Overview

DragonSword: Awakening is a single-player open-world action RPG developed and published by Hound13. It is the buy-to-play Western release of the Korean free-to-play game DragonSword, reworked to strip out the gacha and live-service systems that defined the Korean version. It launched on Steam on July 23, 2026 and has been updated weekly since.

At a Glance

The game unlocked worldwide at a single moment rather than in regional waves. Hound13 had promised July 23 at 07:00 KST, which lands on July 22 at 15:00 Pacific, then posted a public apology hours before when the storefront's app review had not finished; the unlock followed later the same day. There was no pre-purchase, because this was Hound13's first Steam release and the storefront restricts the feature for a first-time publisher. Interest built steadily through the pre-launch campaign, with the Steam wishlist count passing 100,000 in mid-May, 200,000 on June 23, 300,000 on July 10, 400,000 on July 21, and 450,000 by the launch post. It reached 1,000,000 on August 11, 2026.

Setting

The game is set on the Continent of Orbis, a radiant, warmly coloured fantasy world built in Unreal Engine 5. Players explore meadows, watchtowers and their secret cellars, treasure-filled deep seas, and hidden caves and dungeons. Sixty years before the game, a Dragon brought the continent to the brink of destruction and six Heroes of Old drove it back; now a Dragon has reawakened, and a new cast is called on to take up the title of the Dragon Sword.

Core Gameplay

• Nineteen playable Heroes, each with their own distinct Status Ailment kit.

• A combo system built around stacking Status Ailments, extending with Active Skills, and finishing with Signal Skills through the Switching Signals tag-team mechanic.

• Collectible Familiars that double as mounts, including dragon riding inspired by the freedom-of-movement design of The Legend of Zelda.

• Opt-in Co-Op: up to 2 players for Subjugation content, up to 3 for Raids, host-based with invite codes and no regional restrictions.

• Cooking and in-world activities as supporting systems alongside combat.

Launch Content

The package sold at launch contains all of World 1, which is 8 main-story chapters plus additional Hero quests, and a new Eastern region added specifically for the Steam release. A floating-island region is confirmed as post-launch content, though Hound13 has not said whether it will be free or paid.

The main story runs roughly 10 to 15 hours on a focused playthrough, and around 20 hours to clear all eight chapters, with Hero quests, regional bond quests, and open-world activities adding substantially more. The game is sold as a Standard Edition ($29.99) with an optional $19.99 Deluxe Pack that adds a digital artbook, the soundtrack, and the Brave Baby Dragon familiar. A separate Abyssal Direwolf familiar is free for all players through August 31, 2026.

After Launch

The first fortnight ran hot on both sides. Hound13 shipped nine client patches between July 23 and August 13, starting with launch-day triage and widening into a balance pass, then a feature update that added Quick Entry to multiplayer, raised the Rune inventory cap and removed the usage limit on the Statue of Organa, and finally a reward-economy pass that raised dungeon, raid and gathering yields and shortened the Ursula Raid. A tenth patch followed on August 20, adding hero acquisition cinematics, easing the Hagen world boss and clearing a long list of quest and multiplayer faults. Two problems were serious enough to get their own notices: a D3D12 crash on certain graphics cards, worked around by forcing DirectX 11, and a startup crash after changing graphics options.

Player response has been favourable. The storefront's user-review summary sits at Very Positive on more than 10,000 reviews, roughly nine in ten of them positive, and rates higher still among Korean-language players. Critical reception was generally favourable as well, with published scores clustering around eight out of ten; praise centred on the combat system and the removal of the free-to-play monetisation hooks, while criticism focused on menu complexity and the progression grind carried over from the earlier build. The game placed third on the storefront's global top-seller chart for the week of July 21 to 28, 2026. Hound13 reported 200,000 copies sold in the first week and a peak of 23,000 concurrent players, then announced on August 11 that the game had passed 1,000,000 wishlists and 300,000 copies sold. See Update History for the patch log and Post-Launch Roadmap for what the studio has committed to next.

The Demo

A free demo ran ahead of release. Hound13 opened it on June 5, 2026, before the June Steam Next Fest window, and extended the original June 24 end date to July 7 (02:00 KST) after the demo was named one of the event's Most Played titles. It has since closed. The demo covered the combat loop, the Switching Signals tag system, and a slice of the Continent of Orbis. See Demo and Steam Next Fest for the full breakdown.

Per publisher statement, in-game text is localised using AI translation into the supported non-Korean written languages, while generative AI is not used to produce in-game content or assets.

Not F2P, Not Gacha

See Buy-to-Play Model for how the Western release differs from the Korean original. The short version is that all nineteen Heroes and every piece of meaningful equipment are obtainable through the story and in-game activities. Character costumes and Familiars are the only paid categories on the store, alongside later expansion packs. See Downloadable Content for the full catalogue.