Manjuu Games is preparing to ascend beyond Azur Lane after spending years building a dedicated global following through a roster of distinctive characters and stellar live-service support. The next game under the studio’s belt, Azur Promilia, is set to go towards something considerably different and much more ambitious.
The team is moving from a 2D side-scrolling experience into a sprawling 3D world, and they’re constructing an entire world for players to explore and get attached to. I caught up with Manjuu Games’ co-founder and Azur Promilia lead producer Weiwei Xiao, and live operations lead Hailiang Yin, to discuss this creative leap and how Azur Promilia will offer fans so much more.
A Different World with Bold Ambition
The immense transition from Azur Lane to Azur Promilia, which is much more than just a new subtitle, represents a monumental shift for Manjuu. This isn’t just a case of relying on the foundations of the previous game and constructing something from the same framework; it’s an entirely new experience in every way.
Xiao explained that the original inspiration behind the jump was pretty straightforward:
At the very beginning of the project, our core idea was simple: we wanted to create a story about adventuring in another fantasy world together with characters and adorable companions, which are known as Kibo in Promilia.
That vision has expanded considerably, and the notion of the world feeling alive is arguably the most important ethos the company is working with. Their approach to worldbuilding goes beyond simply creating a large map and jamming things into it. They’re considering how geography, climate, creatures, and cultures mesh in Azur Promilia.
Xiao gave me an example, using the game’s ‘Fleece’ region as a guide, which was established before the team even decided who would inhabit that region:
Before starting concept design, our team first established that natural setting: the local climate, the weather patterns, and the elevation. Once the land and climate were established, the next step was to ask what kinds of creatures should exist in that environment.
That approach extends to the Kibo creatures that roam Azur Promilia. Their habitat impacts their subspecies, and the entire ecosystem has a feeling of being interconnected.
Of course, it wasn’t all plain sailing. For Manjuu, breaking into a 3D world posed a significant technical challenge. The pair explained that character design was easy enough, but translating the designs into convincing animations proved to be an issue: ‘3D characters don’t just have to look good; they also need to move smoothly.’
More Than a Creature Collector
These days, you see creature-collecting games everywhere. It’s hardly unfamiliar territory, and some might see Azur Promilia as an extension of that premise. But Manjuu believes that the appeal of Azur Promilia’s Kibo creatures goes beyond simply finding, documenting, and keeping them.
For Xiao, the inclusion of the Kibo wasn’t something driven by this recent trend. Instead, the Kibo emerged naturally from the setting they were creating. ‘A healthy fantasy world cannot only have people,’ he explained. ‘We want characters and Kibo to stay with players as vivid, lively presences throughout their journey, rather than simply being tools used for battle or assigned to work in the home system.’
Everything to do with the Kibo has been taken into consideration with that in mind. How they react to being approached, how they rest, the sounds they make, and how they behave in the wide, open world are all based on their individual personalities.
As players spend more time with their Kibo companions, they’ll develop relationships that feel much more meaningful than just having a repository of creatures that you’ve collected.
In testing, players have reportedly been enthusiastic about these creature systems. The team’s expectations were exceeded when it came to how much time players wanted to spend interacting with their favorite Kibo, and they were gathering, taking photographs, and sharing moments as a community, which the team says reinforces the importance of these relationships.
For The Long Haul
Azur Promilia will lean on the live-service success Manjuu Games has seen with Azur Lane, but in a more rounded way. The goal is to maintain Azur Promilia over several years, keeping the world alive and thriving for players to enjoy.
Yin explained how the studio approaches live operations, centering their philosophy on continuous improvement rather than just delivering updates to deliver updates:
Operating a long-term live service taught us that when players like something, there is always an underlying need behind it. Our responsibility is to explore that underlying need rather than only looking at what players appear to like on the surface.
We are building Azur Promilia’s post-launch roadmap around steady, sustainable growth rather than chasing short-term market trends. From day one, we planned this project with a ten-year horizon in mind, backed by continuous investment in both the game and its community.
This is a huge commitment, and it will extend beyond just adding new characters and locations.
Azur Lane provides the most obvious, clear-cut example of the studio’s long-term approach. The game is nearing its tenth anniversary in China, and Manjuu is keen to demonstrate that it understands what it takes to maintain that developer-player relationship over such a long period.
Ultimately, Azur Promilia represents an enormous leap forward for Manjuu Games, both creatively and technically. It’s different from Azur Lane in almost every way, but one principle remains very much unchanged, and that’s that Manjuu wants to make games that the team loves and that players can frequent for years to come.
Azur Promilia launches in Asia on November 26 and will get an English version in Summer 2027. Are you looking forward to the release? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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