“We knew that the hero would create a shock, but I was surprised by the amount of people who were like ‘what the f—huh?’ but then were like ‘I’m in,’ before three quarters of the trailer had even played,” he said. “Cool, that’s what we wanted.”

Project Windless is slated to be an adaptation of popular South Korean fantasy series The Bird That Drinks Tears by author Lee Youngdo. Since the series has plenty of different races and species, Krafton Montreal was presented with quite a few options when it was time to decide on the game’s protagonist. Ultimately, the decision was made to go with the Hero King because, while he is noted to be an important figure in the fantasy setting’s history, few were alive who truly knew him. This gave the studio more freedom with the narrative.

“One of the reasons we felt the Hero King was the right choice is because he’s a mythical character,” Méthé explained. “He’s remembered, but no one is still alive who was there. It gives us a level of flexibility, because the worst thing for us would have been to try to emulate too closely what’s in the novel at the expense of the game.”

The fact that the Hero King—a rekon—also happens to offer a visually striking design is also a bonus. The fact that rekons have special skills and attributes that set them apart from humans provides gameplay benefits as well.

“This character visually stands out from the typical action adventure RPG, but it needs to be more than an eight-foot, 600-pound guy,” he said. “It’s not a guy in a suit. It’s a race, and the race has specific skills and attributes you don’t find in a human.”

These attributes can be further refined by players throughout their time with Project Windless. The Hero King can be shaped into any kind of protagonist that a player might want, be it a charismatic leader, or a character more inclined to get things done on his own. “It’s really up to each player to adapt their play based on what they’re more interested in,” said the creative director.

Méthé went on to tease other features of Project Windless, noting that it was “too soon to say” whether players will be able to grow their character’s facial hair. He also “wouldn’t confirm or deny; that being said, it’s the story of the rise of the Hero King in the context of war,” when asked about whether there will be any romantic entanglements for the protagonist. As for whether the Hero King is the eponymous bird that drinks tears, he noted that “It’s more of a metaphor for the responsibility of being a leader. The answer in that regard will be yes. You will drink tears.”

Project Windless doesn’t yet have a release date. However, Krafton has confirmed that generative AI is not being used in its development.

Noting that studios under the Krafton banner tend to have a high level of independence when it comes to how they want to apply their creativity, the company believes in allowing them the freedom to decide on their own tools. To that end, for Project Windless, the use of AI has revolved around “exploratory phases”, and that none of the player-facing features were involved.

“Krafton’s studios operate with a high degree of creative independence, enabling each team to select the tools and methods that best suit their projects,” said the spokesperson. “For Project Windless, the Montreal team is taking a traditional, craftsmanship-driven approach to single-player development. The team primarily uses AI internally during exploratory phases to support iteration and efficiency rather than as a central, player-facing feature of the game.

The AI that is being used for the game isn’t really what is commonly considered generative AI in this day and age. Rather, it describes machine learning systems that have been used in game development for decades at this point. Project Windless uses it for NPC behaviour systems, and for fine-tuning animations depending on their environments.

“Project Windless uses traditional game AI systems to drive NPC behaviour and bring the world and its characters to life beyond combat. These systems govern how characters react, move, and behave in the environment. We are not using generative AI for content creation or narrative elements,” they said.

Project Windless is going to be an adaptation of the Korean fantasy book series The Bird That Drinks Tears. The trailer gave us a simple story setup, giving us our first glimpse at a Nhaga holding a heart, before eventually cutting to gameplay. The hack-and-slash action game seems to take quite a few cues from Koei Tecmo’s Warriors series, since players, taking on the role of a Rekon, will have to deal with hundreds of enemies in epic battlefields.

While most regular enemies will seemingly be dealt with quite quickly, it looks like bosses will require more thought on the players’ part. Not only do they have hard-hitting, heavy attacks, the boss fights also seem to make good use of the masses of regular soldiers they have at their disposal to ensure that the player is constantly facing pressure and has to figure out their next moves under duress.

Not many details about Project Windless have been revealed so far. However, the book series that it is based on has been praised quite a bit for its worldbuilding aspects, with author Lee Youngdo having gone to great lengths to establish the cultures, languages, and belief systems of the various races that inhabit the world of The Bird That Drinks Tears. This can only mean great news for players, since strong worldbuilding also tends to serve as strong foundations for any given story.

The central conflict of the game seems to revolve around the Nhaga and the other races which largely stems from an envoy that was brutally murdered. Much like the book series, the game also places quite a bit of emphasis on the Nhaga and their relationship with hearts.

The trailer starts off by giving us some story setup before quickly throwing us into the midst of its fast-paced high-intensity gameplay. The number of enemies that are on screen at any given moment might draw comparisons with Koei Tecmo’s Warriors series. However, the trailer has also indicated that there will be boss fights requiring more in terms of tactics than simple button mashing.

The protagonist is of a race based on roosters, dubbed Rekon, and will be capable of wielding different kinds of weapons, from one-handed swords to dual-wielding smaller blades, or two-handing a giant spear. The core story will seemingly revolve around winning battles to “unite a fractured land and give birth to a new kingdom.”

The original series of books was known for its emphasis on worldbuilding, with author Lee Youngdo being praised for his work on establishing various cultures, languages, belief systems, and socio-political structures for every one of its races.