Manjuu Games, familiar to many through 'Azur Lane', began its domestic CBT for its new title, 'Azur Promilia', on the 15th. Following its surprise announcement in 2024, glimpses of the game were shown at various game shows in 2025, though news in Korea remained scarce. Then, with the surprise announcement of a publishing deal with Nexon last December, details gradually began surfacing locally. Through this CBT, 'Azur Promilia' fully showcased its in-game build, revealing a world that skillfully translates Manjuu's accumulated know-how into 3D, well-structured combat, and a look into its various systems.
A blend of light isekai sensibilities and graphics rich in fantasy atmosphere
The biggest point of curiosity is likely how Manjuu's signature character designs were translated into 3D. Its previous work, Azur Lane, continues to consistently deliver characters with diverse traits alongside skins that maximize their charm by 120%. That remains one of the driving forces behind Azur Lane's enduring popularity. Right from the start, it displayed a wide spectrum with the destroyer trio of Ayanami, Laffey, and Javelin, alongside Takao and Enterprise, and has since steadily satisfied anime fans through a two-track approach of varied lineups and charm-boosting skins.
Recreating that well-established 2D expertise in 3D, however, is a whole different challenge. It isn't just a matter of 3D modeling; shaders and harmony with the game world must also be carefully considered. Although trailers had already offered a glimpse, logging in to experience 'Azur Promilia' directly revealed characters and a world that are highly polished even at this stage. By blending a cel-shaded style with a touch of PBR, it captures a fantasy atmosphere through delicate light rendering distinct from standard cel shading. Needless to say, characters of various body types were meticulously crafted in both modeling and animation so that none felt out of place.
The world and story of Azur Promilia, which players explore alongside these characters, follow a very familiar format. Legend in the world of Promilia has it that whenever chaos falls upon the land, a 'Starbounder' appears to bring stability. As you might have guessed, the player's avatar—the protagonist—is that very 'Starbounder'.
In this CBT, the narrative unfolds as you follow the elf Symphoria and the fairy Lumi, who set out in search of the Starbounder according to a sage's prophecy. While heading toward the elven city, a sudden anomaly causes a crash landing in the lands of the Beastkin and Avians, leading you to assist the two troubled races. In short, it is a classic 'isekai' setup.
Of course, even with a widely familiar concept, the execution makes all the difference. 'Azur Promilia' balances these elements well. Much like its graphics, which evoke a warm, pastel-like aesthetic through delicate lighting effects to create a distinct atmosphere, the game offers charming slice-of-life enjoyment. Episodes feature the antics of younger characters and the experience of cultivating land granted by the Beastkin in true isekai fashion, all elevated by the undeniable cuteness of the 'Kibo' scattered throughout.
The tone gradually shifts with the appearance of distorted monsters that cannot undergo Starlink, alongside the emergence of the 'Evolution Cult'. The regions occupied by these forces stand out in stark contrast to other fields with pitch-black and purple hues; a closer look reveals meticulous detail, subtly placing soft light sources across a wide spectrum. By meticulously refining the visual polish, the game ensures that the feeling of a story unfolding within a fantasy world is consistently maintained regardless of the situation.
Combat that captures spectacle, agility, and familiarity
With the world established, how the inevitable 'combat' plays out as the story unfolds is another key question. Here, Azur Promilia actively adopts a proven, well-developed format. Specifically, tag-team combat for a three-member party serves as the foundation, where players react to enemy attack patterns using special skills, ultimates, perfect dodges, counters, and switch attacks.
Azur Promilia differentiates itself by introducing nine elements, branching attacks where combos change based on executing a heavy attack after a set number of normal attacks, combat skills utilizing 'Kibo', and a dedicated guard key.
By capturing Kibo found in the wild using Starlink Cards, you can assign them to characters to assist in combat by using skills on cooldown. Consequently, building a party with Kibo that harmonize with or complement your characters' attack patterns was a key strategy.
Given the cute graphics, characters, and strong relaxing vibe, one might expect a slow combat pacing, but playing Azur Promilia reveals a tempo just as fast as any open-world action RPG. While impact feedback feels somewhat light, movement is overall swift, and enemies are frequently knocked backward by character barrages, often causing them to scatter if you lose focus for a moment. Thus, it was necessary to include characters with grouping skills in the party or utilize Kibo with crowd-control abilities to hold enemies in place before unleashing combos.
Beyond chaining basic attacks, perfect-dodge counters and parries were also core combat elements. Players dodge in time with the yellow circle prompt or right-click to parry; landing perfect parries significantly reduces the enemy's Break gauge, making it easier to create burst-damage windows. When an enemy enters Break state, cooperative attacks with Kibo become active and damage doubles, offering the satisfaction of shredding enemy HP through skill combo chains.
Packed with the core sandbox fun of gathering, crafting, and collecting
'Azur Promilia' introduces an extra highlight on top of these solid fundamentals: Kibo. Kibo are central creatures in the Promilia ecosystem that form bonds with people through Starlink. In practice, while exploring the open world, almost all Kibo—excluding boss-tier creatures—are non-hostile. Some Kibo will even approach the player upon noticing them to sing or perform tricks. Most of these docile individuals could be captured via Starlink without combat, keeping bloodshed to a minimum.
Kibo are vital not only in combat and as mounts, but also across various production activities. Although most tasks can be done without Kibo, pairing the right Kibo with a matching task dramatically accelerates production speed. Rather than just displaying a remaining time indicator, you can actually watch Kibo busily working on screen. Adorable sights like Kibo breathing fire to bake bricks in a kiln or busily stamping their paws to turn a potter's wheel breathed lively charm into housing that might otherwise feel dry. When they have no tasks, they wander around the housing grounds, making petting them whenever you cross paths another delightful touch.
Ecosystem mechanics and resource gathering are key points in sandbox games, and Azur Promilia achieves impressive depth here even in CBT. The Kibo ecosystem isn't just passive cohabitation; interactions are distinct. Scenes like Haros devouring cabbages while Cabbage Chickens and Sprout Chickens run away, or packs of Gale Wolves hunting flocks of Cabbage Chickens play out naturally, making the world feel organic.
Most trees, plants, flowers, rocks, and ores in sight are gatherable, encouraging players to harvest everything on sight. For players unfamiliar with the genre, guidelines detailing where materials are needed are already well provided at this stage, and gathering nodes are marked on the map so beginners can craft easily. Automation is also well implemented; players can dispatch Kibo to gather certain materials rather than running around manually.
This feature isn't unlocked right away; players must restore various facilities scattered across the fields. Traversing the map to locate facilities leads naturally to exploring new areas, discovering new materials, and solving diverse puzzles using Kibo—a design choice that expands gameplay seamlessly. Even after getting side-tracked, returning to housing with collected materials to advance tech trees, craft items, and pet Kibo offered a solidly relaxing experience.
Another key point was ensuring that players with little interest in housing would still establish basic facilities simply by progressing through the main story. For veterans of similar games, the tech tree is straightforward and quick to navigate, but player circumstances vary. By framing facility building within the main story context of assisting the Beastkin and Avians, the game ensures essential structures are established without disrupting gameplay progression.
Another feature that cannot be overlooked is character interactions in the dormitory. Although not 100% complete, teasers of outfits and various elements naturally build anticipation for official release. Given Manjuu's established reputation in that area, the core aesthetic appeal is expected to carry over successfully from 2D to 3D.
Impressive even with rough edges: looking forward to 'Azur Promilia''s completion
Aside from sandbox elements like housing with captured Kibo and crafting tools or equipment, Azur Promilia's core gameplay loop aligns closely with other anime open-world RPGs. Instead of stamina-draining dungeons for upgrade materials, there are regional commissions, weekly resetting roguelike modes, and boss challenges—elements immediately familiar to players of the genre.
While equipping a proven gameplay loop, Azur Promilia still has a way to go before release. Sound design felt hollow in places. Japanese voice acting was missing past the middle of Chapter 1, and skill/ultimate sound effects in combat lacked punch, diluting impact feedback. Background audio aimed to blend naturally into the world, but often felt overly quiet and sparse unless actively paid attention to.
Speaking of combat feedback, enemies—except for select medium or large targets—get pushed backward easily by player attacks. Combined with light sound effects, attacks lack heavy physical impact. Pushed too far back, enemies occasionally drop aggression and reset to their starting positions or float awkwardly, disrupting the flow of battle.
Field bosses generate a transparent arena boundary upon drawing aggro, which feels unexpectedly narrow. Characters possess high mobility skills, and bosses frequently use unparryable dash attacks, causing players to constantly bump into invisible walls. While the combat system itself is solid, supporting spatial design elements fall short. Visual effects and typography also felt noticeably similar to other games in the genre.
Slow early-game pacing was another drawback. Open-world RPGs naturally progress slower than gacha RPGs, but Azur Promilia felt particularly slow. Following the basic combat tutorial with Symphoria, the transition from crash-landing to mid-game in the Beastkin village delivers heavy story exposition with few new system introductions. Exploring freely was restricted by the absence of wall climbing, forcing players to grind levels quietly until unlocking flying mount saddle crafting.
Had the narrative offered compelling immersion, the pacing might be forgiven, but 'Azur Promilia' does not establish a gripping plot early on. Instead, it focuses on highlighting cohabitation between various races and Kibo in the world. Naturally, players anticipate side activities like capturing Kibo and building houses, but heavy progression gates slow access to these features, disrupting pacing. Furthermore, the UI currently groups complex information roughly, cluttering screens with dense data when reviewing Kibo or system details.
Despite minor drawbacks and noticeable unfinished areas, 'Azur Promilia' presented an impressive vision. It clearly demonstrated core mechanics across combat, exploration, and the cozy enjoyment of collecting Kibo and building homes. Character designs capturing unique appeal points across diverse body types were equally noteworthy. With Korean voice acting announced near the end of the CBT and launch preparations ramping up, expectations are high for how 'Azur Promilia' will refine its adventure and lifestyle mechanics based on test feedback.
