Nexon’s Vindictus Actively Incorporates Player Feedback

NEXON recently held a dedicated community session for Vindictus: Defying Fate, sharing what has happened since the previous test and outlining what’s ahead for the game. Players came prepared with a wide range of questions—showing both their excitement for the title and their willingness to voice candid feedback.

Vindictus: Defying Fate (hereafter Vindictus) reimagines the long-running action title Mabinogi: Heroes (Vindictus). While major characters and the universe have carried over, the team has been building the game from the ground up with updated graphics and its own identity. Over the past year, NEXON has run several tests and steadily revealed new information to give players a clearer sense of the game’s direction.

The alpha test held in June showed substantial progress compared to the project’s earliest builds. It gave players a first look at the opening story, major base areas, major characters, and a roster of playable heroes, which significantly raised expectations. Since then, the team has continued to share follow-up notes and development updates, emphasizing transparency and a willingness to incorporate feedback.

On November 11th, the studio hosted a global AMA session. Many players submitted questions in advance, and during the live chat the developers addressed both pre-collected and real-time questions, including several personal ones directed at individual team members.

According to the developers, Vindictus is currently about halfway through its full development roadmap. As previously announced, the game’s single-player foundation will eventually be expanded with multiplayer elements. The team also acknowledged that many players were disappointed with optimization during the last test and confirmed that a dedicated task force is now actively working on improvements.

Player feedback has already led to notable gameplay adjustments. Many users expressed frustration with certain monsters’ unblockable attacks. To preserve the core action-combat feel of Vindictus, the team ultimately decided to remove those attack types. They’re also refining the overall style of the game, aiming for a middle ground between the serious feel of the early builds and the more casual style seen recently.

The story will delve deeper into questions that players had about past Mabinogi: Heroes lore—topics that were previously glossed over or left to text-only explanations. Rather than adopting the complicated structure of other MMORPGs with multiple progression systems, Vindictus focuses on combat-driven gameplay. Alongside Arisha, more new characters are planned to be introduced to the game.

New characters won’t be limited to the original Mabinogi: Heroes roster. Original characters created specifically for Vindictus are likely to appear, and among characters from Mabinogi: Heroes, only those that align with the new game’s tone and action style will make the cut. Future tests are expected to showcase both newly added heroes and updated versions of existing ones.

Some iconic elements from Mabinogi: Heroes—like armor destruction—will not be returning. The team also confirmed they have no plans to implement a stamina system. However, boss dismemberment mechanics and certain interactive elements are still in development, supporting the goal of establishing a unique action-focused progression model.

While the timeline for the next test has not been finalized, the team aims to respond quickly to feedback and introduce new content, with plans to resume testing in 2026 with a more polished experience. They noted that significant work is going into the story, which is being developed episode by episode, and promised to share more detailed information soon through another community event.

The developers closed the AMA by thanking everyone who participated. “We sincerely appreciate all the questions players submitted during the AMA,” they said. “We will continue answering those we couldn’t get to during the session. Given the strong interest, we’re reviewing how much more of the current development progress and related materials we can share. Thank you for your support.”

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