Gran Saga is a Brand New Upcoming Cross-Platform Anime MMORPG

I did a video on Genshin Impact last week, talking about how excited I was for it – it was an upcoming multiplayer RPG that looks and plays incredibly well.
Genshin Impact is also a little unique, in so that it is built around and is simultaneously launching both on PC and mobile devices.
But this week I have even more exciting news, depending on if you’re a fan of the former game’s choice of platform of course. NPIXEL, a new South Korean developer revealed the first trailer for their upcoming MMORPG: Gran Saga.
The trailer didn’t showcase actual gameplay, only pre-rendered cutscenes so we’re still a little ways off before we’re fully capable of discerning the kind of game it’ll be but so far I’m impressed.
At least graphically. One thing worth noting is that the developers consist of former Seven Knights staff – if you ever played Seven Knights or, heck had even heard of it then you’ll be well aware of it being mobile game.
So how will that experience translate to Gran Saga? Let’s see.

NPIXEL initially announced that Gran Saga would be built using Unreal Engine 4 – and that shows. The game looks beautiful and the characters look incredibly high quality for an MMO.
However, they also mentioned that the game was being built for mobile devices in mind.. initially. When it was announced last month that’s what was stated.
Now, as of the trailer reveal, NPIXEL claim that the game will be launching cross-platform, across both mobile devices and PC, meaning that the game, much like Genshin Impact is going to be playable on your PC as well.

That is both reassuring and disconcerting.
See, Genshin Impact on PC plays very well. I’ve seen tons of gameplay from the game and it looks and plays like a console game. But that’s not exactly common.
Look at Caravan Stories. That was a highly anticipated mobile game that launched cross-platform onto PS4 and ended up playing like absolute garbage, being auto-play and full of microtransactions.
NPIXEL claims that the game will feature “console level graphics” and “epic narratives” – honestly, from what I’ve seen from the trailer, that isn’t untrue.
Unreal Engine 4 really allows for devs these days to produce some truly epic looking games. But at the same time I hope that isn’t all this is – all visuals and no substance.
We’ve been given a little in the way of story: Adventurers travel the world seeking out the powerful Gran Weapons.. and that’s it. I guess you’re one of the adventurers?
Another thing worth noting, while we’re on the topic of characters and story, is the fact that.. well, there are characters.
Are the male and female characters you see in the trailer just characters created as a stand-in for the player character, or do you play the game – which has been confirmed to be an MMORPG – as an already pre-designed character?
Because honestly that’s a little weird. I’ve never played an MMO where I don’t have the opportunity to create, or at the very least edit the character I’m playing as.
Not that I’d be against it if that’s the route they take but it’s an unusual approach.
Maybe it’s more like Blade & Soul, where there are a plethora of actual, story-centric characters and you take on the role of an unnamed adventurer helping these characters achieve whatever goal it is we’re actively attempting to achieve.
I guess in future trailers we’ll find out more, or whenever NPIXEL reveal additional details.

Another curious point of discussion.. Thus far, 4 characters have been announced with additional characters planned out for the future.
If the goal is to have recruitable characters, does that mean it’ll be taking an approach like Genshin Impact, where you recruit characters to join your party and deploy one party member at a time?
Will it mean that we’re going to have several different party members out in an open field itself, all doing their own thing?
Or is the combat going to be entirely different and feature something more akin to turn-based instanced combat, where you do battle on a separate field?
Nothing pertaining to combat has been revealed yet so these are all very important questions to ponder, but the little bit of information they’ve given thus far provides a slight glimpse into what they’re planning.

Finally, they provided images for all 20 Gran Weapons obtainable in-game. Not only are all 20 weapons different weapon types, but they all feature a unique character associated with them.
But they aren’t.. traditional looking characters, leading people to believe that they’re instead some kind of pet, spirit or something connected with the weapon in question.
Honestly they all look pretty sick.

And that’s pretty much everything we know.
I’m excited because it’s going to release on PC. I’m less excited that it’s going to release on mobile devices as well but I know that cross-play compatibility is a good thing as it opens the game to a larger population of players.
Whether or not the game turns out to be good remains to be seen. But to automatically assume it’s going to suck is just ridiculous.
So I’ll add this to my list of “excited-for-but-still-cautious-of” games. Regardless, I’m still incredibly hyped by it because it looks like a very high quality Anime MMO – and we need more of those.
Even if the mobile version sucks, I hope the PC version doesn’t.