If you look closely at Absolver’s initial reveal trailer or some of its promotional art, you might notice the presence of a weapon that’s actually not in the game itself: a two-handed bo staff. Fans have been patiently awaiting the implementation of the bo staff ever since Absolver’s launch last year, but recently developer Sloclap made the sad announcement that plans to incorporate the staff have effectively been cancelled.
During the same Reddit Q&A where they recently disclosed new information about Absolver’s upcoming Downfall expansion, Sloclap was asked about the presence of the bo staff in the game’s promotional art and whether or not there were still plans to bring such a weapon into the game. Rather than dodge the question or give some sort of non-answer in response, Sloclap decided instead to be as frank as it could when it delivered the bad news:
“We’d actually started prototyping bo staff, but it turned out to be much more complex than other weapons (notably because it is a two handed weapon). Not only would it be a huge effort on production side, but it also would be a balancing nightmare to add a new weapon with lots of new moves. So at this stage it’s very unlikely that Bo Staffs will find their way in the game.
I must apologize for this, because it’s my mistake honestly: I decide to leave images of the Staff in the reveal trailer and in the loading concept art, although at the time we weren’t sure we would be able to implement it. But it looked so cool, and I really wanted to believe we would be able to achieve it, so I decided to go for it, creating lots of expectations and disappointment with players… sorry about that.”
It was a disappointing bit of news for sure, but also one which many players already suspected was the case. There is still technically a small chance that bo staves might one day find their way into Absolver, but as Sloclap itself has now confirmed, fans definitely shouldn’t get their hopes up.