Earlier marketing for Gotham Knights hinted at certain characters that may have just been playful references, included supposed teases for Poison Ivy, Hush, and Penguin. It is now known that Penguin will serve an NPC role, and other notable villains could potentially appear in a similar capacity. Either way, it has since been confirmed that Gotham Knights will only have just four antagonists for players to pursue in their own villain crime questlines, which comes as a surprise.
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Gotham Knights Confirms Four Villains
The fact that this upcoming game will only have four major villains came during Gotham Knights’ recent developer Q&A. Discord user @obc13 asked how many villain stories there would be in Gotham Knights, and particularly whether fans would see more villains other than Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface.
WB Games Montreal cinematic director Wilson Mui said the three rogues’ gallery members are given a lot of emphasis in Gotham Knights through their own storylines, and alongside the Court of Owls it amounts to the bulk of this game’s content. This was surprising to hear for a number of reasons, but mainly because it is commonplace for superhero action-adventure games to feature a plethora of villains.
More to that point, Gotham Knights is an open-world action-RPG, and that gameplay design would suggest even more villains could appear than in a traditional action-adventure game. With this news, there will surely be fans who are disappointed that their favorite villains are not featured.
Likewise, fans may be displeased with the idea that they may have already seen everything that Gotham Knights has to offer. Of course, the confirmation of four villains could be a misdirect so fans are surprised when they play the game for themselves, but it is a tough pill to swallow in the meantime.
Gotham Knights’ Lack of Villains Could Be Good or Bad
One of the largest arguments for why only having four villains in Gotham Knights is lackluster concerns the game’s open world. Gotham Knights supposedly has the largest open-world Gotham City yet, but that enormous scale may seem redundant and empty if only four villains are present.
If there are only four villains with their respective faction gang enemies, it seems unnecessary to have such a large world. This also suggests there will be hardly any variety in enemy types between faction gangs and villain goons, which may result in enemy encounters throughout Gotham Knights becoming stale.
On the other hand, only having four villains - three of them being side villains - could result in each antagonist getting as much development and progression as they need. Side villains do not usually have elaborate questlines, and Gotham Knights could want to flesh these characters out as much as possible.
Repeated encounters later into Gotham Knights’ narrative could mean players have an established relationship with Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface, and facing them multiple times could demonstrate how villains have evolved over the course of the story. Therefore, the depth of each villain questline will determine if Gotham Knights’ lack of villains still ensures quality in its writing and progression.
Gotham Knights is scheduled to release on October 21, 2022, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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