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Massively Exclusive: Grand Chase goes live on Steam tomorrow
Grand Chase is pursuing its way onto Steam on Thursday, July 17th, and you know what that means: welcome events. After all, when a free-to-play game shows up on a popular digital service, there will be a lot of new arrivals. New players can look forward to the Welcome Heroes event, which provides a free bundle of prizes to any one character on a player's account. They can also take advantage of the Character Jumping event, which allows everyone to kick a character straight to level 70 (the current cap is 85). A Steam-specific stat-boosting title is also available to everyone, along with new item packages. These packages include a new set of equipment with stats and a new pet, both of which have never been available elsewhere. If you're a long-time Grand Chase player or just can't wait to get a free-to-play brawler on your hard drive, take heart because the game will be available tomorrow. [Source: KOG Games press release]
Exclusive: Grand Chase unveils Season 5 update trailer
Grand Chase is kicking off its fifth season, and it's doing so via a series of big updates. There's a lot to the update, too, enough that it's got a trailer just past the break showing off all sorts of new features like dodging, new maps, and dungeon records. The game is also introducing the new Character Separation feature to kick things off, which sounds a bit painful but isn't meant to be at all. In essence, players who had unlocked and equipped all of the game's 19 characters would have to cart around a lot of gear in a single shared inventory based on who was being played at any given time. This new update divides up characters and allows you to store their items and equipment separately, a real boon for any prolific players. Check out the trailer and the full release just past the break.
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Elsword imports crossover character, Elesis, from Grand Chase
If you're a fan of KOG Games' Elsword or Grand Chase -- or better yet, both -- then this morning's character launch will be of interest. The studio is bringing Grand Chase character Elesis, who happens to be the sister of title character Elsword, over to the game named Elsword. There's some wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff in there, we're sure. According to the release, Elesis marks Elsword's first female melee character and a rare crossover promotion for the genre: "Elesis fights with steel and fire. [...] Starting her attacks by swinging her wicked fire-imbued Claymore, she gestures with her off hand for a flame-lash from below, all the while continuing to chain a sinister salvo of fire and blade attack combinations. [T]he more she attacks, the more powerful she becomes!" We spoke to KOG Games about today's new roster addition. Read on!
Try Grand Chase: Chaos' Rufus character free from Massively
Everyone loves freebies -- here at Massively we love getting them, but we love giving them too. The latest in our lineup of Goodies From Massively is a new item courtesy of the development team over at Grand Chase: Chaos. The developers have brought back the Nightmare Circus event and given us three hundred keys for the Rufus character. Ready to give him a try? Head over to our giveaway page to grab a code, then download Grand Chase and create a character if you haven't yet. Once you've done so, visit the game's coupon redemption page to use the key you got from Massively, then check back in to Grand Chase to find your item in your inventory. Enjoy, and thanks to the Grand Chase: Chaos team for the goodies!
SG Interactive launching GameRage portal
SG Interactive is in the news today thanks to its new GameRage online portal. Who the heck is SG Interactive? Well, the company was originally called Ntreev USA and is headquartered in southern California. Its portfolio includes Trickster Online, Grand Chase, and Pangya, as well as several other free-to-play titles. GameRage will provide centralized contests and events, giving players a sort of one-stop shop for all of the happenings across SG's catalog. There's also a mission zone which allows achievement comparisons across titles, and a reward zone where in-game event winners will be immortalized. GameRage is currently live, and you can sign up at the service's official website. [Source: SG Interactive press release]
Massively Exclusive: Elsword community Q&A, part the third
Part three of Elsword's Massively-exclusive dev diary is now available for your perusal. This time around, the devs talk about their long-term goals for the game, character favoritism, and the relation between Elsword and fellow side-scroller Grand Chase. Dash on past the cut for their answers.
Grand Chase heading into Chaos
Sidescrolling free-to-play games aren't everyone's cup of tea, but the genre has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years. Grand Chase is hoping to stand out a bit more from the crowd, however, with the game's upcoming major content update. Rebranding the game as Grand Chase Chaos, the update comes hand-in-hand with many of the features one would expect to see for a large patch, including the almost mandatory level cap increase along with some more unique features. The more fundamental changes to gameplay will come from allowing players to equip two weapons at once, as well as the new Fusion system to allow combining two items into a new one. Monster AI is also being improved to be more challenging, while dungeon flow is getting streamlined and rewards are being better displayed. SG Interactive is planning to release a trailer highlighting the changes in a week, but until then, we have a gallery including a few as-yet-unseen pieces of concept art. %Gallery-121298%
Take a first look at Elsword Online with Massively
There are quite a few side-scrolling action MMOs on the market today. As time goes along, they seem to get more and more over-the-top. Elsword Online is staying very much in step with this tradition, looking more like a violent cartoon than a video game. Still, we were happy to sit down with developer/publisher Kill3rCombo to smash some baddies. While there were a few initial technical difficulties and issues that prevented us from participating in PvP, we were able to run through the tutorial area and a few dungeons. If you are familiar with some of the other popular scrollers like Dragonica and games like Grand Chase (a game that was developed by half of Kill3rCombo) then you will be ready for Elsword. That is, until the combos start. Oh, the combos! %Gallery-120229%
Massively interviews Ntreev on rebranding to SG Interactive
Last month we heard that North American MMO publisher Ntreev USA was rebranding the company as SG Interactive. Originally established in Southern California in 2006, Ntreev was a relative newcomer to the MMO scene. It has since published the manga-esque free-to-play titles Grand Chase, Pangya and Trickster Online. The rebranding was announced alongside news that the company would be launching a new online portal and taking on board several new free-to-play games. For fans of Ntreev's titles, the news of rebranding brought about a few concerns. Would players lose their Ntreev points during the switchover? And with the addition of new games to the mix, would the existing games get less development time? We caught up with SG to get the lowdown on its recent rebranding, the direction the company is now taking, and what it all means for players. Skip past the cut for the full interview.
Ntreev rebranding as SG Interactive
Ntreev USA, the publisher behind free-to-play titles Grand Chase, Pangya, and Trickster Online, has announced a corporate rebranding as well as new games and an online portal. In a press release made public earlier today, Ntreev revealed that it has changed its name to SG Interactive and will be expanding to offer new online games and services through a portal that is scheduled to launch early next year. The portal will focus on existing F2P titles as well as several new games, the details of which will be announced before the end of 2010. SG Interactive, originally founded as Ntreev in 2006 and located in Southern California, was recently acquired by SmileGate, the Korean publisher responsible for Cross Fire. Be on the lookout for a Massively interview with SG Interactive coming soon.
News From the Wider MMO World: September 23, 2008
The MMO genre is more than World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online. Here's what's going on in the rest of the world.Secret of the Solstice gets new patch with new contentOutspark's Secret of the Solstice, the free-to-play fantasy MMO, has updated its client with a new patch. Available for both new players and veterans alike is a brand-new zone featuring new quests and a lush jungle landscape. Furthering the overarching storyline is a new initiative to pursue GM Alastor across the Emperonie Plateau and the Aserphel, Cretino, and Turmeit deserts. Finally, players can now view all of an NPC's available quests at the same time and choose which mission to undertake. Download the new patch at the SotS website.New Warlock class available to Grand Chase playersKOG and Ntreev, publisher of Grand Chase, the side-scrolling fantasy brawler, has announced an update to the character class known as Arme. Arme, in addition to her Mage and Combat Alchemist jobs, now has access to a third: Warlock. The abilities of the Warlock job include summoning the spirits of earth, wind, fire, and water, to produce spectacular effects and fight with greater power than ever before. Before deciding if you want to switch jobs to the Warlock class, make sure to check up on the job's requirements on the Grand Chase website.
News from the Wider MMO World: September 2, 2008
The MMO genre is more than World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online. Here's what's going on in the rest of the world.Dreamlords the Reawakening makes deal to move to RussiaLockpick Entertainment has signed an agreement with Akella Games, Russian distributors of Planetside, Everquest 2, and Pirates of the Burning Sea, to localize and distribute Dreamlords the Reawakening. "Our goal is to reach out to new audiences and the Russian market is fast growing and with Akella's expertise we're able to do just that," said David Rosén, CEO of Lockpick Entertainment. "We hope that collaboration between our two companies will benefit both parties and that such an interesting genre will draw gamer's attention" said Alexander Trifonov, Managing Director of Akella Online. Closed beta testing is expected to begin in early September. Pet Evolution Manuals debut on Grand ChaseThree different Pet Evolution Manuals are available at the shop in Grand Chase, allowing knights to evolve their pets at levels 0, 20, and 40. There will also be prizes for each knight that evolves and raises their pet to level 10. Prizes for winning pets include nutrient shots, pet food, gacha coins, and pet skills. Additionally, players who log on between the hours of 4 and 8 PM every day will receive double xp and double gp, in the Afterschool Adventure Hour.
Ntreev bringing arcade-style MMO to states
We're not even a month into 2008, and already it seems like there's a veritable deluge of free MMOs coming through the pipes. Joining this rising tide is a new title called Grand Chase from Ntreev USA (the folks behind Trickster Online), which promises to bring an exciting real-time arcade style combat system that will set it apart from the pack. Though the leveling system will be standard RPG fare, combat will focus on skills, combos, and item-use. It's worth noting of course that Auran was promising a similar basket of real-time goodness with Fury not long ago, and we all know where that got them.It's got kind of a funky anime look to it, which will no doubt endear it to a certain demographic and turn off another completely. The story, or at least the vague allusions to a story from the bits of information we've gathered, center on some sort of epic battle against an evil Queen of Darkness. How they plan to stretch that over dozens or hundreds of hours of gameplay isn't exactly clear, but we're sure they'll figure it out. If you want to see the game's zany eastern stylings for yourself, head on over to the official site for a bewildering video introduction.
