Ex-Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes GM on raising $42m and building the fourth generation of mobile RPGs at Azra

• Project Legends harkens back to gritty fantasy media of the 1970s
• All of Azra Games’ funding rounds have been oversubscribed

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New mobile RPG studio Azra Games is aiming at a Western market with its flagship game, currently known as Project Legends. Harkening back to the gritty fantasy age of the 1970s, the title promises to be something grittier and more mature than is typically seen in the RPG genre.

This potentially under-tapped niche has earned Azra Games a significant $42 million investment through its oversubscribed Series A round, so now the studio is looking to push forward with development and expand its team globally.

With such vast funding now secured, we spoke with Azra Games founder and CEO Mark Otero, who previously worked on EA’s hit title Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, about this giant round, the “fourth generation” of mobile RPGs, and veering away from anime.

PocketGamer.biz: What’s Azra Games’ secret to securing such a huge investment?

Mark Otero: Well, we’re building an extraordinary game, and great games attract extraordinary investments.

We’ve been fortunate not to have to spend an excessive amount of time fundraising because our work and vision resonated so well with investors.

All of our funding rounds have been oversubscribed, and our primary investors from our first seed round have re-invested in every successive round because they’re excited about what we’re building and the progress we’ve made.

We take this as a strong signal that we’re on the right track and building something really unique and special.

With the RPG market dominated by the likes of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, what’s Azra Games doing differently to stand out?

Both are great games and huge hits worldwide, but they’re also very similar in style, as are nearly all of the newer mobile RPGs that copied them closely. Quite simply, these games are all targeted at fans of anime. We want to bring a great mobile RPG experience to a broader audience.

Without giving away too much, I can say that our RPG will offer immersive gameplay and visceral combat in an environment that will remind players more of the classic fantasy RPGs they might have grown up playing on console or PC.

Mobile devices are now powerful enough to let us bring this type of rich detail to your smaller screens.

What are the main differences you see between Western and Eastern RPG audiences?

In Asia, they’re currently in love with anime as an artstyle and culture, whereas Western audiences tend to prefer other fantasy themes.

Outside of these cultural preferences, I think it is a mistake to assume that different gameplay mechanics work better in different regions.

Early in my career, I was building an RPG and was told that Easterners like to grind for rewards much more than Western players.

When I tested this notion, I proved it wrong in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. I believe good gameplay is universally appealing. Players are players, and we all enjoy games for similar reasons.

One of Azra Games’ goals is to define the “fourth generation” of mobile RPGs. Could you tell us a bit more about this? Are mobile games as a whole entering a new era?

Mobile RPGs have evolved along with the processing power available on phones. The earliest mobile games were played with simple text menus. RPGs evolved over time through several generations into games with richer graphics and animation that are still much less immersive than console or PC games.

What we’re seeing now is the emergence of what I call the fourth generation of mobile RPGs, which represents a giant leap forward.

The newest RPGs have open worlds to explore, an immersive over-the-shoulder camera view, visceral real-time battles, and storylines and content so richly detailed that they support a return to single-player PVE.

Mobile devices are now catching up with consoles in terms of the types of gameplay they support. We are excited to be at the forefront of this next generation.

So, with mobile catching up and competing with other platforms, do you foresee an increase in multi-platform games too?

Absolutely. This is very exciting for us and a part of our development roadmap. Cross-platform and cross-play are the future, and the RPG genre will lead the way, as it is best suited to be played across different platforms.

Imagine being able to explore and craft on your phone during your morning commute and then tackling a boss battle at night on your gaming PC.