The Kingdom of the Winds, Asgard, Dark Ages, Elancia and Talesweaver are all MMOs that have done very well for Korean developer, Nexus. Now Nexus is taking its range of RPGs worldwide and Nextoric, a Nexon subsidiary, has taken over the reins to develop them to cater for a Western audience. First to get the treatment will be Talesweaver, an MMORPG based on a popular Korean novel.

Q. Nextoric is currently developing all 5 of the Nexon RPG classics. What is the former’s relation to the latter?
A. Nextoric is Nexon’s subsidiary. It was independently established by the developers of Nexon RPG classics in May last year.

Q. Talesweaver was the first to be selected for overseas release. What is the reason for this?
A. Talesweaver is currently available in Korea and Japan only. But there are users of the game all over the world. We have been getting a lot of inquiries regarding Talesweaver from users abroad and decided that there is an overseas market for it. We believe that there is also a significant number of users as the Children of the Rune, on which the novel Talesweaver is based, has been published in many countries.

Q. Even if Nextoric is an entity separate from Nexon, won’t there be so much to achieve through Nexon?
A. While Nextoric is Nexon’s subsidiary, it is operating based on independent decision-making. Areas in which synergy can be achieved with Nexon will be fully capitalized on, but operating the business through other channels will also be actively reviewed and implemented.

Q. So does that mean Nexon won’t be the first choice when selecting an overseas publisher?
A. Like I said, instead of focusing on a single company, Nextoric will engage in business with partners that will achieve the greatest synergy

Q. Let’s talk about games. What kind of game is Talesweaver?
A. It is a story-based RPG comprising episodes and chapters. When users play Talesweaver, they will feel like they are reading a great novel. There are 12 characters at the moment and there will be more in the future. Each story is unique in itself and I’m sure that users will be able to enjoy the game for its rich storyline.

Q. Wouldn’t it be classified as a single RPG if it’s story-based?
A. Yes, Talesweaver is strongly story-oriented. But it is a MMORPG. Difficult dungeons can be cleared by forming a party with other users and users with intertwining stories can form parties for joint gameplay. It also has the features most other online games have – a community system, guild system and versus mode for high-level users.

Q. Were there any difficulties in localization?
A. Talesweaver is a story-based game so there will be a lot of translation jobs to be done. And it was difficult to convey the personalities and characteristics of the different character in different languages. Localization has only just begun, so we expect it to take its due course and optimize over time.

Q. Talesweaver is based on the word created in the novel Children of the Rune. Do you expect any limits in updating game contents?
A. Not all aspects of the world of Children of the Rune are used in Talesweaver so we are able to create additional contents as required. For example, there is a region called the Land of Immortality in the game. While it is also featured in the novel, it did not comprise a significant part of the story of the novel. So we can take things like this and build on it to create new contents and update the game.

Q. Is there anything you would like to say to the users in countries that will be newly serviced?
A. After 8 years of servicing Asia, we will be expanding to western countries. We ask for your understanding if we stumble at first. We want the users to enjoy playing Talesweaver as much as we enjoyed making it.