NCSoft held its annual NC Media Day yesterday, announcing 5 new upcoming mobile games. All of the announced games are MMORPG titles.
Aion 2
The game underwent yet another name change, marking a 3rd name for the game. Previously, it was known as Aion Tempest back in November 2017 and before that, Aion Legends. As players can tell, the game is based on the Aion IP.
Aion 2 will take place approximately 900 years before the story of Aion: The Tower of Eternity, the original PC version. One of the biggest feature in the upcoming prequel is the presence of dimension cracks. This feature allows PvP battles to take place between servers. Players can expect huge scale battles from time to time when playing this game. In conjunction, the 2 factions from the original game will not be present in Aion 2.
Class restriction is also removed for the prequel. Instead, players will be able to change equipment to best suit their playstyle. This gives players a wide variety of combat styles to work on. NCSoft has claimed that there will be improvements to the gliding and apply it into combat.
Blade & Soul 2
The official sequel to the original PC version was previously announced last year along with a short clip. This time, NCSoft finally released some much needed info on the game.
Blade & Soul 2 will feature new characters and new areas that were not present in the original. A huge change from the original is smarter monsters. According to NCSoft, the monsters will not perform the same action twice in a row. This gives players a new combat experience and keeps the combat variety high at all times.
NPCs were also said to be smarter and more immersive. In this sequel, player actions can determine the relationship they have with NPCs. In return, players may receive different quest and events from them. Lastly, factions are no longer available in the game. The developers intend to have a “free community” system for the game. This means players are free from any faction-like restrictions.
Blade & Soul 2 is developed by the people who brought us the original Blade and Soul. Fans can breathe a sigh of relief as the game is in the right hands.
Blade & Soul M
Blade & Soul M is the remake of the original PC version. Much like Blade & Soul 2, the remake is developed by “Team Bloodlust”, the developers of the original.
The remake will be an enhanced version of Blade & Soul, featuring better graphics, a new combat system and actively changing environments. The game is made using Unreal Engine 4. Hence, players can expect high end graphics with great details to the environment.
A major highlight for the remake is a story branching system. Decisions made by the players in-game can result in a different path for the story.It is a similar system to what Bioware runs on their big titles such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
Blade & Soul S
Yet another Blade and Soul title, Blade & Soul S is significantly different from the rest of the franchise. The main difference is that Blade & Soul S features super deformed (SD) characters instead. The game focuses on hero collection making it gacha-like.
However, this “gacha” game is unlike other gacha games. Instead of the standard stage clear format that gacha games tend to use, Blade & Soul S is an open world game. The open world changes in real-time which can affect combat.
The story will take place 3 years before the original, making it a prequel to the franchise.
Lineage 2M
Lineage 2M is the remake of the popular PC game, Lineage II. The cinematic trailer was previously released last year, giving fans of the series high expectations for the game.
The remake stands out from the original by featuring an open-world format. According to the developers, the game will feature “mobile’s largest seamless open world”. Players will be able to explore and do anything without being hampered by rules set by developers. The game is said to have a land measured over 100 million squared meters. Players can expect to spend most of their time in-game trying to explore the entire map.
Furthermore, the game will also feature realm vs realm PvP. Similar to Aion 2, large scale PvP will take center stage throughout the game’s lifetime. Terrain is expected to play a part in the overall combat mechanics and players are recommended to play around these details. Raid bosses are touted to change from being just objectives to a challenge for parties.
Finally, developers have confirmed that they are working on new classes that were not available in the PC version. Fans of the original can rejoice as all 31 classes from Lineage II will return in Lineage 2M.