Asia MMORPG expert Cedric Holmeier dispels myths during our Grind Festival Theme Week and explains where the upcoming online role-playing games from Asia are focusing and what truly lies behind the titles, apart from PR promises.
Anyone who likes MMORPGs must get used to Asia. A colleague here at MeinMMO expressed it this way at one point. Countless MMORPGs are currently being developed there, which could eventually come to the West. At the same time, there is little supply for genre fans from Europe and the USA.
This list is intended to give you an insight behind the facade of upcoming MMORPGs from Asia that will almost certainly also launch in the West. We clarify who each game is for and what makes it special – completely detached from the hype that a new MMORPG often brings. After all, all games have their strengths and weaknesses.
In this week, you can expect exciting articles about MMORPGs every day. Featured: nostalgic retrospectives, thrilling analyses from renowned industry veterans, previews of upcoming online role-playing games, and lively streams.
Here’s the program for the great MMORPG Theme Week 2026 from MeinMMO
Aion 2
Aion 2 is the next major MMORPG for the western market and has been playable in Korea and Taiwan for months. For this reason, there is already a good understanding of what the gameplay loop looks like in the endgame and who the title is really for.
In Aion 2, the focus is clearly on PvE. Players from Asia report that at least 70% of the content revolves around this orientation. You spend your daily grind mainly in instanced PvE dungeons in a group of 4 players. The developers always advertise with over 200 dungeons, many of which are simple tower challenges that do not really differ.
Overall, the MMORPG offers a variety of PvE modes. However, due to the upgrade system for your equipment, you often grind the same dungeons repeatedly before finally going to the raid a few times a week as a highlight.
While Throne and Liberty focuses heavily on PvP, the player-versus-player aspect in Aion 2 is only a side feature. PvP players mainly spend their time in the Abyss, an optional PvPvE area. However, this is time-limited, so that frequent players do not become too strong.
Anyone who wants to play Aion 2 for the PvP moments of part 1 will likely be disappointed, as the developers have clearly shifted focus and no longer offer the intense wars that existed back then.
At least the action-packed combat system with over 10 abilities plus dodge roll for boss fights is enjoyable, and one barely feels that the title was also developed with mobile in mind. Professionals also rely on “Animation Canceling” to maximize their DPS, which is a clear PC-first mechanic. Additionally, the flight system positively affects the game world through its verticality.
In one of our current videos on the MeinMMO YouTube channel, it’s about the internal NCSoft duel between Aion 2 and Guild Wars 3:
A Festival for Dungeon Lovers?
Aion 2 allows players in Asia to simply skip the tedious grind that PvE players have in mind by using real money. The so-called whales are therefore one of the target groups for Aion 2. At the same time, the MMORPG promotes a kind of flex culture where the best players can compete on rankings in PvP.
Players who have plenty of time for an MMORPG and have no problem playing a mix of PvE and PvP can fully explore themselves in Aion 2. Grinding the best armor of the season and then upgrading it with materials is the recurring goal and enables tackling the most challenging content.
At the same time, the game is great for groups and guilds that consciously choose to avoid the rankings. Pay2Win here does not mean that one misses out on content just because one does not spend money. Those who surround themselves with like-minded people with similar goals can have a perfectly normal experience without glancing at the shiny gear of a real money investor.
Not for Pay2Win Allergics
Of course, there will be a lot of hype with the release of Aion 2 in September. However, once that passes, many western players are likely to seek refuge elsewhere, similar to Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty.
In Korea and Taiwan, there is not only a Pay2Win model that allows players to purchase upgrades for their equipment that others take weeks to obtain. There are also high costs for unlocking features like trading and auction houses.
In addition, there are restrictions on dungeon loot and battle passes, which are where most resources for equipment upgrades come from. Fortunately, the developers recently announced adjustments that aim to ease the system and combine passes and subscriptions – even for the West. Nonetheless, some pain points remain.
Because the title is so heavily monetized, there is a vast market for bots in Asia that makes farming currency for normal players significantly more difficult. This has now even taken such forms that the developers had to alter their economy so that players can have a somewhat normal gaming experience without having to pay bot vendors.
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