particularly developed in those stories, unfortunately, and were usually extinct by the time the plot really picked up. In CC/GF, they played major roles, but very little was understood about them and even less was explained. There was some print media that gave more details on them, but was not tied to any story.


Thus, Whisper had to be built up from scratch. Since magic seemed wholly incompatible with the Zoids universe, the best way to explain the abilities these people were presented as having was to make them androids or have some sort of divine intervention. Androids were less relatable, clashed with more recent presentations and were harder to do, so, Sylvanr was born.


Next time, we'll take a closer look on Sylvanr herself.