We’ve played it, and here are our thoughts…
The launch of Netmarble’s Solo Leveling:Arise is a full-circle moment for this hugely popular anime and webtoon.
As fans will know, the series—which has racked up more than 14 billion views worldwide—is heavily influenced by RPG mechanics. So it’s kind of cool to see it making the jump from its original format to the interactive medium from which it gets its best ideas.
Solo Leveling:Arise is set to be one of the slickest and most entertaining mobile RPGs of the year, and here are five reasons we’re so excited to play it.
We’re very much in favor of studios coming up with new IPs, but at the same time it’s always nice to enter a virtual universe already knowing the lore, characters, and general vibe of the place.
Particularly when that place is as well-established as the world of Solo Leveling.
In case you’ve never seen the hugely popular anime or webtoon, Solo Leveling is the story of Sung Jinwoo, an “Awakening Being” whose job it is to fight the magical beasts emerging from a series of mysterious gates.
In true RPG style, Sung Jinwoo must work his way up from the unfortunate status of “Weakest Hunter of All Mankind” to the very top of the ass-kicking pyramid through his unique ability to level up.
Solo Leveling has been viewed more than 143 billion times online, which, in case you hadn’t realised, is an unfathomably large number.
As you’d expect from a game based on a global hit anime series, Solo Leveling:Arise has some fantastically compelling storylines to follow.
In fact, this game is a solid gold chunk of gleaming fan service for followers of the webtoon, allowing players to actually step into the shoes of Jinwoo and explore iconic environments like Hapjeong Station and Demons’ Castle in three dimensions.
Plus, Solo Leveling:Arise lets you take on monsters like Igris, Kasaka, and Cerberus, and form strike squads with hunters from the original webtoon.
If you’re not already a fan of the Solo Leveling universe, you will be.
The Solo Leveling webtoon was clearly inspired by the mechanics of role-playing games, and so it stands to reason that it makes a pretty good Action RPG.
Developer Netmarble Neo has packed in an absolute ton of features, making this one of the most promising Action RPGs we’ve played in a while.
There are many different weapons and skills to master and combine, allowing you to pull off swift and flashy attacks or slow but devastating ones as the situation demands.
Each one comes with its own unique attack pattern, meaning there’s a lot to learn but a huge amount of power at your fingertips once you master your tools.
Naturally, the novel Skill Rune mechanic from the webtoon is here, allowing you to tweak the effects of skills by equipping runes, and this is joined by a Counterattack system, Extreme Evasion, QTE skills, and too much to cover here.
We will, however, take a moment to explain the Army of Shadows mechanic.
After defeating Igris the Red, the Knight Commander, in the Job Change Quest Dungeon, Jinwoo manages to become Monarch of the Shadows. This allows him to extract the Shadows of his fallen foes and summon them as Shadow Soldiers.
Naturally, he starts with Igris.
The Army of Shadows mechanic adds a fascinating dimension to boss encounters. As you face off against powerful enemies, you do so knowing that the attacks and skills that are giving you so much trouble will soon be yours to unleash on future opponents.
Not only are we excited to play Solo Leveling:Arise, but we’re excited to claim our bounty of pre-registration rewards.
At the time of writing, Solo Leveling:Arise doesn’t have a global release date. For now, only those lucky Canadians are able to join the Early Access and get their boots on the ground. But you can still prepare by pre-registering for the game on iOS, Android, and PC.
Your reward for taking this simple step, aside from being notified as soon as Solo Leveling:Arise drops in your region, includes a Chic Black Suit costume for Sung Jinwoo, 100,000 of Gold, a Yoo Jinho partner character, and a total of ten Mana Power Crystals.
To get in line for this bounty, all you need to do is head to the game’s official website, Google Play, the App Store, or the Netmarble Launcher.
