How Elsword’s Dual Character Luciel Was Made And The Availability Of In Game Names

Elsword newest character combines the demon monarch Lu and mob hit-man Ciel into Luciel. Lu is designed as a close range, melee fighter while Ciel is a long range character. Luciel has two combat styles, but one skill tree. Skill functions change depending on which character is actively fighting and certain skills can switch between characters to increase the Combination Gauge.

Betrayed by her own subjects, Lu used all of her mana to escape from the demon realm to Elrios. Ciel finds Lu and protects her, but soon assassins from the demon realm hunt them down. Ciel protects Lu with his life and Lu uses her powers to create a supernatural contract that revives Ciel as a half-demon servant. Now the two characters are bound together and fueled for vengeance. Siliconera spoke to the Elsword team about how they created Luciel, K-pop crossovers, and a problem many free to play MMOs face, limited availability of in game names.

How does the Elsword team create new characters? Did you start with a dual combat mechanic first or the back story where Ciel sacrifices his life to protect Lu?

As we brainstorm for ideas on any new character, the question we typically start with is: Does a perfect character exist? We thought… By having 2 incomplete characters permanently interrelate as one, wouldn’t that be more exciting than any character we’ve come up with previously? With that, the basic concept of Luciel was conceived.

For the first part of the two-part character, we had tried to come up with a female design that held a different type of appeal than that of the female characters currently in Elsword. We thought it would be a good idea to create a character that was confident, charismatic, a bit lively…. and a “little” demonic. We felt that those personality traits could also translate and play into her appearance. This would, in the end, give Lu a charm all her own.

With Ciel, we would perfect the original, dual character concept with an exaggerated difference in size between the two characters. Initially, Ciel was designed to be a very big and beastly looking character, but finding the right way to accomplish this wasn’t easy. However, many within the team voiced that we should create a character that our female players would find attractive and charming, and with that, Ciel went through many changes in design before it became what he looks like today.

How does a dual character work in PvP combat? What advantages/disadvantages does Luciel have over other characters?

Luciel works almost the same way in PVP as they do in Dungeons. When either Lu or Ciel switch out during a combo, the character that is in waiting will recovery MP very quickly. Based on that point alone, it would appear that when compared to other characters, Luciel would be a really strong character.

-Depending on the situation Lu would typically be used for close combat and Ciel for ranged combat

-Through certain skills and/or switching between characters during combos can increase the combination gauge. When the combination gauge fills up a powerful skill can be used without mana consumption

That being said, the downside would be that because Lu and Ciel differ greatly in how skills, control, combos and combat timing are used, controlling Luciel vs. other, solo-type characters will be more difficult, and this would require players to branch out their own play style.

With the rise of K-pop internationally, has there been discussion about getting some of the K-pop crossovers into Elsword?

If there is a good opportunity, we think it’d be a great idea to have a K-pop co-promotion. Of course, any crossover would absolutely have to fit well within the game. If there is a good IP within the K-pop world, we’d like to try it.

Elsword has a big community and it’s still growing. One problem though that a lot of free to play RPGs and even online communities have is online names. As the community gets bigger and bigger it becomes harder to get a character name without a string of numbers in it. Now, everyone can’t be called Dragon, but is KOG thinking about how to solve this?

We do acknowledge that having the perfect character name for many players is a big deal; it’s a part of the “RPG” experience. It’s an issue for many MMORPG developers, and how to best address this issue is something that we’ve been discussing for some time. We have considered freeing up the names of the characters that haven’t logged on in a long time, but at the same time, we feel that it would be a disservice to those players who might lose those IGNs (in game names). We’ve also considered allowing players to contact us to inquire about accessing specific a specific IGN, and if the IGN in question hasn’t been used for a long while, we could allow the inquiring player to acquire it, but that could turn into an intensive, logistical nightmare for Elsword player support.

But again, we’re not just throwing ideas up into the air. This is definitely on our radar and we have some things in mind. However, there are still many things that we need to consider before committing to this type of decision.