Perfect New World Confirmed for 2023 Release

I know what some of you guys are thinking: “Oh, just what we needed. Another soulless, pay to win, trashy Asian MMO.” And you’d be well within your rights to assume that to be the case. Perfect World – this game’s predecessor, is every bit a trashy, Asian grind.
But you know what? At least Asia pushes out new MMOs. Without Asia, this genre would’ve grown stagnant a decade ago. And while I’m sure many of you would undoubtedly opt to have quality titles to play – new games – even mediocre or pay to win riddled MMOs, provide new opportunities to potentially have fun. Whether it be for a day, week or month.
Which is where Perfect New World comes in. Yes, this isn’t the Perfect World you grew up on. No. This is Perfect NEW World. Perfect World.. but new. If that wasn’t already clear. But I thought I’d emphasize if the context of the name was for whatever reason lost on some of you.
Perfect New World is taking what Perfect World was known for: Incredible character creation, an enormous, seamless open world without loading screens, great graphics – for its time, and overhauling it into what is arguably one of the best looking – at least graphically, MMOs on the immediate horizon.
Now I say “on the immediate horizon” because the studio behind it recently rolled the game out onto Steam, with a scheduled release date for – from what we’ve been told, some time in 2023.
And no, before we go any further, this is not releasing on Mobile. Rather, much like Blue Protocol and Throne & Liberty, this is releasing on to PC and consoles. No mobile cross-play functionality.

Perfect New World was first revealed back in 2021. They released a trailer that – at the time – showcased very little, and admittedly did not look like too drastic of an upgrade over its predecessor.
If I’m being entirely honest, the character models looked very.. jarring, and not at all similar to what we’d seen of Perfect World in the past. There was no confirmed release date at the time, nor any confirmation of a Global release.
Until earlier this week, when the studio released not only a brand new trailer for the game – which is absolutely stunning – and no doubt at least partially pre-rendered. But also revealed that not only will Perfect New World be releasing Globally, but it will also be seeing a 2023 release.

Perfect World – the original MMO from the mid 2000s, is known for its large selection of races and classes, along with its depth of character customization options.
Perfect New World however, sees a significant reduction in terms of classes and races, with players selecting from 3 races total, and 3 classes.
Perfect World locked classes behind races, meaning – as an example, if players wanted to play the Cleric or Archer you were forced to play the Winged Elves. Or if you wanted to play the Blademaster or Wizard, you were restricted to the Humans. Likewise for Barbarian and Venomancer with the Untamed, and all the new races introduced after I quit.
Perfect New World introduced 3 new classes to the intellectual property – the Berserker, the Mysticsword, and the Galeblade. These admittedly look like classes present in Swords of Legends Online and Justice Online – and are a significant improvement both in terms of aesthetic and gameplay over what was present in the 2000 incarnation of the game.
I’m unsure of whether the race and class restrictions will remain present – from what I saw of the footage, it did look as though the berserker remained what seemed to be the Untamed race, with the Galeblade, I think? The Human sword guy looked exclusive to Humans as well.
And while I don’t think classes and races should remain exclusively locked – I think from a lore perspective, it could potentially work. Having the big burly monster-dudes being berserkers, the slender elves as the mages, and the basic humans retaining their inability to do anything other than poke their enemies with sharp, pointy objects.

Perfect World was a tab-target MMORPG. Admittedly, one of the better, more fluid ones I played back in 2008.
The devs, seeing the success of Black Desert Online, and no doubt noticing the shift in the genre’s trajectory – Ashes of Creation, Blue Protocol, ArcheAge 2, Riot’s MMO, Throne & Liberty all opting for an action combat system, decided it would be in their best interests to follow suit.
The trailer footage does give off the impression the combat will be very fast and very flashy, but until I see footage with a full UI, I cannot say with 100% certainty that this is what the gameplay will look like in the finalized version of the game.

The description for Perfect New World hints at certain features being present:
“Perfect New World is an Eastern Fantasy MMORPG, where you shall become a Soul Tamer and search for the reincarnated Prime! Immerse yourself in this fantasy world experience seamlessly as you overcome the dangerous challenges and unveil the mysteries this world has to offer!”
“Team up with friends and explore the secrets scattered across the world, and help its inhabitants solve their various troubles through capturing Spirit Beasts,” – Playing a Chinese Pokemon sounds like it could be fun.
“clearing dangerous dungeons, or conquering monsters in the wilds. Or, if you prefer competing, you can choose to fight other players! Unleash your powerful skills on your opponents and enjoy great combat where every hit packs a punch!”
Perfect World had 2 different types of servers: PvE, and PvP. PvE servers had an optional PvP flag system, allowing players to toggle PvP mode on or off if they were interested in engaging other players out in the world.
PvP servers were much more dangerous, as you could be killed at any point immediately upon exiting the main cities.
Perfect New World has confirmed there will be functional PvP present in-game, however I wonder if they’re going to present it to us in the same form: Segregating players based off of which server style they prefer.
I’m all for playing on PvP servers. I loved open-world PvP in WoW, in Perfect World, in Tales of Pirates. When given the opportunity, I’ve always – ALWAYS selected fully PvP servers. There’s something satisfying about fighting over areas – stomping people that try and gank you while out questing.
And then camping them until they send you angry messages like the neglected neckbeard manchild they are.

They note over on their Steam page, “Boosters will unlock new perspectives to help you better explore this unknown world.” I’m not entirely certain what that means, but I assume it’s something akin unique abilities, transportation, or talent-like trees.
Concerning the customization – which Perfect World is known for, Steam states “you can always stand out in a crowd through face customization,” which is a little disappointing, as full body customization was a pretty big deal for players in its predecessor.
You could make 1 foot, 2 inch thick characters that were impossible to see out in the world – or in PvP. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here, as they’re severely limiting your body options, likely also including PLOT options. To the immeasurable disappointment of what is likely millions of men around the world.
The faces and bodies do look very good though, and are a significant improvement over what we would’ve had, had the game released in 2021.
Classes do in fact have unique talent trees it seems, and a combo-based action combat system.
There are dungeons – which we saw in the trailer, and you can see on Steam as well. The original Perfect World also had raids, like Twilight Temple – god I hated that place. And there were entire raid-zones like Heaven and Hell. This will likely also be the case in Perfect New World.

Perfect New World is confirmed to be releasing on to PC and Consoles. It’s unconfirmed if they’re opting for a PlayStation exclusive or will launch on both major console platforms, but they are 100% launching on Steam.
They’ve also confirmed there will be a Beta test coming soon, which will be available exclusively via Steam.
The Perfect World studio has a multitude of MMOs in the works at present, including New Jade Dynasty and a Perfect World Mobile MMO – that has nothing to do with this version.
This game definitely has a lot of potential to be fun for a while. I enjoyed Perfect World International quite thoroughly in 2008, and will no doubt enjoy this for however long I play for.
It just looks really good, and looks like it plays just as good. Will it be my new main MMO? Doubtful. But I’ll definitely spend a couple weeks playing it for what it’s worth.