Amazon’s latest dev blog for Lost Ark is generating cheers from the playerbase, which is rare enough that you know we have to dig more deeply.
The cheering is primarily centered on the studio’s decision to use the name Echidna, not Ladon, for the main boss of the Kazeros raid (i.e., the same name as in the Korean version). There was even a petition for this. People apparently take localization deadly seriously.
“After reviewing Echidna’s presentation in Lost Ark and reading through community feedback, we agree that the name Echidna is best suited for the alluring and deadly enemy in the first Kazeros Raid arriving June 2024,” Amazon says. “We will be working to update the name from Ladon to Echidna for her release. There may be a few places where we can’t change previous messaging, such as the video component of Part 2 of the 2024 Roadmap— but rest assured— the official name is now Echidna.”
So gamers got their wish on that. What about merges? Yep, Amazon is still planning a massive merge event this summer; in fact, it begins June 5th. But apparently, there have been some setbacks, as that merge is strictly for the NAE and SA servers. The west coast server merges have been backburnered.
“On June 5, 2024, we will begin this process by merging South America into North America East. For NA West, we are still searching the best solution to ensure the lowest latency possible for all players. Unfortunately, we found issues that would prevent a good customer experience during the extensive testing we conducted. Identifying an optimal outcome will take time, and this merge will not take place in Summer of 2024. We wish we could provide a firmer update on when we could move forward with connecting these regions, but we have not yet identified a path to do so. Our current plan is to proceed with merging South America into NA East on June 5, and to continue investigating options to combine the merged region with NA West in a way that provides the best player experience possible for all. Next week, we’ll share the Region Merge policy and what players in the South America and North America East can expect when they merge.”
