Sacred 2 FAQ, Dev Log and Changelog

A few words in advance

All good things come to those who wait. Today, we are happy to present to you our combined FAQ and changelog, to give you a detailed overview of what’s old, what’s new, what’s changed, and where we are headed.

Before we start, we would like to emphasize that the development of Sacred 2 Remaster was not without challenges, especially on the technical side. This was down to four main issues:

1. The codebase was incomplete and source files were missing.
2. There was no original editor available.
3. Many of the old SDKs/tools are no longer supported (e.g. pathfinding).
4. Large parts of the code had to be rewritten from scratch.

Still, we decided to take on this challenge, because it means that Sacred 2 is now playable on modern devices, including the add-on being available on consoles for the first time, which is not only a huge milestone in the history of Sacred, but also a big contribution to game preservation. We focused our efforts primarily on stability and performance improvements to make the experience smoother than ever, and can now finally say: it’s good to be back!

Wondering how the original creators of Sacred feel about the remaster? Franz Stradal is happy to answer that question and more in this brand new dev log:

With all that out of the way, let’s get to some questions!

General questions

1. When is the game coming out?
Sacred 2 Remaster launches on November 11, 2025.

2. Which platforms is it coming out for? Are there any plans for additional consoles (e.g. Nintendo Switch)?
The game will launch for PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X.
We are also looking into getting Sacred 2 Remaster onto GOG and Switch!

3. How much will the game cost?
It will be available for $19.99 / € 19.99 on PC and $29.99 / €29.99 on consoles.

4. Will there be a physical edition?
Yes.

5. Will there be a Collector’s Edition?
No.

6. Are additional languages planned?
Currently we are not planning for more languages. We only included languages that had voiceover in the original, but also translated various missing localization items and proofread the text.

7. Are there going to be beta tests?
There are no public beta tests planned. However, the game was of course tested internally by the developers and involved community members, and external QA contractors.

8. Who developed this? How involved exactly was the community?
The Remaster was developed by Sparklingbit, Funatics, and Zeppelin.
We also had huge support from the loyal community. We worked with community devs on various bugfixes and credited them in the game.

9. Will we still be able to buy the classic version? If not, do those who have it already get to keep it?
If you already own the classic version, you will keep it. If you don't own the classic version yet, it will no longer be available as a standalone purchase, but it will be added to your library automatically once you buy the Remaster.

10. Why remaster Sacred 2, and not Sacred 1 first?
Unfortunately, Sacred 1 had an even older codebase than Sacred 2, making it nearly impossible to port.

11. Is this a remake or a remaster? Is it a remaster like The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Remastered?
Sacred 2 Remaster is a remaster in the truest sense of the word. That means:

• Visual and performance upgrades (HD textures and improved VFX, higher frame rates, improved lighting and shadows, new shaders).
• Sometimes tweaks to audio and UI (and Sacred 2 Remaster does have a new UI—more on that later!).
• Inclusion of all expansions and updates.
• Controller support (the game contains button assets for Xbox and PS5 controllers, PS controllers will require Steam Input).
• Gameplay and core assets remaining largely unchanged.

In contrast, a remake, such as Oblivion—even if it is titled as a remaster—does the following:

• Rebuilds the game from the ground up, often in a new engine.
• Gameplay, mechanics, level design, and even story elements may be altered or expanded.
• Feels like a modern reimagining of the original.

Sacred 2 Remaster is a Remaster, not a Remake, based on the original code and art out of respect for the original.

Technical questions:

1. Will the CM patch be included in the remaster? The original is basically unplayable without it.
We implemented selected parts of the Community Patches and Fixes in the Remaster that are suitable with the new codebase and do not contain any exploits, and worked very closely with the Community Developers to ensure the best player experience.

• Some parts of the community patches could not be included (e.g. Lua changes were rolled back because they broke combat).
• Major balance changes or reworking of “useless” skills (e.g. Spell Resistance) were out of scope and could not be implemented.
• Due to copyright reasons and in order to preserve the original look and feel, we made no major graphical changes.

2. Will mods be supported? Are there modding tools / dedicated mod support?
While there are no dedicated modding tools, the Community will be able to create and port their mods even more easily now.

• The lua scripts and assets are still openly accessible. The new UI is html derived and can now also be modified through the also openly accessible .rml .dds and .rcss files, to (mostly) change its layout and visuals. The functionality of the UI however relies on c++ code.
• In the future, we may add a beta branch with an active UI debugger to make modding easier.

3. Will there be multiplayer on all platforms? What does it look like?
Multiplayer is currently only planned for Steam/PC. This also means no couch co-op on consoles.
Co-op campaign is the only multiplayer mode (free-for-all and PvP modes are not available).
The maximum number of players in MP is 5.
The “trading” feature (and achievement) has been removed from multiplayer, instead you now trade by dropping items on the floor and others picking them up.
This will be player-hosted P2P using the Steamworks API, which means no dependency on dedicated servers. Multiplayer will remain playable as long as Steam exists.

4. How long will the game be supported through patches, especially with regards to bug fixing?
We will monitor stability and performance closely and patch if necessary.
We will stay closely in touch with the community developers, so please make sure to provide us with feedback and bug reports, to help guide future patches, fixes and improvements.

5. Will it run on Steam Deck?
We are aiming to support Steamdeck in the future.

6. What are the PC requirements?
Minimum Requirements, 1920x1080 and 30+ FPS:

• GPU: AMD HD 7870 / Nvidia GTX 750TI
• CPU: AMD FX-4300 x4/ Intel Core i3-4130
• RAM: 8GB
• OS: Windows 10

Recommended Requirements, 1920x1080 and 60+ FPS:

• GPU: Radeon RX 470 4GB/ Nvidia GTX 1650 4GB
• CPU: Ryzen 3-1200 / Intel Core i3-6100
• RAM: 8GB
• OS: Windows

7. What engine is the game using?
It’s built and remastered on the proprietary engine used by the original. However, while upgrading the engine to 64-bit we had to modify several sub systems.
The render stack is 100% new implemented with “The Forge” as DX12 renderer.
The codebase is ported to 64-bit.
PhysX is updated from version 1 to version 5, without Apex.

8. What other changes were made to the technical components of the game?

• We implemented custom pathfinding with old nav data, so NPCs and enemies will no longer block movement.
• We are using a different Granny version.
• New Audio Libs have been implemented.
• We switched Bink video format to mp4.
• We updated the Lua version to the latest one.
• Overall, there are about 8,000 change lists (not just individual changes).

9. Will we be able to play with keyboard/mouse on console?
Keyboard/mouse on console has not been officially supported and tested.

10. Does the game support ultrawide resolutions?
While they are not officially supported, technically it should be possible.
The new UI is highly adaptive and should work from 4:3 to 20:9, but for the best experience we recommend 16:9.

11. Will my save games from the original be compatible with the new version?
Mostly, but we cannot guarantee it.

12. What exactly has changed in terms of graphics?
Most new settings are only available on PC, due to the performance impacts on consoles.
Performance-related settings:

• MSAA: Multisample Anti-Aliasing, Edge Antialiasing. Reduce "aliasing" (the jagged edges you see on diagonal lines or curves).
• View distance
• Grass render distance
• Shadow distance
• Tree Culling Budget, Tree Culling Distance, Tree LOD BIAS (i.e. setting how many trees will be rendered)
• Patch Blending
• Cutoff distance

Graphics (PostFX/Tonemapper)-related:

• Enable (“modern” graphics) / Disable (“old graphics) PostFX
• Shadow- Mid- and Highlight settings for: Range, Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, Saturation

Other:

• Edge Antialiasing
• Depth of Field (Focus Offset, Focus Range, Blur Radius), i.e. blurring out-of-focus areas to simulate how cameras/eyes.
• SSAO (Radius, BIAS, Intensity, Min Value, Start Offset, Sample Count): without SSAO, a box sitting on the floor might look like it’s hovering, with SSAO, a faint shadow appears where it touches the floor, grounding it.
• Vignette Falloff (post-processing visual effect where the edges or corners of the screen are darkened, allows adjusting where the shadow starts and how dark it gets).
• Chromatic Aberration Falloff & Offset (post-processing effect that mimics a real-world lens imperfection, edges of the screen show slight red/blue/green color separation. Creates a sense of realism by mimicking how imperfect lenses capture images. Often used to make the image feel more cinematic, gritty, or distorted).

Important to note:

• Texture quality can no longer be reduced (we updated them).
• Weather can no longer be disabled.
• The hardware mouse cursor can no longer be used to replace the in-game cursor.

13. What changes have been done in terms of performance and bug fixing?

• Improved performance & fewer crashes.
• Fixed various cases of data not being unloaded from memory.
• Fixed various issues with texture loading, caching and streaming.
• Fixed the game crashing if the texture cache is overloaded (on low end machines it may take a while for all textures to load instead of crashing now).
• Fixed various broken shaders and rendering issues.
• Fixed several lighting and shadow issues.
• Fixed various crashes caused by too many draw calls.
• Reduced performance impact of trees through batch rendering.
• Fixed audio of the application permanently unregistering from windows.
• Fixes various issues related to spells.
• Fixed various issues with the BonusInterpreter.
• Fixed various issues with the DragonMage while being Morphed.
• Increase to animation startup times.
• Various fixes to combat arts that were broken or did not work in certain cases.
• Small tweaks for smoother animations.
• Questscript fixes with the help of Lindor (Community Dev).
• Changed LifeLeech% to be based on the target’s current health instead of max health.
• Changed camera default settings based on a frequently used community setting posted on Darkmatters.
• Removed corpses and souls from creatures (traps) that are unable to move and cause issues after being reanimated.

Content questions:

1. Is Blind Guardian still included in the remaster?
Yes, the Blind Guardian quest and concert video are still in the game.

2. Have there been any balancing changes, and if so, which ones?
Balancing has mainly been kept as in the original and only has been adjusted if necessary.
We increased the first 25% of the attacks by 2x speed to have a slicker fight.

3. Are there any plans/hopes of adding new content (via DLCs)?
No. This is not planned.

4. Is there any sort of endgame content, since the original didn’t have any?
No content besides the existing Community Patches and existing Expansions had been added, due to this being a remaster, not a remake.
We also do not like the idea of live-service end games (with monetization).

5. What is this new UI you mentioned earlier?
The core of the UI is built on RML which is exposed and editable in the Steam build, meaning that how the UI looks is moddable:

• .rml files for content and layout are moddable (but not 100% everything, since some parts are generated in c++).
• .dds && .rcss files for UI graphics are replaceable / moddable.

For the first time, the “real” Sacred UI comes to consoles (no more limited inventory lists!)
The new UI also features the following tweaks:

• 4 Combat Art Slots instead of 5.
• 4 Weapon Slots instead of 5.
• 2 Relic sets instead of 4 (still only one can be active at a time).
• 3 potion slots instead of 5.
• The compass is now around the minimap instead of being its own element.
• You can now see the character stats during character creation.
• Attributes Menu now shows full character stats.
• Inventory Grid size is now 10x16 instead of 15x12 -> now 160 instead of 180 cells.
• Inventory now has filters which sort items by all, weapons, armor, consumables or valuables.
• Only 1 menu page can be open at a time now (they are no longer floating windows).
• You can now unassign Combat arts from Combos and Combat Art slots while the Combat Art menu is open.
• Combat Art upgrades are integrated into the combat art menu now, but only one Aspect of combat arts is shown at a time, similar to the old Modification Screen.
• The skills that improve / affect a Combat Art Aspect are now shown next to the aspects name.
• The “?” help text boxes no longer exist, except for the blacksmith, where the help text box is now always displayed.
• Additional help information has been added to hover tooltips, such as input help.
• Set boni of items are now displayed in each items tooltip if it has any.
• Added Quicksaving to the escape menu. Saving before Save&Exit will save the current location instead of teleporting you to the last respawn location upon re-load.

And that’s all for today! We hope that you will enjoy the final product of our hard work and we look forward to hearing about your renewed adventures in Ancaria!