This TERA Classic is a mobile version that has been licensed from Krafton (formerly Bluehole) and is being developed by Longtu Korea (a subsidiary of Chinese mobile development company Lantu Games).  Kakao Games will be publishing the game only in South Korea (no plans made for other regions at this juncture).

This is how Krafton is monetizing the TERA franchise/brand; by essentially milking it on mobile via several different licensing agreements.  TERA M was developed and published by Netmarble in 2017 with less than stellar results in South Korea.  That version took place in a different time period set 1000 years before the events of the PC version of the game.  Earlier this year, Netmarble announced plans for TERA Origin in Japan (which seems to be a re-worked version of TERA M for the Japanese market which is being handled by Krafton’s SQUALL subsidiary).  TERA Frontier is the mobile title being worked on by Krafton’s Red Sahara Studio subsidiary (and will also be published by Kakao Games in South Korea).  Red Sahara Studio was previously a private mobile developer that licensed the TERA IP from Bluehole to recreate the PC version of the game on mobile (same game world, same story, same time arc).  Bluehole later acquired the company and brought it into it’s Bluehole Alliance (now known as the KRAFTON Game Union).

For TERA Classic, Longtu Korea intends to recreate the game world, combat, and game systems of the PC version of TERA while having a completely new story (this is what differentiates this version from TERA Frontier).  Kakao Games has a basic site online with a short trailer (no specific launch date mentioned).

It remains to be seen if any of these newer projects are actually successful to the point of giving new life to the TERA IP since that is the only way the PC version will see any benefits (where Krafton sees a renewed reason to invest further in the franchise on PC since the existing version is based on extremely outdated server/client technology).  Investment in PC MMO design and development in South Korea has essentially ground to a standstill since most of the venture capital money has been going into mobile development since 2015ish (where most of the revenues have been).

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).