MMORPG News: Lost Ark RU Closed Beta, Chronicles of Elyria, Moonlight Blade, ArcheAge Unchained

Ah, it’s a beautiful Saturday morning. And what better way is there than to spend a beautiful beginning to the weekend with your favorite Byte in the whole wide world?
I got tons of news for you guys again this week! Blade & Soul’s new Archer class, new gameplay footage for Chronicles of Elyria, Caravan Stories’ finally launching and.. yes, Lost Ark.
So, sit back, take a bite out of your no doubt delicious breakfast, and let’s get through this week’s Weekly Byte of MMORPG News.

After a plethora of delays, Aiming Inc, the team behind Caravan Stories finally released the game onto PS4 earlier this week.
While I have yet to play it personally, I’ve been highly anticipating it since I saw it release in Japan back a couple years ago.
The game is available completely in English, with Japanese audio meaning there is no English dub of the game but since most people prefer Japanese dubs with English subtitles, I don’t think there’ll be all that many of you that find fault with this.
Caravan Stories is completely free-to-play and is available for download right now, so if you haven’t yet.. jump in and take the game for a test-run!

While a lot pertaining to ArcheAge Unchained remains completely unknown, Gamigo are revealing additional information in small tidbits.
Most recently, they spoke about releasing onto Steam. Initially, the game was announced to be launching concurrently onto Steam when the game goes live on September 30th, but as of last Friday, that seems like less of a reality.
And while the game might eventually hit Steam at one point, it looks as though the only way to play the game might be via the official launcher.
Also worth noting is that Gamigo have indicated that they’ll be adding two servers per region for players, with the option of increasing this if more are necessary.
Whether or not it is remains to be seen, especially with WoW Classic having just launched, and Astellia Online launching around the same time.

It has been years since I talked about Citadel: Forged with Fire. I honestly didn’t even know that the game was still in development – but boy was I wrong.
The game is actually nearing its official launch on October 11th, releasing onto PC, Xbox One and PS4.
After examining the player population, it’s safe to say that the playerbase has.. all but abandoned the game, which is likely the reason behind me not even being aware this was still alive and kicking.
Nevertheless, if a survival building game like ARK, Rust or Dark and Light but with magic is your thing, I recommend taking a look.
I tried it out years ago if you guys wanna check that video out first and see if it’s of interest to you.

I did an entire video dedicated to Moonlight Blade earlier this week but wanted to mirror my thoughts in the official news video as well.
As I mentioned in both that video and my Peria Chronicles video, Nexon are having a lot of internal difficulties right now resulting in the cancellation of several of their games, along with shutting down various internal gaming teams.
Peria Chronicles was one such game, Riders of Icarus wasn’t renewed, and Moonlight Blade.. well considering we have yet to get any news pertaining to the game in over a year, and they’re cancelling PC games everywhere they can it looks like Moonlight Blade could be heading for the axe as well.
This isn’t confirmed, but it’s becoming more likely the longer this information drought goes on.

First things first: I’m going to be doing a brand new Dauntless video this month sometime – so if you’ve been on the fence with regards to trying the game out.. maybe that’ll help sway your opinion.
Dauntless has, up until this point, been in Early Access – but that all changes on the 26th. Version 1.0, titled Aether Unbound, will be going live on September 26th which brings with it a large amount of new content.
New weapons, Behemoth’s, a new bounty system, and tons of new planned updates for the future.
There are millions of players currently playing so.. I mean if killing giant monsters with other people is your jam, then you’ll probably love Dauntless.

I did a video on Lineage 2M yesterday because of two reasons.
The first reason is that it’s being handled by a separate developer to Lineage 2: Revolution, and therefore might not be nearly as bad.
The second reason is that with the announcement came the unveiling of the Purple platform, a brand new South Korean service that plans on making future mobile games cross-compatible with both mobile devices and PC.
Not much in the way of information has been revealed as of currently, but Lineage 2M will be released on the Purple platform, being built for play on PCs and mobile devices both.
This is an interesting step for South Korea to take.

Blade & Soul is finally launching their Zen Archer class next week.
The class is expected to go live with the Storm of Arrows update releasing on September 18th, the update specifically being based around the class but not limited exclusively to it.
According to NCSoft, players will be able to “load their quivers” as they get ready for the brand new Zen Archer class.
They’ll be able to face brand new enemies in the Cathedra Cliffs while partying up to tackle the brand new Throne of Oblivion raid.
New legendary weapons and accessories will be made available, along with the addition of some new game systems that will supposedly enhance your experience in Blade & Soul even further.

We finally have some news on Chronicles of Elyria! It’s been a long while, but the team behind the game have decided to release a ten-minute long pre-alpha gameplay video showcasing the game and some of the features found throughout.
From what I’ve seen, fans are increasingly upset by what they’ve seen, going as far as stating that the game is just.. ugly.
That the devs are idiots for showing this footage off because it gives off the impression that indie devs can’t make good looking MMOs.
Honestly, I think the playerbase might be overreacting, as this is a mere pre-alpha build and these graphics are nowhere near being in a complete state yet.
But I do have to question what made the devs think this was a good idea, especially after this backlash.

Before I get into this one I do want to let you all know that I’m holding a giveaway for Astellia – completely on my own, not sponsored in any capacity.
If you weren’t already aware, then Astellia Online is launching on September 27th. That’s just two weeks away.
The game will be completely buy-to-play beginning at $40 per copy of the game, but to play Astellia you’re required to pay that single, one-time fee.
However, last week the team behind the game opened up a brand new way of playing: a subscription.
Players are capable of paying $10 per month to play the game without purchasing the initial copy, meaning that instead of wasting over $40 and soon learning you don’t enjoy it, you can pay $10 for the sub and then cancel it within the month if you don’t find enjoyment out of the game.
But if you do happen to enjoy it, you’ll end up needing to purchase the game regardless by upgrading to the full package.

Do note before you continue on that this is concerning the Russian version of Lost Ark – not the English version or the South Korean version.
That being said, alpha testing for Lost Ark was held earlier this month from the 4th until the 9th of September.
Players reported that the game functioned smoothly without any major issues present.
People playing out of Europe noticed a much better ping than when they played the South Korean version of the game, however I couldn’t find mention of people playing out of North America.
One thing worth noting about the game, and this is what I’m sure most of you are here for, is that the Closed Beta for the Russian version will be announced this coming Tuesday the 17th of September, with a release expected sometime at the end of this year, if not the beginning of next year.
So this is good news for people playing out of Europe, or even for people that want a different version of the game to play than the South Korean version.