Closers Online

Closers is an anime-styled action RPG where you play as the Closers: a squad of psychic teens protecting a near-future Seoul from the creatures pouring through dimensional rifts. Built in Korea back in 2014 by Naddic Games, it's one of those titles filed under MMORPG that actually plays far faster and more directly than a classic MMO.

Forget the open world: Closers runs on persistent social hubs you launch from into instanced missions. Combat is the whole point —combos, dodges and flashy specials—, closer to a beat 'em up than to a stat-and-spreadsheet RPG. Progression is there, but the feel while playing is that of an action game, not of staring at bars and numbers.

The other quirk is the cast. Each of the twenty-plus playable Closers is a fixed class with its own story, weapon and fighting style; you don't build a generic character, you pick a whole one. Trying a new one feels a lot like starting a different game. The bulk of the content is the episodic co-op campaign, with PvP arenas on the side for those who want to test themselves.

Closers is free to play: the whole campaign is accessible without paying. The shop leans mostly on cosmetics —outfits, accessories— and gacha-style boxes, plus a handful of convenience items; nothing that gates your progress if you keep your wallet closed. Worth knowing it wasn't always this way: during its early access days on Steam it was sold buy-to-play, and only shifted to free-to-play with the December 2017 open beta.

Let's be upfront: Closers is in transition. Its global service shut down in 2026 after about eleven years, and the game went quiet. The news is that Papaya Play —the publisher already running Echo of Soul— took over global publishing and is prepping a full relaunch from scratch, not a simple server reactivation. That comes with important fine print: old characters and progress won't transfer. In exchange, it promises smoother progression, support events for new and returning players, and a new playable character, MOIS. The official Papaya Play site already has pre-registration open, but there's still no confirmed date for the relaunch. In Korea, meanwhile, the game keeps running independently.

Closers is for anyone after fast, anime-flavored action who doesn't mind that this MMORPG is, at heart, a game of instanced co-op missions. If you like combos, characters with charisma and a story-driven campaign to run alongside others, there's plenty here. Honesty first, though: right now it can't be played in the West while Papaya Play preps the relaunch, so the sensible move is to jump on pre-registration and wait. It's also not the game for anyone wanting a persistent open world, or for anyone who can't stand gacha boxes, which are present even if they're cosmetic. Worth keeping on your radar; not yet worth expecting date miracles.