Korean fantasy fighting game Chosun Musa is not cancelled!

Friends in the fighting game community, I have wonderful news! If you are a fan of fantasy, historical or sword fighting games then you might remember I wrote about Chosun Musa previously. I had been keeping tabs on the Korean game since 2007, and couldn’t find any news on it recently. As it turns out the game was not cancelled. As it is a small independent studio working on it the game was simply delayed. But don’t take my word for it. Please read below from the game creator.

“Hello, I am Iron Witch, the person who created the fighting game Chosun Musa (2008) based on my fan project Mortal Kombat Zero in 2007. It's an honor that you still remember the game title I'm working on! 

To be brief, unlike the content of your article, I am still working on the Chosun Musa project. I recently revealed details on two characters that can be found in Chosun Musa (Refined) on ChosunMusa_US in 2022 for testing purposes. As stated in "The Document of Chosun Musa" on that Twitter page, Chosun Musa (Refined) is based on HD sprites, and the character accessories and weaponry will be pre-rendered as detailed 3D models. 

Also, I recently purchased the trademark Chosun Musa, and domain name (chosunmusa.com) for Chosun Musa in Korea. Although the development process will take a long time because the game's production direction is focused on high-resolution pixel art and quality, I have preemptively purchased the game's IP name and domain name to minimize disputes from others. 

Unfortunately, at present, I am working on a side project for Chosun Musa, a fan-created project called Darkstalkers Re-Creation. In this project, I aim to create two illustrations: the original costumes of the characters and alternative costumes that I created myself. I believe that Darkstalkers Re-Creation will have a positive impact on improving my creative skills as I am currently producing Chosun Musa.”

This is wonderful news for the fighting game community, both for the Chosun Musa, and also for Darkstalkers Re-Creation. I can’t wait to see more news as both get closer to publication. A big thank you to Iron Witch for reaching out, and letting us know that the game is still in development. If you are just getting into fantasy sword fighters I wrote a bit about them on the blog. Please check it out. Golden Axe the Duel Dragon's Heaven Warzard Asura Blade Sword of Dynasty Asura Buster Eternal Warriors Chaos Breaker - Dark Awake Battle Fantasia As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Chosun Musa, the 2D Korean Fighting game that almost was.

The down side to being a fighting game aficionado is having vague memories of games that could-have-been or were never published. I remembered there was a fan project for a game called Chosun Musa back in 2007. It was a 2D sprite-based fighting game set in the Joseon era. It was the last great dynasty in ancient Korea, you know the period that was the backdrop of many TV dramas. The game was originally slated for the PC but was cancelled. It was later rumored to be ported to the PSP as long as the developers were interested in the Sony handheld. The developer was Wildcat, they had created Mortal Kombat Zero; a game that I can’t seem to find any information on. I even checked to see if they had worked on Mortal Kombat Mythologies Sub-Zero, but that was Midway Games, and Avalanche Software.

The team working on Chosun Musa was just two people if I remember correctly. They used to have a blog where they shared their progress, but that disappeared ages ago. I checked the Internet Archive Wayback Machine but it doesn’t look like anything was cached. It was a damn shame too. I was interested in a Samurai Spirits-style fighting game featuring Korean archetypes. I’m glad that I saved a couple of screenshots so that other fans could see what might have been. I’ll dig through my other 1UP, and Capcom-Unity backups to see if there were any other gems that I could recover.

Were there any fighting games in development that you wanted to see published. I’ll always lament that we never got Capcom Fighting All Stars. Let me know about the ones you wished had come out in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!