Weighing in at under 8GB, I decided to give it a try.  And I quickly found it isn’t for me; the game just doesn’t have any sort of the dopamine fix that one would expect from something that is trying to carve out a niche in this particular genre.  The PC controls are passable (like Tower of Fantasy) given this game is also a mobile crossover, while the graphics are what one would expect of a title that is designed with this sort of crossover in mind.  I’m playing at 1440p with all the settings cranked up, and the visuals are ok (the opening cinematic and initial prologue looked way better as a hook compared to the actual reality once you are playing your actual character, where you can tell the assets are optimized for mobile devices).  This is despite what was mentioned in the KR unveiling video (linked in the above prior posting).  I doubt they have fully independent production pipelines for mobile and PC versus targeted optimization and tweaks when it comes to i/o control abstraction and visual elements.

I tried to play through at least the first few generic story quests (equipping what runes I got), but the game play is just lacking any sort of the “dopamine/gotta keep playing” fix.  So I stopped.  I did have a quick glance at the cash shop and found it to be no surprise.  This is a free to play game that was obviously designed for the mobile market where this kind of shop is the norm.  Free to plays have to make money somewhere (one needs to accept “pay 2 <insert favorite term>” will be part of that monetization).

How UNDECEMBER compares to Diablo Immortal is something I cannot say since I haven’t tried the latter (and won’t in keeping with my decision to steer clear of anything Blizzard Entertainment until I see what takes place with the Microsoft acquisition, and how they handle company executives who are long part of a gaming industry wide problem).

What I do know is that isometric games no longer do it for me.  Lost Ark eventually made that abundantly clear to me where the exploration aspects of the game world, were all lost opportunity due to the decision to stick with the fixed quarter view camera.  Devilian was the last one I enjoyed, and that was made tolerable because it hadn’t completely excised the 3D camera and controls (WASD was still available alongside mouse controls; just the ability to rotate camera was missing).

UNDECEMBER not doing it for me is not primarily due to this aspect though; it’s the core game play loop that failed to keep me hooked.  Maybe this is the “you need to reach end game first to come to a better conclusion” aspect that some games have (which is normally associated with the difficulty level of the MSQ content being naturally scaled back to allow unfettered progression).  The problem is that a game like this should already have that low level hook and addictiveness to at least give you an illusion that things might be better there (including the ramp in difficulty).

I believe this game will have its fans who will stick with it, but it definitely is not a longevity candidate where it will have staying power past the 1 year point.  I guess we’ll see where the global version is 6 months from now (where I may try to continue my progression).

As of August 24th, the publisher (LINE Games Corporation) opened up their websites and social media for the game along with the press release (per Gamasutra).

ARPG and South Korean design/development are pretty much oxymorons because most designers trace their lineage from the large number of PC MMORPG’s that were developed for over a decade beginning in the 2000’s, until venture capital money in South Korea switched to funding mostly mobile games by 2015.  The design premise there is the usual MMO style linear progression.  When it comes to ARPG style games, they hit the mark on the superficial aspects (isometric camera and ARPG style movement and combat).  The pitch of undefined/unlimited classes and unlimited skills (the design objectives in order to reduce the reliance on the usual leveling and progression systems) is contrary to RPG’s where inherent limitations are part of the design.

Little information is also provided regarding actual items and how they are itemized (since that design will always influence the rest of the game systems).  Considering there is a huge rune skill system that seems to be the primary method of building out your character, I kind of doubt there is an actual deep itemization system in place (it will likely look more like items in most Korean MMO’s or probably be boring like how Wolcen’s items are).

The removal of auto play functionality for the mobile version is a start, but does not mean that it will translate into meaningful game play and combat.  Based on the linked concept trailer in the above linked Gamasutra press release, it screams mobile game ported to PC (sort of like Nexon’s V4).  Not saying it will be a bad game; if head to head against Diablo Immortal as a mobile ARPG, it may do fine.  But as a PC based ARPG, it likely will end up feeling like the mobile game port that it is.  With the slated launch date occurring within these last 4 months of 2021, their designs are pretty much cemented in place.  And this game will be like every South Korean developed RPG, designed with little consideration for western preferences when it comes to things like grind level or RNG.

If this comes across as jaded skepticism, I suppose this comes from all the recent years of actually putting in time in Korean designed MMORPG’s (and seeing them fail one by one or just barely hanging on with a niche population).  I often times enjoy the graphical/visual design of the characters and the game world but end up being less positive when it comes to the RNG failure based enchanting and cash shop mechanics (removal of QoL and convenience functionality which you can buy back from the marketplace) that is incorporated in the design.  I suppose we’ll eventually find out once this releases; I’ll be surprised if this has actual depth to it in terms of story, exploration, and game play.

UPDATE:  December 2021 Unveil for January 2022 KR Release