Having started the closed Beta for Korean action-based MMORPG HeroWarz, developer KOG Games have released details of some of the changes they’ve made for the global edition of the game. By enhancing the most fun elements and improving on anything they felt was lacking, they promise an even better version of the MMO for the world’s players.
One change is that players will be able to customize how a given character plays through the use of passive skill enhancement items. Each character may be designed for a given role in combat, but through the use of these items, the player can change a character into a protective role for the other players, have them smash head-on into an enemy for direct damage, or have them work crowd control with AOE damage. It’s entirely up to the player, and can be changed on the fly with a gear loaded switch.
The developer’s also spent time revamping and rebalancing the abilities for the game’s playable characters. Their focus wasn’t solely on their gameplay abilities, as they’ve also worked to better showcase the backstory of each of these people, from the warrior whose hands were mangled by his own command to the shaman who controls ghost whenever he’s not indulging his interests as a foodie.
Many of these characters were inspired by childhood activities the developers got into as children. Princess Ara was created from the developers’ memories of playing in water parks and shooting each other with squirt guns as children. Bi-Gwang came about from the sense of pleasure they felt from flipping a card and slamming it down during Hwatu, a card game. While also creating some characters out of gun, sword, and hand-to-hand fantasies, those childhood sensations helped them create unique characters and playstyles.
The characters’ various stories felt like they were disconnected from the game to the developers, though, and so they’ve changed the focus of the game to hone in on story. They’ve improved the delivery of the narrative, reworking it to better immerse players in the HeroWarz world.
That story deals with Ibrahim, a young boy who could unknowingly manifest his dreams into reality. From there, it becomes a story of the destruction and recreation of reality, taking players to wildly different worlds. Players will find themselves in navigating a mafia-controlled marketplace, fighting sinister, yet hilarious creatures on the African Savannah, and wandering through a Wuxia-styled ancient China.
Each of the game’s locations will draw upon various folklores, comics, tv shows, and fantasy novels for inspiration for the stories that will be told there. Each place will have its own stories to tell, and through its varied inspirations from comic books, action movies, fantasy novels, and European and Korean mythology, it will take the player on many unexpected journeys.
The closed beta for HeroWarz will run until May 22.
