14 DAY TRIAL // Lunia Online, developed by Korean ALLM and based on the manga style cartoons from Japan, is an action arcade MMORPG, free to play (but you pay for merchandise) game. It will be released in the US during the first quarter of 2008 and it intends to make the colorful (and beautiful) manga available to a new audience. The launch in the US will be taken care of by CGI.
If you don't know what this game is about and the trailer at the bottom doesn't manage to enlighten you, you should know that Lunia Online is played "much like an action arcade game, allowing players to move around using arrow keys rather than a mouse. The game can be played with a console 'D pad' style controller which makes the game familiar and easy to use for the millions of Xbox users throughout the U.S." It seems that this company did its homework!
The game is said to be different from other MMORPGs, by having a few extra features. For example, the player is not the "center of the Universe", but a companion for one of the three main characters - the knight, the healer and the mage. Also, there is a complex storyline that comes with the game, which will develop within a "stage system". This means that the story has its chapters and, when the player advances, harder monsters and battles will become available.
Ron Williams, general manager of CDC Games USA, a unit of CGI, said: "Lunia Online breaks new ground in many new areas of the MMORPG genre. Lunia Online is less complicated to operate than the typical MMORPG because Lunia Online is designed to be played like console games that are widely familiar to U.S. players. With the popular manga style animation and a strong crossover potential with console players, we expect this game to be well received in the U.S. market."
Here is a nice gameplay trailer, so that you know what you should expect: