Malaysian and Singaporean players wanting to get into a new online fix can look forward to the upcoming Asian version of Dragon Nest. During last week's Asian launch event at The Hard Rock Hotel, Singapore, we spoke to Daniel Choi, business development director of the game, to spill the beans about this version of the title.

　　GameSpot Asia: Why have you partnered with Shanda Games International to help release Dragon Nest in Southeast Asia?

　　Daniel Choi: It was because of our experience with the game's release in China that we decided to expand it further to other regions below us. That was our opportunity to work with Shanda Games International to bring out Dragon Nest to the Southeast Asian market. The publishers have had an experience working with other big titles, like Aion, so that helps.

　　Dragon Nest warriors in the midst of committing green giant genocide. GSA: What about the game's system requirements and graphics engine?

　　DC: The Eternity Engine is developed in house. What we had to focus on is how to manage a huge number of concurrent users with the least amount of latency. The network speeds we have among users are optimized with the engine, which is something other online games have trouble with. The most important thing about it is that we want to show off a cool aesthetic without taxing the computer it will run on.

　　GSA: What new additions are on this build compared to the Korean version of the game that was released in March 2010?

　　DC: It's the most complete version of the game so far to be released in Southeast Asia with the latest patches. Dragon Nest SEA is localized completely in Singapore and the voices and text will be in English. In fact, the theme "The Eternal Path" by YouTube singer Erutan is only exclusive for users in the region.

　　GSA: Is this massively multiplayer online game focused on player versus environment or player versus player? If so, why choose it to be this way?

　　Daniel Choi: It's a little of both, actually. When we were in the really early stages of Dragon Nest, we wanted to target all different types of users, like first-person shooter fans, action game fanatics, and even player versus player addicts.

　　Personally, I like the progression of the story here. The game may not be a massive online role-playing game, but you're still in a place with a mass online community with personal space-laden raids since only four people can be in a group during an instanced dungeon session.

　　Clerics in the world are prone to motion blur effects. GSA: Elaborate more about the character classes in the game?

　　DC: We have four classes: warrior, archer, cleric and sorceress. These four classes can evolve into eight different classes, followed up with 16 other class upgrades within the four main classes. This is to ensure that one person's warrior who is focused on being a sword master subclass is not like another person's warrior focused on being a defensive-style mercenary subclass, each with their his or her skills.

　　We'll also be introducing a few new classes later after the SEA release, but we can't put a concrete date on that yet.

　　GSA: The game's user interface seems a little too similar to an MMORPG's "information overload" setup despite your message that it isn't like that genre. Can you explain?

　　DC: I think user friendliness comes first to make players feel comfortable when going through options onscreen. Our players worldwide are used to the shortcut keys at the bottom and with all the skill windows and skill investments. That's the sort of thing that's usually (and should be) introduced in these online games, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

　　GSA:What are the incentives for using the combo system in Dragon Nest? Why not just rely on single-hit attacks?

　　DC: You don't have to; you can just use one-hit attacks if your play style is like that. However, at the end of each instanced dungeon, they'll be a tally screen that calculates the max combo number your character has inflicted and the time taken to complete the section. If you use combos, you'll lessen that time and get a better score. And with a better score come better rewards and chances to get extra bonuses.

　　Finishing a stage quickly plays an important role in getting your character better equipment you can't get anywhere else. Playing on a harder setting, the hardest being Abyss, on a particular dungeon will also improve the rewards.

　　GSA: How hard is Abyss mode?

　　DC: It's not possible to complete Abyss mode on your own, so we figured that it's a good incentive to make friends with three other people conquer the tougher versions of these dungeons and its final boss.

　　GSA: Let's talk about the game's view: Is it restricted to a third-person camera? Can players change the view if they don't want a Gears of War-style camera?

　　DC: It's very important that players have a free-control camera within third-person view confinements because some of the bosses in the game are 20 times bigger than them. This is not a target-based game, so adjusting the camera to hit enemies in front of you is very crucial.

　　Dragon Nest's closed beta will be in session on July 13. GSA: What microtransaction options are there, seeing as this is a free-to-play game?

　　DC: We have many interesting items like cosmetic and level upgrades for weapons to add more slots to a weapon for you to add more properties onto. There's also a yelling item that either helps you find your online friends on different servers or notify people about a rare item you're selling. Protection jellies are also for sale to keep your weapons from breaking and to instantly fix them.

　　GSA: Wouldn't that open up a floodgate where players with a loaded bank account gain the upper hand?

　　DC: No. These upgrades would be more for the PVP crowd, for those who like to invest and show off their strength and tweaked gear. Casual players are able to get by the PVE portions without spending a lot of real-world money. Besides, the rarer weapons are only available within the dungeons if you get a good enough ranking; players can always trade them with other rare items on the in-game trading posts.

　　GSA: How many players do you expect to draw in for Dragon Nest in SEA?

　　DC: As many as we can. We can't estimate a set number, but we're aiming for the same kind of numbers in the four territories we've launched Dragon Nest on. As it stands, the game is one of the top five most-requested titles in Singapore and Malaysia. Our total number of concurrent users for the four countries is 800,000, so a fraction of that would be great.

　　GSA: There are people who draw comparisons between other MMOG brawlers like Dragonica and Dungeon Fighter Online. What makes this game stand out among the rest?

　　DC: Our game has a unique storyline, which continues throughout the game. The narrative is not just presented from the quest text; rather, our title has cutscenes integrated into the quests. This gives players a feeling that they're playing an important role. It's more of an RPG criteria where you're in the middle of an ongoing story and we're doing our best in communicating that sense of importance.