MMORPG News: Project Odin, Magic Legends, Astellia, Phantasy Star Online 2, Guild Wars 2

First and foremost, I hope you all had an awesome Christmas. Merry Belated Christmas for those of you that celebrate it, and I hope you all plan on celebrating the New Year with a bang as well!
This week, we have a lotta news for everyone. New MMOs on the horizon, lots of end-of-year updates, expansions and more.
So, let’s take a moment to go get some Christmas hot chocolate, maybe some cookies, and jump right in to this week’s Weekly Byte of MMORPG News.

Alright, let’s start this off with some bad.. but not entirely terrible news as there is some good accompanying it. First, it was announced earlier this month that South Korea would be shutting down their version of Astellia Online.
This is concerning news for players that are actively playing through the North American version of the game. However, the South Korean version of Astellia was published by Nexon, and Nexon is known for closing down games on a whim.
Barunson, the North American developers of Astellia have issued a formal post on the official forums stating that they’re “not Nexon,” and there will be no interruptions with their iteration of the game.
Not only do they have every intention of continuing moving forward, but they also revealed that they would love for South Korean players to come on over to the North American version of the game.
This would not only increase the player population, but also offer provide current players with access to a “wealth of knowledge.”
Additionally, the devs behind the game are offering free weekends for players wanting to try the game out completely free. You’ll be able to get in both this and next weekend and play the game at no cost.

To register for the free weekends:

“Astellia Free Trial! There’s no better time to check out Astellia, and we’re making it easier than ever! Beginning on Friday (12/20) and every weekend till Sunday (1/5) Astellia will be hosting free trial weekends. All you need to do is create an account on our official website (located here), and enter the code: HAPPYHOLIDAYWEEKENDS.”

This has been being teased since back in November. But as of last week, we officially have confirmation of the brand new Guardian class coming to Black Desert.
The release date – at least for the PC version of the game is scheduled for January 22nd 2020, with consoles… getting her one day.
According to Pearl Abyss, the new Guardian is a female-exclusive class, which let’s be honest.. we all know that the majority of Black Desert classes are going to be female exclusives because the playerbase all but warrants it at this point.
The Guardian will be a close-range melee class that utilizes a large axe and shield, which is an interesting combination, considering most axes as large as the one she uses would typically be wielded with two hands, but hey, with how thicc I’m sure all of you have noticed she is, I have no doubt she could one-up the Hulk in an arm-wrestling match.

If The Icebrood Saga left you wanting more out of Guild Wars 2 – and let’s be honest here, why wouldn’t it?
It’s a large content update for the game that people have been waiting for, then you’ll be ecstatic to know that ArenaNet has announced their plans going into 2020. On Jaunary 28th, ArenaNet will be releasing the next saga’s episode, titled Shadow in the Ice.
But that isn’t all, throughout the entire first quarter of 2020, they plan on releasing content updates monthly, providing players with PvP balance, events, new PvE activities, new weapons, new armor and more.
They didn’t reveal everything, wanting to retain some semblance of mystery, but Guild Wars 2 fans have plenty of updates, regardless of how large or small, to look forward to over the course of the year.
This is reassuring news considering the situation NCSoft has left the Guild Wars 2 team in.

Ever since Microsoft announced Phantasy Star Online 2 was coming to North America in Spring 2020, people have been eagerly anticipating any information pertaining to the game.
While we’re still uncertain of Microsoft’s intentions regarding the regions that will be able to play the game, we do know that as of the 16th of December, Microsoft began accepting Closed Beta registration for the game.
This means that interested players will be able to sign up for and participate in the upcoming beta test, although interestingly it isn’t for PC players. Instead, this closed beta test is targeted at Xbox players only.
Yes, PSO2 is confirmed to be coming out on both Xbox and PC platforms, along with additional consoles in the future, but the Xbox One will be obtaining exclusive launch rights for the vast majority of the year.
Do note that PSO2 will be completely cross-play compatible between all platforms.

Love or hate My.com and Skyforge, you cannot deny they roll out a ton of updates for the game. On December 17th, My.com launched their latest free expansion called Rock and Metal for PC, with PS4 getting it on the 18th and Xbox One on the 19th.
The expansion doesn’t bring with it any new classes this time but instead, adds in the new Toxic Wasteland dungeon along with a powerful new form for players to unlock, called The Aspect of Vengeance.
Naturally, there’s a bunch of new gear to obtain as well for those of you interested in that.

Fans of SoulWorker – or, at the very least fans of the South Korean version of SoulWorker will be happy to learn that Lion Games and Smilegate released the brand new Ephnel class into the game.
While the character has no confirmed release date for the Western iteration of the game, the class in specific looks to be pretty badass, utilizing a large spear to pierce enemies.
There’s a little backstory to her revealed thus far but let’s be honest.. you guys care more about what she can do as opposed to what she did.
Hopefully Gameforge can bring Ephnel over to the Western version of SoulWorker so we can enjoy her just as much as our Eastern brethren.

I’ve done various videos on TemTem over the course of the year because honestly, it’s one of my most anticipated MMOs of 2020. I’m a huge Pokemon fan and this’ll be the closest thing we get to a Pokemon MMO.. probably ever.
Now, it was announced that TemTem will be launching into Early Access on January 21st, 2020. That’s next month – although I’ve already reported on that.
What I want to report on is that TemTem made the announcement a week or two ago that the current Alpha test actually had a full co-op mode, allowing people – Mrs Stix and myself in specific, to jump in and play the MMO together.
Yup, we’re fully capable of exploring and battling across the Archipelago together, along with being able to capture all the new TemTem and explore the new regions added, right before the Early Access release.
Again, this is for Alpha testers only, but it’s pretty damn cool. I’ll probably have a Pre-Early Access look at the game up within the next couple weeks for those of you interested in trying it out!

Everyone already figured we’d be getting the final large update for Battle for Azeroth in January, but now we have an official confirmation: The final patch, Visions of N’Zoth will be going live on January 14th, 2020. That’s just 3 weeks away.
The patch will bring with it the final raid, Ny’alotha, which I will be the first to admit I probably butchered, the new Mechagnome and Vulpera Allied Races, invasions across both Uldum and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and much more.
Mrs Stix and I just started WoW again in hopes of finishing all of the content before Shadowlands hits, so if you’re looking to play with us.. we’re on Illidan.

I don’t think I’ve ever done a news segment that included Runes of Magic. There’s a first for everything, it would seem! The reason I’m talking about it is because the game has had a large patch that introduced quite a bit of content to the game.
We have an entirely new zone called Chassizz, including various quests for players to participate in and complete, a brand new instance, New Pantheon, and tons of outdoor activities like a World Boss, new gear, and.. well, if you’re looking to play through the game either as a new or returning player, then the devs behind it are opening up two brand new catch-up servers.
So if, for whatever reason you’ve been waiting to jump on in.. here’s your chance!

Who here remembers Shadow of the Colossus? Man, that was an incredible game. I remember pouring days straight into it as a kid and when it came out remastered.. yikes.
There are very few games that have killed my social life over the years, and that was one of them.
So when I heard that there was a brand new MMORPG in development that was heavily inspired by Shadow of the Colossus – or, okay, maybe not heavily inspired by, but sharing significant similarities with, I was ecstatic.
Looking at the trailer, the game feels like a AAA budget console game, and getting something that looks this good on mobile devices is incredibly difficult.
As of this moment, barely anything is known about the game.
We don’t know if these are 100% in-game graphics, we don’t know if the combat is going to be fast or slow, action based or something completely different.
Yet I’m still pretty excited. I love hearing we’ll be getting new MMORPGs – regardless if they’re for PC or Mobile devices.

I haven’t really discussed Magic Legends since it was revealed, and that’s mostly because the developers behind the game stated that it’ll reveal actual information sometime during January.
All that has been revealed thus far is that you’ll have 5 different classes to choose between. One thing, and perhaps the most important thing I wanted to bring to everyone’s attention, is that Magic Legends is being marketed as an MMORPG.
It was listed as an MMORPG on the official website for the game – and credit to Kingflares for this info on Reddit by the way, before I forget, but last week that was updated to instead list the game as an “MMO Action RPG.”
While that doesn’t necessarily mean much in the grand scheme of things, I thought it might be worth noting that it might be less MMO than we thought it would.