Batman: Arkham Shadow wouldn't be a superhero video game without its antagonists. It certainly wouldn't be a Batman: Arkham game without its complicated, psychologically twisted Gotham City criminals, either. It's been clear since its announcement teaser that Ratcatcher will finally be explored in a mainline Arkham game, but Camouflaj's new trailer released at Summer Game Fest shows that more antagonists are awaiting the Caped Crusader.

However, because this entry predates Arkham Asylum, it also places certain villains in a vulnerable position, especially main antagonist Ratcatcher, who has been affected by the events from Origins. Camouflaj Founder and Studio Head Ryan Payton told Game ZXC in a recent interview that Ratcatcher was one of the characters that the studio knew it wanted to explore for Batman: Arkham Shadow and that fans will see how his lore leads to the creation of a new major antagonist in the Arkhamverse.

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Batman: Arkham Shadow’s Place in the Arkhamverse Timeline Explained

Batman: Arkham Shadow's reveal teaser and external sources leave blatant clues for players to discern where it falls in the Arkhamverse timeline.

Batman: Arkham Shadow's Rat King, Scarecrow, Harley Quinn, and More

Ratcatcher Arkham Shadow

Ratcatcher, who is quickly shown as Otis Flannegan in the trailer, is shown a "bit crestfallen" because he had previously put his faith and belief into Batman: Arkham Origins' Black Mask, who he's been working for behind the scenes for a long time, or so he thought. Fans are left with a message at the end of Camouflaj's latest trailer: "When the bat falls, the rats rise." While this is still on par with Ratcatcher's theme, Payton told Game ZXC that this actually teases the Rat King, a new antagonist that was created just for Shadow.

Payton said that the character design is "very cryptic" and that there is a connection between him and Ratcatcher. Camouflaj will continue to drop teasers of the Rat King as it steadily reaches the launch of the new Arkham game, which is currently in development:

"We have Ratcatcher, but you first see him as Otis Flannegan. We're bringing so much of the Arkham lore and the deeper DC history of these characters along with them into Arkham Shadow, but with th e Rat King it was an opportunity for us to more or less start with a blank slate and do something that really served the story and really surprised players without them having to worry too much about, "I don't know what, hypothetically, the Rat King did in DC and Detective Comics #3604 [laugh]." It was really just an opportunity to do something fresh and new."

Aside from the introduction of the Rat King and exploration of Ratcatcher, players will also find origin-like takes on Harley Quinn and Scarecrow, who both appeared in the latest trailer, but Payton added that there are more characters to appear in Shadow. There will also be more locations that players can explore as Batman in VR, which Payton expects will "overwhelm" fans.

Arkham Shadow Gameplay Will Run Closer To Arkham Asylum

Announce_WhereistheRatKing Arkham Shadow

Marvel's Iron Man VR's gameplay ran between 8–10 hours and Payton said that Arkham Shadow will be longer than that and, instead, be more comparable to the run time of Arkham Asylum, which was roughly 12 hours for the main story. Arkham VR, released in 2016 by Rocksteady, had a run time of roughly two-and-a-half hours. Moreover, Camouflaj expects this will be most fans' introduction to VR:

"We knew that we thought [we could] really kind of flesh out an experience that was an authentic new entry to the franchise and took all of the core elements that everybody loves from the Arkham franchise—whether it's the exploration or the combat or the investigations—to bring all those elements built rebuilt from the ground up for VR, that could be a really special experience that would put players into the mind and body of Batman in a way that they haven't ever experienced before."

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"What's really important to us [is] how people imagine a fully realized Arkham game would work in VR is actually what we're delivering."