By: Khyle Ngo
Nostalgia is something everybody feels occasionally, especially if you encounter something you used to be fond of. But what if that thing vanished without a trace, and years later made a comeback out of nowhere?
GrandChase is one such thing – a videogame that was once a beloved by gamers, but suddenly disappeared. Now, more than half a decade later, the game is on its way to making a comeback, with former players hyped about the sudden announcement.
GrandChase was a free-to-play MMORPG developed by a South Korean company called KOG Studios. It was released on August 2003 to huge fanfare. Its popularity caused an expansion of servers in Asia, America, and Europe. It even held the record of being the most played game in Brazil and given the “Most Popular Online Game” at the Asian Online Game Awards in 2011.
The game follows a group of adventurers called “Grand Chase” and their quest to take down the evil queen Kaze’aze who caused a civil war between two kingdoms. The group go on a grand chase (*ahem*) to defeat Kaze’aze before she destroys their world.
Unfortunately, GrandChase started closing down its servers from 2013 to 2015, with some speculating the reason being a lack of revenue from the the free-to-play game. This left players to move on to related games like Elsword, GrandChase: Dimensional Chaser (Mobile Game), and KurtzPel which were all made by the same developers of GrandChase. Seeing the potential and huge fanbase of the game, especially in the Philippines, Philippine game publisher Level Up! Games offered to purchase the rights to the game, with Filipino fans supporting the decision. However, KOG Studios rejected the offer.
Image from KOG Studios
Now, six years after its departure, GrandChase Classic makes a comeback, with closed beta-testing at its initial phase last July 14, 2021 through video game distributor Steam. Not much is known yet about the comeback, but according to the game’s official Steam page, GrandChase will return on August 2021.
Old fans are showing their support and love as the game’s beta version shot up to the 6th most played game on the platform even before the official version has been released. We’re not quite sure just yet what this old favorite has in store for us, but we are excited for bigger and better things to come.