GRAN SAGA Global Confirmed | 2023’s Biggest Anime MMORPG?

GRAN SAGA is an MMO I’ve been actively talking about since its announcement. It was one of the 4 larger Anime-related MMOs I was most excited for. Genshin Impact, Blue Protocol, Tower of Fantasy and GRAN SAGA.
3 of these ultimately ended up turning into MMOs. 2 of them released Globally. Blue Protocol is releasing Globally this year, and GRAN SAGA was just confirmed to be receiving a Global release as well.
Honestly, I couldn’t be happier. I love Anime games. I love Anime MMOs. They’re one of my favorite types of MMO in the entire genre. With Tower of Fantasy having released just a few months ago, Blue Protocol and GRAN SAGA both releasing in the near future – there’s going to be a lot of variety for Anime fans.
And given GRAN SAGA isn’t some cheap, exploitable, bug-ridden Chinese game like certain other releases in recent memory, rather, a more polished Korean MMO, it might stand a better chance of succeeding where others have failed in the past.
But what is GRAN SAGA, and when specifically is it going to be releasing?

GRAN SAGA was announced back in 2019. I did my first dedicated video on the game on November 26th, 2019, I think the very same day the trailer for the game dropped.
I was excited because it was touted as being a fully and completely open-world Anime MMO, allowing you the freedom to traverse the world at your own pace, with no boundaries.
At that point, we didn’t have any Anime games that really did what GRAN SAGA promised. Genshin wasn’t released. It hadn’t even held a Beta test yet.

Fast forward to 2021, GRAN SAGA officially rolled out in Korea. Within its first 3 weeks of service, the game managed to earn an incredible $100 million dollars, absolutely shattering records.
This is from a studio – NPIXEL – with no history of developing video games. Rather, GRAN SAGA was their very first title, and it had taken the Korean MMO market by storm, destroying its competition.
But it remained a Korean exclusive for a very long time, before releasing in Japan. Because.. you know. Japan loves Anime so it was the logical next market. This left Western players hoping we’d be next.
And admittedly, that seems to be the case, as the studio founder released a statement on Twitter going on to confirm the following:

“The global version of Grand Saga is being prepared. It will come out after many parts have been fixed in the current service version. It will be released when kindness, convenience, and content quality are maximized. Everything will be reflected in the Korean and Japanese version”

And no, GRAN SAGA, the MMO that we’re discussing in this video, is not an NFT project, and has no Blockchain or Crypto BS in it. The Tweet was in reference to a Tweet concerning another MMO project currently in development sharing a similar name: Gran Saga: Unlimited.
I’m going to do a separate video on that in the near future, but the 2 games are completely disconnected. They share the same intellectual property, but like Final Fantasy games, they are otherwise set in completely unique worlds.

While GRAN SAGA has been relatively well received – it wouldn’t have made nearly as much money if it wasn’t, NPIXEL’s founder confirmed there are still some areas of the game that need improvement. They are currently in no rush, and would rather the game be perfect before releasing to Western players.
I cannot stress enough how important this is that they are taking the time to reflect on where the game seems to be operating poorly, and are making adjustments to it accordingly in an active effort to provide a better experience for players in not only Korea and Japan, but also outside – us.
Tower of Fantasy is a prime example of an MMO that rushed its release – both in China and Global, and we were met with the same bugs, the same exploits, the same hackers. And look where it ended up.
If GRAN SAGA has any chance of success, it is going to be tied to how well received it is in its initial week of release. Having glaring bugs that even the studio founder recognizes will tarnish their reputation, and that seems to be something they’re conscious of.
As such, no release date – or even year – was given for the Global version of the game.
All we were given, was a direct confirmation that the Global version of the game is currently in the process of being localized. But they are making alterations they deem are absolutely vital, alterations that will be reflected in current versions of the game, before they finalize anything.

GRAN SAGA, much like Tower of Fantasy, is a cross-platform Anime MMO that allows players to – essentially, obtain weapons in the form of Gran, with every Gran having their own unique look and abilities tied to them.
What this means is that there is no holy trinity or class system. Rather, every class takes on the form of a weapon, and weapons are both earned in-game, and obtained via a Gacha system.

GRAN SAGA has the potential to be a fantastic MMO. But it carries just as much chance of the opposite.
And while I’ve covered this game – both the good and the bad, I’m hoping for the best. We need more variety in not only the MMO genre, but also the Anime subgenre, and this could be another chance to lose yourself in a gorgeous Anime world.