Nexon – Game giant announces 14 titles for annual G-Star exhibition

With Korea’s annual game show, G-Star 2018 fast approaching, the various companies are preparing to once again put on a huge show at Busan. Only rival Netmarble has announced its lineup, but Nexon trounced its competition once again in terms of numbers with 14 games to showcase, mostly mobile titles as expected. Here is a quick summary of them.

PC Games

Ascendant One

I have covered Ascendant One for months now, and you can have a look at my past articles. The sci-fi MOBA is still in Early Access test phase, with a launch set to early 2019 in South Korea. There are people claiming there will be an English launch because English text is found in the game, but Nexon should know how risky it is launching a MOBA now.

Astellia

Surprisingly, I just discovered I have not posted anything on this PC MMORPG since it got an official name. Once known as Project A and developed by Barunson (not the one behind Dragonica), Astellia is a standard 3D MMORPG which heavily involves summoning a variety of monsters to support and fight by your side. Not confident Nexon will bring it to the west.

Dragon Hound

Initially known as Project DH and currently in development at devCat, many thought that this is a mobile game. A full-fledge PC MMORPG powered by Unreal Engine 4, Dragon Hound’s main feature are the fights against HUGE boss monsters while being mounted. Players can switch between weapons best suited for each boss fights and find out their weak spots to aim. There are also smaller monsters to battle as well… Hmn familiar…

Mobile Games

Mabinogi Mobile

First announced last year, there should be a playable demo (for most games here) at G-Star 2018 for Mabinogi Mobile. Developed by devCat as a proper mobile MMORPG, players will experience features such as camping, gathering, hunting, and more life experiences. Playable classes here are also not fixed and determined by the weapon type being held.

TalesWeaver M

From what I know, the PC version of TalesWeaver did not officially launch in the western market, but somehow there is still a dedicated fan base. As seen in the game’s logo, TalesWeaver M will start off with Episode 1, and I expect more episodes as content updates in the future. Doing some reading, it seems the original TalesWeaver has 8 episodes.

The Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon

Also known as Baram: Yeon, this mobile game was announced just a few weeks ago and based on the evergreen PC MMORPG, The Kingdom of the Winds. It seems like Nexon and developer SUPERCAT have decided to keep the simple 2D graphics, as seen in the trailer below, rather than elevating it to modern 3D standards. Pretty sure this will stay in Korea.

Counter Side

The first game from developer studiobside, it is easy to write off Counter Side without first looking at the team. Founded by key members who worked on PC games such as Closers and Elsword, it would seem that they are very skilled in developing 2D anime games. Counter Side is in the same vein, though on a different platform. Expect to collect tons of awesome 2D characters and fight against an unknown organism known as “Erosions”.

Lyn: The Lightbringer

Lyn: The Lightbringer is the first mobile game from developer Pulsar Creative set to be published in South Korea by Nexon. The studio was founded by a former art director of Lineage 2, a former technical director at Webzen, and former art lead at NHN. THe main focus of the game will be collecting the many heroes available.

Traha

Crafted using Unreal Engine 4, Traha is being touted as a “high end” mobile MMORPG both in open-world scale and graphics quality. There are 2 warring kingdoms in Traha, with a focus not just on PVE and PVP, but life skills and trading as well. It seems that players will be able to switch classes by changing weapons in a system known as “infinity class”.

Spiritwish

Known as the “mobile version of Tree of Savior”, Spiritwish has already been in beta testing in South Korea. You can read up on my previous articles about the game. Developed by a new internal Nexon studio, NEON Studio, Spiritwish looks set to launch really soon after G-Star ends. The game design and gameplay makes it suitable to the western market as well.