GRAN SAGA is an MMO I’ve been actively talking about since its announcement. It was one of the 4 larger Anime-related MMOs I was most excited for. Genshin Impact, Blue Protocol, Tower of Fantasy and GRAN SAGA.
3 of these ultimately ended up turning into MMOs. 2 of them released Globally. Blue Protocol is releasing Globally this year, and GRAN SAGA was just confirmed to be receiving a Global release as well.
Honestly, I couldn’t be happier. I love Anime games. I love Anime MMOs. They’re one of my favorite types of MMO in the entire genre. With Tower of Fantasy having released just a few months ago, Blue Protocol and GRAN SAGA both releasing in the near future – there’s going to be a lot of variety for Anime fans.
And given GRAN SAGA isn’t some cheap, exploitable, bug-ridden Chinese game like certain other releases in recent memory, rather, a more polished Korean MMO, it might stand a better chance of succeeding where others have failed in the past.
But what is GRAN SAGA, and when specifically is it going to be releasing?

GRAN SAGA was announced back in 2019. I did my first dedicated video on the game on November 26th, 2019, I think the very same day the trailer for the game dropped.
I was excited because it was touted as being a fully and completely open-world Anime MMO, allowing you the freedom to traverse the world at your own pace, with no boundaries.
At that point, we didn’t have any Anime games that really did what GRAN SAGA promised. Genshin wasn’t released. It hadn’t even held a Beta test yet.

Fast forward to 2021, GRAN SAGA officially rolled out in Korea. Within its first 3 weeks of service, the game managed to earn an incredible $100 million dollars, absolutely shattering records.
This is from a studio – NPIXEL – with no history of developing video games. Rather, GRAN SAGA was their very first title, and it had taken the Korean MMO market by storm, destroying its competition.
But it remained a Korean exclusive for a very long time, before releasing in Japan. Because.. you know. Japan loves Anime so it was the logical next market. This left Western players hoping we’d be next.
And admittedly, that seems to be the case, as the studio founder released a statement on Twitter going on to confirm the following:

“The global version of Grand Saga is being prepared. It will come out after many parts have been fixed in the current service version. It will be released when kindness, convenience, and content quality are maximized. Everything will be reflected in the Korean and Japanese version”

And no, GRAN SAGA, the MMO that we’re discussing in this video, is not an NFT project, and has no Blockchain or Crypto BS in it. The Tweet was in reference to a Tweet concerning another MMO project currently in development sharing a similar name: Gran Saga: Unlimited.
I’m going to do a separate video on that in the near future, but the 2 games are completely disconnected. They share the same intellectual property, but like Final Fantasy games, they are otherwise set in completely unique worlds.

While GRAN SAGA has been relatively well received – it wouldn’t have made nearly as much money if it wasn’t, NPIXEL’s founder confirmed there are still some areas of the game that need improvement. They are currently in no rush, and would rather the game be perfect before releasing to Western players.
I cannot stress enough how important this is that they are taking the time to reflect on where the game seems to be operating poorly, and are making adjustments to it accordingly in an active effort to provide a better experience for players in not only Korea and Japan, but also outside – us.
Tower of Fantasy is a prime example of an MMO that rushed its release – both in China and Global, and we were met with the same bugs, the same exploits, the same hackers. And look where it ended up.
If GRAN SAGA has any chance of success, it is going to be tied to how well received it is in its initial week of release. Having glaring bugs that even the studio founder recognizes will tarnish their reputation, and that seems to be something they’re conscious of.
As such, no release date – or even year – was given for the Global version of the game.
All we were given, was a direct confirmation that the Global version of the game is currently in the process of being localized. But they are making alterations they deem are absolutely vital, alterations that will be reflected in current versions of the game, before they finalize anything.

GRAN SAGA, much like Tower of Fantasy, is a cross-platform Anime MMO that allows players to – essentially, obtain weapons in the form of Gran, with every Gran having their own unique look and abilities tied to them.
What this means is that there is no holy trinity or class system. Rather, every class takes on the form of a weapon, and weapons are both earned in-game, and obtained via a Gacha system.

GRAN SAGA has the potential to be a fantastic MMO. But it carries just as much chance of the opposite.
And while I’ve covered this game – both the good and the bad, I’m hoping for the best. We need more variety in not only the MMO genre, but also the Anime subgenre, and this could be another chance to lose yourself in a gorgeous Anime world.

So, seeing Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds launch yesterday, having just completed the Tower of Fantasy Closed Beta, and being wholeheartedly disappointed by Noah’s Heart‘s Closed Beta, left me wondering: What happened to GRAN SAGA? Did.. did everyone just forget about it?
If you recall, when this was announced – it was one of the best looking Anime MMOs on the immediate horizon! And – I get it. Launching an MMO is a very difficult thing to do.
And more often than not, games – MMOs specifically, end up buckling under the pressure with one of two outcomes: The developer either rushes their release, or they cancel their game all together.
GRAN SAGA proved neither option to be true, and instead, managed to launch in January 2021 – with over 5 million players pre-registered within South Korea alone. Within its first month, it went on to make over $100 million dollars in total revenue, becoming one of the largest, highest grossing cross-platform MMO releases anywhere in the world.
In November 2021, the game launched within Japan, totaling over 3 million pre-registered players, making it one of the fastest growing titles across Asia.
Yet here we are, in the middle of 2022.. with no Global release. What happened?

When NPIXEL initially revealed GRAN SAGA, they made the bold claim that they were looking to make the next great MMO. With no fully cross-play compatible MMOs available at the time, NPIXEL took the opportunity to reveal an absolutely stunning open-world AAA-budget Anime MMO with hundreds of millions of dollars funding.
Think Final Fantasy XIV levels of funding. And while the game was confirmed to be releasing within South Korea, many players were left wondering what their plans were for an international release.
Months passed, new trailers dropped, more information was revealed. And that was when NPIXEL decided to inform its community that they had expectations of releasing Globally – that an English version was something they were definitely interested in pursuing.
They didn’t have a release date for it. Heck, they didn’t have a date in mind for when they would even begin WORKING on it.

Fast forward to today, May 25th, 2022. A year and a half after releasing in Korea. 6 months after releasing in Japan. NPIXEL have yet to release any information pertaining to an English release for the game.
No confirmation that they’ve made any progress at all. No confirmation that they’ve even started localization on any version outside of the Japanese version of the game. And, I get it. I do. Japan is an ideal market to monopolize – they love their Anime-inspired games more than anyone.
And given the unique Anime aesthetic of GRAN SAGA, it makes logical sense that this would be their ideal first market. But 6 months. 6 months and no news on the next region. A year and a half and no news on the Global release.
With the success of Genshin Impact in the West, with the popularity Tower of Fantasy has accrued over the last year, you’d think NPIXEL would reveal something. Anything to remain relevant to us Western players, but alas.. that just isn’t the case.

They haven’t confirmed the Global version is canceled.. yet. And honestly, from a financial standpoint, it would make no sense to cancel it. There’s a massive market overseas for MMOs, Anime games, and games available cross-platform.
Yet I can’t help but assume the worst. Blue Protocol has gone over half a year without updates, but we know they’re still working on it given their last few updates.
GRAN SAGA, though? When approaching 2 years, it’s natural to lose hope.

GRAN SAGA is a Gacha MMO just like Tower of Fantasy.
You obtain “weapons,” that take on Human appearances, and recruit other characters to join your group. You can control up to 3 characters at any given time.
Combat utilizes some absolutely stunning aesthetics. The world is large and open. From a graphical standpoint, this game is by far one of the better looking cross-platform titles out there.
It’s fully voice-acted, receives regular updates, and… well, still kind of has an expected release date.. sometime in the future, I guess?
This could be one of the greatest Anime MMOs of the last several years.. if only they’d release it for us to play.

Launching an MMO is difficult. Players these days aren’t nearly as receptive as we used to be and we definitely no longer tolerate mediocre titles. Or at the very least we shouldn’t, otherwise we end up with something akin to Astellia Online.
And that is where this title comes in. Gran Saga is an MMO I’ve covered several times over the last 2 years. I was both impressed, and disappointed with what I saw of the game at various points through its development process. But one thing I never expected, was the monumental success that this game would become.

Gran Saga launched earlier this year on January 26th. Prior to its release, the game had acquired over 5 million pre-registered players within South Korea alone, and released, much like Genshin Impact, onto both PC and Mobile devices.
This was one of the first fully cross-platform AAA titles built for both systems. And it looked damn good graphically. I noted this repeatedly. This was – or, rather, is an absolutely gorgeous Anime MMORPG. One that is unparalleled right now. But then we don’t have much competition.

During its first month, Gran Saga went on to obtain the top positions in terms of revenue made in the App Store, the Google Play Store, and the Galaxy Store, making this one of the most successful MMOs of 2021, and even more so, the most successful cross-platform MMORPG ever developed.
That’s quite the accomplishment. But it comes as no surprise. NPIXEL, the development team secured almost $100 million USD in funding for Gran Saga that allowed them to produce a title that was truly better than the vast majority of its competition. And evidently, it showed.
NPIXEL have since received an additional $65 million USD in funding to not only advance the game, to develop new content, but to also expand it and their team.
I would like to note that this is some of the most extensive funding among any gaming startup within South Korea. NPIXEL themselves, within a mere 2 years of existing and within less than a year of having their flagship title launch, is now valued at over $1 billion USD.

While NPIXEL have yet to confirm specifically how much the game made in total within its first month, being at the top of every store means they made a return of well over $100 million USD within the first month alone.
Which I’m genuinely surprised by. Even months after its release, Gran Saga remained a highly popular game, bringing in hundreds of thousands of views for their update videos on Youtube, and even more impressively, having the goddess that is Taeyeon perform the official theme song and music video for the game.
Yet I don’t fully understand why. The logic behind why this is as popular as it is.. escapes me.
Again, this is a beautiful game. You can tell that they put a lot of effort into not only the world, but also the character models and special effects. If this game were being judged purely off of its aesthetic look and feel, this would be an easy 7 or 8 out of 10.
But as I noted in one of my last videos… Gran Saga has a lot of auto-play mechanics that, to me, inhibit it. Limit its potential, by providing substantially less for players to do. Combat. Exploration.
I get it, Korean players have acclimated to auto-play games – games that play themselves so you don’t have to, but that isn’t something that I feel Western players have necessarily accepted yet.
I genuinely feel as though developing a gorgeous game like Gran Saga and then requiring little actual interaction with it is a step in the wrong direction.
But what do I know, this game has made hundreds of millions of dollars since releasing, and is continuing to release not only new characters, but also large new updates.

Now interestingly enough, Gran Saga has up until this point only been available within South Korea. But as of a few weeks ago, it turns out NPIXEL have confirmed that they are releasing the game within Japan as well.
Yup, Gran Saga is officially entering the Japanese market, and Japanese players are ecstatic. While the game had garnered over 5 million pre-registrations from Korean players – an incredible number, Japan seems a little less interested, with 1.1 million players pre-registering for the game.
At least, prior to the Tokyo Game Show held earlier this month. NPIXEL have yet to confirm official pre-registrations after the game show concluded, but their goal was to heavily promote it during the event.
In anticipation of launching within Japan, NPIXEL actually released the trailer for not only their brand new character Yuna, but also their largest update to date.

While I do dislike auto-play mechanics in my games, I don’t think they’re enough to necessarily warrant excessive amounts of hatred for a game, nor unwarranted criticisms.
Gran Saga is a highly unique MMO. It combines the Gacha systems present in RPGs like Genshin Impact or Punishing Gray Raven with MMO elements such as hundreds of players out in the field at once, group content and PvP.
Instead of utilizing a single character like you would in a traditional MMO, instead you utilize a group of characters like you would in a traditional Gacha game.
Gran Saga have actually released an innovative new title that truly takes popular aspects of multiple genres, and combines them into something that is not only profitable, but also successful.

I genuinely cannot believe Gran Saga turned out to be as popular as it did.
I completely understand why games like Genshin Impact or Punishing Gray Raven turned out as successful as they did. They’re gorgeous games with no auto-play mechanics present, great combat and a slew of waifus and husbandos to collect.
But Gran Saga? While it remains the only game mentioned that I have yet to play, just seems… less polished. Filled with too much clutter and too many auto-mechanics. Granted you don’t have to utilize them, but be real… you know you likely will.

Regardless of my thoughts on the game, Gran Saga has absolutely shattered records for not only a Mobile MMO, not only a PC MMO, but for a fully cross-platform MMO. One of the first of its kind.
This is a game that has earned hundreds of millions of dollars since it launched. That has millions of players scattered across both platforms it released on, and has been one of the most played, highest earning Korean MMOs in 2021.
The only games that have come close to earning as much as Gran Saga within its first month are Genshin Impact which earned over $100 million, and ODIN: Valhalla Rising which also went on to make roughly the same.
The difference is that Genshin Impact is a Chinese game, whereas ODIN and Gran Saga are Korean. So within their countries of origin, ODIN and Gran Saga have both made hundreds of millions of dollars, and have been some of the largest competitors any mobile or cross-platform title would have to face. Even moving into 2022.
I’m actually kind of surprised that we haven’t received a Western confirmation for the game yet. I’m happy to see Japan is receiving it, but a North American and European release would open this game up to so many more players. And we love Anime MMOs and Anime in general over here. There’s a market for it, guys!

Whether or not Gran Saga looks remotely interesting to you or not, you cannot deny how much of an overwhelming success it has been. This is the most successful cross-platform MMORPG ever made, and NPIXEL themselves have acquired even more funding with which to expand the game.
I’m not overly fond of auto-play in my games, but with how popular this game has become, I can guarantee you I would give them the benefit of the doubt to change my mind over how I feel about the game. I’m not going to crucify a game before I play a sufficient amount of it.
I poured over 40 hours into V4, and over 60 hours into Punishing Gray Raven after all.

I look forward to the day NPIXEL confirm a Western, English release of Gran Saga. I’m genuinely intrigued by it, and am even more so interested to see how the Western market reacts to and receives the game.
The largest cross-platform MMO in the East? Hell yeah. We need this game right now.

Gran Saga’s Closed Beta is well underway, with many players getting in and recording their gameplay.
I decided I’d take a look at the gameplay – as I didn’t have the opportunity to get into the game myself, mostly for lack of trying. And what I saw was unfortunately very disconcerting for me.

Gran Saga is touted as being a “next generation open-world action MMORPG.” In reality? It looked and felt just like a Mobile MMORPG – with its terrible UI, its poor progression and very mobile-esque features.
The combat seemed about as good as you’d expect out of a Mobile MMO, however it’s worth noting that it looked as though the combat was much less action-oriented than we were lead to believe, and was instead very much a tab-target system, requiring targets for your abilities.
I only saw 2 people out in the world at any given time – or at the very least what I thought were 2 other players. Maybe they were NPCs and I’m just blind, I’m not certain.

Regardless, after watching several different gameplay videos, I can safely say that the majority of my excitement for Gran Saga is gone. I was incredibly excited for the upcoming MMO but this leaves me.. alarmingly cautious of what the end result of the game will be.
Will it be a good Mobile MMO? Probably. Will it be a good PC MMO? Unfortunately I highly doubt that. But the end result might be different to what we see here if enough people create a reason for them to change.
Graphically, the game looks great. It has what is seemingly a solid story, flashy special effects, but other than that.. this is about as generic as you could expect.

This needs to change, or it’ll be dead in the water before even launching internationally.

There are a couple different MMORPG’s I know a lotta you guys are keeping your eyes on, and Gran Saga is one of them.
You’ll be happy to know then that Closed Beta registration has just begun for the game – this was announced both via their official Youtube channel, and via their social platforms.

I have a guide on how to pre-register for the closed beta if you’re interested in applying, all you gotta do is click the button below to be taken directly to it!

So, Gran Saga is one of the upcoming Anime MMOs that people are excited for. Blue Protocol, Tower of Fantasy, Gran Saga. Yeah there are other upcoming MMOs to look forward to but these 3 are going to compete for which holds the title of #1 Anime MMO – Blue Protocol from Japan, Gran Saga from South Korea and Tower of Fantasy from China.
Pre-registration for the game opened yesterday on September 9th and will be held until September 20th 2020.
Do note that this Closed Beta in specific is going to be held within South Korea as opposed to globally, but that in no way means that there won’t be a global Closed Beta being held next year, nor does it mean that they are putting priority on a South Korean release.
They’ve confirmed that a global release will be coming towards the end of 2021, at the latest the beginning of 2022. This was officially confirmed by the devs themselves.

I guess I should take this opportunity to mention that they released a small 30-ish second trailer for the Closed Beta test, too, since I’d forgotten about it up until this point.
So let’s go ahead and watch it real quick.

As you can tell, or rather, as should’ve already been evident, Gran Saga is an MMORPG. It’s a cross-platform MMO, yeah, between both PC and mobile devices, but much like Tower of Fantasy and Genshin Impact, I believe this is being made for PC players in mind as well.
They’ve released several trailers thus far detailing quite a bit of the game. One was a full cinematic story-trailer, but the others showcased much more of the game, the world, the combat and what we have to expect from it.
This is a game that utilizes full action combat, providing players a plethora of different abilities to cycle through unleashing havoc upon your enemies. And while the combat definitely looks very impressive, the skill effects look even better.
Yet at the same time, while NPIXEL, the team behind Gran Saga have confirmed this will be a full MMORPG, as in, Massively Multiplayer, we’ve never seen more than a single person on-screen at any given time.
You’d have figured that when they’re this close to their Closed Beta, they would be showcasing what most people want to see, right? Content that features large groups of players all actively engaging in and participating in it together.
Nevertheless, the game is supposedly completely open-world, providing large zones for players to explore, to take quests in, to fight world bosses in.

One issue I’ve found with every trailer, including the Closed Beta trailer, is that they always show the player avatar as an actual character. The blonde girl, the generic brown haired guy, purple haired woman.
While yeah, we get to see them in various different outfits throughout the trailers, what I’m curious of is why they’ve never shown us any form of character customization.
When Tower of Fantasy released their trailer, they showed off their customization options right away. They even went a ways to do a dedicated customization trailer, showcasing the large variety of options you could use to create your masterpiece.
Gran Saga hasn’t. This is an MMORPG but we haven’t seen several of the aspects that make it feel like an MMORPG. Which is concerning, at least to me.
Again, they’ve confirmed that this is 100% an MMORPG so I’m not doubting that, I just want to be shown how much of an MMO it is. Is that just me? Or do any of you feel the same way?
And if there is no customization – does that mean the classes are instead going to function like heroes? ’cause while I can see how that might potentially work, I don’t like the idea of not having control of my characters’ aesthetics, so I really hope they elaborate on that a little.

Regarding the Closed Beta, the devs also announced that they’ll be holding a giveaway – with 100 Google Gift Cards worth around $40 each up as reward.
You can find out more about that on their website.

But this is it. The game’s finally about to be playable for the first time. We’ve been waiting all year for this and it’s almost time.
I’m excited to try out Gran Saga, I’m not gonna lie. I’ve done several videos on this game over the course of the year and I love the aesthetic look and feel of the game.
Hopefully you guys manage to jump through the hoops to pre-register for the Closed Beta, but if not, this is the first of several, more than likely. So don’t fret! You’ll get another opportunity to in the future.

NPIXEL have confirmed their upcoming Closed Beta for Gran Saga, an MMORPG slated to release in South Korea in 2021, and release globally towards the end of 2021-beginning of 2022. Before they launch globally, you might wanna jump on in and test whether or not you’re even interested in the MMO. That’s what this guide is for. To get you into the Gran Saga Closed Beta!

First you’re going to want to navigate on over to the official Gran Saga website. You can make your way over there by clicking the button below.

You’re then going to want to scroll down to the pre-registration info. I went ahead and translated the page, as originally it was in Korean, and since I can’t read nor write it, I figured this would make it easiest for people. It states, specifically, that this is the recruitment period for the “CBT,” and also goes on to show the giveaway they’re holding. You’ll see the login methods listed, both Google and Apple.

Select whichever login method you prefer. I was on my PC so I went with my Google login info as opposed to logging in via my iPhone. After confirming your login method, you’re going to want to fill out your phone number. Do note that as this is a South Korean MMO, and a South Korean pre-registration phase, only players with an active South Korean phone number are capable of applying. This isn’t difficult if you know a friend in South Korea, or know of certain websites that will sell you activation like this for a few dollars. I’m not saying you should trust or use them, but they’re out there.

After getting the confirmation via text, you’re all set and registered! If you’re lucky enough to get accepted, then you’ll receive an email via the email associated with the pre-registration.

If any additional information is revealed pertaining to the Closed Beta or the pre-registration, you’ll find the updated info right here!

GRAN SAGA is a brand new upcoming cross-platform MMORPG – just like Genshin Impact.. if Genshin Impact were an MMO as opposed to a multiplayer compatible RPG.
I’ve done a couple videos on it in the past but NPIXEL, the developers behind the game just released a brand new trailer showcasing in-game footage and you know what? We’re gonna go right ahead and watch it.
Before we get into this though, let me quickly preface this by stating that while yes, the bottom of the trailer states it’s mobile footage, Gran Saga is fully cross-play compatible, meaning it’ll also be releasing on PC and possibly consoles.

The new game trailer honestly didn’t showcase nearly as much as I’d hoped, but we got to see more of the character models – or, rather, the character model for Grand Lord Leon.
I know that the majority of this was rendered as a cutscene, but it’s nevertheless pretty impressive to see. The game is shaping up to look really promising, although I would’ve preferred to have seen more of the world and the characters.
As an example, GRAN SAGA is an action MMO, yet we’ve seen all of, maybe a single minute’s worth of actual combat footage spread over the 3 trailers they’ve released thus far.
Granted, I’ll admit that the combat was definitely impressive from what I saw – there are striking similarities to the Tales of Arise JRPG from Bandai Namco and as a Tales of game fan this is right up my alley.
The special effects look fantastic, the combat itself looks very fluid – kind of like an amalgamation of Black Desert, KurtzPel and Tales of Arise.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any more of the world, but what we do know is that supposedly the game will feature a completely open world.
During its last trailer we got to see a glimpse of that world, seeing the main character freely run around gigantic open areas, kinda reminding me a lot of Blue Protocol.
One thing I did note in the last trailer was that the world had an interesting “overworld map” form of travel akin to the old Final Fantasy and Tales of games. I don’t know how this is going to work with the “open-world exploration” they’re touting will be present but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

One thing that bothers me about this trailer, and all the previous trailers, is that there seem to be “characters.” Not once have we heard about character customization, nor have we heard anything pertaining to our own character.
Do we get to choose if we’re a male or a female? Will we get to create our character like we normally would in an MMO? These are questions that need answered fast, because if you look at the end of the trailer, NPIXEL are claiming that Gran Saga is still on track to release in 2020.
Yup – so the game is only several months off. And if we do get to create our own character, please, for the love of god, don’t gender-lock the classes. I know you’re a South Korean MMO, GRAN SAGA, but we can do better than that. We can be more!

And that’s pretty much it. This was the brand new trailer – the brand new footage, and this is what we know right now. GRAN SAGA is definitely shaping to be an incredible looking MMO. It’s looking even better than ever, but whether NPIXEL can live up to this is another thing all together.

January just finished, but already this year is looking exciting! I just finished videos on New World, Temtem, Lost Ark, Genshin Impact, Phantasy Star Online 2 and Project TL, and already we’re moving on to Gran Saga!
Before we get into this though, let me quickly preface this by stating that while yes, the bottom of the trailer states it’s mobile footage, Gran Saga is fully cross-play compatible, meaning it’ll also be releasing on PC and possibly consoles.
Now at the end of January, NPIXEL, which had only revealed a full CG trailer up until that point, finally showcased some gameplay from Gran Saga, and I’m going to be the first to admit.. it looks pretty damn good. Like.. really, really damn good.
Perhaps even better than Genshin Impact, depending on whether or not you prefer cuter characters or more mature ones.

The game gives us the first glimpse of the open world, along with a lot of the environments found within it. And holy crap the game looks ridiculous. Not only the world, but we also get a small glimpse of some of the instanced combat in the form of dungeons.
We get a look at the action combat, which looks incredible, actually. The combination of special effects and fast-paced combat looks like it could be somewhere between Black Desert and KurtzPel.
Or, well, okay, the combat looks much more like a Tales of game in terms of gameplay. Not only combat, but the graphical style as well. I daresay that Gran Saga and Blue Protocol could be the two best looking Anime MMORPGs coming this year.
One thing that interested me though was the fact that we saw a variety of different characters.. actual characters, granted with different outfits, and with different classes, but.. still, characters as opposed to characters we create ourselves.
Which leads me to my biggest concern while watching the trailer: And that is that the game is going to end up locking us into playing as pre-determined, pre-set heroes – which will likely be gender locked and class locked as opposed to allowing us to play what we want without restriction.

This is one of the things I hate the most about South Korean MMOs: Either gender locking classes, or more recently, locking classes behind “characters,” that you play as as opposed to creating. Now don’t get me wrong.
The characters themselves look incredibly detailed, and they all look incredible.
But even so, when I play an MMO, when I decided to jump into a virtual world I want to have the ability to create my character on my own – it’s just something that I find is necessary in an MMO. Otherwise you have a sense of.. disconnection.
But then singleplayer games don’t feel that way, so honestly… I dunno. Maybe it’s just the MMO genre. Then again, NPIXEL really haven’t revealed much to us thus far.
We know that the game is supposed to be open-world, but then again at the same time, we see some form of overworld-map that you look to be traversing like the older Final Fantasy games for the PS1.
Which begs the question.. if that’s one of the methods of exploration, then how exactly are we going to come across other players? Is the overworld instanced? As in, are the zones themselves segregated kind of in the vein of Final Fantasy XIV or Blade & Soul?
Regardless, other than the world we know the game is supposed to feature a heavy amount of storytelling, which if you watched the first teaser you’d already have been aware of. I’m a fan of story in my MMOs though so I don’t feel this is a negative.
One interesting thing worth noting is that NPIXEL have stated that they aim to do things a little different.. they don’t want to focus their game on vertical progression, instead, they want players to find their own unique play-style.
I’m not entirely certain what this means – I know that there are supposed to be a plethora of different Gran Weapons, each allowing you to have an entirely different play-style.
However, not featuring vertical progression would mean a lack of levels and a lack of gear-progression, right? There would be a single, finite set of gear, skill points and… then what?

Now as I mentioned earlier, Gran Saga is going to be completely cross-play compatible. What this means, for players that have never played a cross-platform game before is that while you can play on PCs, you’ll also be able to play on mobile devices.
Whether you can play the same characters on both devices remains to be seen.

Honestly, I’m pretty excited for Gran Saga. NPIXEL are known for their mobile game Seven Knights – which honestly I never played so I can’t really elaborate on.
However, recently they received over $25 million dollars worth of funding to grow their operations from a mobile developer to an actual, full-fledged game developer.
Their goal is to transition from the mobile market and develop MMORPGs for both platforms – something I believe is actually going to prove quite fruitful.
The mobile market right now is booming, and by developing games for both PC and mobile seems the direction South Korea is going. It, after all, allows for developers to tap in to two separate markets of players.
Now, Gran Saga itself is being built on Unreal Engine 4 and you can tell. The game looks beautiful.
NPIXEL have also made the claim that the game will feature “console level graphics” and “epic narratives,” which honestly, yeah, I already touched on the graphics, and.. I guess we’ll see how the narrative plays out.
I’ve played my fair share of South Korean MMOs and I can safely say.. I’ve never been impressed by the story- okay, actually that’s a lie. Blade & Soul was pretty good. Its story, anyway.

And.. yeah, that’s pretty much all I wanted to say.
The game looks really good, there’s a brand new trailer out right now, which honestly is what you’ve been witnessing play out in the background, and I hope you’re all as excited as I am. More MMORPGs is never a bad thing!
If you’re looking for more info on Gran Saga, more in-depth info on the game and its features, check out my last 2 videos. There should be plenty there to satiate your thirst.

Alright, this is pretty exciting news! 2020 is already looking to be a pretty sick looking year in terms of MMO releases, but we’re just beginning January and already we have more to look forward to.
I love whenever new MMOs are announced – the more games available in the market, the more we have to play, right? But you know what’s more exciting then new MMO announcements? When new MMOs are announced with the intention of releasing globally!
I can’t tell you how many times I see a trailer or announcement for a brand new upcoming South Korean, Japanese or Chinese MMORPG “coming soon!” .. only to find it’ll be a decade before we actually have it reach our shores.

And that’s why I’m excited about this announcement specifically. See, back on November 26th last year I did a video on Gran Saga, an upcoming MMORPG with cross-play functionality between PC, Console and Mobile devices, much like Genshin Impact.
At the time, all that was revealed was a cinematic trailer for the game along with some story elements and screenshots about various weapon types and characters.
But I wasn’t discouraged – I was still a little excited because it was an MMO releasing on every platform this year – and NPIXEL, the developers behind the game have every intention of releasing it globally.
Now, fast forward to a few days ago, NPIXEL’s CEO announced that the company has received significant funding with the development of future games in mind. Billions of won, moreso than almost any other company in South Korea has received in Series A funding.
Seriously, the amount of funding was arguably some of the largest ever seen in South Korea, and this is partly due to the success of their previous game, Seven Knights.
While, yes, Seven Knights was a mobile game – NPIXEL are interested in expanding into other areas of gaming, and onto other platforms as part of their expansion goals. Thus their intentions of releasing Gran Saga cross-platform.

The company wants to grow and transition from a small mobile developer into a much larger gaming company with a significantly larger, more successful lineup of games across every platform they can release onto.
Who knows, NPIXEL look as though they might be trying to take on Pearl Abyss and Smilegate. While unlikely it’ll really be able to push out titles with the same quality, that’s a solid starting point.
So, the information I’m sure you’re all waiting for is the announcement that yes, Gran Saga is expected to release this year, and yes it is expected to release globally, but more importantly, NPIXEL revealed one of several new MMO-related and non-MMO related projects, “Project S.”
No information has been revealed yet as to specifics for the game, but we can be sure that NPIXEL have a couple exciting MMOs in the works with planned global releases sometime in the future.
If we’re lucky, we won’t have a repeat of Lost Ark, instead, having South Korean developers beginning to plan for Western releases concurrently with their own local releases.

South Korean MMOs always look incredible. The issue is that after they’re announced, they do one of 2 things.
They either release in South Korea after a year or two, with small teases for a global release lingering for years until the game dies in South Korea. They then release the game as a buy-to-play MMO in the West to try and milk us for as much money as they can.
Or, they just never release the game, because they feel as though the Western market just isn’t worth it for them to really invest into.
And I get it, I do. But the Western market is thirsty for MMOs and trust me, there are millions, tens of millions of us playing MMOs looking for and waiting for something really awesome to play.
Astellia Online did very well when it launched even though it was a pretty basic, pretty generic MMO.
I’m glad that, at least with regards to NPIXEL specifically, they have a large enough understanding of the genre to acknowledge the fact that we’re actually worth considering when releasing an MMO.
And as such, they’re planning for global releases instead of a South Korean release exclusively.

While Gran Saga is their first large-scale PC MMORPG, I have hopes that over time they might very well end up producing some good games. Who knows, Gran Saga, or maybe even Project S or one of their other planned projects might end up blowing us away.
All we can do is wait and see.

Nevertheless, as stated, 2020 is looking to be a pretty awesome year in terms of releases. I’m very excited to see what else the year has to offer us.

I did a video on Genshin Impact last week, talking about how excited I was for it – it was an upcoming multiplayer RPG that looks and plays incredibly well.
Genshin Impact is also a little unique, in so that it is built around and is simultaneously launching both on PC and mobile devices.
But this week I have even more exciting news, depending on if you’re a fan of the former game’s choice of platform of course. NPIXEL, a new South Korean developer revealed the first trailer for their upcoming MMORPG: Gran Saga.
The trailer didn’t showcase actual gameplay, only pre-rendered cutscenes so we’re still a little ways off before we’re fully capable of discerning the kind of game it’ll be but so far I’m impressed.
At least graphically. One thing worth noting is that the developers consist of former Seven Knights staff – if you ever played Seven Knights or, heck had even heard of it then you’ll be well aware of it being mobile game.
So how will that experience translate to Gran Saga? Let’s see.

NPIXEL initially announced that Gran Saga would be built using Unreal Engine 4 – and that shows. The game looks beautiful and the characters look incredibly high quality for an MMO.
However, they also mentioned that the game was being built for mobile devices in mind.. initially. When it was announced last month that’s what was stated.
Now, as of the trailer reveal, NPIXEL claim that the game will be launching cross-platform, across both mobile devices and PC, meaning that the game, much like Genshin Impact is going to be playable on your PC as well.

That is both reassuring and disconcerting.
See, Genshin Impact on PC plays very well. I’ve seen tons of gameplay from the game and it looks and plays like a console game. But that’s not exactly common.
Look at Caravan Stories. That was a highly anticipated mobile game that launched cross-platform onto PS4 and ended up playing like absolute garbage, being auto-play and full of microtransactions.
NPIXEL claims that the game will feature “console level graphics” and “epic narratives” – honestly, from what I’ve seen from the trailer, that isn’t untrue.
Unreal Engine 4 really allows for devs these days to produce some truly epic looking games. But at the same time I hope that isn’t all this is – all visuals and no substance.
We’ve been given a little in the way of story: Adventurers travel the world seeking out the powerful Gran Weapons.. and that’s it. I guess you’re one of the adventurers?
Another thing worth noting, while we’re on the topic of characters and story, is the fact that.. well, there are characters.
Are the male and female characters you see in the trailer just characters created as a stand-in for the player character, or do you play the game – which has been confirmed to be an MMORPG – as an already pre-designed character?
Because honestly that’s a little weird. I’ve never played an MMO where I don’t have the opportunity to create, or at the very least edit the character I’m playing as.
Not that I’d be against it if that’s the route they take but it’s an unusual approach.
Maybe it’s more like Blade & Soul, where there are a plethora of actual, story-centric characters and you take on the role of an unnamed adventurer helping these characters achieve whatever goal it is we’re actively attempting to achieve.
I guess in future trailers we’ll find out more, or whenever NPIXEL reveal additional details.

Another curious point of discussion.. Thus far, 4 characters have been announced with additional characters planned out for the future.
If the goal is to have recruitable characters, does that mean it’ll be taking an approach like Genshin Impact, where you recruit characters to join your party and deploy one party member at a time?
Will it mean that we’re going to have several different party members out in an open field itself, all doing their own thing?
Or is the combat going to be entirely different and feature something more akin to turn-based instanced combat, where you do battle on a separate field?
Nothing pertaining to combat has been revealed yet so these are all very important questions to ponder, but the little bit of information they’ve given thus far provides a slight glimpse into what they’re planning.

Finally, they provided images for all 20 Gran Weapons obtainable in-game. Not only are all 20 weapons different weapon types, but they all feature a unique character associated with them.
But they aren’t.. traditional looking characters, leading people to believe that they’re instead some kind of pet, spirit or something connected with the weapon in question.
Honestly they all look pretty sick.

And that’s pretty much everything we know.
I’m excited because it’s going to release on PC. I’m less excited that it’s going to release on mobile devices as well but I know that cross-play compatibility is a good thing as it opens the game to a larger population of players.
Whether or not the game turns out to be good remains to be seen. But to automatically assume it’s going to suck is just ridiculous.
So I’ll add this to my list of “excited-for-but-still-cautious-of” games. Regardless, I’m still incredibly hyped by it because it looks like a very high quality Anime MMO – and we need more of those.
Even if the mobile version sucks, I hope the PC version doesn’t.