Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was one of my favorite titles at E3 this year. It's got a terrific story foundation upon which Ninja Theory has built rock-solid combat, jazzed up by great art direction. This past week at Comic-Con, I spoke with Namco Bandai brand manager Laili Bosma, who filled in the background behind the game and fleshed out more of the gameplay mechanics that shape this promising action adventure.

The game's key aspect is the relationship between its two main characters. While their names and basic personalities have been taken from the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West, Bosma stresses that Enslaved is "very, very loosely based" on the famous tale. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic future where Trip, a fragile 19-year-old redhead, embarks on a perilous journey to return home. In order to survive, she recruits the player-controlled Monkey, a brutish slave, bound to Trip by a deadly, magical headband.