After the first livestream in May 2025, the second streaming event from NCsoft about Aion 2 has now followed. The developers showcased new gameplay and revealed more details about the continuation of Aion.
What was shown? While the stream from May 2025 introduced Aion 2 rather generally and focused on trailer material and static assets from the game, the much longer stream on August 8, 2025, showed real gameplay from the new MMORPG that is set to be released in Asia in 2025 and is expected to come to us in 2026.
The video covers the following areas:
- First, testers who have already been able to play Aion 2 shared their thoughts. They report that the previous trailers accurately reflect the actual gameplay experience, particularly regarding flying and the seamless transition between mounts. The battles play out quite dynamically despite a tab-targeting framework. Your chosen class defines the available roles and playstyles.
- The character creation was shown with its countless options.
- Next, the developers showcased a female character who, accompanied by a small companion, runs and flies through one of the game’s regions. Additionally, there was interaction with a merchant. Noteworthy: If players do not feel like walking to the merchant, they will also be able to purchase items through the in-game shop for in-game currency. However, this will likely be at a slightly higher price than from the merchants.
- There was dungeon gameplay featuring a 4-player group. The standard interface displayed a skill list with 12 slots for abilities, plus one skill for mounts and flying. There are also 10 additional slots for consumables. The boss battles in the dungeon reveal that it will be crucial to avoid harmful areas, area attacks, or mechanics.
- The user interface shown in the scenes is still a placeholder. The final version is supposed to look better.
You can watch the full stream below or on YouTube:
Aion 2 is also coming to consoles
What else have the developers revealed about Aion 2?
- In the stream, the developers emphasized that the PC version of Aion 2 is the main focus. The mobile version is intended to complement the gameplay experience and allow players to initiate crafting actions, master mini-games, or collect daily rewards while on the go. There will be no mobile features like autoplay.
- A console port is expected to follow sometime after the PC release. It is unknown whether there will be crossplay.
- Each class should have around 40 skills, from which you will choose the 12 abilities for your next battle. You can create different sets for content like PvE, PvP, or boss fights.
- In the game, you can earn different wings, each bringing a selection of stats and a unique appearance.
- Although flying will be possible very early on almost everywhere, it should not be possible to simply spread your wings and flee during PvP combat. A stamina resource will determine how long and how far you can fly.
- The developers reiterated that each server will be exclusive to one faction. You can encounter either Asmodians or Elyos in one world only. The faction battle will play a role in server-wide, instanced battlegrounds like the Abyss (known from the first part).
- There is a pet system, where players should be able to tame monsters for their pets collection. It was also shown that pets can carry a character – possibly slightly increasing movement speed.
What about dungeons, raids, and PvP? At launch, Aion 2 is set to offer various dungeon variants for solo players and groups:
- The so-called Nightmare Dungeons offer boss fights with 10 levels and a ranking system for speedruns.
- Additionally, there will be a boss content where the reward depends on how quickly you can take down your opponent.
- Random seal dungeons can appear in the world, where a PvE challenge awaits, but PvP is also expected to be active. You will compete with other players for the loot.
- There are co-op dungeons for up to 4 players and with 2 difficulty levels (Normal and Hard).
- Ascended dungeons with random affixes, reminiscent of Mythic Plus from WoW, where you can level up to increasingly difficult stages.
- Instanced challenges for 8-player groups.
For PvP fans, in addition to the already mentioned Abyss, an instanced arena is planned, which will have 1vs1 and 4vs4 modes. There will also be 8vs8 battlegrounds, where you have to escort something from A to B (similar to Payload from Overwatch).
Here is the latest trailer for Aion 2:
How does the community rate what has been shown? The comments in a current discussion on Reddit are mixed.
- Civil_Response1 praises the fights on Reddit: “I think this looks smooth. The combat feels powerful and fluid. The animations look good.”
- vvashabi, on the other hand, finds on Reddit: “The camera movements feel very console and gamepad-like. There are no shadows. The characters’ feet barely interact with the ground. This is a typical mobile problem, where characters seem to float above the highly textured ground.”
- Prysm25 criticizes on Reddit: “This doesn’t look like Aion. The magic of Aion came from the world and its style. This is just another Throne and Liberty.”
- Zoggit expresses surprise on Reddit: “At first, I read the comments and got the impression that the game personally killed everyone’s firstborn or something. Then I watched the gameplay and thought it looked pretty good.”
How did you like what was shown? Let us know in the comments!
What’s next? In September, there will be a third developer stream from NCsoft regarding Aion 2. Then we will learn, among other things, details about the payment model of the MMORPG. What is clear is that flying should not be tied to any Pay2Win or Gacha function, and that the developers are aiming for a launch in their home market in 2025.
Whether there will still be a global release next year depends certainly on the next testing phases and the success of the Asia launch. Aion 2 must not be a failure for NCsoft. The publisher’s aging MMORPG lineup is struggling with declining numbers. Throne and Liberty was not the success hoped for. Now more than 300 developers are working on the project. You can find more information on this here: Large MMORPG Company is in Crisis Due to 10 Games Generating Too Little Revenue
