Following its soft-launch a couple of months back, Nexon has now announced a worldwide release date for their impressive-looking hack ‘n slash action RPG Darkness Rises, and it’ll be arriving next Thursday, June 21st. Ok so let’s be real for a moment. There is no lack of free to play action RPGs on the App Store. Heck, I’m pretty sure Nexon themselves have half a dozen or so out in the wild. At a certain point my eyes just sort of glaze over whenever a new one is announced, as it’s nearly impossible to tell them apart anymore. Every once in a while though a new one will pique my interest for whatever reason, and in this case I’m REALLY digging the look of Darkness Rises. I’ll get to why in a minute but first check out this recent trailer for the game.

So first of all, those giant monsters are AWESOME. And apparently you can “soul link" with some of them and climb up to ride them, using them for your own nefarious purposes. Giant monster mounts are a win in my book. Second of all is that Darkness Rises features online co-op play, and that just sounds like a blast. In fact, part of what got me so excited for the game is the great impressions from our forum goers who took the soft-launched version for a spin. Of course the monetization aspect could make or break this one for me, but right now at least I’m cautiously optimistic. All will become clear in just a week’s time though, so keep an eye out for Darkness Rises when it launches globally next Thursday and if you’re the pre-registering type then head over to the official website to do that.