Lost Ark final closed beta soon, graphical revamp and more revealed

The final Lost Ark closed beta is about to begin in South Korea. Smilegate's hugely anticipated MMORPG enters this beta phase in May 23, running through June 3. A new blog post details some of the novelties for this beta.

First of all, there's a more in-depth relationship system with the NPCs. In the previous beta, players complained about the difficulty of getting favor from the NPCs, and this was only a way to get a reward. Now, there are several stages of friendship and emotional responses are included, such as unique quests where an NPC shares more about him/her with the player. You can increase your friendship level by doing things such as offering gifts, playing musical instruments and expressing emotions. Smilegate hints at the possibility of a “special relationship”, but I won't go as far as saying “marriage” without any kind of confirmation.

Here are some of the NPCs that you can befriend:

I would also like to feature the graphical improvements that Lost Ark players will be able to see for themselves. The comparison images below show quite a shocking jump in the overall quality, taking it closer to some of the environments that we saw in the earlier Lost Ark trailers. Have a look:

Mighty impressive, don't you think? It even features some gigantic cock-a-doodle-doos! Sadly, Lost Ark is still without any kind of English release officially planned, but it will eventually happen. It's just too good to pass.