Player versus environment Ī screenshot of a player character attacking a boss monster The player might freely switch among the characters they had unlocked before entering combat, each with their own specific equipment, abilities and experience level. Players were able to own more than four characters, but were required to buy additional character slots to do so.Įach character was leveled and equipped separately Equipment was character-specific, although a few accessories could be used by all characters. Users would start the game with one character and could eventually unlock three additional characters. 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. The game was free-to-play, 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 combat. While it was an action game, the designers took care to not make it a "button masher". The final version of Grand Chase included 20 playable characters.īecause of the game's use of combos and special abilities, Grand Chase was similar to other side-scrolling fighting games such as Double Dragon, while the appearance and design of the backdrops, as well as the characters and monsters, put the game in an anime-esque setting. 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 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.įrom the very start, there were three main characters available: the knight Elesis, the magician Arme, and the elven archer Lire. 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. By 2022 the beta test phase was ended and it was open free to play for all on Steam. KOG has also announced a relaunch of the game for personal computers in 2021, retitled Grand Chase Classic, which started in closed beta testing. A spin-off borrowing some characters and taking place in a parallel universe, KurtzPel, is currently under Steam early access. In 2018, the main game received an official sequel in form of the mobile game Grand Chase: Dimensional Chaser.
Elsword, another game developed by KOG, was created as the spiritual successor to Grand Chase. In 2015, the original game ceased development and terminated its service worldwide, with the Korean server being the last to close. Grand Chase broke the record of most played online game in Brazil and earned the "most popular online game" award in Indonesia on 2011. After becoming a large success, the game expanded to most of Asia, the Americas and Europe. The game initially launched for South Korea in 2003. Alternative names for Grand Chase included Three Young Heroes ( Chinese: 3小俠), Eternal Adventures ( Chinese: 永恆冒險), both used in Taiwan prior to its closure, as well as Rainbow Warriors ( Chinese: 彩虹骑士) on the Mainland Chinese server. Grand Chase ( Korean: 그랜드체이스, lit.'Grand Chase') was a free-to-play, two-dimensional side-scrolling MMORPG, developed by the South Korean company KOG Studios.