Hello, I’m Sang Kwon Han, the new director of UNDECEMBER since September.

I am sure that many of you are surprised by this sudden change in director.

Since UNDECEMBER first launched, the game has gone through much trial and error and has experienced numerous issues. We would like to sincerely thank those who have continued to play UNDECEMBER, and to sincerely apologize for the times where we have disappointed you. However, with the strong belief that UNDECEMBER has the potential to improve and become a model Korean Hack & Slash game, I have taken on the tremendous responsibility of being UNDECEMBER’s director and am now here writing my first letter to you.

In this Director’s Letter, I will briefly outline the direction in which the game’s future updates will head.

■ Looking Back

We believe that the new Season Mode and other new modes that were suddenly introduced in the past year were all decisions that were inevitable for a Hack & Slash game like UNDECEMBER. However, understanding that these changes were not to the satisfaction of our users, we cannot help but self-reflect on the decisions that were made. Therefore, we are aiming to further improve the quality of the game so that we can fully offer the fun that comes with the Hack & Slash genre, and to establish ourselves as a game that is centered around users by ensuring that we listen to the opinions of our users closely.

First, we will prioritize stability so that we can provide a gaming environment where users can fully enjoy UNDECEMBER. We will continue to adjust the game’s balance and improve issues that were previously neglected.

Second, we will place the inherent fun that comes from combat and hunting in the Hack & Slash genre at the forefront of our aims. Due to this, please note that the development of existing or planned short-term/long-term UNDECEMBER PvP and Guild content may be delayed or discontinued.

Third, we will minimize the nerfs caused by balance changes to skills and builds. Balance changes that will not cause critical issues will be adjusted in time for the next new season.

Fourth, we will offer satisfactory compensation for issues caused by our own mistakes. Until now, there were many occasions where we were unable to provide suitable compensation to users for various issues, including bugs and convenience-related problems. From now on, we will work harder to ensure that we can compensate users for any inconvenience they experience due to issues caused by our mistakes.

■ Key Improvements Planned for Oct. 12 Update

For the minor update that will be taking place soon on Oct. 12 (Thu), we are planning on taking the first step to improve the game’s deep-rooted convenience issues that have been brought to light by the game’s Origin Mode.

- Improvements to Inventory

Even though farming is a key aspect of UNDECEMBER, the lack of convenience features that allow users to easily view their items in their inventory has caused much inconvenience. To help resolve this, the inventory’s filter feature will be upgraded and the current, inconvenient Favorite feature for items will be improved so that items can be organized more easily.

- Improvements to Pet Feature

A new storage feature for Pets will be added. This will help improve the inconvenience of having to move back and forth between towns and dungeons.

- Improvements to NPC Shops and Addition of New Products

In line with the Hack & Slash genre, chance-based elements will be added to NPC Shops, which currently lack content that involves random chance. Chance-based elements will be added to the Gear Shops of the NPCs Blacksmith Croco and Blacksmith Apprentice Kiroki, which will mean that users can randomly obtain items of up to Unique and Legendary grade when they purchase gear. Moreover, NPC Brown will have new categories that sell Skill Rune Chests and Link Rune Chests, and users can obtain any Rune at random from these new chests.

We hope that these changes will help the issues that surround how ‘Special Runes’ and some Synthesis Runes, which require a relatively long time to obtain, are provided, and particularly hope to partially solve the issue where products from other Guild Shops cannot be purchased due to ‘Special Runes’. The new chance-based elements and Rune Chests will be available to purchase with ‘Gold’.

Moreover, a new Halloween event will take place with the Oct. 12 (Thu) update. This year’s Halloween event will involve high-quality rewards of epic proportions, and we will share more information about it through a notice at a later date. We hope you look forward to it!

■ Season 3 Update Plan

I will now outline our plans for the Season 3 update that will take place in December. For Season 3, we will improve the quality of current UNDECEMBER content and will focus on the fun that comes with changing your builds.

Out of the 571 Unique Gear that currently exist, we will focus on rebalancing and consistently improving the ones that are not used so that they are not neglected. As Unique items will play a pivotal role in changing your skill builds in the future, we are planning on ensuring that they will help users create more strategic and diverse skill builds. In line with this, we are planning on introducing a new Unique Lacrima item that will help to resolve the restrictions that exist with the current Unique Lacrimas.

In addition, we are aiming to resolve the lack of convenience and expandability for Physical Element builds compared to other Element builds with the Season 3 update. New Physical Element Spell Skills will be added, and we are preparing to reform various existing Physical Element Skills that are not used often.

Finally, one aspect that we thought long and hard about as we planned improvements for the game’s inventory and Pet feature was the Auto Loot feature. With the addition of new content and growth elements as the game went through various changes, it has now become difficult to play the game fluidly without Pets. We have therefore concluded that the Pet feature is no longer aligned with the broader principle of providing ‘convenience’, and the paid Pet feature will therefore become free from Season 3. We hope that this will help many users enjoy the game even more.

■ In Conclusion…

Since becoming UNDECEMBER’s new director, I have reflected on the issues that have surrounded the game’s management and development until now, and it is with a heavy heart that it has led my first letter to be less aspiring than desired and full of self-reflection.

To mark the change in director and as a symbol of our determination to improve the game in actuality, rather than just through words, we will be sending out ‘Director’s Special Attendance Rewards’ as gifts. We hope that these rewards will help you enjoy UNDECEMBER to its utmost until the Halloween event takes place next month.

Finally, we wish to restate our promise to invest our best efforts in ensuring that we provide you with better services as we prepare for our future updates, and we sincerely thank you again for your continuous support.

We hope that you continue to enjoy your days with UNDECEMBER, and we look forward to seeing you again with a much fuller and richer Director’s Letter next time.

Thank you.

Sang Kwon Han