Hello, my name is Henry Lee. I am the director of both, Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders, and Heroes.

Right now, we are polishing up the code and testing it. We are aiming for a worldwide simultaneous release in Fall 2005.

Unfortunately, I still cannot pinpoint an exact release date yet. However, I can tell you that it’ll be between mid-September to late-September.

Actually, it would not be fair to say that. "Heroes" and "The Crusaders" are very different titles, with totally new characters, newly created campaigns, and advanced Xbox Live features. The things we’ve put in "Heroes" simply cannot be done by downloading some files over Xbox Live for "The Crusaders."

As long as a lot of people are playing The Crusaders, and they are asking for downloadable contents, we will try our best to meet the demand. However, at this stage, we are focusing on making Heroes the best possible sequel to The Crusaders.

Yes, "Heroes" covers the untold stories of those who have been widely popular officers in "The Crusaders." As they will become heroes themselves, they will be supported by other officers as well.

Yes, the four characters in "The Crusaders" will still be featured in the plot of "Heroes." Although they are not the main figures this time, they will interact with the new heroes in significant ways in the development of the new storyline.

It won’t be fun to talk about hidden secrets even before the game comes out. Right? I can confirm that there are more than 7 playable characters in Xbox Live.

Definitely. Each of the main characters in Heroes has an expanded arsenal of special moves and combos with unique styles. We have increased the action factor a lot in Heroes, to make it more approachable for the casual gamers. But this does not mean that it is less of a strategy game this time. We have actually increased the number of strategic factors to consider as well. (i.e. more environmental factors, new units, etc.)

There are 5 new units; Thunder Rhino, Ice Maiden, Encablossa Infested, Stone Golem and Flame Wraith. The existing units have been tweaked as well, to fine-tune the gameplay balance.

Of course, new characters and new units will have their own new and unique skills and abilities. I’d rather let the players find them out themselves, but you’ll easily spot some new stuff in the trailers we’ve released so far.

Random missions are basically skirmish missions you can use to earn more experience points and gold you need to make progress in the storyline. The game will randomly generate a new mission for the player every single time, so you can say the possibility is infinite.

Custom missions can be created by the player as well. This is done by the player deciding the map, the enemy troop types, levels, numbers, AI difficulty, etc. Basically, this is a mission generator, except that you cannot draw your own map.

There is no change for that matter. The only way you can replay any campaign mission without restart is to save right before a specific mission, then load from that file. The reason is simple. If players are able to replay the missions with already-developed heroes, the game will be too easy and not give you enough challenge. What we always emphasize is the balance of the game.

Actually, we’ve made a change here. Now, after you finish a character’s campaign, you’ll be able to play the whole campaign with another character, given that you’ve finished the second character’s campaign as well. But again, you will not be carrying over the built up heroes.

Troop Battle Mode gives you an opportunity to carry the full experience of a single-player mission to Xbox Live along with other friends/opponents. Each team can have up to 3 players, making 1v2, 1v3, 2v3 possible as well. Before the Live match starts, all the players will be able to chat with each other. However, once the match starts, chatting is limited within the team so that players cannot overhear the opponents’ strategic messages.

It won’t be possible to take over a dead partner’s troops due to game balance reasons. Thus, going for the enemy hero’s unit, and protecting your own, will be the basic strategy of any Live match. The number of units under each player’s control varies depending on how many players are playing in a match.

Yes, it’s up to 3 players at the same time to defend the castle. Players can cooperate to defend their castle more efficiently through voice chat as well.

The relationship between the general and his/her troops remains intact in KUF:H. That means, the troops will keep fighting as long as the general is alive, and the general will have power as long as he/she has troops to command. In the unfortunate case that a hero runs out of stamina during a battle, the player will be penalized by being unable to move the hero and command the troops for a certain amount of time. But once that penalty is over, the hero can get back on his/her feet to fight on, as long as there are soldiers to follow his/her command.

Hero battle mode consists of hack-n-slash style action battles with a little bit of support from your troops. You can play individually or team up. There are no additional moves exclusively for Hero Battle mode.

Yes, Spectator mode gives you an opportunity to join games just to watch others play. This will be a handy tool for new-comers as they can learn different skills and tricks from others. Since spectators can watch over the entire field, they will be limited to talk to other spectators only.

In "Heroes" the disconnection issue was addressed in two ways. First, we optimized the network code, so that unintended disconnects/freezes will not take place while playing on Xbox Live. Secondly, we are balancing out the ladder scoring system, so that players will not be unfairly penalized for a disconnection they did not cause.

Of course, we would like to expand the series into the next generation consoles. But then again, we are not just interested in simply doubling the number of on-screen characters or the level of graphic detail. The power of new machines will allow us to make another revolutionary leap in console strategy gaming, and I hope our next title can reflect that.

As for our other titles, Phantagram and Q Entertainment are co-developing an Xbox360 title called Ninety Nine Nights. It’s an action title that aims to fully utilize the monstrous power of Xbox360. Please look forward to seeing more information on the title in the near future.