After the first Beyond Good and Evil was released in 2003, fans weren’t expecting to go two decades without a sequel. Ubisoft first teased Beyond Good and Evil 2 in 2008 with a brief trailer, and it wasn’t until E3 2017 that the game was seen again–this was also when the studio revealed that it would be a prequel instead of a sequel to the original title. With information still scarce, many have jumped ship, giving up hope that another entry to the series would ever come. In February, Bloomberg reported that the sequel was still in pre-production after over five years of development.
Things have turned around just this week however, as Ubisoft’s Barcelona division was caught posting a new job opening seeking a senior gameplay animator to work on Beyond Good and Evil 2. The listing also curiously states that the game represents one of Ubisoft’s most ambitious projects to date.
One big question remains–will the first game’s protagonist be returning?
Will Photojournalist Jade Return as the Protagonist in Beyond Good and Evil 2?
Initially, Beyond Good and Evil 2 was listed as a direct sequel to the first game. Because of this, many believed that Jade would be returning as the player character–a fact that was further cemented by the initial trailers featuring both Jade and Pey’j.
This all changed when, in 2017, Ubisoft announced that during production, the team shifted direction to make a prequel instead of a sequel. Beyond Good and Evil 2 will take place at least one generation before the events of the first game.
With more role-playing elements compared to Beyond Good and Evil, Ubisoft has stated that players can design their own characters and will start “at the very bottom of the social system.” It looks like Jade won’t be appearing, though it might be fun to make a character with the same features.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 is currently in development.