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Apex Legends Cellular Season 2 has been going properly, largely as a result of battle royale recreation’s newest playable legend, Rhapsody. Like Fade, Rhapsody is described as a “mobile-first” legend, which implies she’s unique to the cellular spin-off of Apex Legends–at least for now. As a full-time DJ and part-time hacker, Rhapsody is an extremely enjoyable help legend, possessing highly effective sound-based skills that disrupt opponents and improve her allies.

Initially of Season 2, many players–myself included–believed Rhapsody was put into Apex Legends Cellular as early as she was for her final skill, Rowdy’s Rave, which erects a flashing wall of sunshine that blocks an opponent’s sight and scans. It appeared like Rhapsody was a preemptive measure to maintain Apex Legends’ scan meta from popping up in Apex Legends Cellular. And though that meta did play an element in Rhapsody’s design, that is not the total foundation behind her design.

For context, the scan meta has been a scorching subject within the Apex Legends group for years. A number of characters have skills that enable them to scan enemies and reveal their place via stable objects–it’s basically built-in wallhacking, and there isn’t any technique of countering it. As you would possibly surmise, with the ability to see your enemy via a wall unopposed is an extremely helpful ability in a first-person shooter, encouraging squads to have no less than one legend who can scan–like Bloodhound or Seer–in order to have a greater likelihood at successful.

Coping with the scan meta has turn out to be a fancy problem, as scans have advanced with the addition of latest characters. Ash‘s skill to disclose the place of a participant’s killers is taken into account a scan, for instance, as is Fuse‘s skill to focus on all enemies caught in his final skill, The Motherlode. Even two of the talents for Apex Legends Season 14‘s new character, Vantage, are thought-about scans, although neither works via partitions like most different scan legends. With no singular definition of what a scan is, a tough counter within the console/PC recreation for all scans could be grossly overpowered–explaining Respawn’s hesitance so as to add an “anti-scan legend” to Apex Legends.

However in Apex Legends Cellular, the place the one scanning legend as of Season 2 is Bloodhound, Respawn has a chance to dissuade that technique from ever taking prominence by curating what sort of scanning legends finally make it into the sport and what methods are in place to counter them–counters like Rhapsody, the primary true anti-scan legend.

“Rhapsody’s final is certainly some good counterplay to lots of the scan-based skills on the market,” Apex Legends Cellular senior gameplay designer Jason Shifter advised GameSpot. “We love when gamers discover new methods to play in our recreation, so once we consider alternatives for brand spanking new legends, we at all times have a look at present, previous, and potential future metas. When Rhapsody was created, we needed to satisfy the facility fantasy of controlling sound. So the logical subsequent step was to guage how her skills would match into the present dynamics after which resolve how far to take it.”

The Apex Legends Cellular crew likes how Rhapsody has carried out thus far, embodying their philosophy of making characters that make gamers really feel highly effective and intelligent. “She landed within the house that we felt was a wholesome addition to the present meta,” Shifter stated.

The character has shocked Respawn too, because the crew has seen information suggesting gamers are adapting her primarily outdoors-focused skill equipment to struggle indoors. And regardless of her function as a help legend, some gamers are utilizing Rhapsody’s skills extra offensively or to compensate for Apex Legends Cellular’s present lack of recon characters.

“Gamers additionally make the most of [Rowdy’s Rave] to create a flanking alternative to get to a extra advantageous place,” Apex Legends Cellular lead recreation designer Chad Wilson stated. “Now we have seen groups coordinating together with her to create a excessive mobility crew paired with Octane’s bounce pads. Now we have additionally seen gamers using her [passive] skill to efficiently observe legends and changing into a low-key ‘tracker’ character. One cool tactic I have been seeing an increasing number of is utilizing her final as a diversion tactic. Since gamers cannot see if you happen to’re behind the wall, they’re going to usually shoot via it considering you are there even once you’re not. It is the proper solution to get opponents to disclose their areas and catch them off guard once you seem out of nowhere.”

I actually like Rhapsody too, however I am biased. I’ve needed a sound-based legend in Apex Legends for years, although I at all times imagined they’d be extra like an auditory variation of Mirage, tricking opponents with noise versus holograms. It did not take the Apex Legends Cellular crew years to design and create Rhapsody so I sadly cannot take credit score for manifesting her existence, however it did take a while–the means of her creation took months.

“Every certainly one of these legends takes some time to create, nevertheless, the precise size of time is set by the variety of new mechanics and making certain there’s sufficient time to iterate and refine them to make sure our mobile-first legends really feel simply pretty much as good as the opposite legends within the Apex Video games,” Shifter stated. “However creating a brand new legend goes past simply creating the character mechanics. We additionally must create all the supporting content material our gamers count on for brand spanking new legends: Perks, [cinematics], their backstory and lore. All of that work mixed is well over 10 months for every mobile-first legend.”

When creating a personality like Rhapsody, there’s additionally the third-person perspective to contemplate. Apex Legends Cellular helps third-person play, and which means character fashions and talents for brand spanking new characters must be designed in a method that gamers perceive what they’re doing and what’s taking place to them whether or not they’re enjoying in first-person or third-person.

“Third-person [mode] performs an enormous function,” Apex Legends Cellular artistic director Kevin Childress stated. “It is a particular Cellular-first function that we have to have a good time, because it permits gamers to see themselves enjoying within the cool world we’re constructing. [Rhapsody’s drone] Rowdy was particularly essential right here to determine third-person visible language and provide gamers one thing superior to take a look at whereas operating and gunning. We’re at all times asking ourselves, ‘How does it look in third-person? It must be superior there too!’ Not solely are we reviewing the abilities–it contains every part from run animations, slides, idles, and even how every legend holds weapons in distinctive methods primarily based on their personalities.”

Rhapsody additionally stands out within the Apex Legends universe’s playable roster (composed of 24 faces if you happen to rely all of the legends throughout each the PC/console recreation and cellular recreation) when it comes to each her shade scheme and talents. Whereas lots of the playable characters function muted colours for his or her default pores and skin, Rhapsody rocks a vibrant purple. Her skills are additionally all extremely flashy and noisy–it’s laborious to overlook her presence in a match. Apex Legends has featured characters with outgoing personalities and obnoxiously apparent skills earlier than, however nothing fairly like Rhapsody.

“Rhapsody’s hometown is Kómma, which has robust cyberpunk designs and colors–purple being certainly one of them,” Apex Legends Cellular lead artist Bernie Kang advised me. “We additionally needed her shade scheme to face out amongst the present legend lineup, so purple was an apparent alternative for the crew.”

“Rhapsody’s background is about performing live shows in an notorious nightlife metropolis, which is each an auditory and visible expertise, so we needed gamers to really feel like she might drop an enormous get together anyplace on the battlefield with loud music and dazzling lights,” Apex Legends Cellular lead author Mike Rosenthal added. “She bombards the senses as a technique.”

To make sure Rhapsody could be the most effective she may very well be, the Apex Legends Cellular crew sought consultants whereas creating her. Written as a Vietnamese girl, the crew needed to make sure Rhapsody was designed precisely, and so Respawn shaped a Group Council–which included, amongst others, the likes of G4TV host Gina Darling, Apex Legends streamer SamanthaKronos, ZA/UM author Elise Trinh, and Respawn lead environmental artist Leah Augustine–to present suggestions on the character’s look, mannerisms, and lore.

“Getting the cultural background proper for a personality is crucial for us, and the best method to do this is to succeed in out to these with first-hand expertise,” Rosenthal stated. “Our UXR crew organized a council of Vietnamese girls from the Apex group to supply perception into develop Rhapsody. Vietnamese members at EA gave us steering as properly. We additionally employed an unimaginable voice actress with a Vietnamese background [Xanthe Huynh] who actually introduced the character to life.”

And, in fact, the Apex Legends Cellular crew works with the Apex Legends crew with a purpose to make sure the lore and backstory for the characters of each video games can coexist in a method that is smart. “We share our work and search suggestions throughout each step of growth,” Rosenthal stated. “This helps guarantee our new characters match properly throughout the established Apex universe.”

Solely Respawn is aware of whether or not which means we’ll finally see Rhapsody cross over into Apex Legends for console/PC, both as a playable legend or a personality in a Quest. For now, she’s a musical enjoyment of Apex Legends Cellular and a bulwark in opposition to the scan meta.