Neowiz announced this rebuild project a few days ago on their official forum.
This article has a translated breakdown of the above.
Color me skeptical since one part of the technical issue is one shared by many Korean MMO’s when it comes to netcode that isn’t designed to handle higher levels of network latency (due to deployments that cover larger geographic regions).
That foundation needs to be addressed first since everything else that is layered on top of it will be affected including how the combat feels in real time.
The issues they mentioned about character growth pretty much points to what they mentioned they are considering; a complete redesign (in effect, a new game). About the main thing that will be salvaged are the assets (audio and graphics) and animations (which weren’t all that great to begin with). Visceral and impactful combat is something that is going to cost them money to do from a production standpoint let alone adding “new” content.
The problem with all this however is the clock is ticking and those same graphics may also end up being outdated by the time this rebuild is ready for actual release. Revising them is going to add to the costs.
Inventory cluttering materials for equipment growth from gathering systems are another common design issue with Korean MMO’s. It’s not in their design mentality to create more streamlined systems since these designers were naturally exposed to many other Korean games where this was the norm.
This has always been the main crux of the issue where there are constant misunderstanding of the finer nuances of what western gamers prefer when it comes to how these game systems are implemented. Additionally, many Korean MMO’s were designed and optimized for gaming netcafes (something I covered before).
I have my doubts this will be anything like a Final Fantasy 14 reboot (that is a big franchise with a reputation that was worth saving and thus making the game right made sense). This if anything seems more like a last ditch attempt (stalling for time for their investors) to try to rebuild the game to hopefully cash in on “us western suckers”.
It’s why I am cynical about early access and kickstarters now (there was a time where crowdfunding games was a good thing but like so many things, it has gotten to the point of being abused since most of them would not past the initial venture capital vetting process when the pitch is made).
For this particular game, wake me up in a couple of years time.
