Square Enix and Platinum Games Fix Babylon’s Fall’s Graphics

We haven’t seen any news of Square Enix’s co-op multiplayer game, Babylon’s Fall, since its E3 showcase, and now we know why: Its developers have been busy rehauling its stylized graphics to appear more legible.

Babylon’s Fall is an action hack-and-slash game co-developed by Square Enix and Platinum games, the developers behind Nier: Automata and Bayonetta. Players fight their way to reach the very top of the tower of Babylon, in groups of up to four. The game was last shown on June 13 at E3 this year, but aside from occasional closed beta sign-ups, news about the game has been relatively scant.

Game legibility isn’t simply about being able to read text on the screen, but rather refers to the player’s ability to glean important gameplay information from the visuals. In a fast-paced action game like Babylon’s Fall, it’s crucial that players can immediately perceive depth and where characters are relative to the map, but the game’s unique style was making this tricky.

Today, the developers tweeted an update about the state of Babylon’s Fall for the first time in months. The game has undergone major graphical updates so that it would appear more legible, “while retaining the unique oil painting style.” According to the developers, their beta testers had issues with poor visibility. Most of this change came from adjusting the filter on the background.

The beta report included an interactive slider that allowed users to see a direct comparison of how a marketplace background looked before and after the change. The new image has more detailed texture, with more detailed lights added to the foreground. Objects in the distant background remain relatively unchanged.

The reception has been mostly positive so far, while a few people mourned the loss of a distinctive art style. The developers plan to implement a third beta phase in November, so there may be more adjustments to the game in the future.

Babylon’s Fall is currently in closed beta, and will eventually be released for PC and PlayStation systems.