The creators of the action RPG DragonSword: Awakening held a livestream with release details: launch is set for July 23, 2026. No gacha — the game ships in a std. ed. ($29.99) and a deluxe ed. ($49.99) that includes an artbook + soundtrack.
All 19 base characters, plus four new heroes planned for this year (first: the spearman Raiza), will be unlocked via the story — free for everyone. Paid bits are limited to cosmetic costumes and roughly one-third of the 30 pet-familiar types (so ~10 types are paid); pets are purely visual and don’t change balance, the devs say.
Several gameplay changes were highlighted: the Korean duplicate system for leveling was removed; jump physics were tweaked after demo feedback; and the intro was overhauled to put heroine Lyut’s strength front-and-center from the get-go. The main story runs up to 15 hrs; add character personal quests and you’re looking at about 30 hrs total.
Multiplayer focuses on raid content without random matchmaking — and if you go solo the boss difficulty auto-scales down. Pre-orders were cancelled; anyone who buys the game by Aug 31 will get the exclusive pet “Lyutwolf of the Abyss” free.