So, how does all this start? “In Sopa – Tale of the Stolen Potato, you step into Miho’s shoes. He’s stuck at Nana’s house, barely paying attention to the Voltage Templars on TV. Time seems to drag on endlessly. When Nana says she’s making soup, his heart sinks. But as Miho heads out in the search for the potato, each of his adventures echoes back to the value behind that old melody on the radio, of the cracked clay figurine in the cabinet, of glimpses into the old stories he’s heard, and of the ancient skill behind peeling and slicing each ingredient for the soup,” Castañeda says. “As Miho makes his way down the pantry, it seems to get longer and longer with every step that he takes. And when Miho is about to grab the sack of potatoes, a mysterious thief suddenly pops his head through the cabinet and snatches the potatoes, dragging Miho along with him into the world that exists at the other side of the pantry.”
When it comes to moving between worlds and how much time we’d spend in each, Studio Bando, reluctant to give away any spoilers, told us, “There’s essentially a portal between the worlds somewhere in Nana’s home that you’ll be able to use to go back and forth.” But, as Castañeda explains, “traveling between the portals might make some things change in mysterious ways…” As for where we’ll spend the most time: “The world of adventure will always be out there for you to explore, so it’s up to you how much time you’d like to spend with Nana. You do need to get that potato for her, though, or the soup will be less tasty!”
Sopa is set in South America, and the strange new world Miho discovers is heavily inspired by ideas of magical realism. “The original idea for Sopa, of telling a deeper story through the act of preparing a soup with your Nana, had come over ten years ago, and had been sitting in a drawer until the right time to make it,” Castañeda says. “Because it’s such a personal story, and because it draws on our experiences growing up in Colombia, our first big inspiration was A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He’s a sort of national hero, and he tells a multi-generational story of Colombia through this unique lens, where there’s this natural blend between the truth and fiction of his stories, this magical realism, that really captures the essence of the country.”
Castañeda spoke to Xbox Wire earlier this year, in a piece about Indies from around the world, about how the team tried to represent “even the mundane” of Sopa’s setting “as a backdrop.” Now, Castañeda again touches on the idea of blending truth and fiction in representing Sopa’s South American setting and Latin American culture. “We wanted to capture the stillness of Nana’s kitchen, and of drinking chocolate with her while she tells you an old story of her life. We wanted to capture the little things, like how deep and mysterious the dusty old pantry is, or the way the sunlight comes in through the window. We wanted to capture the feel of being a kid in this place; of running around and bumping into things without meaning to; of meeting an old grumpy dog that doesn’t recognize you. While in Sopa we explore different fantastical worlds, each one inspired by a real location in our region, I think that the honesty of our representation of South America actually exists in these small universal moments.”
We’ll meet a variety of interesting characters in the new world Miho encounters, such as “a gang of potato-stealing frogs, a mysterious harpy eagle, and a runaway cow herder. The main quest is getting back the stolen potato for Nana’s soup, but along the way, you’ll have to chase a thief down some river rapids, beat some frogs at a card game, and fend off seagulls as you sneak around the black market.” Then there are the puzzles we’ll face: “Some will be using commonplace items in unexpected ways, others will involve gathering intel from one character in order to persuade another to help you out. You might need to put a couple of items together to craft a third that will help get you out of a jam.” Along with exploring, solving puzzles, meeting new characters, and collecting songs and figurine pieces, we might also be “trying to tame angry dogs, rafting down white-water rapids, and avoiding getting eaten by piranhas.” So, a lot to accomplish for Miho!
Castañeda names several inspirations behind Sopa, including The Little Prince. “We wanted the story of Sopa to have the mystic feel of a fable, and we turned to The Little Prince as a universal classic that has a beautiful simplicity. There are two layers to the story, and the reader is caught between the ‘grownup’ version of the story, through the eyes of the pilot, and the ‘true’ story, through the eyes of the Little Prince. The book is often a gift to children, but it is a story that’s richer when read as an adult. It’s a very honest book that caricatures different perspectives in a very delicate way. Those were all key elements we wanted in Sopa.”
Spirited Away was another such inspiration. “Spirited Away and Studio Ghibli works like The Tale of Princess Kaguya were huge inspirations in creating a living world that felt inhabited by real characters. They go about their daily routines with their own ideas and motives, and there aren’t any archetypal, irredeemable villain figures. We also admire the way that Spirited Away took the architecture, and places and landscapes of Japan and created a unique magical aesthetic for their stories to take place. We wanted to do the same with Sopa, taking our landscapes and buildings and places and quirks and creating an original place that captured the feel of being in South America in a magical way.” Coco, too, played a part. “We loved how Pixar was able to take such a specific and local tradition as the Dia de los Muertos and turn it into a global phenomenon that anyone around the world could connect with,” Castañeda says. “And at the art-direction level, it was a big inspiration in the quality bar we aspired to hit.”
Meanwhile, we don’t yet have the Sopa achievements, but Castañeda gave us an idea of what they think makes for an ideal achievement list. “We love achievements that tie into the core game and motivate you to discover all the little hidden nooks and gems in the world. This is what we’ve tried to achieve with Sopa, so we hope achievement hunters enjoy the opportunities to connect with its universe.” The devs also mention “clay figurines throughout the game, each connected with its own unique story,” so perhaps we could expect a collectible-related achievement or two.
We can’t wait for Sopa to arrive, so in the meantime, it could be a good time to look through some of the best Game Pass games already available on the service.
