Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon commenced service in South Korea 15 July 2020. It’s been quite a bit of time since we previewed it back at G-STAR 2018, which you can check out below:
Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon is a mobile version of the 1996 release, known as Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds in the United States, which has been in service for a whopping 24 years. In its home country Korea, it’s also known as Baram, itself loosely based on Korean mythology and a series of graphic novels by artist Kim Jin.
The mobile version retains much of the original PC release’s features, like the 2D tile graphics, the manhwa-like style, the player involvement and so forth. The game managed 1 million downloads, and even managing to compete with Lineage, which is no small feat.
Going by the official website, it would seem that large scale battles will be coming soon to the title. Here’s an prologue of the story for the PC release:
Yuri, king of Koguryo, was troubled by uncertainty. For he knew not whether a neighboring despot would feel the hunger for Koguryo’s soil. He had a son, though: M’hul. He, indeed, mastered the rulers that had lusted for the territory.
I can remember the blacksmith’s shop buzzing with what the now “Great Emperor” M’hul had done. He battled the dragon turtle. He held council with the atavistic seeming Lord of each of the great animals. A seaman had remarked that all the merchants from the other lands had looked in wonder at Koguryo. For Koguryo had become mighty and all of its inhabitants wealthy. Whereso blow the winds, with it the legend follows.
The scruffy-headed man cocked an eyebrow, “Sit down and listen.”
“This land that we live upon is the source of all sustenance. From it the creatures live and die. All creatures do so. Harness it, and you’ll be on your way to great things.”
“If you find yourself in that precarious state of having been beaten and slaughtered by whatever, the legend has not necessarily ended. You may, perhaps, coax one of the old shamans toward the East or West gate. She can see the dead. Beware of her; but if you’re a spirit with no means of affecting the world she may remedy that.”
Considering the PC version’s success, Nexon could consider bringing the mobile version globally at some point. We’ll see how that works out.