Mongil: Star Dive is the newest gacha game from Netmarble! Read on to learn everything we know, our review of its closed beta, and more.
Everything We Know About Mongil: Star Dive
Mongil: Star Dive Plot
Mongil: Star Dive follows two intrepid members of a guild: Verna and Cloud. Their journey begins as a lighthearted mission to tame monsters with the help of their cat-like companion, Nyanners, who possesses the ability to cleanse and tame creatures.
Their adventure, however, quickly expands, as the duo embark on guild missions that lead them across various regions of Belana. Together, they investigate strange ecological shifts in monster habitats, triggered by events hinted at through glimpses of a crack in Cloud’s dreams.
Mongil: Star Dive Gameplay
Mongil: Star Dive is a third-person action RPG where players can seamlessly switch between three active party members mid-combat. This enables rapid adjustments to elemental strengths and positioning, similar to popular ARPGs like Genshin Impact. The dodge system is notably generous, as it rewards precise timing with a one-button counterattack. Once enemies accrue enough stun, Quick-Time Events trigger, which open up high-damage combo opportunities.
Furthermore, monsters can be equipped akin to gear. These offer passive stat boosts and effects based on randomized traits.
Mongil: Star Dive Release Date
Closed Beta Runs From June 20 to June 26, 2025
Mongil: Star Dive has yet to receive an official release date, but its Closed Beta test is currently live. Recruitment for the beta began on June 5, 2025, and the test period runs from June 20 to June 26, 2025. Players can sign up through the game’s official website.
Note, however, that this Closed Beta test is only available on PC via the Epic Games Store.
Mongil: Star Dive Review (Closed Beta)
Zenless Zone Zero Lite
It’s easy to lose track of new gacha games these days. Between the endless churn of anime-styled banners and the steady parade of flashy trailers promising "open-world freedom" or "action-packed combat," most start blending together before they even launch. But Mongil: Star Dive, the spiritual successor of Netmarble’s 2013 Monster Taming, at least deserves a closer look for how boldly it wears its ambitions—and its inspirations—on its sleeve. The game first made waves in 2024 with its reveal trailer, which immediately drew comparisons to miHoYo’s games. But, really, with how big miHoYo is, every upcoming gacha is bound to be compared to their games.
The most obvious comparison is Zenless Zone Zero, miHoyo’s urban action RPG. You've got two protagonists in both, a heavy emphasis on swapping between three characters, and the need to keep the pressure on enemies to fill those stun gauges. Star Dive doesn’t have the same combo-heavy energy you’d expect from Punishing: Gray Raven or Crystal of Atlan, but it’s slick, satisfying, and, at least in these early stages, surprisingly polished for a first outing.
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Of Monsters and Nyanners
Mongil: Star Dive doesn’t exactly open with subtlety. The game kicks things off with one of those classic, cryptic anime premonition sequences that drop you right into the middle of what looks like a disaster. There’s Cloud, one of the main protagonists, standing there, sword in hand, looking completely wrecked as he stares at a woman he apparently just stabbed. Who she is? No clue. Why he did it? Even less clue. It’s the kind of scene that feels like the middle of a season finale, but we and Cloud are equally clueless, which at least helps smooth over the immediate whiplash of it all.
Before you can dwell on it for too long though, you’re yanked back to reality by Verna, the other half of Mongil: Star Dive’s leading duo and a proud member of the same guild. She’s got that no-nonsense, hyper-competent energy to her that immediately plays off Cloud’s more wide-eyed, impulsive personality. It’s a dynamic that honestly works way better than I expected. These two feel like anime protagonists in the best way—Verna with her deadpan exasperation, Cloud as the loveable disaster—and the early story leans into that with just the right amount of banter and humor.
But look, let’s not pretend Mongil: Star Dive’s opening chapters are some groundbreaking, Pulitzer Prize-winning story. At least in this beta, it follows a familiar structure: monsters are rampaging all over Belena, their guild gets called in to handle the mess, and naturally, things are a lot more complicated than they seem. There’s a looming mystery beneath the surface—corrupted creatures, ecological disasters, and the recurring visions plaguing Cloud that hint at much bigger stakes. It's your standard slow-burn setup that escalates with each chapter, much like how every gacha game eventually has you fighting a godly being.
But I’ll say this much—the humor is what really sold me here. I expected flashy battles and Unreal Engine 5 particle effects (we’ll get to that), but I didn’t expect to be laughing through so much of the story. Each main chapter feels structured like a self-contained anime episode arc—build-up, weird side antics, boss fight, and then some new revelation that keeps things rolling. It’s surprisingly funny, full of goofy character exchanges, ridiculous monster encounters, and those little slice-of-life moments that let the cast breathe.
There’s also Nyanners, or that "stupidly adorable cat-thing," depending on your patience for mascot characters. I say this as someone who’s extremely hit-or-miss on cutesy companions: Nyanners is dangerously effective. Those eyes and dumb little noises make them the star of nearly every scene they’re in. It’s criminal how likable they are.
Beautiful Yet Linear
Also, let me eat my words real quick. When Mongil: Star Dive’s marketing proudly threw around that the game was made using Unreal Engine 5, I couldn’t care less. My brain just tunes out when games start bragging about visual tech over actual gameplay. But it’s actually more than a buzzword here. The visual presentation elevates the whole story; they make the more cliché moments feel like they belong in a gorgeously animated show. The environments pop, character animations are fluid, and there’s a real cinematic flair to the way cutscenes and even simple conversations are presented.
It does, however, feel like a game we've played before, just in a gorgeously crafted package. Most, if not all, of the levels in the closed beta funnel you through linear stretches, much like Final Fantasy XIII's infamous corridors that exist purely to usher you from one combat encounter to the next. You can stray from the beaten path to find materials, a chest or two, and mini-boss encounters, but they don't exactly scratch that exploration itch. It's even more of a shame that you can't jump in this game to save your life.
That being said, it gets the job done. The levels, restrictive as they might feel, at least look polished and consistent within Star Dive's fantasy aesthetics. And hey, I'd be lying if I said the character designs didn't carry a lot of the visual appeal. It's textbook anime eye candy—fun armor designs, colorful hair physics, and yes, some gratuitous jiggles and thigh windows, because of course there are—but love it or roll your eyes at it, the cast is at least distinct and easy to remember.
If You’ve Played ZZZ, You’ve Basically Played This
Where Mongil: Star Dive lost me a little is in its gameplay. That’s not to say it’s bad—far from it. I still found myself having fun mashing buttons and watching effects practically vomit all over the screen every time an ultimate attack landed. It’s undeniably satisfying, especially in those first few hours when you’re still getting a feel for your team composition and learning to weave in dodge counters and ability rotations. But the truth is, we’ve seen all of this before. If you’ve spent any time with Zenless Zone Zero or Punishing: Gray Raven, this is going to feel familiar, maybe even watered down.
Like its contemporaries, Star Dive leans into fast-paced, team-based action where you swap between three characters on the fly. It’s quick and snappy, with that satisfying rhythm of chaining attacks, swapping out when your cooldowns are spent, and keeping the pressure on. There’s even the familiar stun mechanic where wailing on a boss fills a meter, and once that’s capped out, the enemy gets staggered for a few seconds. It’s practically ripped from Zenless Zone Zero’s Daze system, and while that’s not inherently a bad thing, it does make Star Dive feel like it is coloring inside very well-established lines rather than sketching its own.
The game also toys with elemental damage types, but from what I’ve played in the closed beta, they’re mostly surface-level. You’ll deal bonus damage to enemies weak to a specific element, sure, but don’t expect the kind of elemental reactions you get from Genshin Impact or Wuthering Waves, where mixing elements creates chain effects or fundamentally changes the battlefield. It’s more straightforward here: hit ice enemies with fire, they die faster. Rinse, repeat.
What does hurt the combat loop a little more is how enemies, at least for now, feel like punching bags. Most fights boil down to the same formula: mash attack, sprinkle in a skill here and there, swap characters, repeat, and maybe dodge if the enemy fights back.
The game also lacks a proper jump button, so verticality is basically locked behind specific animations rather than being a true part of your toolkit. You might get launched upward by an enemy attack, recover mid-air, and follow up with a downward slam, but that’s about as high as things go—literally and figuratively.
It’s a shame too, because when the fights flow, Mongil: Star Dive does look incredible. The Unreal Engine 5 flexes its muscles here with ridiculous lighting effects, particle explosions, and vibrant, over-the-top visuals that make even the simplest battles look like a full-budget anime fight scene. But when the dust settles, you realize the enemies crumbled under minimal effort, and the only real challenge was keeping track of the screen through all the effects.
It’s Not a Gacha Game Until the Stats Disappoint You
Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper gacha game if Mongil: Star Dive didn’t also hand you a spreadsheet’s worth of gear, artifacts, and character optimization rabbit holes to fall down—whether you actually want to or not. From what I’ve dabbled with so far in the closed beta, the gear system feels like it’s playing by the same rulebook we’ve seen in pretty much every big gacha game since Genshin Impact rewired everyone’s brains for stat RNG addiction. You’ve got your standard character equipment slots, each with randomized stat lines that you’ll lovingly scrutinize for hours only to realize the crit rate rolled into defense, again. It’s the usual dance of grinding for better numbers, cursing the RNG gods, and pretending you’re theory-crafting when really, you’re praying for something remotely usable to drop.
I haven’t had enough time to min-max or really sink into the deep end of the theory-crafting pool here, but from what I can tell, it’s par for the course. If you’ve spent sleepless nights farming Genshin’s artifact domains or rerolling gear in Wuthering Waves, you’ll know exactly what you’re in for.
There’s also a monster taming mechanic, which I’ll admit had me excited at first. The early trailers certainly played up Nyanners as a central companion, so I expected taming to feel like a meaningful part of the progression loop. But in reality? It’s… kind of just another glorified gear slot. You capture monsters out in the field, slap them into your build, and they grant passive stat boosts or RNG traits that spice things up a little. Some of them look cute as hell, but beyond aesthetics and minor buffs, it’s fluff. Fun fluff, but fluff all the same.
Closed Beta Test Doesn’t Have Gacha, But…
Onto the topic that inevitably defines the life or death of every game in this genre: the gacha system. Or rather, the absence of one, for now. Since Mongil: Star Dive is still in closed beta, the usual barrage of character banners and wallet-draining pity counters are nowhere to be found. It’s actually a bit refreshing to play through a gacha game where I’m not immediately tempted (or pressured) to throw my entire paycheck at the latest five-star meta-defining waifu or husbando.
Characters get handed to you through progressing the main story or ticking off milestones in what the game calls the Adventure Diary, which is basically a glorified checklist designed to teach you how all the systems work—things like upgrading equipment, playing through missions, taming your first monster, and so on. It’s straightforward, useful for onboarding, and a surprisingly generous way to make sure testers get a taste of most of the playable cast. It’s a good way to showcase the roster, and as someone who already has a few favorites, I appreciate the chance to mess around with different playstyles without having to cough up imaginary currency.
But let’s not kid ourselves. This is a Netmarble game, and if you’ve been around the block in the gacha scene, you know exactly why that raises some eyebrows. Netmarble hasn’t exactly earned a reputation for generosity when it comes to free-to-play players. You only have to look as far as Solo Leveling: ARISE, Tower of God: New World (may it, eventually, rest in peace), or Game of Thrones: Kingsroad to see how quickly their monetization models can sour the mood. It’s not exactly reassuring, and even though Star Dive feels fun and decently generous now, I’m not holding my breath that it’ll be somewhat similar when the game fully releases.
I’m really, really hoping they don’t fumble this one, though. Because despite my lukewarm feelings toward the combat system being "more of the same," I’ve found myself invested in the characters. Verna, Cloud, Nyanners, Ophelia, and the rest of the cast—they’ve got tons of personality, and frankly, I want to see where their story goes. It’d be a shame if the only way to enjoy them fully is locked behind gacha rates that make you want to yeet your phone into orbit.
A Solid Beta, But the Real Test Is Yet to Come
It’s no secret that the gacha market right now is oversaturated to hell and back. We’ve got about more than ten open-world games and action RPGs fighting for your attention with waifus, husbandos, and gimmicks. Mongil: Star Dive, to its credit, looks like it belongs among the heavy hitters. The Unreal Engine 5 flex is real, but in its current beta state, it doesn’t exactly have that genre-defining hook that’s going to pull the more hardcore crowd.
However, what Star Dive does have is personality, and a lot of it. Its anime-esque story is delivered with enough charm and genuinely laugh-out-loud funny moments to keep me invested. Those small touches give the game an edge, at least for someone like me who’s here for the vibe as much as the gameplay. But personality alone won’t carry it to long-term success. It’s going to have to sharpen its combat and stick the landing with its monetization model if it wants to stand out in this overcrowded space.
All that to say, despite my critiques, I still had fun. It might not be reinventing anything, but it’s a solid ride, and I’m looking forward to seeing the full version launch. Here’s hoping other players give it a fair shake.
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Mongil: Star Dive Product Information
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| Title | MONGIL: STAR DIVE |
|---|---|
| Release Date | TBA |
| Developer | Netmarble Monster |
| Publisher | Netmarble |
| Supported Platforms | PC (via Epic Games Store) Mobile (Android and iOS) Consoles (TBA) |
| Genre | Action RPG |
| Number of Players | Single-Player (1) |
| ESRB Rating | IARC 12+ |
| Official Website | Mongil: Star Dive Official Website |
