Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy - Gamescom 2026 Interview

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy Lead Talks Through All Of The Game's Big Changes Published Aug 30, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 2,500 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, got context around some AI drama, and revealed how Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on more than one occasion. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy makes big changes to the beloved series. Stepping back in time, it follows a new protagonist and now has a strong focus on combat, something neither of the previous titles had. With the game released a few days ago, we sat down with its lead writer, Carol Ann Bañuls, at this year's Gamescom, where we discussed the big changes and the flurry of games with "Resonance" in their names. TheGamer: It looked like the last game was setting up for a sequel. Was there a change of direction, and what made you opt for the prequel? Carol Ann Bañuls: We didn't change direction because there was no direction at first. I think we wanted to respect how the story finished between Hugo and Amicia. It was really intense, and for the team too. And we wanted to expand the universe while also offering a new experience for our players. And I think doing a prequel with Sofia was the best way to do it, because we could have new gameplay, add stuff about the lore of the universe, and change the mechanics, but still rest a little after what we endured, I would say, with the story. TG: How did you land on this setting for the new game? Did you consider any other locations? CAB: It was a lot of thinking and doing and redoing things. But I think we found the perfect combination of what we wanted. We did consider other locations, but I can't say where they were, because we can never say never, you know? TG: How much does the addition of combat change the game? Does it feel like a different game? CAB: I think it definitely changes the rhythm of the game. It's the pacing. It's more intense, I would say. But we kept the emotional storytelling. So, it's definitely the same game. I think you can definitely see the DNA of Plague Tale in this one, but the pacing feels much quicker. TG: The studio has previously mentioned that you had to tone down the combat to make it more accessible to existing fans. Would you say that was one of the biggest challenges for the team? How much work did they put in? CAB: It was definitely one of our biggest challenges. It took a lot of time. Talking about my area, because I wrote it, it was really different to write something in fighting. And we tried many different systems to find the best one. Because of the game's action, a lot needs to be said during the fighting. So, it was definitely a challenge to do so, to balance the whole thing. But we recruited the right people, so we managed to do it. TG: Requiem improved on Innocence's review scores on Metacritic by one point. Do you put pressure on yourself now to go, "OK, now we need to beat Requiem's reviews"? This review was undertaken before Resonance's review scores had been revealed. It scored 80 on Metacritic, versus 81 for Innocence and 82 for Requiem. CAB: I don't, because Requiem was a masterpiece; we know that. And we also had the pressure of that, of course. But we know we are changing things; we're doing things differently. So, yeah, of course we want a good Metacritic. I mean, everybody does. But this is the game, you know. We tried things, and we hope it will have a good reception. And I don't know, I mean... For developers, it's kind of important. It's kind of big stuff. As a player, I didn't care [about Metacritic scores]. So it's really about developers, actually. A lot of people in the studio are looking at it. We did the best we could. And this is what is important to us. TG: Square Enix recently announced Final Fantasy Resonance. You have Control Resonance coming out, too. Do you feel frustrated when you see the subtitle for your game shared around? CAB: It's quite funny because it's kind of a good name, since everybody used it, right? We had the codename during development. And I had trouble letting go of this codename. I still call the name by this codename; it was a perfect callback to a moment in a previous game. Released August 27, 2026 Developer(s) Asobo Studio Publisher(s) Focus Entertainment Sequel(s) A Plague Tale: Requiem, A Plague Tale: Innocence Franchise A Plague Tale Genre(s) Adventure, Action, Puzzle, Stealth