MMORPG News: RISE, V4, PSO2 Steam Release, PSO2: New Genesis, Elyon Closed Beta, Lost Ark, SoulWorker: Anime Legends

Alright! Brand new week, brand new.. well, news. And boy do we have a lot of news to cover today, so you’re probably going to want to take a seat if you’re not already.
So, I guess let’s just jump on in, yeah? We have tons of new games we need to talk about, so welcome to this week’s Weekly Byte of MMORPG News.

Let’s start this off with the most important news, first. A lot of you guys – and I mean a lot of you, Mrs Stix included, had issues with PSO2 when it launched.
The Microsoft Store was garbage and honestly, while the Tweaker definitely worked for quite a few people, it brought with it its own selection of problems.
We were all waiting on the announcement that the game would finally be launching onto a platform that would see it truly shine, and low and behold, after months of issues, Phantasy Star Online 2 has been confirmed to be coming to Steam.
And it’s just next week! August 5th will see PSO2 finally launch onto Steam! And before you guys ask, yes, you’ll be able to play on Steam using your already established character.

But you know what’s even better? The announcement that PSO2 is getting a complete overhaul in the form of a brand new game: Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis.
Yes, this is an entirely new game. While most of us are used to playing PSO2 in linear-zoned instanced environments, New Genesis will actually be taking players into large, completely open environments with a significantly increased player pool.
Yup, you’ll be able to see more than 3 other players while out playing if the trailer is anything to go off of.
Not just that, but the game is going to offer completely new action combat, an entirely new graphical engine, and this overhaul will be applied to PSO2 – the original base game as well. This is all incredibly exciting news!

Mrs Stix is actually working on her video on this, but apparently Gameforge announced that they had a brand new SoulWorker game coming titled “SoulWorker: Anime Legends.”
However this version is for mobile devices. Now I know I have a mobile channel, and I’ve covered over 150 games there so far, but let me tell you, from what I’ve seen this isn’t really anything special.
Think of it as a Soul Worker game… that has worse graphics, worse combat, and less features. But that you can play on your mobile device.
Regardless, if you’re looking for an actual, full review of the game wait for Mrs Stix to get around to it. She’s currently finishing her Genshin Impact video but she’ll get around to this soon!

If you’ve been waiting on Temtem to get new content, then you’re in luck.
After over half a year, the devs have finally introduced not only a brand new region, Kisiwa, but also over 23 new Temtem, the new Club system, chat system and more!
Mrs Stix and I have been eagerly anticipating a reason to jump back into the game as we completed it during the Closed Alpha test last year and for us, this seems like the perfect opportunity to finally play again.
If you’ve been on the fence about trying the game out, now’s your chance. There’ll be a large influx of new players and old alike!

A little over a week ago I did a video on an upcoming MMORPG called “RISE.” I urge you to go and check that out if you’re looking for more info, but allow me to quickly summarize. RISE is a South Korean cross-platform MMORPG. Yes, cross-platform between PC, consoles and mobile.
It is going to have a strong emphasis on story and will feature elements of strategy in battle. Not much else is known outside of what was shown in the trailer, and that was.. very, very limited unfortunately.

Nexon just released their brand new cross-platform MMORPG “V4” in the West. I have a dedicated video on that up if you’re interested in hearing what I have to say about it in detail, but suffice it to say, the game ended up being a solid port of a mobile title onto PC.
I’m not saying it’s a great PC MMORPG. But it’s a solid Mobile MMORPG, and it looks great, visually, graphically, after being ported to PC.
There were quite a few people anticipating the game, and even to date, the servers suffer queues during peak times so obviously the release of the game was quite a large success for Nexon.
Admittedly, it turned out much better than TALION did.

So we just finished watching the Cursed TV series on Netflix a couple nights ago, and overall it was a pretty mediocre show. The ending with Merlin was great, don’t get me wrong, but he was the only redeeming thing about the show.
So it strikes me as weird to see Netflix team up with Black Desert and roll out a collab of this kind – but here we are.
Until August 26th, Black Desert Online will feature a crossover event with the Cursed TV series that will offer you unique goodies for participating. It’s also a great opportunity to take advantage of the free-trial that’s going on right now if you’ve ever wanted to play.

The sheer amount of requests we get to play Wizard101 is actually ridiculous. We get it, guys. Seriously. And you know what? We plan on streaming it soon as well, don’t worry.
And this is probably the perfect time to! As the devs behind the game have revealed that there’s quite a bit of new content in their brand new Summer update.
There are alterations to character models, texture updates, a brand new Monster Mayhem event, new beastforms, tweaks to PvP and a lot more. It’s honestly probably best you navigate on over to the official website to learn about all the changes being made as it’ll make a lot more sense than listening to me.

Here’s something I didn’t see coming – Star Wars The Old Republic has launched on to Steam and with it has brought a large influx of new players.
The game is currently averaging over 30,000 concurrent players on Steam, which when added to the already solid playerbase numbers is probably the most popular the MMO has been in… years.
While yes, the bulk of the expansion content is locked behind a paid purchase, the game itself, including the expansions is definitely worth it if you’re a Star Wars fan or, heck, even a fan of MMOs with an emphasis on story.
This is your opportunity to try the game out if you’ve been on the fence about it!

I was shocked when I saw that Revelation Online announced a League of Legends style MOBA mode last year. This year? TERA is creating a brand new game called “TERA: Battle Arena,” and it’s.. really, really not going to do anything for the game.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand in what world the devs behind TERA thought that making an entirely new game built around a single game-mode like this was a good idea? You can select from a variety of heroes found throughout the TERA story, and do battle with other players. That’s it.
Why not take the money they put into this project and actually improve the base TERA game to bring players back? To actually offer a better experience to existing players? There’s so much you could do with TERA that this is just a waste of time and money.

I’ve always been a fan of Tree of Savior ever since first playing it 4? years ago I think. Since then, there have been a steady number of updates rolled out every year, and it’s time for another one.
This update in specific introduces the brand new White Witch’s Forest raid for players with an entry item-level requirement of 440. Personal Housing is now open and available, new Vivora weapons were added, a ton of other items were added, and there are new events going on!
So if you’ve been waiting to jump on in or were awaiting new content – now’s your chance!

If you’re still in-game playing Blade & Soul, or are waiting for a new patch with new content to grind, then here you go. Last week a brand new update went live, introducing the Silversteel Laboratory, a 12-player raid for players that are a minimum Hongmoon level 16.
Thankfully I have a Hongmoon Level 22 Zen Archer so this won’t be too much of an issue for me. Additionally, the update brings with it new dailies, and the new Nyraka zone.

Elyon just held a Beta test, and while I was given access to the game from one of our viewers, unfortunately I couldn’t make it in-game to record or stream footage at the time.
However, from what I’ve learned online, the game is shaping up to be a pretty solid improvement over Ascent: Infinite Realm, which was a very basic, very generic title.
There are no gender-locked classes, there are traditional 5-man dungeons, there’s less of a PvP focus and more of an emphasis on grounded content as opposed to aerial content. The game still needs a lot of polish, and I look forward to trying out a future Beta test.

Lost Ark gets a lot of updates. Like, a lot of updates.
And while there has been no new info released after that Facebook post confirming they’re working on the global version of the game, it is worth noting that the South Korean iteration of the game just launched its second season and with it, a plethora of new additions to the game.
Guild content, multiplayer content. But most importantly, the brand new Scouter class. Yup, someone we stream with, Mr Y is actually playing the Scouter class currently – or I believe wants to play the Scouter class? I forget. Don’t tell him though.
There are a lot of additional features planned according to their official roadmap, like the new Reaper class, a new Assassin tree, new areas, a new server. They’re doing everything they can to keep players interested in the game! So kudos to them.

Final Fantasy XIV’s next large update, 5.3: Reflections in Crystal is arriving on August 11th after being delayed. So spoiler alert before going any further! There’s quite a lot coming with the 5.3 update, much more than anyone had ever anticipated.
For starters, where the trial for the game lasted until level 35 – a basic, introductory-level worth of content to consume, the free trial will now last all the way up until the Stormblood expansion.
Yes, hundreds of hours worth of content in both the base game and Heavensward expansion will be completely free, including the Au Ra race, Dark Knight, Astrologian and Machinist classes.
Additionally, it comes with a brand new dungeon, a continuation to the NieR Automata raid, new gear, an extension to the current story, and so much more.
If you ever wanted to try Final Fantasy XIV out, you can starting August 11th and you can make it all the way through one of the best parts of the game: Heavensward.

If you’ve been waiting on Wurm Online to finally launch, then you’re in luck! The MMORPG that touts “ultimate freedom” just launched on to Steam last week although it was to quite mixed reviews.
The game is a free-to-play sandbox that provides players a premium subscription option. There’s a lot to do in the game, and it requires a lot of time and a lot of investment.
If you don’t have either of those, then this game probably won’t be for you but their aim is to take the game back to a time where this was prevalent in MMOs.

For players still playing Final Fantasy XI, yes, XI, not XIV, you’ll be glad to know that after.. let’s go ahead and say an extended vacation, we’re finally able to jump into new story on August 6th as we’re heading to new, unexplored areas of Vana’diel.
You’ll need to have cleared Rhapsodies of Vana’diel to partake of the new content, of course, but if you’ve been waiting on new content for as long as I’m sure some of you have been, then this is the time to jump on in!

Apparently, New World held a “Density test” on July 30th that had Alpha testers and players that pre-ordered through Amazon before July 26th jump on in and take the game for a test run.
The Density test was under NDA, obviously. Everything regarding New World is under NDA. This is in preparation for their upcoming New World Preview, which is.. well, going to be something to watch, for sure.
I would’ve loved to have gotten into the game to test it out but since it’s under an NDA I wouldn’t really be able to talk about it anyway, so that kinda feels redundant to me.