Perfect World Beijing has recently teased its upcoming MMO after the successful Closed Beta launch of Forsaken World. The Chinese title for the game will be 笑傲江湖 Online, which roughly translates to The Smiling, Proud Wanderer Online. The title is based on one of the most beloved martial arts novel written by Jin Yong, whose famous works include The Legend of the Condor Heroes and Return of the Condor Heroes. For more about the novel, click here.
More news and details will be revealed over the weeks, while an official reveal should take place around May this year. The Creative Director also joked that the game’s graphics can be compared to NCsoft’s Blade and Soul’s. A movie tied in to the game is also rumored to be in planning stages. Do note that Perfect World Beijing is starting to take a shot at the film entertainment industry. It has already released 1 movie.
Here are some first details about the game (not 100% confirmed).
1. Development has gone on for around 4 years.
2. Details like ripples on water, the environment, scaling on walls like a martial artist etc will be greatly enhanced and refined.
3. A top-notched weather effect system.
4. Ability for players to create their own unique martial arts skills. Like the martial arts world, every skills will have its own flaws for players to discover and break. The high level skills found in the original novels will be available at later levels.
5. Players can fight (PvP) on water surfaces, as seen in many classic martial arts movies. Players will not just be “standing” on water, they will have to utilize their “Qing Gong” carefully.
6. The development team somehow injected the battle AI system found in the Tekken and Virtual Fighter series into the game. This will make sure players of different levels will be fighting mobs based on their appropriate skill and level.
7. Dodge, block, stances and many more features seen in martial arts movies will be included in the game. All these will play an important role. Dodging will no longer be just a matter of stats, but characters do doge like real life in the game and so on.
Here are some early artwork of the game.
