A spin-off series to the Total War franchise was announced today by Creative Assembly. Titles in this series will be released under a new banner called Total War Saga. As noted in the statement on Total War’s website, these games will be standalone titles focusing on pivotal moments in history rather than entire historical eras.
When asked what makes a game a “Total War Saga,” Game Director Jack Lusted replied that they’ll follow-on or relate to previous Total War games but explore key moments that don’t necessarily revolve around a single character and only last a few short months.
“With our big releases that cover entire eras, like Rome or Empire, we’ve been following them up with standalone games that focus on a single character’s life and the time around them; like Napoleon or Attila,” Lusted said. “But there are also these key, pivotal points in history which don’t necessarily revolve around a single character, and only lasted a few months or few decades at most. Such moments also tend to be constrained to a tight geographic area as well.”
“Sagas won’t be revolutionary new titles or introduce brand-new eras; they’ll follow-on from previous Total War games and inhabit the same time-period, or at the very least relate to it. But these are certainly Total War games.”
Even though these are spin-off titles, Lusted assured that they won’t be any smaller than a major release. The campaign of a game he is working on right now “will take as long to complete as any other Total War title does.” The map of this is similar in gameplay size to that of Total War: Attila, but focused on a smaller geographic location.
Lusted said that players who liked Fall of the Samurai will enjoy what the studio has planned for the first Saga title. He stressed that it is not a major historical release and is only an iteration on a previous game. As for hints regarding its content, Lusted said that it is a spiritual follow-up to Total War: Rome 2.
