Dragon Nest is touted as being one of the greatest PvPvE MMORPGs in the entire genre. The remnants of the community – including players that quit many years ago continue to claim that no MMO does PvP better.
And while I never got to play Dragon Nest during its peak – providing me absolutely no insight into the validity of this claim, I can attest to the game being a fun title with some great quality action combat.
Comparable to Black Desert or Vindictus? Hardly. But a quality system nonetheless.

So when Park Jung Sik, the CEO of Hound 13 – who was also responsible for Dragon Nest revealed his studio’s latest game, titled Dragon Sword to the world with a full trailer, players lost it.
This is the spiritual successor to Dragon Nest – an MMO that has been in a stagnant stage for more than a decade. With some of the best looking combat in an Anime game, and multiplayer comparable to an MMO?
But don’t take my word for it. Take a look at it yourself.

Little is known about the game currently.
Is it an MMO? We sure saw a whole lotta players running around the large world together engaging enemies, running dungeons and raids. If not, is it going to offer a multiplayer experience that more closely resembles Dragon Nest, SoulWorker or PSO2? That, unfortunatley, is unconfirmed.
The game is labeled as an online action role-playing game – sharing the same term as Lost Ark and Blue Protocol. But also as Genshin Impact.

We know the game is going to launch cross-platform, much like Genshin, Tower of Fantasy and Wuthering Waves, on PC, Android and iOS devices. Will this inhibit the game? Possibly.
But given the quaklity of games of this specific type, it’s unlikely. This game looks gorgeous and definitely looks like it has exceptional quality combat. Which is to be expected given the studio behind it.

Unfortunately there is no confirmed release date for Dragon Sword as of January 2023. They also haven’t confirmed whether the game is going to have a simultaneous Global launch.
Will it be releasing Globally? It should be. More details about its Beta and full release will be made available as the year goes on I assume.
My hope is that it’s a true, full MMO but at the same time it probably won’t end up being. I can only hope, though.

Every person I’ve ever talked to that has played Dragon Nest for any length of time has told me that it was one of the best MMOs they’d ever played.

Today, we’re taking a look at Dragon Nest. This was arguably one of the most popular Anime MMOs of its time, providing players with some of the fastest most fluid combat, PvP and honestly.. some highly unusual animations.

I last played Dragon Nest in the middle of 2021. That was the first time in 5 years I’d logged into the game, and it had changed substantially in that period.
It’s been about 7, 8 months since then, and after logging in for the first time, not only was I presented with the most welcoming return
*show clip of returning*
But I was also gifted with even more powerful items. For reference, when I came back last year, I was given a powerful accesory that gave me tens of thousands of attack power, allowing me to 1-shot every monster, every boss up until level 70?
I stopped playing at level 87, and at the time, was 2, maybe 3-shotting bosses.
After coming back this time, I was given multiple additional pieces of gear that gave me hundreds of thousands attack power, and allowed for me to 1-shot bosses in the dungeon after the dungeon I was in. So I didn’t even need to run them.
I felt like Saitama. Just.. not bald.. and with booba.

This allowed me to catch up pretty rapidly, though. I proceeded to hit level 95 with absolutely no issue whatsoever, and due to that, no challenge.
This left me to do one of a few different things: Continue with the story, which took me to new areas, had me run dungeons I’d never run before, as I made progress towards hitting endgame.
Or I could pursue missions via the Mission Board. I could do my Awakening quests. Improve my class, unlock new skills.
But I was level 95 after what, less than 20 hours of playing the game? With a rudimentary level of understanding of my character, the systems present within the game, or, heck, the game itself.

Disregarding how overpowered I was upon my return, and how confused I was at this juncture, Dragon Nest is a great looking Anime MMO.
Aesthetically, it has a pretty unique style. Character models are more.. flat. Shaded. With less visible detail than in games like Aura Kingdom or SoulWorker.
But different games have different graphical styles, so it makes complete sense. The game-world is gorgeous. You’ll see enormous towns and cities, you’ll have epic fights with dragons, demons..

Speaking of combat, many players argue Dragon Nest has the best combat in the Anime scene. And I guess, let me preface this by stating that it doesn’t. That might be a contentious opinion – but we’re all welcome to our own, right?
I think games like SoulWorker and PSO2 New Genesis both have better combat in terms of an Anime MMO, but they also feel like completely different types of games.
Dragon Nest employs much more of a traditional action combat system. You bind your abilities to a variety of different keys, and have a fairly large hotbar, something that the 2 aforementioned games lack. SoulWorker is about binding a few abilities, and comboing them with other abilities.
PSO2 New Genesis has a very small pool of skills to pull from per weapon, but provides you the option of equipping multiple.
Combat in Dragon Nest feels pretty good – not over the top, with tons of special effects cluttering your screen but a little more tame.

Dragon Nest is a hub-MMO, meaning that combat always takes place within instances. The game itself isn’t entirely based around instances, however: Every town, every city, every zone is disconnected from one another via loading screens. But, with the exception of dungeons, the world allows for players to group up, to connect with and engage one another.
You’ll find players scattered around a variety of different areas. With the exception of the dungeons themselves, this looks and feels like any other MMO.
The bulk of the content though – dungeons, raids, PvP, are all instanced. Meaning that once you enter, you won’t be able to encounter other players. Grouping up, therefore, requires you formulate a group in anticipation of entering.
I think I moved through 6, 7 different towns in approximately 20 hours of playing, and each one not only looked incredibly unique, but were also very, very large. I couldn’t imagine this on an open-world scale like WoW.
The world itself, while very appealing aesthetically, and filled with NPCs and players.. still felt a little empty. I dunno if I’m the only one that feels that way or not.
There’s something satisfying seeing people out in an open-world partaking of the same content you are that just isn’t present in hub-MMOs.

This game, while it can feel a little empty at times, is absolutely filled with story. If you’ve been watching my videos, you’d know I dislike MMOs that don’t have a narrative. If there’s no story to follow, how are you supposed to become enthralled in the world you find yourself in?
How are you supposed to become attached to the different characters you meet? NPCs just become “generic old dude #1, generic booba lady #7, etc. etc.”
Look at Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft. XIV has players actively playing BECAUSE of the story. And WoW has players constantly complaining how bad its story IS. This is evidence to how important a story is in an MMO.
Most popular MMOs have a strong narrative: XIV, WoW, ESO, Guild Wars 2, Lost Ark. I feel though a lack of a story is a detriment to a game. And especially an MMO, where you’re required to continue playing for months, years at a time.
It’s part of the reason many people come back to these games when new content drop. And Dragon Nest.. well, admittedly, this game has a ridiculous amount of text. Much of it is exposition, and I feel like the vast majority of it likely could have been easily summarized in 1/10th of the time.
It’s actually so drawn out, that I spend much of the game holding spacebar to skip the 33 successive windows telling me I need to go kill a goblin before returning to another 20 windows telling me thank you.

As this is a hub-MMO, the amount of content is relatively limited comparatively to games that offer open-world features. There aren’t world-bosses. There’s no open-world PvP.
There are dungeons – which is the bulk of the game. There are also raids to run for players who want more difficult content to play. And more than that, the dungeons themselves have several different difficulties.
Each difficulty increase is quite substantial, and is the difference between 1-shotting dungeon bosses and actually needing to dodge an attack here and there while leveling.
There is PvP, but regardless of when I queued for it, I couldn’t seem to ever participate. Active players give me the impression that players participate at certain hours – hours that I don’t stream, unfortunately.
And.. well, realistically that’s all I’ve ever done. Beyond that, I don’t think there’s really much more to it. Is there? If there are other types of content, please do let me know in the comments below!

At the end of the day, Dragon Nest is a very fun MMO.
This game looks great – granted, its character creator leaves a lot to be desired, and its selection of classes can feel a little.. excessive, given multiple of them have the same character models, weapon types and general playstyle.
The combat is great, but not nearly as good as many players make it out to be. Which goes to show that nostalgia plays a large part on how people perceive games, both new and old.
It’s a hub-MMO, so content-wise, it’s very limited. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to do. I did find the gear they provided me to hit endgame as quickly as I did to be game-breaking. It made what is a fun, engaging game into something you pay 0 attention to.. because why would you?

Combat – 6/10 Honestly, for an Anime MMO this game has some pretty damn good action combat.
Graphics – 5/10 Graphically, the character models felt very flat, but everything else was vibrant and popping.
Narrative – 3/10 The narrative.. was excessive, and there was far too much exposition to enjoy.
World – 5/10 The world is pretty large. There are a plethora of different towns, cities and zones to explore.
Content – 5/10 If you factor in the sheer number of instances, then there’s an exorbitant number of things to do.. but disregarding dungeons and raids, there isn’t too much variety.
Overall – 24/50

Admittedly, Dragon Nest has a lot of things going for it. But at the same time, it has just as many things, maybe even more going against it, including a very low playerbase and accusations of extensive pay to win.
Have I seen it? Somewhat. Is it going to affect me if I play? Not at all. Unless I PvP. But I’ve learned better than to PvP in free MMOs. Not only is it unbalanced, but it’s just as unfair.

Dragon Nest in 2021… but why?
That’s what you guys are thinking. While streaming this, I saw people continue to come into the stream and state the same thing: “I thought this game was dead.”
No, no it definitely isn’t. Sure, I might have had more viewers watching than the game has active players, but that isn’t the fault of the game. That’s the fault of the team behind it.

Now welcome back to another episode of “Is it worth playing” – where we sift through every MMORPG available right now in an attempt to find the best MMORPG in 2021. Today, we’re taking a look at what is arguably one of the best free to play Anime MMORPGs available: Dragon Nest.
Because… well, it deserves an honest look in 2021.

Dragon Nest is over a decade old. It has long since passed its expiration date, yet players still remain determined to play it for as long as it remains online.
And even after having released well over a decade ago, players still cling to the opinion that not only does this game feature some of the best action combat in an MMO, but also has some of the best PvP.

So let’s start this off by talking about what kind of game this even is. I’ve covered hub-MMOs before. PSO2, Dungeon Fighter, SoulWorker, Vindictus. Yet Dragon Nest is.. a different title all together.
On the one hand, it is first and foremost a hub-MMO. There are a plethora of different “hubs” situated around the world. Each hub has its own selection of instances connected to it with their own set of level-appropriate dungeons to run.
Yet the instances are more.. open than what you typically find in a hub-MMO. Meaning you have more to explore. You have additional players to meet. It feels much more like a traditional MMO, in essence, then its competition.
Yet the core of the game is centralized around running dungeons. There isn’t really any purpose to exploring.

Thankfully, dungeons are… well, there are quite a few of them. Although occasionally they reuse a lot of assets, so you’re left with the feeling that you’re not really making much in terms of progression. Until you reach a new map, with new dungeons, new monsters and new bosses.
As there are a sizeable number of them, they’re varied quite significantly. Each map is made up of several different instances, that all share aesthetic similarities with one another, and are typically unlocked via the story.
The story plays a pivotal role in Dragon Nest. The game is absolutely filled with lore – admittedly, too much even for me. While I read through some of it, and watched all the cutscenes, I often found myself overwhelmed and subsequently skipping parts of it.
Although I do want to note… holy crap some of these cutscenes were ridiculously buggy. The narrative isn’t bad. The voice acting is atrocious, but the story itself? Easily passable.

But if that’s all the game had going for it, I daresay it wouldn’t have had nearly the same impact it ultimately ended up having in the genre. People regale me with stories of their hard earned victories over their enemies in PvP even to this day.
Admittedly, and I’m actually kinda disappointed to admit this, I never got to participate in the PvP. Either recently, or when Dragon Nest was a relevant title. I tried queueing for PvP in the past, but it just never popped.
I don’t know if this is due to the active PvP players being a fraction of what is already a very small playerbase, or that they just don’t participate in whatever it was that I was queueing for.

Either way, while I never got to participate in PvP, what I did get to experience was the combat. Which as I noted back at the beginning of all of this, many players rate as being one of the best combat systems in the entire genre.
And I hate to disappoint you all, but – and don’t get me wrong, for an Anime MMO, the combat was pretty good – but in terms of quality, comparing this to TERA, PSO2 New Genesis, Blade & Soul, Vindictus, Black Desert. It just doesn’t feel remotely as good.
These are games that have truly taken action combat in the MMO genre to a whole ‘nother level. Sure, for an MMO made back over a decade ago, the combat is pretty damn good. But making the bold claim that it is still capable of competing with these gargantuan titans? No.
The combat looks good – feels good. Abilities look good without seeming overly flashy. Animations fit and don’t feel overexaggerated like in some MMOs. And the combat flows well.
Everything fits together perfectly. I might even say that this is better than most other Anime titles out there.

One thing I didn’t like, though, was that at lower levels you’re given a ring that gives you 50,000 attack.. meaning I spent, what, 10 hours? 12 hours moving through the game with no challenge at all. I leveled all the way to level 70 before encountering an enemy or boss I couldn’t 1-shot.
Sure, I could 2-shot them, but seeing them survive a hit for the first time in days playing the game… was a thrilling experience. I almost had to do a double-take as I couldn’t believe something survived a hit from me.
I’m aware you’re not forced to equip items like this, and the higher in level you continue to get the more difficult enemies become. But by the time I finished streaming the game, I was already level 87? 88? And bosses still continued to take only a few hits to down successfully. And that was.. after 15 hours of playing? More?
How overpowered they make you feels ridiculous, but at the same time I completely understand why they choose this route. The low-level experience is atrocious, and the developers have no way of either speeding this up, or overhauling it to make it relevant.
So instead, they try and power you through it as quickly as possible. And while that’s definitely one way of handling it, I do believe that is killing the low-level experience. People love challenge in their games. The absence of any challenge whatsoever is damaging to player retention. Who wants to stick around to see if it gets any better?

✔️ Dragon Nest has great action combat for an Anime MMORPG.

✔️ There are plenty of unique hubs to explore with a large variety of different instances to run.

✔️ The game has a compelling narrative.

✔️ It also looks absolutely adorable. Sure, it shows its age, but man it still has that.. old-school charm to it.

❎ Yet unfortunately at times there feels like there is far too much clutter in the story that could easily by removed without consequence.

❎ The voice acting is atrocious. Like, really bad.

❎ As it is a hub-MMO it likely won’t appeal to everyone.

❎ You spend most your time grinding instanced content either solo or in a group. But there is little open-world content to participate in.

❎ The leveling process is far too fast in the early levels, resulting in a boring leveling experience that really should be overhauled.

❎ The playerbase is almost empty, and the game receives very little in terms of updates.

Ultimately, Dragon Nest is a pretty unique MMORPG. A lot of the game takes place within instanced areas, having you grind away endlessly. Yet the gameplay makes it a much more enjoyable experience.
The leveling can get old very fast, and I feel like I barely scratched the surface of the game in the 15 to 20 hours I spent casually playing through it.
This is a grindy game, but I feel as though at the end of the day, the grind might well be worth the time invested, especially if this is a type of game you genuinely enjoy.

Yup. After countless recommendations to do a video on Dragon Nest, Mrs Stix and I opted to finally download and stream the game. Thus far we’ve made it to almost level 30.
And small FYI – this is not in any way a “full review” of the Dragon Nest MMORPG – but more of a “part 1 first impression” of it, with us continuing to stream the game over on our Twitch channel.

Before we go any further though, what is Dragon Nest?
Whenever anyone talks about this game they mention how it utilizes one of the best action combat systems in an MMO – and for an Anime MMO, with the exception of PSO2 and Soul Worker, I’d definitely have to agree that this is one of the better real time action combat systems I’ve found.
Like the two aforementioned titles, Dragon Nest is also a hub-based MMORPG, providing a plethora of different instances you can run with a group of other players. These are quite varied, as are the quest hubs themselves.

Dragon Nest is a very fun MMO so far. We’ve only made it to approximately level 30-ish thus far and have only just begun to scratch the surface of the game, but we’re hoping to get to experience what makes this MMO so special to players.
There have been a ton of new updates since I last played the game several years ago with more than double the total number of classes available to players. Granted most of them are hybrids of already established classes, but it’s refreshing to see new classes in any capacity being released.
From what we’ve experienced, the combat is definitely of much higher quality than we’d expected – or in my case, remembered it being.
Graphically, the game definitely felt dated. There are many Anime MMOs that just look considerably better than Dragon Nest but this has its charm. Enough so where I can still get lost in the world and enjoy the game, its world, and the cutscenes, which admittedly are a little awkward at times.

Overall, Mrs Stix and I look forward to continuing our journey through the game and hope it continues to improve, getting better as we continue to make progress through it.

Alternate Title: Dragon Nest
Developer: Eyedentity Games
Publisher: Nexon
Type: MMORPG
Model: Free-to-play
Platform: PC
PvP: Arenas
PvE: Dungeons