Grand Chase
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''Grand Chase'' ( ko, 그랜드체이스, lit=Grand Chase) was a
free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...
,
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side-scrolling MMORPG, developed by the
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
n company
KOG Studios KOG Co., better known as KOG Studios, is a South Korean game development company based in Daegu. They specialize in producing online free-to-play games, and currently publish the side-scrolling action MMORPG, ''Elsword'' and the early access ac ...
. Alternative names for ''Grand Chase'' included ''Three Young Heroes'' ( zh, 3小俠), ''Eternal Adventures'' ( zh, 永恆冒險), both used in
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
prior to its closure, as well as ''Rainbow Warriors'' ( zh, 彩虹骑士) on the Mainland
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
server. The game initially launched for South Korea in 2003. After becoming a large success, the game expanded to most of
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, the
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and
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. ''Grand Chase'' broke the record of most played online game in
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and earned the "most popular online game" award in
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
on 2011. In 2015, the original game ceased development and terminated its service worldwide, with the Korean server being the last to close. ''
Elsword ''Elsword'' ( Korean: 엘소드) is a free-to-play, 2.5D action MMORPG developed by the South Korean company KOG Studios. It features real-time action gameplay and includes both player vs. environment and player vs. player modes. There are four ...
'', another game developed by KOG, was created as the spiritual successor to ''Grand Chase''. In 2018, the main game received an official sequel in form of the mobile game ''Grand Chase: Dimensional Chaser''. A spin-off borrowing some characters and taking place in a parallel universe, '' KurtzPel'', is currently under Steam
early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...
. KOG has also announced a relaunch of the game for personal computers in 2021, retitled ''Grand Chase Classic'', which started in closed beta testing. By 2022 the beta test phase was ended and it was open free to play for all on Steam.


Plot

The story was focused on the adventures of the ''Grand Chase'', a group of heroes from the region of Bermesiah, who departed on a quest to chase down the evil queen Kaze'aze, a witch who used her magic powers to cause a civil war between Bermesiah's kingdoms of Serdin and Kanavan. The players control of one of the members of the Grand Chase, and fights through dungeons and Kaze'aze minions to get stronger and track the evil queen. From the very start, there were three main characters available: the knight Elesis, the magician Arme, and the elven archer Lire. More characters were added to the available roster with subsequent updates, each adding a different play style from the rest, and were unlockable by either performing a difficult free mission or by purchasing the character with real money. The final version of ''Grand Chase'' included 20 playable characters.


Gameplay

Because of the game's use of combos and special abilities, ''Grand Chase'' was similar to other side-scrolling fighting games such as ''
Double Dragon is a beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technōs Japan and released as an arcade game in 1987. The series features twin martial artists, Billy and Jimmy Lee, as they fight against various adversaries and rivals. The origina ...
'', while the appearance and design of the backdrops, as well as the characters and monsters, put the game in an
anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
-esque setting. While it was an action game, the designers took care to not make it a "button masher". The game was
free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...
, where players earned a currency known as ''Game Points'' (or ''GP'') from completing dungeon quests, individual missions, or defeating other users in
player versus player Player versus player (PvP) is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players. This is often compared to player versus environment (PvE), in which the game itself controls its players' opponents. The terms are mos ...
combat. Players could use ''Game Points'' to buy better equipment and items, although there were some items that could only be purchased with real-world currency. Users would start the game with one character and could eventually unlock three additional characters. Players were able to own more than four characters, but were required to buy additional character slots to do so. Each character was leveled and equipped separately; Equipment was character-specific, although a few accessories could be used by all characters. The player might freely switch among the characters they had unlocked before entering combat, each with their own specific equipment, abilities and experience level.


Player versus environment

''Grand Chase'' was centered around
player versus environment Player versus environment or player versus enemy (PvE, also known as player versus monster (PvM)), is a term used for both single player and online games, particularly MMORPGs, CORPGs, MUDs, other online role-playing video games and survival ga ...
gameplay. Players would have a number of ''dungeons'' available to complete. These dungeons consisted of branching levels filled with enemies, usually with a stronger
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on the final one. When entering a dungeon, a player might form a 4-player group (or ''party'') to complete it. When choosing a dungeon to play, the player was given the option to create a party of their own, or join one created by other players. Players could repeat dungeons as many times as they liked. After each expedition into a dungeon, characters would gain experience points. While the amount of experience gained was partially dependent on the player's performance and character level, every player would gain some amount experience after completing a dungeon. When sufficient experience was obtained, the player's character would advance by one level. Higher levels improved statistics, granted access to better equipment, and unlocked more difficult dungeons. Characters stopped leveling up when they reached level 85. Items required to complete quests would automatically be given to the players at a certain rate. All other items were distributed to different party members by a "dice" system. When an item was picked up by any party member, each member of the party would roll their own set of dice; the player with the highest number would then gain the item. The size of the player's inventory was limited, but could be increased by purchasing space with paid currency or through events. To encourage group play, players would get a slight experience boost when working together. ''Relay Dungeons'' were a unique type of dungeon, only available during certain events. In a Relay Dungeon, the players fought through every boss of a certain dungeon group (or ''continent'') in order. The bosses in the Relay Dungeon had increased statistics, making them more difficult to defeat. After a boss was defeated, a chest containing valuable items, possibly including paid items, was opened. Any boss that was available in that continent's dungeons could be chosen.


Player versus player

Players could also compete against each other in
player versus player Player versus player (PvP) is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players. This is often compared to player versus environment (PvE), in which the game itself controls its players' opponents. The terms are mos ...
(or ''PVP'') combat. There were three types of PVP combat in ''Grand Chase'': ''Team Battles'', ''Survival'' and ''Honor Guard''. Win/loss statistics for each of the player's characters were recorded for these matches. *Team battles consisted of two, four, or six players. Players would be divided in two teams, and their goal was to defeat the opposing team by knocking out all the other team's characters. Team battles encouraged players to plan their attack strategies and co-operate with one another to defeat the opposing team. * Survival was a mode where anywhere between two and six players battled one another until only one player was left alive. The surviving player was given first place, and the other players were ranked based on their number of kills. The rounded-down, top ranked half of the Players in the room would get a win. This was done to encourage players to fight, instead of hide or run from the others until he or she was the only player left alive. * Honor Guard was similar to a ''Team Battle''. At the start of the match, one member of each team was randomly selected as a 'Warlord', shown by a red/blue marker. The aim of the game was to successfully defeat the opposing team's Warlord twice. Warlords were given double regular stats to help defend themselves from the opposing team. Furthermore, a Warlord had only two lives, whereas other players could re-spawn after defeat endlessly. When a Warlord was defeated once, the other team's Warlord suffered from a drastically lowered level of defense for 10 seconds. Warlords could not regenerate health. Alongside the regular match types, players could choose special modifiers to make fights more interesting: ''Tag'' and ''Item Mode''. * Tag matches allowed players to play with two characters of their choice. By pressing a button, they could switch characters during the course of the fight. However, if one of the characters was killed, the player could no longer switch to that character. When one of the player's characters was knocked out, the player was automatically switched to their other character. * Item Mode matches had "power ups" dropped onto the battlefield at regular intervals throughout the match, that could be used by the player that picked them up. These power ups granted the player special abilities, such as invisibility or invincibility, for a short duration of time. Each player could store up to three power ups at any time. If a player was killed while holding power ups, they would be dropped on their feet and would become available to be picked up by other players.


Closure

From 2013 to 2015, all of the ''Grand Chase'' servers ceased operations; the North American server was shut down on April 15, 2015, after eight years of operations, as KOG encouraged its players to migrate to ''
Elsword ''Elsword'' ( Korean: 엘소드) is a free-to-play, 2.5D action MMORPG developed by the South Korean company KOG Studios. It features real-time action gameplay and includes both player vs. environment and player vs. player modes. There are four ...
''. The
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publisher
Level Up! Games Level Up! Inc., more commonly known by the trademark Level Up! Games, is a Philippine game publishing studio owned by Asiasoft since 2014. According to their website, they currently have operations in the Philippines, Brazil and Latin America. Hi ...
, with support of the Brazilian and Philippine community, offered to buy the rights of the game, but KOG Studios refused. The
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n servers were shut down on December 31, 2015.


Legacy

On July 30, 2015, only a few months after the closure of ''Grand Chase'' in North America, the
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
n company Eyedentity Games published ''Grand Chase M'', a short-lived mobile port of the game developed by Da Vinci Games, for Android and
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
systems. According to the publisher, ''Grand Chase M'' hit 2 million downloads 1 week after its release globally. However, this version has since been shut down.


''Grand Chase: Dimensional Chaser''

In 2016, KOG Studios announced a mobile game made by itself. KOG Studios and Kakao Games released the game '' Grand Chase for kakao '' in January 2018. In July 2018, the game was released internationally and renamed '' Grand Chase: Dimensional Chaser '' in Japan and the Philippines. A Taiwanese server is later opened to form the Asian server alongside Japan and the Philippines, which is also open to other countries in Southeast Asia. On November 23, 2019, a KOG was no longer part of the game's continuity decisions. International servers use English, Japanese and Portuguese language voice-overs. The game serves as the sequel for the PC game, while introducing new characters and setting. The game has different mechanics compared to the original game; The player has to use a team of up to four characters with different classes to run dungeons and defeat monsters and bosses strategically.


References

*


External links

* {{moby game, id=/grand-chase, name=''Grand Chase'' 2003 video games Massively multiplayer online role-playing games Inactive massively multiplayer online games Fantasy video games Netmarble games Video games developed in South Korea Windows games Windows-only games Gamebryo games Level Up! Games games