Avowed game director Carrie Patel has discussed Obsidian’s effort to “make everything intentional” in the RPG, and that meant not simply following other fantasy tropes but instead crafting the game to stand on its own. Among other things, this means there was no rule for Avowed that said dwarves had to have a Scottish accent like they do in lots of other fantasy media.
“With all our games, and certainly with the lore of Pillars, we want to make everything intentional,” Patel said in an interview with Xbox. “Dwarves don’t need to have Scottish accents just because they do in other fantasy settings, and elves don’t need to all speak with Received Pronunciation.”
Instead, Patel said an intentional effort was made to focus on “stripping back those tropes” for Avowed to stand out.
“One example was the idea of mountain dwarves tending to be more itinerant. Traditional dwarven societies build impressive places but then scatter and move on due to resources, personal disagreements, or political rifts,” Patel said. “This created an interesting opportunity for us in Avowed to explore: What it would be like if one of these settlements stuck around. What would that culture be like? Why would those characters have made that decision, and what would that mean for the story?”
Avowed was previously set for release at the end of 2024 but was delayed to February for scheduling purposes, not due to quality. The game officially launches on February 18, but the $90 Premium edition unlocks five days early, beginning February 13.
Like Microsoft’s other first-party games, Avowed is included with Game Pass Ultimate at launch. Members can buy an upgrade add-on to the Premium edition for $22.50 to get all the perks, including early access.
In addition to Avowed, Obsidian is currently at work making The Outer Worlds 2, which is planned for release this year. For more, be sure to check out GameSpot’s Avowed preorder guide.