Elsword, despite being one of the most played Anime MMOs on the market, is still kind of an unknown around these parts. We caught up with KOG Studios out in sunny California to chat about the action MMORPG and what it’s all about. Read on!
MMORPG: Many of our users may not be familiar with Elsword, despite its popularity. Could you please give us a brief introduction to Elsword?
KOG: Elsword is a dynamic, high-speed and highly stylized action game that is easy for any and every one to enjoy; a global online action MMO phenomena with explosive, colorful playability yet simple to control.
Elsword features flashy effects and excellent tactile feedback. The game allows a player to simply mix and match customizable action key input to show off their own unique combos, or master the heavily skill-based linking of the myriad of skills available.
In addition to all of the action, playing and developing various characters and their respective Job Classes are the other entertaining RPG features of this game. It’s almost as if you are watching an anime in just playing the game.
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MMORPG: Many users can consider Elsword as an animation-style game by the look of it. Which player base does Elsword serve?
KOG: Elsword is basically an Action MMORPG, which serves players who like Action and RPG as well as anime.
MMORPG: Is Elsword based on any existing anime?
KOG: Actually, it’s the other way around. Elsword, from the ground up, is an original concept and story created by KOG. The story caught on in a big way with players around the world through the game. And now, anime and manga have been published since then.
MMORPG: What inspired Elsword’s art style? How was the style set?
KOG: The overall design and aesthetic of Elsword was initially inspired by Japanese animation. However, beyond the genre or medium, that’s where the similarities stop. As you may have noticed, Elsword has a very characteristic art style. Starting from the playable characters and lore to UI/UX designs, our designers have found inspiration in what we love, but always create within our own unique style.
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MMORPG: What is the most important part in making Elsword?
KOG: We put a high value on the expectations and satisfaction of our players: How can we insure that they have fun playing Elsword (first and foremost)? Are they satisfied with the core content and gameplay? Will they look forward to future updates? These questions are presented to the team and represent the very nature of our development process.
As we like to consider Elsword an online, MMORPG, we think it’s important to do our best to drive our players to play together. We believe that the true nature of an MMO is that having fun playing together will always be better than winning alone.
MMORPG: Have you had any difficulties in developing Elsword?
KOG: As the game has been serviced globally for almost 10 years, we are always met with one particular challenge: The various player preferences, backgrounds and tastes: From the players that have been with us from the beginning to the players that have just joined us, keeping both the vets and the newcomers happy while acknowledging the ever-changing topography of the online MMO game industry. As well, we do our best to acknowledge and design content to cater to the vast and various player interests from all of the different countries that play Elsword.
The intricacies of that topic alone present a whole conversation in and of itself. It’s always a challenge for us to bring all of these players together and design a game that they can all enjoy, play together and most importantly, have fun.
