5 exciting Korean games to keep an eye on

We’re always excited about the promise of games developed right here in Asia, and as the recent G-STAR conference proved, South Korea has some good ones. If you’re interested in Asian games at all, here are 5 upcoming Korean games that should definitely be on your radar.

1. Peria Chronicles

Peria Chronicles is an anime-themed MMO from South Korea’s ThingSoft. That might sound cliche, but the game has a very unique feature: players can modify, build, and destroy terrain in the game. That’s right: come to a canyon you can’t jump across? You’ll be able to use your powers to build a bridge. It’s worth noting that the game also looks gorgeous; ThingSoft has gone with a cel-shaded art style that really makes it feel like an anime world while still keeping things looking quite sharp.

Here’s a trailer that explains a lot more about the terrain-shaping aspects of the game, with English subtitles from WWGW (click the settings button in the video below and switch Annotations to “On” to see the English subs):

2. Tree of Savior

Formerly known as Project R1, IMC Games’s Tree of Savior is an open-world MMORPG that’s meant to be the spiritual successor to Ragnarok Online. There are lots of features to recommend in Tree of Savior, but Ragnarok fans probably only need to hear that it’s being developed by Kim Hakkyu, who was also the lead developer of Ragnarok Online. The game also has a pretty unique cutesy art style, which you can see more of in the trailer below (no English subs, unfortunately). Tree of Savior should be starting its first closed beta early next year.

3. WolfKnights

Speaking of upcoming games by Kim Hakkyu, there is also Wolfknights to look forward to. It’s also an MMORPG, but it sports a much more realistic art style and a unique gameplay twist: its PvP combat borrows elements from MOBA games like DOTA and League of Legends. The game is broken down into two-hour seasons, and after each the game world resets, eliminating the grind of persistent-world MMORPGs and the need to keep up with bots and gold farmers, and the burden of feeling like you have to hang on to items forever. There are rewards to be gained from each season that will benefit you in the next one, though, so the game still offers plenty of reasons to keep playing. Here’s what WolfKnights looks like in action:

4. Elforest

Elforest is an online MMORPG from East Interactive that’s based on the story of Journey to the West. There are, of course, a ton of Journey to the West games already, but Elforest plans to set itself apart from the pack with a card collecting system that allows players to collect the cards of various characters and then transform into those characters for battle. Plus, the game’s art style is based on European fantasy art, so it’s a rather new way of looking at the Journey to the West story. In the trailer below, skip to about 1:28, where you’ll start seeing what some of the action in the game actually looks like.

5. Black Desert