Entropy is a stylish and highly distinctive RPG currently available in Early Access. This turn-based title pays homage to classics like Final Fantasy X and Lost Odyssey, while also exhibiting distinct PC gaming characteristics—lead developer James Ragg cites Fallout 1 and Games Workshop's tabletop game Mordheim as core inspirations. This summer, journalists interviewed Ragg about the game's mercenary recruitment system and its ambitious permadeath mechanics.
James Ragg, lead developer at Lovely Hellplace studio, stated:
"A major motivation behind the randomly generated mercenary system was my desire to include a permadeath mechanic.
"This is something I often felt was missing from JRPGs. I loved playing the older Final Fantasy series, but once I understood the underlying mechanics as an adult, playing them became too easy and smooth. I wanted to significantly increase the game's challenge and weight of risk.
"One aspect of Mordheim that greatly amplifies the sense of risk is how much effort you invest in these minor characters. You create them yourself, name them, paint the miniatures, and carefully refine their personas and loadouts, only for them to potentially be taken out permanently by a single mace blow to the face. You're just left standing there thinking, 'Damn, Jeff is dead.'
"I wanted to bring this heavy sense of risk into the game, but traditional JRPGs with fixed parties don't have permanent character death, making such a design impossible to implement. I couldn't think of any interesting way to realize this within that framework. I really liked the idea of recruiting these unique squad members, each seeming to have their own vivid little personality.
"We need an almost infinite pool of squad members so we can let them die freely—allowing players to form attachments to them, then face the possibility of losing them. However, similar to Mordheim, the actual probability of permanent character death isn't that high; when knocked down, they are more likely to suffer limb loss or some kind of persistent injury.
"But the risk is always there, and I think it creates a very real sense of tension and pressure in the game."
In addition to the injury system, Ragg explicitly stated that with sufficient skill, players can complete Entropy without any casualties. Even so, the possibility of permadeath always remains, adding a unique tension to the entire gameplay experience.