MMORPG News: Peria Chronicles Beta Announced, City Of Heroes Is Back, “Oath”, “Pagan Online” News & More

I know, I know. So long has passed that you’ve already long since forgotten what Twin Saga even is.
That’s okay, the game never really took off anyway – it was an Aeria title after all. Regardless, Twin Saga has a large new update featuring 2 new zones – The Forbidden Snowfield and Illuminating Shore. But that isn’t what’s most exciting, no.
The addition of the new Samurai class is where the hype is at.
Well, that and the two new dungeons that accompany it. We all love new dungeons, right? If you’re interested in a full rundown of exactly what was introduced in the new update, head on over to the Aeria Games website and take a look!

For those of you that successfully made it into the Alpha 1 testing phase of the upcoming MMO Fractured, you’ll know that it was a relative success. For everyone that didn’t: Well.. it was a relative success.
There were a handful of bugs and the occasional login issue but all in all the first Alpha test went along without any serious problems.
The team behind Fractured have announced that they will begin Alpha 1 test 2 soon and are looking to add in new maps, monsters and gear for players to test.
So, keep an eye out for more info!

Since ArenaNet let 143 employees go a couple months ago they’ve been relatively silent – until the last week of course.
In a recent interview it was revealed that the core Guild Wars 2 team itself was definitely impacted by the layoffs but the impact wasn’t too great. Apparently “Guild Wars 2 is still going strong” according to Linsey Murdock, the Lead Living World Designer.
Also worth noting is that ArenaNet plan on heavily overhauling the elite specs for various classes in next week’s upcoming balance patch.
This is fantastic news for some classes but bodes ill for others. But it’s good to see the game is still doing well!

After Gamigo acquired all of Trion’s games I mentioned that it was strange they were keeping specific games online.
One of those games was actually Atlas Reactor – its population is almost non-existent but they opted to keep the game running anyway. Until now that is.
The servers will be going down on June 28th with Gamigo citing “the game never grew big enough to fund its continued development” as the reason behind the closure.
For those of you unaware, Gamigo had promised to continue supporting every game they purchased from Trion going into the future. Since their acquisition however, they have removed RIFT’s progression server and are now closing down Atlas Reactor. What’s next?

I did a news video on Oath a couple weeks ago but have since had the opportunity to speak to several of the developers behind the game on a voice call.
They provided me with a lot of information – almost an entire hours worth that I plan on condensing into a video on Oath in the near future. Suffice it to say I’m happy with the answers I got but still remain cautious.

For those of you that were unaware, Albion Online went free-to-play earlier this month. Sandbox Interactive, the team behind Albion have since opted to release a large new expansion in light of their recent transition in the form of an Outland map expansion.
Three new regions, East Glouvia, West Glouvia and Siluria will be added north of the current Outlands and are all said to be quite large in scale. The expansion is slated to launch next month.
So for those of you that just started, those of you that have just come back or those of you that want to claim territories within the new regions – get ready!

I mean this didn’t technically need its own segment but I felt the need to point out that Bandai Namco are pushing out new class trailers like crazy.
They’re trying very hard to convince us that the game is different to the Neowiz-run version Bless Online – and it very well might be.
Regardless, yes, the class trailers don’t look bad. I just don’t see the purpose behind them.

This may potentially be the biggest MMORPG-related news in years. I’m sure many of you know what City of Heroes is. It was an MMORPG published by NCSoft that was shut down many years ago in spite of it largely being a success.
Since then, the community has stuck together and held strong, clinging to the hope that something might eventually be done about the game.
Other superhero themed MMOs launched in an attempt to fill the hole that many players had after the closure of the server but none of them did.
Recently, the source code for City of Heroes was released unto the public – yes, the source code for the entire game, minus the mission files or NPCs.
What this means is that City of Heroes – the superhero MMO we’ve all been craving to have back for years is finally on the brink of being playable once again.
Granted, it will of course be in private-server form but it won’t be run by NCSoft at least. We all know what they do to their games – look at Aion and Blade & Soul.
So, this is exciting news. It might take some time to get a fully playable City of Heroes game online but this is the first step.

A lot of you guys have been asking me to cover Pagan Online since it just launched into Early Access on Steam. I went ahead and recorded footage of the game and I’ll admit that it was an interesting ride.
I’ll have a video of it up soon with my thoughts and experiences but for those of you that weren’t aware, as I mentioned, the game has launched into Early Access. So if you haven’t already, get in-game!

For those of you still actively playing Lineage II you’ll be excited to know that NCSoft is celebrating the game’s 15 year anniversary – an enormous accomplishment by offering Oriana’s Lucky Draw, XP and gold boosts and other benefits.
Additionally, come April 28th, the community team will be holding a proper in-game event for players to actively participate in. This applies to both players on the normal Lineage II servers and Classic servers.

I can’t say I’ve ever really played or even bothered to invest time into reading up on the Indie MMO Villagers & Heroes but that aside, the game is nevertheless launching its very next expansion: A Tale of Earth and Sea.
Not only are they introducing a new Shaman class that focuses on Earth and Water magics, but they are adding new skin tones, new faces and a new character body overhaul.
Exciting news for players!

Shadowbringers inches ever closer every day and I’m very, very excited for its launch. I recently finished Stormblood, have hit almost item level 400 and am experiencing end-game raids, savage content and farming my Eureka weapon.
My plan is to do a video on Final Fantasy XIV and have it released within the next month, but I digress. Final Fantasy XIV actually has a brand new event that’s going on right now – a collaboration between it and Final Fantasy XV.
Noctis, like Lightning in the past, has gotten lost and it’s up to us to help him get home.
The event itself is a lotta fun and it’s interesting seeing Noctis in Final Fantasy XIV – seeing him smile so much was.. I dunno, confusing for me since he literally never did in Final Fantasy XV.
Regardless, for completing the event we get his sweet, sweet ride, so make sure you jump in-game to complete this! It’s the very first 4-seater mount released.

I know this is potentially the news a vast majority of you clicked through for, so don’t let me keep you guys in suspense.
After a long, painfully long, even, stretch of nothing but silence, Nexon has finally graced us with news on the upcoming Anime MMORPG.
Peria Chronicles has opened registration until May 2nd for players to get into its very first testing phase.
The test itself is slated to begin on May 9th – yes it’s really that close.
Currently, information pertaining to exactly what will be available during the testing phase has yet to be revealed but what we do know is that the game is finally going to be testable! It isn’t dead!

Feeling pressure, the team behind the spiritual successor to City of Heroes, Ship of Heroes’ dev team have confirmed that their game is on-track for a release this year.
They claim that Ship of Heroes is “the next step in superhero gaming” and are making a game for the “whole community.”
Whether or not Ship of Heroes or any of the other superhero themed MMORPGs survive the release of potential City of Heroes private servers remains to be seen but I’m still excited.