VINDIGTUS: DEFYING FATE

Enjoy a spin-off from long-running Korean MMO

- Ian Evenden

NEED TO KNOW
RELEASE TBA
DEVELOPER Nexon
PUBLISHER Nexon
LINK s.team/c/281486

A warrior enters a sunlit valley. She wears highly feminised armour that’s a little draughty around the thighs, and carries a sword and shield. A dual-blade wielding male character is also available at startup, but the extra protection will probably come in handy later, especially when I start looking at the alternate costumes.

What were you doing in 2010? Chances are you weren’t playing a Korean MMO called Vindictus, also known as Mabinogi Heroes, which won the grand prize at the 2010 Korea Game Awards. It’s still going today, has been praised for its combat, and Defying Fate is a spin-off story.

The game is full of artefacts from its MMO heritage. Defying Fate takes place in the same universe as the original Vindictus, features some of its characters and you can swap costumes at any time, as well as perform emotes which, in a singleplayer game, appear somewhat redundant but might hint at a future co-op implementation. The outfits for the female character, Fiona, range from some serious armour with horns and a surcoat to a little white dress straight out of a Twitter bot’s photo library, and everything seems to come with high heels. Even her metal boots end in stilettos that somehow still allow their wearer to walk over mud without sinking in. Oddly, the male character, Lann, doesn’t suffer from this problem, as while he has fewer outfits available they’re all sensible, sturdy armour rather than mankinis or low-rise denim shorts.