Since my Discord Nitro subscription was going to end soon (and I wasn’t planning to renew it given my ongoing de-platforming objectives), I decided to use a server boost (part of that Nitro subscription) for the AAEmu Discord as thanks for what this project has managed to provide to date (a mostly playable version of the 2014 launch version of the game). I ended up learning that boosting the server unlocked a “Booster Club” channel where one of the project developers has been working on a fork from the publicly available 1.2 version (which is much farther along in terms of working main story/race quests and content).

This developer had been previously working on a 3.0.3.0 version but depreciated that in favor of 5.0.7.0 (Relics of Hiram release which launched in November 2018). This includes all races (that had been released), their home zones, and zones opened on Auroria all the way to the Western Hiram Mountains. It uses the game client from the AAFree (ArcheAge) private server (which uses a modified encrypted game_pak file that also seems to have a lot more items like decor and buildings backported to it). I did a quick check and it looks like buildings like the Beanstalk House are in the game; I was able to spawn a full-kit in-game (doing a quick check, this design was released in early 2019 for a limited period of time).

Before shooting myself in the foot (by just downloading the latest files, trying to set it all up, and running into errors because I missed important stuff that had been posted), I read the channel from first post to last for that purpose AND to just to take in the progression that this part of the project has managed to achieve. I learned that most of this development fork began last August and is definitely more challenging without fully decrypted databases (which allowed 1.2 to get further along in recent years).

Once I had caught up reading an years worth of posts/information, I proceeded to setup the server in my ArcheAge virtual machine (running in the same one as AAEmu 1.2). I ran into just two errors (forgot to add the client data game_pak location into the configuration file and didn’t have the other compact SQL file for the server downloaded and copied into the data directory). Once I dealt with these two oversights, the game server started without a hitch.

I then setup the launcher for the game client and took the step to register and update the client from AAFree.to by using their launcher. Once that was all completed, I fired it up. And yes, the wave of nostalgia hit me when I saw that both the Dwarf and Warborn races were available in the character creator. Official ArcheAge has been closed since June 27, 2024 and back then, I didn’t expect to see an emulator that would allow me to at least rebuild my characters and properties. But here we are a little over an year later with one of the best surprises during a time when I have no desire to play most any online only title (the occasional Genshin Impact being the one exception). Let me be more blunt; I have no desire patronizing/spending money with the greedy gaming industry. But I digress.

Surprisingly, my character customization presets from post 2017 for the dwarf still worked (presets for the other races from that same time period unfortunately didn’t as some slider parameters had changed) and I was able to recreate my main character from the Unchained days (when I began playing on the western Nuia faction). Nonetheless, being back in a much more complete version of the open game world again gave me literal chicken skin. I was already satisfied with what 1.2 provided but this is icing on the cake.

The fact that main story quests (MSQ) and racial quests aren’t fully working (as of the September 2, 2025 build of the 5.0.7.0 server emulator), doesn’t really bother me. As noted in prior writings from 2019 with ArcheAge Unchained, my game play was primarily as an “in-game potato” with mainly the exploration, property and vocational parts being my main activities. What currently exists suffices and will allow me to re-engage with that part of the game completely free from the greedy publishers monetization (cash shop) and free from the basic grind (for leveling, vocation, gold, etc).

Using GM commands, anything available for this build (or whatever has been backported) can be spawned in. The build command can be used for building designs that have no full-kit, etc. I’ve already set the property tax period to be an year (I guess I could set it for longer if I wanted to) where I can build out housing zones over time. I should emphasize that this part of the game provided an entertainment outlet for the final 5 years of the game. Having it available again in an emulated fashion is definitely one of the unexpected highlights for this year (I am glad I decided to boost the AAEmu Discord server when I did the other day and plan to remain subbed to Nitro for at least the next year just for this perk).

Version 1.2 (the client is from October 14, 2014) is currently the main development target for this emulator since they have the decrypted databases for them.  I’m running the last pre-complied server package from May 2025 (but updates are being made daily to the repository where you can build those development versions for ongoing play testing).

This server emulator itself is also lightweight (it doesn’t have a lot of that publisher and business backend baggage like an official build would have (including all of the load balancing/scaling). There are some quests that are missing, mobs that are stacked on top of each other, achievements don’t seem to work, etc, but these are minor issues.

1.2 pre-dates a lot the game that was associated with it for most of its life (no heroes, no hero halls, no dwarf and warborn races, no community centers, rudimentary trade, many zones still closed off, etc).  For Auroria, only the Diamond Shores area (faction bases and Ayanad Library area) and hostile zones of Sungold Fields, Marcala, Calmlands, Heedmar, Nuimari, and Exeloch are open (the camp in Reedwind is there but the rest of the zone is a lot of placeholder terrain).  Mounts, pets, vehicles, ships, gliders work properly.  Nonetheless, it is still cool to have an older build with the original game world where you can experience good portions of the early environment of ArcheAge.

I spent some time exploring the unfinished areas; it’s pretty interesting to see how those locations ended up turning into those zones during their release (like Golden Ruins, Whalesong Harbor, Western and Eastern Hiram Mountains in later versions). Even in the live version, I never got a chance to explore a lot of areas on Haranya and Nuia (higher mountain elevation areas by gliding from airship routes) so this will give me the opportunity to do that leisurely/peacefully.

As for actual official server binaries, those are in the hands of a small group (mainly the folks that run ArcheRage) and will likely never see the light of day because actual huge sums of money was paid out for several builds (effectively an inside job by someone who had access to them at mail.ru) starting from at least the version 5 (I beleive 6 and 8 were also acquired). Every other private server is running an emulator (forked from this open source version including some private projects that have forked it to recreate more of the 3.0x release).

Incidentally, it is unclear whether or not Astrum Entertainment (which took over the titles that had been previously serviced by MY.GAMES including ArcheAge Russia) is actually continuing to run the game with an valid publishing contract. Not only did XLGAMES end publishing in South Korea, development also ended in March 2025. People have rightfully pointed out that Astrum Entertainment continues operating Revelation Online, a game that NetEase ended development and was shutdown in March 2024.

If this is like a VALOFE VFUN type of setup (continuing to operate no longer developed titles under modified licensing agreements in what is mostly maintenance mode/limited changes associated with database changes), then I can see. But this will eventually become known as time goes on.

On a related note, XLGAMES “teased” a while ago they would eventually be open sourcing ArcheWorld (which is that blockchain-crypto-NFT laden fork of ArcheAge). IF that ever comes to pass (which I personally sort of doubt because why would they open up that pandora box), that would obviously help towards developing later versions of the game. However, that message was directed at their ArcheWorld customer base (basically to keep them captive for as long as possible with that game).

For myself, 3.x server emulation would be good enough since I don’t care about the PVE and PVP game play or the gear. Just having all races available, their starter zones, and enough housing/decor (where some later ones could probably be back ported) would satiate the way I had played the live versions anyway. The following was mainly driving to Two Crowns from Marianople, then gliding/riding to one of my favorite spots (Two Crowns Moonswept Homes housing zone).

I didn’t record it but I also managed to glide up into the Aubre Cradle zone (since this 1.2 client has those areas inaccessible via their normal routes). The designers had most of that zone completed along with most areas of Airain Rock (Andelph didn’t have all its textures and lighting setup completely though). Sunbite Wilds (Warborn home zone) however was really mostly placeholder textures with a few spots that looked like test environments.

Serious kudos to the folks working tirelessly on this project and keeping good portions of this game preserved.

The key tidbits was that XLGAMES is calling it an OARPG (online ARPG) versus MMORPG primarily because they are emphasizing more of the single player journey within that larger open game world (which takes place 50 years after the setting in OG ArcheAge). Most of the multiplayer and large scale PVP gameplay is being made less of a priority (like PVP zones are no longer a mandatory thing that the story lines take a player through. As noted before, ArcheAge was shutdown in NA/EU in June 2024 and was also sunset in its home country of South Korea earlier this year.

To keep this short, I’ve chronicled some of my ArcheAge game play on this blog. It was mostly a solo adventure in this same style which XLGAMES is pushing with Chronicles. With Unchained, the majority of my time in game was managing my properties and tending to crops (adventuring around whenever I felt like it). Most of the PVE and PVP stuff I rarely engaged in. And the games story was uninspiring anyway so it was only later (like in 2023) when I finally completed the Hiram Mountains storyline in Auroria.

Thus I’ve long been playing OG ArcheAge (legacy, then Unchained, and the merged service) like an OARPG. While something like Chronicles would normally interest me, just knowing that Kakao Games will be running this is all I need to know how this won’t even have any sort of longevity close to what OG ArcheAge had (while all 3 NA/EU publishers were terrible in their own way, Kakao Games Europe ended up being the worst). Furthermore, Chronicles will be nowhere close to appealing to that toxic PVP crowd that helped to drive OG ArcheAge and Unchained into the ground. Thus it will require those other player demographics to keep the game alive.

The game will no doubt get the usual hype and traffic that new games tend to get (even with all of this recent industry backlash) whenever it does launch (it’s been delayed yet again according to Kakao Games latest Q2 2025 earnings conference call to Q3 2026). As I noted prior, I’m not going to play this (nor any other KMMO or to be more broadly specific, most online only games). Like many others, am looking at older offline titles and in my case, continuing to play around with various offline setups for TERA and ArcheAge (AAEmu emulator).

How quickly will the rug be pulled for ArcheAge Chronicles (aka ArcheAge 2)? Will it be Elyon’ed (1 year) or last close to a decade like OG ArcheAge was in the west?

ArcheAge – Termination of Service Notification – Steam News (https://t.co/pXkV0ECsCl)

— Murasama (@LordMurasama) September 25, 2024

Following is a screenshot if the above embed doesn’t work properly

UPDATE: I have since deleted my Twitter/X account (don’t want to be on a platform owned by a nazi like Musk).

Having spent the day prior to closure running around most of Nuia (west), I spent the last 2-hours taking one final look around mainly Mirage Isle before heading back to my property.  In-game, there was an actual pretty sunset happening at that time (so I just took in that view from the top of my beanstalk house).  This day/night cycle plus the open world housing were the main high points of the game for me.

There were players doing their own events heading into the close (one in Mirage Isle and the other in Diamond Shores), but I just wanted to see the game off peacefully on my property as I had originally planned.

Unlike Devilian and TERA PC where I recorded a lot of videos, I really didn’t do a whole lot of this for ArcheAge (including ArcheAge Unchained).  I know that part of this is because I didn’t take in a lot of the game (I didn’t do the ocean content, didn’t really do Auroria, and basically did not gear grind).  Pre-Unchained, I was the definition of potato (playing mainly east) until I quit in 2017.  Then it wasn’t until Unchained launched in October 2019 that I finally took part in the housing (what I primarily did in-game for what was the last 4.5 years).

As expected, the final moments of the game weren’t really a sad moment for me (but I do empathize with those who did feel devastated by the closing).  It was more of “it is really finally over” because as I noted before, this represents the closure I was hoping would eventually happen with gaming as a hobby (and more so with playing MMO’s).  I stopped playing Lost Ark a long time ago.  I have no plans to play Throne and Liberty.  Guild Wars 2 for me has been jump in/out (I haven’t played since the Inner Nayos map was released).  And while they aren’t MMO’s, I haven’t touched Tower of Fantasy, Genshin Impact or Honkai Star Rail in months either.  I really don’t miss much of it to be honest.

Like TERA, I have no intention of playing on any ArcheAge private server.  Then going forward into the future, I have absolutely zero intention of playing ArcheAge 2 (part of what I have to say about AA2 is in these two tagged postings while the rest is in the recent service termination postings).  Kakao Games Europe themselves as a publisher has also left a really “bad taste” (it was hard to imagine anyone could do worse than both Trion and Gamigo).  How rapidly they dismantled their Discord is telling; the leadership wants no trace of the feedback left since a lot of it fell on deaf ears.

I may eventually give the AAEmu a try (I previously thought that it wasn’t being worked on but as it turns out, there has been ongoing work for a few years where a lot more of the game actually does function based on ArcheAge 1.2) so that I can at least experience the game world and parts of the housing system that existed around that version (similar to how I’ve been treating my entire TERA Offline setups where only on a few occasions, I loaded all up to run it).

Unlike Devilian where the sense of loss was greater as the closing date arrived (especially due to the encounters I had in those final months), this feeling is barely there.  Part of that is due to when I first quit in 2017.  The other is because of that decision over the course of the 2023 (which began in 2022) that led to stepping away from gaming as a hobby starting in 2024.

I also stopped logging in to Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail.    I’ve barely kept up on anything gaming related; since April, the disengagement level has been to the point where I don’t really miss the whole thing.  But I finally did log back in to my two ArcheAge accounts and began placing whatever furnishings I had in chests, wherever.  I didn’t even take advantage of the free Erenor gear/items and free credits they gave out.

The only thing I want to do is record a few final videos of my properties and the decor that I had accumulated over these past few years along with my characters.  And then run around the game world one final time, park all of my characters in their respective house (if they have one), and then just be on my main (on each account) when the plug is pulled.  But I literally don’t feel any sadness that the game is coming to an end.  In many regards, I feel this moment has been long overdue (terrible developer and terrible publishers due to terrible executive/management decisions).  It also brings closure to that chapter of Korean MMO’s that ended up consuming a lot of my time and money over the past decade.  It would be nice if there was a viable emulator, but I’m also kind of ok with not ever seeing one.

On June 30, 2024, I will also recognize the two-year anniversary of the closing of TERA PC and marvel at how Krafton is still chugging along with TERA Console (with patches that are not groundbreaking, and just milking it until whatever contract with it runs out).

Steam Announcement.

Not surprising (since I was calling this back when the Asia region service was being terminated).  Additionally, there was the Korea MTN report that all parties tried to put a spin on; basically, the Asia region closure and the the ArcheAge Unchained and ArcheAge Legacy service merger was as also mentioned, just a temporary lifeline.  But the decision was pretty much already set in motion for NA/EU where the decision makers decided it would be a really short leash post-service merge.  The timeline was much faster than I expected though since I presumed, they would at least try to milk it until ArcheAge 2 was closer to being released (and they had the new area and fairy race slated for a Q4 release).

I knew they would be revenue starved post service merger because of all the Patron-less designs that would be brought in by Unchained players (it would require the bulk of legacy players to continue being the main income source which just wasn’t going to happen).

This also isn’t going to bode well for ArcheAge 2 (since Kakao Games will likely be the publisher given that Kakao Games KR owns a majority stake in XLGAMES; Kakao Games Europe is a subsidiary of Kakao Games KR) because of how poorly they handled the game ever since taking it over from Gamigo.

This also puts the nail in the coffin for my adventures in KMMO’s (I stopped playing Lost Ark, I don’t plan on playing ArcheAge 2, Throne and Liberty, or any other KMMO that is planned for release).  It also dovetails with my winding down of this gaming blog that started in January of this year (and just further cements this heading into an archived mode).

Kakao Games is running an “ArcheAge Sunset” event which basically is giving away Eternal Erenor equipment away for free on the marketplace.  And yes, their Discord is currently the most active that it has been in a while.

XLGAMES in the meantime posted an announcement to their KR community that business will continue as usual for the KR and Russian regions (how long this will last is anyone’s best guess) but I doubt this announcement will do much to increase confidence where it won’t have an impact on how much money those regions will continue pumping into the game (they basically just gave a reason to make players in those regions reduce what they would normally spend).

UPDATE (the day after): I decided to take the time to “read” postings on the official Discord (bad idea I know).  It of course is the standard “all stages of grief” that normally accompanies service termination announcements (though ArcheAge has long had a less than stellar community).  Then there are the usual suggestions that they sell the game to someone else.

That isn’t going to happen because XLGAMES has other titles in the franchise which they are making money off of (the other aspect is the pricing for the IP wouldn’t be attractive to any potential buyer who is also going to be looking at recouping that cost).  With the global version of ArcheAge War slated to launch on June 30th, it’s expected they will rake in the usual initial mobile revenues that normally happens (there is zero expectation for longevity since it is simply a quick cash grab and then rug pull).

As for why XLGAMES did not go the VALOFE (VFUN) route, it’s just a telltale sign that CryEngine 3 ArcheAge is likely going to be shelved in the future (RU and KR were highlighted as being regions they want to continue servicing is they are still likely meeting the performance metrics whereas JP is likely the next region that will get the axe).  As each year goes by, throwing engineering resources at an outdated design becomes less desirable.

Unlike TERA PC (which had several official server binary leaks that were widely disseminated a few years before Krafton announced they were ceasing development of it), ArcheAge doesn’t have any such widely available leaks given the large amount of money that was exchanged for what exists (one of the private servers).  There are several emulator projects (utilizing an older client build), but nothing that is what you could say is fully playable.  Myself, I have no interest in trying any of the private servers (so the game will be over for me once NA/EU goes offline in June).

The Kakao Games (KR) division of Kakao is also a huge underperformer, and XLGAMES is a small part of Kakao Games (KR) given their 53% majority interest; so the writing is on the wall with regards to the future of OG CryEngine 3 ArcheAge.

tldr; it is for the best that ArcheAge gets officially put to rest (and it is only a matter of time IMHO that XLGAMES will be forced to axe the entire thing).