Apex Legends Season 16 is called Reverly and it kicks off on February 14. In a surprising twist, Revelry is the first season of Respawn's battle royale game to not add a new playable character to the roster. Instead, the new season makes huge changes to the ability kits of the entire existing crop of 23 legends, making each of their skill sets and specialties easier to digest for first-time players. In that same vein, Season 16 also introduces a new weapon (the Nemesis), a team deathmatch game mode, and a more extensive onboarding process for new players--all of which are also aimed at making the experience of playing Apex Legends more approachable and easier to grasp.

Following a preview of everything to come in the new season, I spoke with design director Evan Nikolich, lead weapon designer Eric Canavese, and lead legend designer Devan McGuire about this wonderfully fresh direction. We discussed why making a rival to the meta-dominating R-301 and Flatline isn't as straightforward as buffing or changing one of the other existing assault rifles, how the team arrived at the five new character classes--Assault, Skirmisher, Support, Controller, and Recon--and why the team is sunsetting Apex Legends' sweatiest game mode, Arenas, and adding a brand-new Mixtape playlist and TDM mode in its place.

It seems like Season 16 is introducing a lot of cool gameplay changes--both in how players utilize individual characters, the approachability of the game as a whole for new players, and what modes are available to play. How will the narrative and storytelling also evolve this season, if at all?