Astraea Oratio Closed Beta Recruitment Opens for iOS and Android
The interview with art director Kim In reveals the game is being developed as a long-term serialized work, with the first three factions designed as simple, understandable entry points for a potential 5- to 10-year run.
Key Facts
- NC Corporation and Dynamis One began accepting closed beta test applications for Astraea Oratio on August 19, 2026, with the recruitment period ending September 21 at 12:00 JST.
- The closed beta test will be available on iOS and Android, with Japanese voice and subtitles, and participants will be selected by lottery.
- Minimum device specs for the test are Android with Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 and 6GB RAM, and iOS with A14 and 4GB RAM; recommended specs are Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with 8GB RAM and A16 with 6GB RAM.
- Astraea Oratio is set in 1989 Tokyo, where the player is a civil servant assigned to the Special Exemption Area Management Agency to handle problems of Tokyo's magicians.
- Development of Astraea Oratio started in September 2024, and the game is scheduled to launch in 2026.
Reporting from 3 sources: Automaton, Inside, Game Spark.
NC Corporation and Dynamis One announced on August 19 that recruitment for the closed beta test of the new legendary magic RPG Astraea Oratio has begun. The recruitment period runs until September 21 at 12:00 JST, with applications accepted through the official website. The test will be available on iOS and Android, though the official test period has not yet been announced. The game is set in 1989 Tokyo, a city of postwar economic growth where magicians live among the skyscrapers. Players take on the role of a low-level civil servant assigned to the Special Exemption Area Management Agency, tasked with handling the problems of Tokyo's magicians. Development is led by Dynamis One, whose staff includes people previously involved in Blue Archive, such as representative Park Byung-rim. The CBT is global in scope, with Japanese voice and subtitles. Participants will be selected by lottery. Minimum specs for Android are Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 with 6GB RAM, and for iOS, A14 with 4GB RAM. Recommended specs are Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with 8GB RAM for Android and A16 with 6GB RAM for iOS. Devices should have at least 10GB of free storage. The game is scheduled to launch in 2026.
Development on Astraea Oratio began in September 2024, art director Kim In said in an interview with Inside and Game Spark during the game's Comic Market 108 exhibition on August 15-16. The art team has grown to just over 40 members, with about 8 handling character design. Kim described the game as a live service title developed like a manga serialization, with the team preparing enough content for a "first chapter" rather than a complete package.
Kim said the late Showa to early Heisei setting was chosen because the "new legend" genre's appeal comes through best in an era when analog retro was still alive. He defined the genre through works where "the protagonist living an everyday life in the daytime enters the hidden mystical world of the city at night," tracing its lineage back to Demon City Shinjuku. Battles and mysterious events are directed to center on night and dawn, since daytime symbolizes daily life in his view of the genre.
The three factions revealed so far are designed as simple entry points for a potential 5- to 10-year serialization, Kim said, comparing them to the first three Pokemon. The factions break down as:
- Minato-ku Girls' Maho-katsu: the protagonist group, designed to read as such at a glance.
- Seiran Doyukai: a group built as rivals to the protagonists.
- Akina Kaidan Kenkyujo: a casual group set apart from the protagonist-rival dynamic, described in food terms as a palate cleanser.
Kim said the 3D models pursue a stylized look unique to 3D rather than reproducing the 2D illustrations, citing fighting games like Street Fighter and The King of Fighters as reference points. The game's "duel trials" keyword makes the sensation of characters clashing a priority. The roughly 160-page art book sold at Comic Market was originally created as an internal "manual" to share the game's direction with collaborators before being offered to fans.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 3 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.