Speaking to All-Gamers (and translated by Eurogamer) Michel Ancel talked about the ongoing development of Beyond Good & Evil 2. In particular, he was quick to point to how the power of the next-gen consoles lets him achieve his original ambition for the game.

"We'll conserve the spirit [of the first game] but the form will change," said Ancel. "For [BG&E], we wanted to create a more cinematographic game, but we didn't have the technical ability to do that. So we simplified. It was fun, because I remember we had to create a work for Sony to demonstrate how original our game was in order to get the dev kit. We wrote BG&E like we were in a film. After, we understood it would be very tricky to reach that immersion on that console!"

"But now, with the next-gen consoles, we feel it is possible to develop the game we thought of for the first," he added.

He detailed that his development team is working on new ideas which make it hard to foresee when the game will be completed (while reaming coy about platforms). Ancel said they could have finished the game already, "but we want BG&E 2 to bring something to the videogame universe."

The world of the original Beyond Good & Evil was a unique mixture of elements both whimsical and foreboding, and Ancel confirmed it was a variety of sources that formed the universe. It was a mix of a lot of experiences. "It was a phantasm to create an adventure game, a universe too. It was the game I wanted to create for a long time. There were a lot of inspirations: the Miyazaki universe, my own inspirations, politics and the media; the theme of September 11 - the CNN show with army messages and the fear climate. And it was a mix from other universes."

"It's different from Zelda and other titles like that; very good games but they are out of time. [BG&E] was issued of the actuality," he said.

Beyond Good & Evil will apparently not fall far from the tree, and when asked if Beyond Good & Evil 2 will be a direct sequel, he answered, "Yes, but it is better to discover that when you play, ha ha! But it is clear we want to continue the story - we won't create characters, story. The story continues and we'll react on important events of the first."

"Players who like the first should like the second," he added.