Aion 2 Interview

At this year’s Summer Game Fest Play Days, NC held a closed-door preview to show off MMORPG Aion 2. RPGamer sat down to talk with Daniel LaFuente, Director of Operations; Merv Lee Kwai, Executive Publishing Producer for Aion 2; and Seung-Uk Baek, the Chief Business Officer, about the game’s upcoming international release, featured content, and design philosophy. Mr. Baek’s answers were given in Korean and communicated through a translator. Aion 2, which released for PC in 2025 in South Korea and Taiwan, will be released internationally for PC this September.

Jordan McClain (RPGamer): What is the core vision of Aion 2 that you most wanted to communicate to newer players or those unfamiliar with Aion?

Seung-Uk Baek: This is an MMO of their dreams come true, kind of a completed version of Aion. And he wants to, like, showcase all of the customization options, high-fidelity graphics with cosmetics like pets and wings, so they could enjoy this fun game. And the freedom of flight. Also, there’s an RvR – realm versus realm – where it’s massive PvP. It’s also something that you could participate in, too.

RPGamer: What aspects of the original Aion were most important to preserve, and what are some new features that the design team is excited to show off?

Baek: Key features that they wanted to really inherit from Aion were the lore itself, and then the realm versus realm, that derived from the lore. They wanted to keep those for sure, and plus, they wanted to keep the original classes that were introduced in Aion. So, those are implemented in the current build, and they expanded that further. So, you know, RvR is still there, just in a different form a little bit. And they also wanted to emphasize what’s new, are the pets. But what’s improved further is really the freedom of flying, because it was limited back then with tech limitations and such. Which, now, they implemented freedom of flying everywhere. So, it’s that flying aspects are really something that’s not new but further improved, which is really important.

RPGamer: What has been the biggest challenge in updating Aion 2 for modern MMO expectations while also maintaining its existing identity?

Baek: Everything. [laughs] Two major difficulties that the team went through were, one was the realm versus realm battle where it’s very fast-paced action with high-fidelity graphics. And we’re talking about 1000 players fighting at once. So that had to be, you know, the graphics have to come out… it has to look great. That was one of the challenges that the team really faced, having the massive-scale PvP, while keeping the quality of the graphics and everything, which kind of goes along with the freedom of flying. You know, just a rendering issue far, far out that you can fly up, and you can see how by inside the game distance. So, it’s a lot of graphics to render, you know. Those kind of things were really difficult for them to really work on it, but they pulled through. Customizations, too.

RPGamer: With Aion‘s focus on large-scale, factional conflicts, how has the core combat design been reimagined or expanded for Aion 2?

Baek: So, while inheriting that large-scale factional battle, or RvR we call it, some of the things changed, or I would say, developed into ways to fit into modern MMO, where back then it was more tab-targeting, whereas now it’s more like fast-paced, action-driven, non-targeted skills. And I think that change was we have more aerial flight, up in the air flying. So those two are the biggest changes while inheriting the RvR concept.

Daniel LaFuente: I think there’s maybe other elements to add to that too, which is that… he sort of touched on it, but… I think I really want to focus in on the core combat changes that he mentioned, which is a really big part of what’s in Aion 2. It’s a way for us to ideally preserve the authenticity of Aion, so that Aion fans have somewhere to come, but still welcome a newer and a younger generation into this world – yeah, like yourself – and bring them in with that different type of combat that’s more expected for 2026 that’s action combat oriented. I think that’s one part. And the other is, I just want to re-emphasize that the PvP is opt-in. So, this is a big part of Aion 2 is the RvR. But there’s still a huge breathtaking amount of content for PvE players, gatherers, or lifestyle players, customizers, as we saw.

RPGamer: What experiences or feelings are you hoping that players experience in Aion 2?

Baek: He wants to put emphasis on many things, but above all, he really wants the players to experience the fun of the game itself, including, but not limited to, freedom of flying, freedom of exploring the world, and customization to really express themselves in the game. And, you know, we had various contents from PvE to PvP, maybe, you know, finding your own ways of playing, or seeing the balance between PvE and PvP content would be another fun point. So, he just wants players to come in and enjoy the game.

RPGamer: Is there anything you want our readers or fans or anything to know about Aion 2?

Baek: The team put in a lot of effort and time into this project beyond what you could imagine. So, he really wants the readers to really try the game before making a judgment. Try it first to see how much you like it. Or you don’t. But don’t just listen to other people’s feedback until you play it. Because we have a lot of content from the demo, because of time constraints, which we couldn’t show. But we have, you know, like he mentioned, gathering, we have mini-games, we have various content. So, he really wants to encourage the readers to really just, you know, take a look. Try it and see how much you enjoy the game. He wishes we had more time to show the game!

RPGamer would like to thank Seung-Uk Baek, Daniel LaFuente, and Merv Lee Kwai for taking the time to answer our questions and NC for providing an excellent translator, who chose to be uncredited for this interview. We would also like to thank Outrageous PR and Ami Fleet for coordinating this interview, as well as Doug and Danielle for their on-site assistance at Summer Game Fest. Aion 2 is currently available for PC in South Korea and Taiwan, and will release internationally for PC in September 2026.