It feels like just yesterday that Revolution Software's classic point-and-click adventure, Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars, was 'reforged' on Switch 1. It was, in fact, a year ago (almost to the day), but that hasn't stopped the studio's reforging efforts. The reforged has been reforged, you could say, as Shadow of the Templars has today arrived back on the eShop as a fancy new Switch 2 Edition.
The catchily-titled Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition popped up on the eShop this morning, where it is now available to pick up for €29.99/$29.99/£24.99 as standard, or as a €4.99/$4.99/£4.99 upgrade pack for all those with the Switch 1 version.
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As you might expect from a point-and-click, the big addition this time around is Mouse Mode. Yes, the Joy-Con 2 can be flipped sideways and used to add an element of precision to your pointing and clicking. The resolution has also been boosted up to 4K in Docked Mode, and 1080p in Handheld, so you can soak up all the gorgeous 'reforged' art.
"Using the mouse feature is arguably the way that [the game] was always intended," Revolution's co-founder, Charles Cecil, told us recently when we sat down to talk all things Broken Sword on Switch 2, "a lot of the criticisms that were made quite rightly on release last year have since been addressed and obviously go into the Switch 2 as the native version".
It's all a case of bringing the team's vision of the original '90s release to life, as Charles told us:
What we wanted to do is be absolutely true to the original intent, because we promised fans that this was going be the same game, but enhanced. So what we really focused on was what existed at the time.
For the sprites, we went back to the original character sheets that were drawn back in 1996, interpreted them and then brought those across to the low-resolution sprites that had been upscaled and redrew them all.
We looked back at Tin Tin characters, and went, 'yeah, that's the kind of thing that we want' because in an adventure game, you want very expressive characters, you want the gameplay to flow through how the characters behave and how they look, so that the puzzles become logical.
As far as the backgrounds are concerned, we pretty quickly went back to the original line art, which I had scanned in a very high resolution, and our digital artists then painted over that. But everything was intended to be in 4K. That's what we painted it to be.
And just in case this will be your first run-in with Shadow of the Templars, here's a brief rundown of what you can expect, courtesy of Revolution Software:
- Step out onto the streets of Paris as American tourist George Stobbart finds himself embroiled in a mysterious journey of intrigue and jeopardy.
- Enjoy a globe-spanning adventure, exploring exotic locations, solving ancient mysteries, and thwarting a dark conspiracy to reveal the secret truths of the Knights Templar.
- Voyage through the game's iconic locations illustrated in beautiful 4K on Nintendo platforms for the first time.
- Listen to enhanced audio as Revolution delivers the finest, most stunning version of George and Nico's original adventure to date.
- Switch between the original 1996 version of the game and the new reforged visuals at the click of a button.
- Play the game the way that you want to - choose between a ‘traditional mode' for people who enjoy adventures the way they used to be, and a ‘story mode' for those who want subtle hints to ensure they never get frustrated.
- Switch between Joy-Con 2 mouse controls, touchscreen, and controller play styles whenever you choose..
We'll be sharing more of our discussion with Charles in the coming days, so keep an eye out for details on all things Broken Sword on Switch 2.