There’s no shortage of action RPGs competing for attention, so having a strong identity matters. Tarae: The Unbound certainly has that visually, blending a colourful fantasy world with distinctly Korean influences and a cast of striking characters.
At Gamescom, I spoke with the CEO of Boundary, Inyoung Koo, art director Byung Ho Park and creative director Myung Sang Ryu about where those ideas came from, the inspirations behind Tarae’s world and characters, and how the team is hoping to carve out its own space in an increasingly crowded genre.
Tarae: The Unbound is a top-down action RPG where you play as one of six Seekers exploring Taegwido, an island created after the boundaries between the Six Realms were broken, with the story focusing on trying to restore the cycle of reincarnation.
Combat is fast-paced; there are plenty of enemies thrown at you all at once, alongside bigger boss fights where you’ll need to pay a bit more attention to attack patterns and mechanics. There are six playable classes, as well as different skills, traits, and equipment to mess around with as you figure out what works best for you.
It’s very Diablo-esque thanks to the isometric perspective, fast-paced combat, swarms of enemies to carve through, and plenty of skills and gear, but it swaps the familiar Western dark fantasy setting for a dark fantasy world heavily inspired by East Asian mythology and folklore. The team promises that it’s “an action RPG that provides a more expansive experience than existing action RPGs”.
“There are professions from different countries reinterpreted,” Boundary tells me. “We've looked at what we can use and what we can take from the classes, and that’s how we altered the six characters.” The classes offer a range of damage types so that they “don’t conflict”, with the team explaining, “All different classes have different types of dealing [damage]. We took Samurai from Japan, so we didn't take anything of that sort from Korea.”
The team tells me they knew from the beginning that they wanted a hack-and-slash game, “We wanted to use more action. We wanted to maximise action. Then, we were looking for differentiating factors, and we realised that there aren't many games that deal with Asian cultures or themes. So that's how we decided to add the artistic vision of Asian cultures and themes.”
Sitting in a room with the Boundary team and taking Tarae for a spin, I was very conscious of not utterly failing in a spectacularly embarrassing manner, so I asked them which class was best for beginners, and they kindly steered me towards Samurai.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.thegamer.com/tarae-the-unbound-wants-to-offer-a-more-expansive-experience/
