PAX Prime 2015: Hands-on with Devilian .

What makes a company take on another Asian MMO? What is it about this particular game that is attractive. I spoke with Devilian producer Andrew Sipotz and Director of Program Management for Trion and there answers respectively were,

“it’s just a lot of fun. There are systems in game that lets me jump right in and have fun instantly or go as long as I like. Jump in, jump out and I feel like I have accomplished something.”

“It’s like an action RPG with all the systems of MMOs and just, really fun!”

This is Devilian. An MMO from Korea that Trion is porting to the U.S. It has the usual scantily dressed, shapely female characters with large gravity defying breasts running around in impossibly high heels, and rugged, buffed males with heroic shoulders and sharply defined thighs. Mounts. Tigers, Lions and Bears, oh my! (Although I am not that sure about the lions…) that give you a speed boost and a slightly smaller aggro area so you aren’t hauling an entire train of trash mobs to your mission area.

There are four characters. Two male and two female. Berserker, Shadow Hunter, Evoker and Cannoneer respectively and their forms are the heroic warrior, androgynous manga male, the aforesaid overly endowed sashaying female and the cute impish girl of indeterminate age whose weapons are larger than she. Customization comes in face shape, eyes, tattoos, hair and the entire range of Pantone colors for skin, hair and eyes.

The game play is smooth, polished and makes you feel heroic right out of character creation. None of this “Kill ten rats and bring me their tails” business. I swung my great sword, popped skills and dodged out of the way of boss mob tells.

There are systems upon systems: Skill trees to customize your character, Talismans to boost your stats, a crafting system that breaks down your unwanted weapons and equipment for raw materials, a Proficiency system that carries the proficiencies across all characters in your account, guild and guild alliance system, a full marketplace and player economy system, and the “Devil” system from which Devilian gets its name.

Your characters Devil form manifests at level 10. A form of alternate XP, you pick up Devil Souls from mobs you kill that are used either to grow and level your Devil form or it can be used as a currency for special Devilish items, you access different skills while in Devil form. Although used mainly in PvP it is pretty cool looking and some unique bosses keep you in Devil Form.

The game is solo friendly and you will depend on potions instead of a healer. Mounts are tiered and can be obtained in game except for some that are specific for paying players, for example the Polar Bear comes with the Obsidian Founders Pack. Solo friendly with pick-up-group finder dungeon finder, the group is small with only three characters and there definitely isn’t a “Holy Trinity” of preferred class types. Heals and buffs are through potions which can be bought or crafted and through the talisman system, some of these buffs can be permanent stat buffs.

For players who enjoy PvP, there are duels and for those that enjoy team based challenges, there 9 man raids and 3 v 3 arenas. Also there will be PvE-PvP dungeons. The details were not very clear, but it sounded like not only were there aggressive NPCs you had to be wary of and you could train to your opponents, you could trigger NPCs that would attack them. Also of note are the Infinite Hunting Grounds. This was the feature that Andrew waxed lyrical about when he spoke of jumping in and out of the game. This is a dungeon you can teleport to instantly and it is an endless dungeon. You can play as long as you want and when you are done, you simply log off and the game sends your character back to where you started out.

MMOs may not have an end point, but many players to weary of playing the same game after a year or so and look for another. Devilian does look like one to give a try. Trion expects to launch the game in the near future. Founders packs are already on sale, and Alpha begins Thursday, September 3rd.