In case you didn’t know, Nexon is entering the online looter shooter genre with The First Descendant. With the studio giving gamers a taste of what’s to come with last month’s open beta, MP1st had the chance to talk to the developers on what games inspired them, what made Nexon decide to go into the console and PC F2P race and more.

Talking to MP1st is game director Minseok Joo and Producer Beom-jun Lee. 

The First Descendant Interview:

MP1st: During the beta, some of us felt a bit overwhelmed by the different currencies, materials, etc. is this something the dev team is looking into so as not to overwhelm players?

Minseok Joo: The First Descendant is a grinding game, and we think part of the fun is collecting different currencies and materials. We want to make sure that our players feel a sense of accomplishment when they spend them, and that they are willing to farm for them to fulfill those accomplishments.

The Crossplay Open Beta allowed the team to test a number of things, including ensuring that the farming worked as intended. As the team watched, they were able to identify a number of usability issues. For instance, there were a number of different materials required for research, and it was frustrating to see where each material could be farmed, or the fact that players had to open menus and navigate through multiple levels of UI each time to see what they were currently targeting.

We’re looking into adding a variety of farming-related convenience features before launch. We’ll be improving the UX for players to be able to enjoy farming in a much more convenient environment.

MP1st: There’s no shortage of F2P games out there, what do you think makes The First Descendant stand out?

Beom-jun Lee: think the most special element is the game structure centered around compelling characters. As you may know, The First Descendant has a wide variety of characters, each with their own personal stories and unique abilities. I think the combination of various guns and actions based on these characters’ abilities to challenge huge bosses is the most attractive part of the game. Of course, we will continue to add content at launch and beyond, but we plan to lead the game in a way that reinforces this foundation.

MP1st: We were quite impressed at the game’s visuals, and it didn’t look like a free-to-play game. The opening act was very cinematic, to a degree that it felt like a single-player game. Was that what the team was trying to achieve? Tell us a bit about it. 

Minseok Joo: We never once thought, “This is good enough for a free-to-play game” while developing. The opening (we call it the prologue) was completely redone after our last Steam Beta test. We wanted to make it more visually stunning, and we also wanted to make the story more immersive to experience. Finally, since The First Descendant is a character-based game, we wanted to do a better job of making the characters appealing, so we included one of our most popular characters, Bunny.
There was a lot of trepidation about creating a new opening, as a partial quality-up seemed like a more realistic plan given the timeframe until the next test, but the team chose to take a risk, and it was a lot of work… But it’s been very rewarding to see so many players love the new opening.

MP1st: This is Nexon’s first looter shooter, what made the company decide to go this route? 

Beom-jun Lee: It all began with the goal of creating a global online RPG PC game. When this project was first brought up, the Korean game development industry was highly focused on mobile games. Thus, not many companies were up for the challenge of creating a new PC online RPG.
In the process, I came to propose the development of a looter shooter, a genre that I have always been interested in. I believed that the looter shooter genre with shooting and RPG combined still has a lot of potential and that it was a genre worth challenging.

MP1st: Was Destiny a vital game to get ideas from? Or did something else like say Warframe, provide a more valuable insight given it is also F2P?

Minseok Joo: As you know, there aren’t many multiplayer looter shooter games. There’s Destiny 2, Warframe, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Outriders, etc. We love those games, and of course we took a lot of inspiration from those already popular looter shooter games while developing The First Descendant.
The First Descendant is similar to Warframe in that it’s a character-driven game, so we took a lot of inspiration from Warframe when designing structures around characters. Moreover, The First Descendant has skill-based action, but it also has very gun-heavy combat, and a lot of the combat takes place in open fields, which we took inspiration from Destiny 2.

But that’s not all, when we were developing the grappling hook, we reviewed almost every existing action game, and there are shooters that use grappling hooks, for example, Halo Infinite and Apex Legends.
We’re taking inspiration from a lot of different games, and we’re reworking them to make sure that they fit into the overall structure and tone of our game.

MP1st: What was the inspiration for the game? Is this the vision the team originally had at the start, or did they play around with some, with one eventually turning into what we have today?

Beom-jun Lee: First of all, the overall style of the game started with the setting, which is a hybrid of a fantasy kingdom and a sci-fi alien invasion, and I think that’s what gives The First Descendant its unique style.
Additionally, visual-wise, as the world is on the brink of extinction, we were inspired by various dystopian and post-apocalyptic content. We received inspiration from various contents, such as looter shooter and FPS games, Blame (animation and comic), and the Metal Gear Solid series and tried to create new visuals of our own based on those inspirations.

MP1st: What is the core gameplay loop of First Descendant going to be at launch? Players grinding for better gear, and building up to endgame activities?

Beom-jun Lee: First, the most significant part of our core loop is character acquisition, as players must be able to use various characters to take on multiple missions and co-op content like raids. Therefore, players must collect and produce the necessary resources to acquire different characters while playing. You also have to earn weapons and diverse gear to make easier progress or take on more challenging missions. Players will need miscellaneous gear to create various strategies.

MP1st: Speaking of, does the game have a proper “ending” of sorts? Particularly when it comes to the story?

Minseok Joo: Currently, the story is focused on Karel and the story of the Iron Heart. This story is structured up to the ending, but since The First Descendant is a live service game, we’re also thinking about the story afterward.We’re also working on character-specific stories for each character. These stories will be short, but will have an ending, and will cover the narrative of the Descendants.

MP1st: Will players be able to speed leveling up by purchasing boosters and the like?

Minseok Joo: We haven’t decided if there will be boosters yet, but regardless of those boosters, we’re designing the game balance so that players can grow and farm just by playing the game.

MP1st: For post-launch content support, what’s the team approach going to be? Will it be, we have a plan outlined of content you already have in mind, or will this be somewhat like Warframe, and a few other games where it’s more community driven and the teams building off that?

Beom-jun Lee: We will continue to update the game even after the official launch. The updates will include all the new content, story, weapons, characters, and giant bosses. We want to receive inspiration regarding the updates from our players.

MP1st: While Nexon is known mostly for mobile games, what made the company decide to go for something bigger in scope like The First Descendant?

Beom-jun Lee: As mentioned above, it all began with the goal of creating a global online RPG PC game. When this project was first brought up, the Korean game development industry was highly focused on mobile games. Thus, not many companies were up for the challenge of creating a new PC online RPG.
In the process, I came to propose the development of a looter shooter, a genre that I have always been interested in. I believed that the looter shooter genre with shooting and RPG combined still has a lot of potential and that it was a genre worth challenging.

The First Descendant has no release date yet, but will be available on the PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.