MMORPG News: RIP Lost Ark, PSO2 CBT, Temtem, V4 Launch & Guardians of Ember Shut Down!

It’s been an exciting couple weeks. We’ve had an announcement on Lost Ark’s Western release, we’ve had some MMOs recently launch, and some of our favorites receiving some pretty sweet updates. Then we have one shutting down.. which is always sad.
And then I have a cold. Thanks, random person on the airplane that was coughing right next to me. Appreciate that.
But take a minute, lean back, relax. Listen – or, heck even just take a moment to look at my clean shaven new slick haircut, and let’s begin today’s Weekly Byte of MMORPG News.

Despite some people claiming Astellia Online is dead, the game is still pretty positively talked about. It turned out to be a small little sleeper hit that offered players some short-term fun.
I say short-term, but at the same time the game has probably come out with more content in the last couple months of being online than Bless Online did over the course of its entire life.
Now, Astellia is expanding further by launching onto Steam on January 30th and with it is bringing a plethora of new content, including 64-person guild battles, new dungeons, new Astel’s and a new 12-person raid.
Yup – plenty of new endgame PvE content and even new PvP options. Honestly, the team behind the game – at least right now seem pretty committed to bringing players what they promised.
Whether or not they’re capable of continuing to do so remains to be seen but right now.. things are looking good for the game.

Let’s kick this off with the most anticipated MMORPG of the next few months: Temtem. Mrs Stix did her full review of the first half of the game – it was posted just a couple days ago if you want to check that out.
Now, as for Temtem itself, the game had been in the process of running several stress tests to make certain the game could handle the influx of players when it launched into Early Access on Jaunary 21st.
While there have been some issues, overall the game had a pretty solid launch if you don’t count people complaining about the first day being filled with bugs.. something that every MMO launch has.
The game is currently buy-to-play, meaning that you’ll have to pay a one-time fee to play it.
Honestly, though, from what I’ve seen through upwards of 30 hours of Alpha gameplay, I can say that I’m incredibly excited for the game and although the game is upwards of $30 depending on your region, I feel like it’s worth it either way.

The last time I mentioned The Elder Scrolls Online they had just announced their plans for The Dark Heart of Skyrim – which I’m gonna be honest here, has reignited fan interest in the game.
The Dark Heart of Skyrim specifically is a year-long story arc that is going to take place within Skyrim, featuring quarterly updates beginning with Harrowstorm next month in February, that brings with it a new 12-player trial called Kyne’s Ages and 2 new dungeons: Icereach and Unhallowed Grave, then Greymoor in May.
Mrs Stix and I are actually beginning our journey through the Elder Scrolls Online currently so hopefully by the time the DLC launches we’ll be caught up and ready to play.
Unfortunately there has been no information released regarding the 2 remaining DLC but whenever Zenimax reveals details.. you guys’ll be the first to hear about it.

I know a lotta you are eagerly anticipating any news pertaining to Phantasy Star Online 2. The last video I did on the Closed Beta announcement garnered 100,000 views, so.. trust me, I know.
The official PSO2 Twitter recently Tweeted that they are working hard to ensure the Beta experience is up to their standards, and that currently they don’t have any additional information on when the Closed Beta will take place.
While not really very reassuring, it’s good to know that at least they’re not leaving us hanging for months without any information, even if that information is that “The closed beta is coming.. soon.. still.”
I know you’re all anxious, but don’t worry, it’s coming.

I’m not sure how many of you ultimately ended up playing Guardians of Ember, let alone how many of you really even enjoyed it. But I did a series of gameplay videos on it and really, it wasn’t a bad game.
Nevertheless, I received an email from Gameforge – actually, I believe everyone that was playing Guardians of Ember received an email from Gameforge stating that the game was officially shutting down.
The reasons behind the game shutting down weren’t really disclosed, with Gameforge specifically stating “the contract between Runewaker and Gameforge will not be continued.”
The game will be closing its doors next month on February 14th, so if you want to get in-game and see what it has to offer before it closes for good.. this is your chance.

So if you weren’t already aware, Perfect World Entertainment released a trailer for their new upcoming Magic Legends game last week. It was met with.. some.. criticism, would be a light way of phrasing what was said about the game.
Nevertheless, they’re pushing onward and have announced the official release dates for both PC and console. Or, well, not the official release date – like a definitive day or even week. But a season at least.
Magic Legends will be launching on PC in Spring 2020 – this year, while the game will be releasing onto consoles sometime in 2021.
Interestingly.. Spring 2020 is also when Phantasy Star Online 2 and New World become available for players, so launching during that window feels a little.. Iunno.
Me, personally? Magic Legends doesn’t look nearly as good as either New World or PSO2 so this is going to kill any chance it has of really taking off.

I actually just did a video for this on my mobile channel MMOByte Mobile – but Nexon, yes, that Nexon is actually porting, quite poorly, I might add, V4, a recently released Mobile MMORPG over to PC.
Where games like Genshin Impact and Gran Saga are being built specifically with cross-platform compatibility in mind, and NCSoft are making their new Purple Platform to emulate games natively on PCs, Nexon’s like.. doing a Nexon quality port.
If you’re a fan of Nexon or the games they publish, then this might be exciting news for you but honestly.. from past experience, I’d probably go into this knowing what they’re offering: And that’s nothing.
All in all though the game does look really good visually – NAT Games, the team behind it really outdid themselves. When did Mobile games get this good looking?

Despite being almost a decade old at this point, DC Universe Online is still pushing out regular content updates.
Granted, these updates, which take on the form of “episodes,” are only available to players with an active subscription or those who pay a small one-time fee per episode. Meaning that you need to be a paying player to actually participate in any of the content.
However, due to their anniversary event, they’ve enabled all players – completely free-to-play players the ability to play every DLC episode completely free until February 7th.
Yes, that is a ton of content to get through so if you’re a free player and have yet to play some of the paid DLC, now’s your chance!

For those of you still under the impression that a Bless title is worth devoting any time to, then you’ll be happy to know that starting January 30th, Bless Unleashed will be holding stress tests prior to their upcoming launch.
They also have Bless Mobile coming as well, as if milking PC players and then Xbox players wasn’t already enough.

For those of you still playing KurtzPel, you’ll be happy to hear that they have quite the update planned for this month.
Not only are they adding 3 to 4 player group missions and new dailies for players interested in the PvE aspect of the game, but they’re also adding a lot of changes to PvP next season. And a new Karma.
If you were looking for a brand new Karma to play as, then the Fallen Light is coming in the form of a cannon-user.
Honestly, there’s too much for me to go over here so it’d be best to head on over to the official KurtzPel website if you’re interested in seeing what’s new.

I think I’ve spoken about Dungeons and Dragons Online like.. once? Maybe, in the 6-8 months I’ve been doing these news videos for. But I’m pleasantly surprised to not only see new content being pushed out – but in the form of a brand new class, the Alchemist.
I never really invested much time into Dungeons and Dragons Online because I was busy with other games, but if you’ve ever wanted to try the game out, now – or at the very least when the new class rolls out might be the best opportunity to.

And finally.. I left the best, or, worst, really, for last. It turns out that, according to the Korean website The Bell, Smilegate, the team behind Lost Ark actually have no intention of releasing the game in North America or Europe for the foreseeable future.
Yup – instead, they’re attempting to fight the constantly declining population by developing new endgame content all the while dealing with their recent Russian launch and their upcoming Japanese launch.
We’re pretty low in terms of importance right now, and you know what? That’s alright. By the time the game launches over here as a buy-to-play MMO we’re going to have long-since forgotten about it. Their loss, really, delaying it so long.
But for those of you interested in playing it, the game’s Russian version is playable with a VPN like ExitLag and an English translation. That’s how I’ve played it, and how a lot of people are currently playing it.