If Dragon Nest defined your teenage years, the team behind it has been quietly building its spiritual successor — and it launches in ten days. DragonSword: Awakening, an anime-style open-world action RPG built with Unreal Engine 5, hits Steam on 23 July 2026 as a buy-to-play title priced at USD 29.99 (SGD price to be confirmed in the Steam store). No gacha, no stamina bars, no monthly battle pass. You pay once and own it.
Dragon Nest DNA, Rebuilt for 2026
Developer Hound13 was founded in 2014 by veterans of Dragon Nest, the beloved fast-paced action MMORPG from Eyedentity Games that had an enormous following across Southeast Asia — Singapore very much included. CEO Park Jeong-sik directed Dragon Nest before leaving to start Hound13 with the goal of carrying that fast, combo-driven action into a new era.
The result is the Continent of Orbis: a radiant, warmly lit fantasy world that draws clear visual inspiration from classic anime and Japanese RPGs, running on Unreal Engine 5 for crisp lighting and detailed environments. Whether you are crossing rope bridges over sweeping gorges or tearing into cathedral-sized boss arenas, the production quality punches well above the game’s price point.
Tag-Team Combat and 19 Heroes
The combat system is built around switching on the fly between up to three active heroes drawn from a roster of 19 characters, each with a distinct weapon archetype and status-ailment toolkit. Stacking ailments — bleed, freeze, poison — on an enemy builds up the conditions for a devastating Signal Skill chain that deals massive burst damage. It reads like a more deliberate, team-synergy version of the frenetic single-character action Dragon Nest fans know.
Beyond the main story, the game supports online co-op, letting you bring friends in for tougher encounters — a welcome layer for Southeast Asian players who have always found Dragon Nest more fun with a party.
The Publisher Fallout That Changed Everything
DragonSword: Awakening’s journey to Steam has been anything but straightforward. The game originally launched in South Korea in January 2026 under publisher Webzen as a free-to-play live-service title. One month in, Hound13 announced it was terminating the publishing contract — citing, among other issues, unpaid fees. Webzen disputed the termination, and when Hound13 announced the buy-to-play reboot in April 2026, Webzen filed an injunction to block the release.
The injunction does not appear to have succeeded: the game’s Steam page is live, the July 23 date is locked in, and Hound13 has not signalled any delay as of writing. As reported by Simulation Daily, the reboot drops the gacha entirely — cosmetics and Familiars (collectible companions) can still be purchased, but core gameplay rewards are earned through play.
What Singapore Players Need to Know
At USD 29.99 this is firmly in the range of a premium indie release — cheaper than most AAA titles and priced to compete with games like Genshin Impact‘s rough equivalent spend for a month of serious play. The SGD Steam price will be visible once the game goes live on 23 July; keep an eye on the Steam store page for the confirmed local price.
A free demo is available on Steam now if you want to try the combat before committing. Minimum specs are modest — an i5-9400F with a GTX 1660 will run it — so mid-range gaming PCs from the past few years should handle it fine. SSD storage (25 GB) is required, however.
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