Batman: Arkham Knight developer Rocksteady Studios has discussed its rogue’s gallery of villains as part of its rolling coverage on the sequel. Two-Face, The Riddler and Penguin have received new images and details.
Gameinformer has the new shots watermarked so I won’t embed them here, but here’s Two-Face,Penguin and The Riddler.
Speaking with GameInformer, Batman: Arkham Knight art director David Hego said of the villains, “We tried to add something to the characters, so you’re still excited about them even after meeting them for the third time. How can we make these guys exciting, even after seeing them again? Every time, we make them look better and better and better, but at the same time, how can we improve the story behind them?”
On Penguin; lead character artist Albert Feliu said, “In Arkham City, he’s a collector. He works out of a museum and he looks like he’s in the mafia. This time, we went for autumnal mafia. We took the coat off, and the concept of Penguin was more of a dirty dude. Obviously his shirt is rolled up and sweaty, and he has food stains on it. But still, he’s really powerful. He’s got a golden chain, as well. We had to be a bit crazy with this character, and working with his design. And we shaved his head. He’s proper filthy, you know. It makes you want to punch him even more.”
“With Two Face, we thought he was a really strong character already,” Feliu went on. “Half of former prosecutor Harvey Dent was burned by acid, and his clothing has been modified to reflect his scarred exterior and interior. “OK, that was Arkham City; what can we do to make him look different, right? We just rolled up his sleeves and made him look really next-gen. We took some references of really filthy, burnt flesh – which is what we do most of the time, which is quite cool – and tried to make him look as badass as we could.”
With Riddler, Feliu confirmed that players will see more of him in Arkham Knight, and that he now looks more visibly distressed that Batman keeps on solving his apparently unsolvable riddles. “It’s something we try to put in the characters,” Feliu concluded.
“If you had to work overtime, for example, you would start the night with your jumper on and everything, and as the time went by you’d probably take your jumper off, open your shirt, take your tie off, have a coffee. The Riddler is a character who has a cool framework, and we didn’t want to change it too much – we like his shirts with question marks and silly glasses and greasy hair.”
The game is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC later this year.
