Lineage 2: Remastered Release Date? A 2020 Update on the Upcoming MMORPG

Let’s rewind a little bit here. In December 2019 – almost a year ago to date – I did a video on Lineage 2: Remastered.
NCSoft had recently confirmed that they were going to be releasing an entire overhaul of the popular MMO using Unreal Engine 4.
Queue the crowds raising up ready to give NCSoft a standing ovation. Raising their hands into the air in victory – finally, they’re giving the Lineage games the attention they deserve!
Well.. they’d actually gotten plenty of attention up until that point, just not in the way players wanted. With Lineage 2 Revolution, Lineage 2M, Lineage 2.. err, random mobile port #3.

Fast forward to the end of the year 2020 – what do we know about the game, its release date, what the overhaul is actually going to include? I’ve been asked repeatedly – pretty much every week for the last several months if I had any updates. That’s what I’m here today to discuss.

So let’s get the most important question out of the way first: What is Lineage 2: Remastered? Is it an overhaul, is it a remake? Good question. I’m glad you asked.
At the end of 2019, NCSoft had opened a job posting where they were searching for a Technical Artist that had expertise in Unreal Engine 4.
Lineage 2 was released 17 years ago, roughly, and was developed on Unreal Engine 2.5 – yup, it has really been that long. Do you feel old yet?
So we’re skipping Unreal Engine 3 and moving directly on to Unreal Engine 4. The good news is – it isn’t being built on Unreal Engine 5, which means that the game doesn’t have an expected release date of 2024 or 2025!

What we currently know about this project is that NCSoft are attempting an overhaul that no MMO developer has ever attempted before – a task that is so daunting, that since beginning the overhaul, NCSoft have chosen to avoid discussing the game in any capacity.
Heck, they didn’t even make it to G-Star 2019 at the time to promote it. They haven’t made any mention of whether this overhaul will add anything additional into the game or alter any of the core mechanics that players grew to love about the game.
What has been confirmed is that since they’re upgrading the graphical engine to Unreal Engine 4, they’re going to be completely altering the textures for NPCs, characters and the environments. Meaning your favorite characters are likely going to be entirely unrecognizable.
Your character model – the characters we created when we began this game are going to change drastically as well.
With this large change comes the question.. if the graphics – especially pertaining to character models – is going to alter us to such a degree, then are they going to add in additional customization options?
I don’t think, with a game that is going to look as good as this will perhaps look should be as limited as the original incarnation of the game was, right?
And then if they overhaul the character models and the environments, that means they’re going to have to alter the combat, the combat animations, skill effects, everything.
So on the one hand, we might have a game that ends up looking something like Crimson Desert – incredibly fluid in terms of combat and animations, with crisp, gorgeous scenery.
Or we’ll have a game that looks and plays as sloppily, as clunkily as Astellia did.

So while NCSoft have titled this “Lineage 2: Remastered,” it might be entirely feasible to call this an entirely new entry in the franchise – just with the same story.
But why are they choosing to overhaul the entire game, and why now? I’m well aware Lineage and Lineage 2 have always been popular over here in the West.
Not nearly to the same degree – the same extent they once were, but they still have their followings of tens of thousands of players, especially with the Classic servers going.
I’m fully of the opinion that since they’re – wait, they’ve still yet to apply the Unreal Engine 4 update to Blade & Soul, right? Man it’s crazy how long they’ve been delaying that.
But since they’re overhauling Blade & Soul by importing the game over to Unreal Engine 4, I feel as though to keep the Lineage franchise kind of “up-to-date” and monetizable, they’re making certain to follow through with Lineage 2 as well.
Because at the end of the day, if there’s one thing we know to be fact when it comes to South Korean MMO developers – or maybe just South Korean developers in general – it’s that their game HAS to look good.
If it doesn’t, then it’s garbage and they should remake it in its entirety. Case in point.

So when should we expect Lineage 2: Classic? I know that’s likely the most important question on your mind going into this, right?
Back at the end of last year we had no definitive release date scheduled, and as of the end of 2021.. that seems to be the case once again.
This overhaul is a work in progress, and could likely take several years before their vision comes to fruition.
It doesn’t have a confirmed release date scheduled for 2021, nor 2022 – but I wouldn’t expect it to be beyond 2024 as by then the vast majority of MMOs built on Unreal Engine 4 are going to be outdated.
I mean, heck, there are MMO developers – such as XL Games and Kakao that are already building the new ArcheAge 2 MMO on Unreal Engine 5.
So if I were to take a guess – I’d say we should expect official trailers coming 2022 with a confirmed release some time during the end of 2023, maybe beginning of 2024 within South Korea.
I can’t say about its international version – I’m sure, much like Blade & Soul we’re merely an afterthought. But we’ll no doubt get it in time. We just have to sit back, be patient and wait, like always.
With TL: Origin coming soon – which is essentially Lineage 3 for all intents and purposes, this might – temporarily of course – put the remaster on the backburner, however.

Regardless, I’m excited to get in-game one day and play this in a world that looks as good as Blade & Soul Remastered is going to look. Like Crimson Desert looks. That will be the day the Lineage franchise makes its comeback.
Because while I’m sure TL: Origin will do good, I don’t think a top-down isometric MMO will ever top a traditional MMO.