If you’d been anticipating receiving info on Masangsoft’s upcoming re-release of the RaiderZ MMORPG.. then you’re finally in luck, as a few days ago they made a brand new post on their Facebook page detailing various changes coming to the game.

According to the Facebook post in question, they are making changes to the Questing system, allowing players to both begin and finish the main scenario quests without having to run back and forth between the NPC. Something that I feel is not really necessary, considering that’s part of what makes a quest a quest. Then they’re overhauling the animations, specifically combat animations and weapon animations as several of the weapon types shared the same animation type when wielding them. This is something I’m glad to see happening as there’s no need for a Mace and Sword to share the same animation. Finally they’re introducing a brand Passive skill system into the game in an attempt to compete with more complex class systems found in other MMOs. This is something that many players are claiming makes the game feel less unique, and that’s an understandable point. The game didn’t have this feature before and altering core facets of the game – features that made the game enjoyable for fans to begin with is a bad design choice.

I never played RaiderZ when it was published by Perfect World Entertainment. I knew it existed, but at the time I was far too invested in TERA – which honestly was a lot better both graphically and mechanically.
But RaiderZ still had its place – just like most MMORPGs do. It launched initially in 2012 and was subsequently shut down in 2015, after only 3 years.
Since then, private servers have both risen and been buried trying to capture the playerbase that longs to experience what the game once offered to no avail.
Perfect World Entertainment had no intention of closing RaiderZ down – I’m unsure of exactly how well the game was doing at the time of their closure but the decision was mostly out of their hands.
See, Perfect World were the Western publishers of the game, not the developers. MAIET Entertainment, the South Korean studio, were the developers.
MAIET specifically ceased operations earlier in the year leaving Perfect World with.. well, pretty much nothing. There would be no new content added, no new updates, nothing at all.
So when the developers behind the game you’re publishing all but give up on the game.. realistically all you have to do is either allow the game to become stagnant or give up on all together, and that’s what happened.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. Since MAIET dissolved in 2015, they actually gave all rights to their games: GunZ and RaiderZ to Masangsoft, another South Korean developer.
Checking their website they state that they’re both a developer and publisher that specializes in PC, mobile and VR titles. They publish several MMOs: DK Online, Pristontale and a couple non-MMOs.
But most importantly – and specifically with regards to RaiderZ, Masangsoft had announced their intention of re-releasing RaiderZ – an overhauled, completely revamped version of the game.
Allow me to elaborate on that a little. See, RaiderZ is an Action MMORPG – it utilized a full action combat system like Black Desert.
It also employed an interesting class system that provided players the unique opportunity to equip various weapons found scattered throughout the game-world.
These would alter your skills, your active weapon, and would, in essence, allow for you to play as an entirely different class temporarily.
That was one of the game’s unique aspects – something that to this day has not been replicated.. to my knowledge, anyway.
Masangsoft stated that they were aware these two features were important and that they were looking to actually significantly enhance them to better fit today’s market.
The changes proposed were actually interesting to me as I didn’t know how exactly they’d go about doing it since while they were opting to merely “enhance” the combat, they were going to completely change the class-system all together.
This would provide a stronger sense of class identity, I guess, while also limiting exactly how much freedom you had to do what you want.

The only version of RaiderZ I ever played was WildRaiderZ. That was a private server that at the time had pretty decent rates and was an accurately emulated server.
I’d wanted to play the official version but I just never had the opportunity to.
Nevertheless, Masangsoft announced that they would be reviving and remastering the game.. last year? The year before? I think it was sometime in 2017.
They went ahead and released a roadmap detailing specifically what they had planned and.. then went silent.
It’s been a year? Roughly a year or so since Masangsoft said anything pertaining to the game. There have been no announcements, no news, no social media posts stating that they’re even still actively working on the game.
Which is pretty disconcerting. When a game – and this applies even more so to MMOs – goes completely radio silent for a year.. it’s likely that development on it has come to a halt.

Now I’m not saying that the game is 100% confirmed to be cancelled or shut down.
What I’m saying is that it seems as though Masangsoft has a larger focus on other things right now.
Do you guys recall DK Online – an MMO that released back in March this year? Yeah, it launched to incredibly poor reception, with reviews on Steam being “mostly negative,” and that was completely valid.
The game was absolute trash and you know who published it? Yup, Masangsoft.
DK Online was released back in 2013 under Aeria Games if I recall, and after it shut down, Masangsoft opted to re-publish it in 2019 as a “completely remastered game.”
Obviously DK took precedence over RaiderZ – since DK was likely a lot easier to monetize in the short-term.
Will history repeat itself with regards to RaiderZ? Maybe. Masangsoft seem to be the Gamigo of South Korea – purchasing dead games and then keeping them alive to make as much money as they can off of them.
While I feel for RaiderZ fans, not having an official home to play in, I honestly wouldn’t want to see what Masangsoft’s end result could potentially be.

Yes, the game is likely dead in the water now. It’s sad to see and hear, but it might be for the best.

Masangsoft, the new developers behind the relaunch of the highly anticipated Action combat MMORPG RaiderZ have revealed new information pertaining to their combat system.

Dodging played a large part in combat as it provided players a beneficial “invulnerability” while dodging, rendering any enemy attacks useless. However, Masangsoft, in an attempt to increase the difficulty and overhaul the combat mechanics have removed the invulnerability buff from the dodge function all together, claiming that the “dodge function and the “enemy’s attack” system were unreasonable.” They aren’t removing the dodge function – merely removing the invulnerable condition applied with it.

In anticipation of the removal, they are increasing the dodge distance, the speed of the dodge, the base movement speed for your character, and various new skills such as Rush, Retreat, and other, yet undisclosed new skills.

While there are other combat updates under testing, Masangsoft have promised additional news and updates are on the horizon, so stay updated if you’re interested in what RaiderZ has planned for their re-release!

RaiderZ is an instanced, action MMORPG reminiscent of Blade and Soul and Black Desert Online. Originally shut down by Perfect World Entertainment, the game is relaunching under a new publisher with an overhauled system worthy of 2018.

A very good quality free to play BDO alternative.

We all remember RaiderZ. It was one of the Action MMORPGs that got us excited for the genre – the genre that has since been dominated by Black Desert Online.
It released all the way back in 2012, when the Action genre was still in its infancy. Unfortunately for RaiderZ, that left it unable to grow – being a small budget free to play MMORPG pulished by a company that has a large history with pay to win MMORPGs.
This caused it to inevitably shut down in 2015, when Perfect World Entertainment were unable to keep the game running due to various issues.

People were aghast over RaiderZ’s shut down announcement, many of those players finding solace on the WildRaiderZ private server, launched by fans in an attempt to save the game.
WildRaiderZ found a lot of success and held on to the popularity that RaiderZ had, growing the game into one of the most populated non-WoW private servers online.

Due to this success, another publisher realized that there was still significant potential in the market and decided to purchase licensing rights to the game.
While at present – WildRaiderZ has suffered no substantial loss to its overall population, the fact remains that with the announcement of an official server along with a large company backing and developing the game..
Well, let’s not go ahead and say that WildRaiderZ will end up going down, but it doesn’t bode well for the private server.

Up until this point the new licensor of RaiderZ has remained silent on what their plans were with the game.
Now we have some additional information to share with you all on its release.
Masangsoft, the new company behind RaiderZ has posted what they are referring to as a “Development Roadmap” on the official RaiderZ Facebook page.
To be clear, what they posted was more of a “feature list” than anything else, but nevertheless, the features listed along with their descriptions are as follows:

Please note though that I will be rewriting a lot of this as the amount of broken English in their descriptions was almost incomprehensible. I will however include the original unedited text on screen.

One of RaiderZ’s most distinct features was its acion combat system.
Epic monster hunting, group activities, and PvP are some of the core features that attract players to the game, so we will attempt to maintain these features and improve them where we can.
By strengthening the pace of the action combat, the overall feel of the game will be improved.
Furthermore, we have adjusted the Evasion and Hit systems in-game to more reasonable levels.
Many skills will be revamped or overhauled completely, based off the weapon in use.
These features will not destroy the systems in place, rather, the systems in question will merely be refined and allow for a better player experience.

The existing class system was very limited. It left you unable to fully customize your character or playstyle, instead, forcing you to take a build that was deemed acceptable.
Our goal is to alter the class system by dismantling all of the existing classes to allow for significant change in how you build your character.
To allow for this, players will be able to choose items, skills, and individual stats to improve your charadcter.
Of course, the aforementioned classes and builds will still be accessible.
We are merely attempting to alleviate people’s feeling of needing to conform to what is generally accepted as the right way to build your character, instead, giving people the opportunity to choose the way they want to play.

Additionally, we will be introducing a new Passive Skill system into the newly revamped class system.
The new system will guide players into improving their stats through a variety of means, such as increasing in level, along with the use of different gear sets and items.
You will be able to explore a variety of different stat altering effects – both personally, and for your entire party by creating and combining items.

Trial Instances will be altered into the new HellHound system – something that is targeted towards endgame content.
This system will feature varied difficulties for players and groups to tackle, varying from beginner to expert.
Each difficulty shares the same environmental space, but not the same groups of monsters. Monster skills and levels also differ depending on difficulty.
The more difficult the level chosen, the more prepared you will need to come.
Cooperating with teammates is the most important part of the highest difficulty dungeons.

One of RaiderZ’s most significant problems were to do with its standardized items. Every player ended up with the exact same item at endgame for their class and it eliminated any form of choice.
Additionally, repeatedly increasing your stats without progressing through new gear and items caused severe imbalance.
We are hoping to even-off the figures on each piece of equipment along with giving players the ability to choose between a variety of equipment, effectively giving players a larger choice in how they craft their character.
By adjusting the overall stats on each piece of equipment, we plan on making the stat gain from skills be of a larger benefit to players overall.
Finally, crafted gear will receive various improvements as well, providing crafted gear with more clear features.

What we came to realize upon closer inspection of the game was that players have grown tired of the questing system.
Players were forced to engage in both the main scenario and side quests to progress through the game.
What we plan on doing is sorting through the side quests – finding the quests in question that players didn’t like or were overall unnecessary to the progression of the game and eliminate the need to participate in completing them entirely.
By doing this, players will no longer be forced to engage in quests they find boring – instead being able to focus more on the main scenario.
By participating in the main scenario, players find themselves enthralled in the story as opposed to running irritable errands for individual NPCs that hold no importance to the game.

We’re well aware that demanding excessive amounts of money be invested into the game for cash shop items is a risky business model.
Not only does that have the potential to ruin the economy – but it also runs the risk or ruining the balance of the game.
This, in turn, promotes distrust amongst the playerbase and will in the future prevent the players from trusting the company behind the game.
We are making every attempt to emply a fair microtransaction system that players can trust.
Most of the items – not all – but most, will be cosmetic such as the ability to alter your characters appearance, or adding in additional costumes.
We expect to satisfy long-time players by offering valuable items without fear or adding external pay to win mechanics to the game.

Storytelling remains the core of RaiderZ – in all MMORPGs, even action games.
While there are some people that enjoy the gameplay exclusively, there are others that have a deep appreciation for the overall story of the game.
RaiderZ’s story gives you a sense of purpose; it gives your actions meaning, the NPCs you meet a reason to exist, and the areas you visit a reason to actually explore.
We hope people will be impressed with our storytelling, as we believe reinforcing the game with an exciting, attractive plot is an important part of every game.

Now, Masangsoft is taking RaiderZ in a slightly different direction.
Instead of reviving the game in its current iteration, they are taking a.. strange approach, changing some of the mechanics that didn’t work out very well and making improvements on others that did.
There is nothing wrong with this – quite the contrary. I believe that personally, this is a good move as the game itself was quite pay to win, and quite honestly.. needed some enhancements to compete with MMORPGs in 2018.