Lost Ark continues to look incredible
20 minute gameplay video shows off impressive Korean Diablo clone.
Lost Ark, the South Korean-made action role-playing game we enthused about earlier this week, looks even better in the extensive gameplay video, below.
Over the course of nearly 20 minutes we get a detailed look at the playable hero classes, their skills and abilities and the horrible beasts they fight.
The gorgeous Diablo-style game, made by Tripod and published by Smilegate, has at least seven classes.
Battle Master is all about punches and kicks. Devil Hunter is all about guns. Arcana is all about magic cards. Warlord is all about his huge gunsword and shield. Infighter is all about punches. Berserker kills loads of enemies with sweeping attacks. And Summoner spawns monsters to fight for her, including a massive foot that slams into the ground.
The Tripod system seems to be a way to select variants of the same skills, but it's hard to decipher.
There's an Adventure mode that involves a story, cutscenes, dialogue and a decision or two to make. There are a few hubs packed with players. There's a yellow exclamation mark over one NPC in one of these hubs, so I suspect you'll pick up quests here. While it seems Lost Ark can be played by up to four players cooperatively, there's more than a hint of MMO about it.
At one point your pet dog sniffs out buried treasure for you to dig up. There's resource gathering too, including chopping down trees and fishing.
On the world map you can sail boats. As for mini-games, I spotted a card game and a bizarre-looking test your strength drinking game.
Of particular interest is the Colosseum, which looks like a fully fleshed out player versus player arena.
Then there are big, complex multi-stage boss fights in the Guardian Raid and Cinematic Dungeon. In one fight, a few players must harpoon a giant monster to tie it down with chains. In another, a fire-breathing monster has to be doused with water.
It all looks pretty fantastic, but unfortunately seems impenetrable for western audiences at this stage. We've asked Smilegate whether it plans to release Lost Ark in Europe.
