In 2010, Dragon Nest was released in Korea, an MMORPG that received much praise for its action-packed combat system and was shortly thereafter published in the West. Now, a sequel has been announced with Dragon Sword – also known as Project D. The same head, who developed Dragon Nest, is responsible for the game.
What is behind Dragon Sword? The new game by Hound13 is described as an online RPG that is supposed to play even more action-packed and faster than Dragon Nest. The first gameplay trailer looks promising.
One can observe quick attacks with a sword or two daggers, powerful combos, and skills with a battle axe, crossbow, and bow as ranged weapons. Visually, Dragon Sword roughly resembles Genshin Impact, although the colors are a bit bolder.
However, there are not many details about the new game yet:
- It is being developed in Unreal Engine 4 or 5.
- The story of the game is supposed to be “captivating”.
- It will have a “semi-open world”, which possibly indicates hubs with instanced areas like in Guild Wars 1 and Vindictus or separate areas with loading screens like in Guild Wars 2.
- There are supposed to be puzzle elements (according to the job postings)
- It is supposed to be released for PC and mobile and also offer crossplay.
It is currently unclear whether it will really be a full-fledged MMORPG or rather rely on a kind of coop like Genshin Impact. In the trailer, a group of several players has already been seen. The job postings are also specifically looking for employees who have already worked on an MMORPG or mobile MMORPG. There has also been no comment on the payment model.
Dragon Nest was popular among fans of action RPGs and PvP
What kind of game was Dragon Nest? Dragon Nest is a PvEvP game and labeled itself as the “most action-packed MMORPG” on the market. In fact, the battles received a lot of praise upon the European release in 2013. The website TentonHammer, for instance, granted a score of 80 out of 100 in its review.
The highlight was the nests – special dungeons with powerful opponents that often could only be visited with a group. In addition, the MMORPG placed a strong emphasis on PvP and offered the first arenas starting from level 10. There were various modes, including 1v1 and 3v3 ranked matches, Free For All with 16 players, Team Deathmatch, and the Ghoul Mode, in which part of the players became ghouls and tried to infect the humans.
However, there were some issues with the European version, including a data fiasco and a change in publisher. In Korea, Dragon Nest is still running, but the European version was discontinued in 2019.
Why is the new game considered a successor to Dragon Nest? The head behind the new game Dragon Sword is Park Jung Sik, the former lead developer of Dragon Nest. Moreover, it visually and also from the previous information strongly resembles the old MMORPG by Sik.
What do you think about Dragon Sword? Does this anime game appeal to you? Or do you prefer to place your hopes in another MMORPG? And if so, which one?
A good alternative seems to be Blue Protocol. It is set to release in 2023:
