TERA M Launches in South Korea

Netmarble Games launched TERA M in South Korea on November 28th (KST). Bluehole licensed the development rights to a proven mobile game studio and unsurprisingly, Netmarble did a fantastic job with re-creating the essence of TERA in Unreal Engine 4.

Graphically speaking, the clarity and refinement is superior to what exists in the PC version (and along with that, the optimization that is sorely lacking). It truly does make the world of TERA look even more stunning (even though the story line and events for this mobile version takes place a thousand years before the PC version).

Rather than come up with completely new soundtracks, the mobile version utilizes the OST from the PC version which is fine by me since there are a number of tracks which I really enjoy hearing like Homecoming (Velika Theme) and Heart and Hope (variation of the same song with different tempos).

For anyone who has played Netmarble’s other licensed titles like Lineage 2 Revolution, the game play will feel familiar with auto questing/combat (instead of a 2.5D isometric camera, it’s a 3rd person view with full 360-degree camera rotation) in an open world setting where you see other players also running around.

Yes, mobile MMORPG’s do tend to be severely watered down and Netmarble’s “to a science” cookie cutter approach with the underlying core systems and mechanics, will eventually wear on this current trend of franchise owners trying to push them onto mobile platforms. What Netmarble is good at is capturing the feel of a PC MMORPG and the original IP they are licensing.

The recently terminated Devilian Mobile was a perfect example of PC and mobile versions sharing very little in common. Devilian Mobile was more or less a linear single player hack and slash that had no open world where you would see other players running around. Only arena and raids offered actual play with others. Similarly, ArcheAge Begins (published by GAMEVIL) deviates from the PC version of ArcheAge (and will likely end up having the same fate as Devilian Mobile).

TERA M is gender/race locked and strangely lacks a castanic race which were a focal point in earlier versions of TERA before (T)iny (E)lins (R)uled (A)rborea (joke intended). Unfortunately, mobile gaming touch input can never really properly convey one of TERA’s huge pluses which is its real time action combat. So while all of the visual cues are there (in much higher fidelity than the PC version), the hands on part of the combat is lost in I/O.

Will I play this when the global version launches? Of course. I’m just hoping that Bluehole sees just how much better the PC version would be if they redid the game in Unreal Engine 4 (which I know is going to be an expensive deal).