Solo Leveling is a massively popular web comic that got its anime adaption in January 2024. It’s also getting a video game adaptation, Solo Leveling: Arise, due to launch later this year.
“I believe that the anime adaptation successfully reproduced the original series with high quality,” executive project director Jin Seong-Keon told NME. “Witnessing how the anime series is garnering global popularity, I could sense the power the Solo Leveling IP has and thought I should continue this momentum with the game adaptation.”
The web comic has been viewed over 14.3billion times, according to Solo Leveling: Arise‘s Steam page. Interestingly, the web comic takes its inspiration from video games, with protagonist Sung Jinwoo a hunter who has to fight deadly monsters.
“One of the points that fans liked the most in the original web novel and webtoon is how the main character, Sung Jinwoo, levels up like a game character, becomes stronger, and wins against challenging enemies,” said Jin. “We applied this concept of ‘leveling up’ from the original series to Solo Leveling: ARISE, so that users can play the character, level up and get a touch of the original series’ narrative as they play the game.”
These themes occur during two gameplay systems: one where players control Sung Jinwoo and one where they control different hunters. Jun believes these modes are both essential “to depict Sung Jinwoo’s overwhelming power.” He adds, “the two game modes may appear similar in combat, but they are fundamentally very different types of games.”
Above all, Jin is proud of “the faithful reproduction of the original IP.” He said, “In a game, players must control the characters and affect the story themselves, unlike in an anime. This will provide another level of fun experience for fans of the anime and gamers alike.”
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