Dragon Nest

Gameplay

Dragon Nest incorporates non-targeting system gameplay to create a fast paced action filled experience. Players choose from a range of hero classes, characters that are of the Dragon Nest storyline that can equip customizable gear and weapons. Characters exist in one world, Kalahan, which resulted from Nexon uniting all four worlds to unite the characters. Devastating skills can also be learned, to increase one's power when defeating monsters in instanced dungeons or defeating other players in PVP.

Dragon Nest also has the advantage of being nearly completely skill-based, with lower level characters being able to defeat high level characters in PVP with skill alone. This allows a more experienced player that is of a lower level to dominate a less experienced player of a higher level player in PVP.

Combat in player vs enemy

In Dragon Nest, players fight groups of monsters using skills and attacks received by class trainers throughout the game. The monsters drop money, boxes, collectibles, materials, weapons or equipment that can be used by the player, sold, traded or thrown away.

Cash Shop

The Cash Shop is an in-game shop where players use real-life currency to purchase equipment not widely available in-game. Special items can also help in the development of the characters such as Approval Stamps, Protection Jellies, and Dragon Eggs. Player can also buy pets, costumes, cosmetics to personalize their character.

In Dragon Nest NA, the Cash Shop is known as the "Dragon Vault".

Storyline

The Goddess Althea, creator of the land of Alteria (Altea in the NA version, Lagendia in the SEA version), is poisoned by her evil sister Vestinel. The poison can only be cured using an antidote made using the source of the poison itself, Vestinel's magic grail, which has disappeared somewhere within Alteria. The players as heroes of Alteria must comb the land fighting evil dragons in order to find power stones that enable them to communicate with the sleeping goddess in order to find the grail, wake her and save the world.

East Asian release

On November 2, 2007, Nexon Korea Corporation secured rights to Dragon Nest. It was announced that the game would be entering its closed beta in the middle of 2008 but delayed to Fall of 2009. Dragon Nest was officially released in Korea on March 2010.

In December 2007, Shanda, game publisher in China, announced that it would be publishing the Chinese version of Dragon Nest. The Chinese closed beta began on March 25, 2010 with an official release later that year.

It was announced on 21 November 2008 that NHN Japan would publish Dragon Nest in Japan on their Hangame JP portal. On 17 April 2010, GACKT was announced to be the artiste for the "Black Version" of the theme song of the game titled "EVER". NHN Japan subsequently began Dragon Nest Japan's closed beta.

North American release

At the Penny Arcade Expo in 2009, Nexon America announced that it would be publishing Dragon Nest in North America. Originally, Dragon Nest was scheduled for a mid-2010 release. Nexon America announced that a playable version of Dragon Nest would be shown at the upcoming E3 show in Los Angeles. Its release is now set to be towards the Summer of 2011. On April 21, 2011, a closed beta application was started and testing was due to begin on May 17, 2011. However, on May 6, an announcement was made that the closed beta testing will be pushed back to June 15, 2011. Closed beta ended on June 20, 2011. Dragon Nest open beta testing opened on July 26, 2011. The game was slated to go live on August 11, but this date has since been pushed back. The North American version was level-capped at 32 with the Saints Haven release on September 28, 2011. Characters, items and skill from the open beta test were not cleared, so players kept the progress they made in the OBT. In mid December 2011, the North American version has extended its level-cap to 40, giving the player the ability to learn their 2nd sub-class's final skill. The Tinkerer class was added in the June 2012 patch. The first Dragon class nest, Sea Dragon Nest, has been released on 24 July 2012. On the 24th of October 2012 the North American version extended its level-cap to 50, giving the players the ability to learn their 3rd sub-class. On the 20th of June 2013 the level-cap of the North American Version was extended to 60, allowing players to learn two EX skills.

South East Asian release

Shanda and Cherry Credits released the localized version of Dragon Nest for South East Asia region. Closed beta testing period for Dragon Nest SEA ran from 13 July 2011 to 19 July 2011. Open beta was opened from 16 August 2011 to 20 October 2011.

Official release of the game begins 20 October 2011 onwards, with the release of Saint Haven and level 32 cap on 18 October to mark its grand opening. There was four servers at the time of SEA's installation, namely (in chronological order) Westwood, Springwood, Greenwood and Holywood. The English language voiceovers for non-playable characters and the song "The Warrior Call" for this release were produced by Deniss Berezins of Overdrawn Records.

Level cap has been increased to 40 on 13 December 2011. Additional content related to the increase has been added which includes new Level 40 items, Manticore Nest and the Apocalypse Nest. On 24 April 2012, the long anticipated Academic class has been released, bringing the total playable starting characters to 5. The long-awaited Sea Dragon Nest was released on June 4, 2012, and also the much anticipated Level 50 cap was released on 28 August 2012, together with further advancements in their current job classes. On 2 April 2013, the new Kali class was released. On 13 May 2013, the level cap was increased to 60. On 11 of February 2014, the level cap was increased to 70, giving access to new EX skills, and the Anu Arendel dungeons. On 18 March 2014 the Assassin character was released. And the level cap was increased to 80 with new lvl 80 EX skill & equipments on 2015 also with new lvl 80 dungeons and nest. The new Lancea class was released on March 3, 2015 bringing a total of 8 playable characters.

European release

Closed beta began on 27 February 2013. Dragon Nest Europe was officially released on 6 March 2013 by eFusion. October 24 until October 29, Dragon Nest EU had a server transfer and officially changed host to Shanda.

On 31 January, Dragon Nest Europe suffered a massive data lost of all players and the server came back online on 5 February. On 16 March, Dragon Nest Europe changed the publisher to be part of Cherry Credits.

Manga

There is a manga based on the game named Dragon Nest -Shungeki no Sedo- (Dragon Nest-瞬撃のセド-, lit. "Dragon Nest -Sedo of the Sudden Attack-"). It is drawn by TATSUBON and published by Kodansha. Three tankōbon volumes has been published with about 12 chapters in total. It was serialized from the July 2010 issue to the May 2011 issue of Monthly Shōnen Rival. The first volume was published on 4 October 2010, the second volume on 4 February 2011, and the third volume on 3 June 2011. It follows the adventures of Warrior Sedo Nobusutatto, Archer Okiron Igunohisu, Sorceress Yuuri and Cleric Benetta as they fought to rescue the Prophetess Rose from a mysterious black figure, and to protect Saint Haven from a great danger.

Music

Numerous theme songs have been used for the Japanese version of the game. There are three main theme songs for the game itself, the "White Version", the "Black Version" and the "second" theme song. The "White Version" theme song "Road to Glory～for Dragon Nest" was performed by KOKIA, and the "Black Version" theme song "EVER" was performed by GACKT. The song "Road to Glory～for Dragon Nest" was released on 18 August 2010 as part of the single "Road to Glory~long journey~" (the song is also in the album "REAL WORLD"), while "EVER" was released on 28 July 2010. The 'second' main theme song "THE END OF THE DAY" was performed by YELLOW FRIED CHICKENz and the single was released on 14 September 2011 (the song can also be found in their album "YELLOW FRIED CHICKENz I"). The game story chapter "Resurrection" theme song "live your life" was performed by ViViD. The song was released on 27 June 2012 as part of their album "INFINITY". The theme song of the story chapter "Side Story: Codename Zero" was "Battle of Destiny", performed by KOKIA and the single was released on 20 February 2013. To commemorate the launch of Dragon Nest "Reboot" in 2015, Uverworld will perform the theme song of the reboot, "I love the World", which is also their 28th single, which was released on 26 August 2015.

Dragon Nest Drama CD

There are also a limited edition Dragon Nest Drama CD, called Prelude～Unmei no Mezame～ (プレリュード～運命の目覚め～, Pureryuudo～Unmei no Mezame～, lit. "Prelude- The Awakening of Fate"). It was released by Japanese record label Voice Records on 20 April 2011.

Figures

Japanese hobby products manufacturer Good Smile Company has released figures based on some characters in the game. A regular 1/8th scale PVC figure of the playable character Sorceress, sculpted by Usagi, and a Nendoroid figure of the popular non-playable character Events Planner Irine, sculpted by Shichibee, was released on 30 May 2013, with initial pre-orders only available in China. On 21 November 2013, Good Smile Company has announced that pre-orders for markets outside China is available and that the figures was expected to be available in Spring 2014. Nendoroid Irine was later released for retail on 24 April 2014, whereas the PVC figure of Sorceress was released on 2 June 2014.

Film

A film based on the game, Dragon Nest: Warrior’s Dawn, was released in 2014.

A film sequel, Dragon Nest 2: Throne of Elves, is currently in production. It is planned for release in 2016.