MMORPG News: New World, Lost Ark, Magic: Legends, TemTem, Dragon Raja, Corepunk

This month, man. We’re only in the first half of it and already we’re absolutely slammed with news. We got new MMOs, trailers for MMOs we’ve been anticipating, news on a certain South Korean MMO approaching a Western release and even more MMOs shutting down.
Since we’re a mere week off Christmas though, I’d like to formally wish you all a Happy Christmas or Merry Christmas, depending where you’re from.
Now, sit back, go make yourself some hot cocoa, maybe play some hearty Christmas music and listen to me regale you with this month’s Weekly Byte of MMORPG News.

Let’s start this off with some exciting news first. Corepunk is a brand new top-down Action MMORPG from Artificial Core, a Dutch developer looking to create a “large, seamless open world” for players to explore. Yes, a brand new upcoming open-world MMORPG.
It will be set in a post-apocalyptic world with an eclectic fusion of genres – ranging from cyberpunk to dark fantasy.
There will be your traditional classes found in-game, tanks, healers, DPS and the like but you’ll also be playing as pre-set heroes as opposed to creating your own character.
Exactly how that will affect the game is unknown to me – maybe they have more personality crafted to fit the narrative being told, I’m not sure. But you’ll have the freedom to highly customize the playstyle of the hero you select.
It’s expected to have open-world PvP, albeit with the option of disabling it if that’s of concern to you, and as stated – utilizes an action combat system.
The game is currently undergoing internal Alpha testing however they expect open beta to begin approximately towards the end of 2020.

Ever since Star Vault, the developers behind Mortal Online released their trailer a couple days ago, I’ve been spammed via Discord and social media with requests to cover it.
The issue is, I’ve never played Mortal Online and while I’d love to do a video on it, with Mortal Online 2 just announced, I feel as though it might be best to just wait for this to come out and cover this right now.
And yes, Mortal Online 2 was just announced. I know I so nonchalantly dropped that bomb in the middle of a statement as to why I hadn’t done a video on its predecessor yet.
According to Star Vault, Mortal Online 2 will feature a large, first person sandbox world for players to explore along with full PvP and full loot.
While an interesting choice in terms of MMORPG, this is not uncommon in survival games. There will be no levels or classes in the game, instead, you’ll simply work on upgrading various skills and using them to get ahead.
I dunno, to me this sounds more like a survival game than anything, but they claim it’s a full-fledged MMORPG so who am I to argue. Mortal Online 2 is expected to go into closed Alpha testing around the middle of 2020.

I’ve actually done two separate videos on Project TL this year. I guess this will mark the third time I’ve spoken about the game – but you’ll like the reason why.
Project TL, which was first announced as Lineage: Eternal years ago, has been confirmed by NCSoft to have an official Closed Beta scheduled, and that’s for some time during the first half of 2020.
I was surprised that the game was still actively in development considering how long we went dark with regards to news on it but it looks as though Lost Ark’s main competition will finally be entering the ring.
I’ve always been a fan of Project TL so I’m really looking forward to this.
No word on an official Western release date yet but it’s better to know the game is releasing, with a potential Western release down the line than to have it cancelled like Peria Chronicles.

If you weren’t already aware, Kritika Online which was shut down earlier this year relaunched recently as Kritika: REBOOT.
While the launch went over pretty well under the new management, averaging 2,500 to 3,500 players playing concurrently through Steam, there have been an influx of gold sellers plaguing the game.
ALLM, the developers and new publishers of the game in the West have been on a constant banning-spree, banning hundreds of accounts every week that were actively participating in real money trading.
But that isn’t all – since the game is under the management of ALLM now, they have access to content that En Masse didn’t – and likewise, are releasing their brand new Archer class in the near future.
I have a video for Kritika: REBOOT planned for Monday if you’re looking for a more.. concrete look at how it plays. Alternatively, if you want to you can also click the link in the description to be taken directly to the game.

Yup, we’re actually going ahead and talking about today’s sponsor as well. Why? Because it’s an MMORPG and an incredibly unique looking one at that.
Dragon Raja is gorgeous – its graphics are – in my opinion, almost unparalleled. I watched the trailer. I checked some clips on Youtube. I saw character creation and I saw gameplay.
This game looks absolutely incredible for mobile devices. Add on to that the fact that it gives you such insane freedom to do what you want, I can see this becoming one of the more popular MMOs on that platform.
The game, right now, has entered pre-registration meaning that you can go ahead and pre-register for the game before it launches in the next few months.
All you need to do to pre-register is click the link in the description and pinned comment and you’ll be taken right on over to the pre-registration page.
Dragon Raja is supposedly different for each person as NPCs offer different reactions and missions may vary depending on their actions and decisions.
The game offers a rich story and is set in a hybrid environment of both magic and realism.
You can see just how good this game looks from the trailer in the background.. which is actually in-game footage, surprisingly.

This news actually comes in two forms: The good, and the bad. The good? There’s a brand new zone being added to the game called the Miodan Mine – a zone that not even South Korea saw.
This will feature content for max level characters but at the same time, the update that brings the Mine will also feature a brand new questline for new players. So all in all, good news. However, at the same time, Astellia is shutting down in South Korea.
Yup, Nexon announced that it was closing its servers down for good, but thankfully this shut down will have no effect on its Western incarnation – as the publishers over here have already deviated from the games origins, making it much more appealing for our market.
But then again, this is Nexon and Nexon are shutting games down faster than I can download them. So it was to be expected.

I did a video on TemTem several months ago. That video showcased the game for the first 10, maybe 15 hours of the game.
I took my time with it because it looked like the Pokemon MMO I’d always wanted and I had no intention of rushing my first experience of the game. However, when I did the video on it the game had no expected release date.
That has all changed however as last week Crema Games, the developers behind TemTem announced it will be launching into Early Access on January 21st, 2020. Yes, next month.
If you’ve ever wanted to play through a Pokemon game as an MMO, with other players out exploring the world, teaming up with a friend to tackle every encounter, then this is probably what you’re looking for. This isn’t a Pokemon MMO private server.
This is a real, high quality game with heavy inspiration from the Pokemon series. Currently, the game is available on PC and will launch onto PC next month, however it’s unconfirmed whether it’ll ever launch onto consoles or other platforms.

NCSOft have been teasing Blade & Soul’s new Will of Iron update all month and as of the 11th, it has officially launched.
The update brings with it several additions to the game such as the Destroyer’s new spec, a new heroic dungeon called Hangar 0, and a new questline for players to pursue.
This isn’t including the new daily challenges, the new Christmas event, cosmetic items, materials, gems and everything else that accompanies a Blade & Soul update.
That isn’t everything though. Who here remembers the Blade & Soul Unreal Engine 4 overhaul? Yeah, I bet all of you do. Well, the South Korean version of the game is actually getting the first part of the update this month.
When the North American version of the game will receive the update remains to be seen, but if this isn’t news to get excited over, then I don’t know what is!

If you’re not up to date with The Elder Scrolls Online then you may want to skip this, but for those of you that are, you’ll be happy to know that ZeniMax have announced their plan for 2020: A series of updates that will be officially announced during their Vegas event in January in much greater detail.
But for right now.. minus the spoiler of a certain character’s off-screen fate, it looks as though we’re goin’ back to Skyrim, boys and girls. ’cause you know who is back. Queue Skyrim’s epic soundtrack.
If you’re not already playing the Elder Scrolls Online, then this might be enough to persuade you to try it out.

I’ve never been of the opinion that Perfect World Entertainment are a good company. I played Perfect World International, Jade Dynasty and Forsaken World long enough to know who they are.
Nevertheless, during The Game Awards on Thursday, Perfect World and Cryptic announced a brand new Magic the Gathering MMORPG called “Magic: Legends.” Yup, after literal years of hyping this up.. we’re finally getting it.
While they claim it’s an MMORPG, they mention that it’s more accurate to refer to it as an “MMO Action-RPG,” so something like Neverwinter, or something like Black Desert? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Regardless, they did reveal a pretty sick teaser trailer for the game and I’ll be the first to admit I’m definitely excited… or I would be if Perfect World Entertainment weren’t behind it, but alas they are and most of my excitement is already contained.

If you still actively play MapleStory 2, then you’ve no doubt noticed it’s had quite a decline in terms of player activity. There are various reasons for this – one of which is content at endgame.
Thankfully, Nexon have remedied this with the announcement of a brand new expansion titled “Kritias” earlier this week.
The expansion, which is live as of the 11th, brought quite a bit of content, including a level cap up to 99, a new continent – yes, an entire continent with 23 individual zones to explore, dungeons and more.
You can find specifics on the official website, but suffice it to say, hitting the new level cap and completing all of the new content will likely take a little while.

If you’ve been waiting on Lost Ark – which let’s be real here, you’ve all been waiting on Lost Ark – then this information will definitely bring a small smile to your face.
I did a video on this in much greater detail yesterday, if you wanna go ahead and watch that then you’re more than welcome to, but suffice it to say, Smilegate had job openings that closed a few weeks ago.
These ranged from looking for someone that deals with Unreal Engine 3 and 4 with multi-platform gaming in mind, to people looking to handle overseas business – with requirements being the ability to speak fluent English.
A buddy of mine, Tennek brought to my attention that Smilegate also have an ongoing console project with Crossfire and are in the process of bringing other titles to console, so do note that that could be what the job posting seeking someone with multi-platform gaming experience could be pertaining to.
Regardless, while this isn’t a concrete, set-in-stone confirmation, you can rest assured that they’re preparing for a Western release at last, and these may be the final steps required to really get things in gear.

I don’t know how many of you actively patrol Amazon’s New World Twitter page, but for those of you that don’t, you’ll definitely find relief that the game is still in active development.
Actually, they’re so far ahead of development that they have not only a closed beta scheduled, but an actual launch date of May 2020. For those of you unaware, New World is an MMO.. but not an MMORPG.
Instead, Amazon prefers to classify it as a survival MMO but not something like ARK or Rust, no.
This is an actual, full, large-scale massively multiplayer title featuring thousands of players in one single world, but instead of it being an RPG, they’re aiming to apply it to the survival genre.
Their goal is to make something truly unique, dynamic and very different to what the genre is used to.
While additional information will be revealed the closer we get to the release date, I will admit I’m very excited.