Dungeon Fighter Online is still in closed beta, preparing for its debut in the States. With over 10 million players in South Korea alone, and infinitely more in China and other Asian countries, Nexon America hopes this arcade-style MMO sees as much success in the West.

Producer Herb Yang promises a unique gameplay style for a broad audience, hinting that this free-to-play game is being tweaked to better appeal to American MMO fans. PvP, unique character designs, and so on. More at the source.

Lydia Sung (Neo): Why don't you start by telling us a little about what Dungeon Fighter Online is? We know it's a popular game in Asia.

Herb Yang: From a structural standpoint, basically it's a beat 'em up. So if you've played any sort of arcade fighter, like from the '90s, you know -- Streets of Rage, Double Dragon -- stuff like that. It's got all that, but then we've added the MMO element to it. So on top of that, you've got fully customizable characters. You can customize what kind of skills they have, ah, it's persistent, you level up. There's a town, a bunch of dungeons -- hence the name "Dungeon Fighter" -- where you can go. You go on quests, you get loot, you level up.

And then on top of that, you've got all the online elements, where you can form guilds, you could play PvP against other players, you could party with other players to play together. So... it's a pretty broad game that's got a lot of appeal. (laughing)

Neo: So how did you decide on the 2D look? 'Cause you know, we saw that in the screenshots, and a lot of our readers were like, "Oh, it looks pretty old school." Going more toward the roots of PC gaming, like you were aiming for a different market.

HY: Yeah, exactly, exactly! And actually -- I think that actually makes the art style a lot more unique. But on top of that, like one of the things -- like Nexon, all of our games are about, you know, accessibility, whether it's like, you know, lower technical requirements, better community, ah, ease of learning curve. So we actually think that a 2D game is a lot easier for a lot of people to get into than a 3D game 'cause, like, I think a lot of hardcore MMORPG players take for granted that there's a lot of skills that you need to navigate a 3D environment. And unless you play a lot of those games, it's really, kind of -- there's a very steep...

Neo: It's almost like an exclusive club (of gaming).

HY: Yeah, yeah. So whereas a game like Dungeon Fighter, you see a 2D game. You know exactly -- like a lot of people will be like, "Oh!" when they see their friends playing this. They'll just jump on and know exactly how it works. So you know, it's a lot simpler to understand, I think. And on top of that, you know, I think the art style is just something that a lot of people I think are looking for, in terms of something that's a little more retro and familiar.

Neo: You talked about the art before, and like with the character art, they are pretty unique and attractive. Could you elaborate on how you guys came up with the character designs?

HY: The character designs? Yeah, I think the designers had, like, a very clear concept of what they wanted the characters to look like, and they wanted to make them very individualistic. So you look at these characters, and you know exactly they had a role to play. Like the priest! I mean, some of these are really familiar archetypes, but they all have kind of a little bit of a spin.

Like the mage is this little girl who's like, you know, really powerful. And they all come from different worlds, so they've got their own backstory that goes along with it. Like the Gunner is this kind of -- I wouldn't say like an alien character, but he's from a different like, a planet. And he obviously uses guns and like, mechanical stuff. So I think it's -- they wanted to make the characters very different, I guess.

RabidChinaGirl via neoseeker.com »