Although Sanzaru Games' ambitious open-world VR RPG Asgard's Wrath 2 is largely a single-player game, it boasts a meaningful asynchronous multiplayer component that lets players indirectly engage with one another in a number of interesting ways. This feeling of connectedness with fellow adventurers is a huge part of the appeal of games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring, and it's also in line with Meta's nature as a social company. Asynchronous multiplayer is also a terrific way for less social gamers to still feel like they're part of a community without having to worry about other players actually interfering with their VR experience.
In an exclusive interview with Game ZXC, Asgard's Wrath 2 Senior Game Producer Mari Kyle revealed some exciting details about the game's asynchronous multiplayer and how exactly players will engage with one another in both the open-world core game and throughout its procedurally generated rogue-lite Uncharted Rifts dungeons. She also spoke about how the asynchronous multiplayer gives players an opportunity to express themselves and their achievements through a variety of cosmetic options.
Asgard's Wrath 2's Asynchronous Multiplayer Lets Players Show Off Customization
Being able to express oneself through their avatar is what drives many players to achieve incredible feats in order to personalize their characters in special ways, and Asgard's Wrath 2 includes a number of methods for players to stand out from each other. When players send off their NPC-selves as friendly or nefarious spirits to engage with other players, that specter will represent them exactly as they looked at the time, including their weapon and gear loadout.
So in both the core game and in the Uncharted Rifts, you'll see specters of other players with the same loadout and the same character customization with their title and all that stuff, and they interact with your game depending on which mode you're in.
When you're in the core game, you can leave behind your player character avatar in a certain location and that can point to hidden treasure or point to a monster den where there's a bunch of combat stuff. It can also have recorded emotes as well so that you can really put yourself into this character. You'll have your weapon loadout and your customization elements, and it's a really great way to make the world feel like it's coming alive with all these other characters without having synchronous social co-op mechanics.
This also extends to the numerous titles that players can embellish their names with, and these titles can signify certain particularly difficult achievements or major milestones. Any World of Warcraft player can attest to the satisfaction of bearing their hard-earned titles and showing them off to the world, and this also gives players a few goals to work toward as they cook, craft, and kill their way through Asgard's Wrath 2.
Asgard Wrath 2 Players Can Invade Or Assist Each Other With NPC Avatars
Asgard's Wrath 2 has two approaches to its asynchronous multiplayer in the Uncharted Rifts rogue-lite dungeons: players can either send off NPC versions of themselves to be helpful Divine Soul companions reminiscent of Dragon's Dogma's pawn system or they can be dispatched as aggressive Dread Soul mini-bosses like an Elden Ring red phantom. These specters will bear the same weapons and equipment as their human counterparts, so it also serves as a way to see the kinds of builds other players are running as well as what they've accomplished.
In the Uncharted Rifts, though, it's a little bit more engaged. As you're playing through the Uncharted Riffs, whenever you die, you can choose to leave behind either a friendly soul we call the Divine Soul or a very evil soul called the Dread Soul. Once you finish your Rifts, those will go into this massive random database that prioritizes your friends over strangers – but also can grab from anywhere – and those specters will show up in other people's Rifts either as Divine Souls that they could pull out and fight alongside them like companions or as mini-bosses. These Dread Souls will have the same weapon loadout.
Whenever you do leave one behind, if you come back later on in the game,, you'll get a notification that so-and-so defeated your Dread Soul or your Divine Soul helped this person through a Rift or something.
Sanzaru also went the extra mile by including notifications for players about their Divine or Dread Soul's deeds when they return to the game, so players can know exactly who they helped through the Uncharted Rifts or, inversely, who killed their Dread Soul. This could pave the way for some amusing rivalries if players get the chance to come across each other's Dread Souls repeatedly.
Asgard's Wrath 2 is set to release in Winter 2023 on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3.