Overview
Project Windless is a single-player open-world action RPG that blends personal combat mastery with large-scale warfare powered by Mass Technology. Players control the Hero King, a towering Rekon warrior, as they carve through battlefields, explore an open world, and make decisions that shape the fate of a continent torn by war between the four races.
Open world
The world is non-linear. Players are free to chart their own course, with the world rarely forcing a single direction. Decisions made during the campaign affect alliances, the broader conflict, and how history is written. The game was designed to make players feel like they are actively creating a legend rather than following a predetermined path.
The environment is described as "stranger, darker, and more tragic" than typical Western fantasy, with an "ancient and lived-in" quality. There are no glowing trails or cluttered HUDs. Exploration is meant to feel organic with minimal hand-holding.
Combat
See the full Combat article for details. In brief: combat is real-time, fast-paced, and skill-based. The Hero King wields twin star-forged blades and fights dozens to hundreds of enemies simultaneously. The system emphasizes precision over button-mashing, with boss encounters requiring strategic depth alongside the large-scale battles.
Mass Technology battles
The defining feature of Project Windless is Mass Technology, KRAFTON's proprietary system that renders thousands of soldiers and massive creatures in real-time. Unlike traditional musou-style games where enemy hordes are mindless cannon fodder, enemies in Project Windless move, flank, surround, and react dynamically to the player's movements.
Players fight directly within these massive engagements rather than issuing commands from a distance. Standard encounters can escalate into unpredictable, large-scale conflicts that simulate a world truly torn by war.
Player agency
Creative Director Patrik Méthé has described the game's design philosophy as giving players "real agency, not just in combat, but in how wars unfold, how alliances are formed, and how history is written." The game is built around the idea that legend is not something you observe. It is something you actively create through play.