Tencent-, Line-backed studio is bringing a top-5 ranked role-playing game from South Korea to the West

Another game is coming from South Korea to the West with the backing of one of the biggest gaming companies in the world.

4:33 Creative Lab is bringing a new version of the hack-n-slash role-playing game Blade: Redemption to the States for iOS and Android devices later this year. It’s doing so with the support of Tencent, a Chinese company that has its fingers in gaming across the globe; and the Japanese messaging service Line, which has its own thriving game business. Such partners are key in helping a game find the support it needs in the ultracrowded $30 billion mobile market.

Even as mobile gaming continues to have smashing successes in China, Japan, and Vietnam, Asian companies are looking to break into the United States, a market where players spend more on mobile than in any other.

The free-to-play Blade did well in South Korea, where it reached No. 4 on Google Play. It emphasizes competitive multiplayer, with player-vs-player combat in arena battles. But it also has a sizable single-player campaign (with 80 dungeons), the press release touts, with a “fast-paced combat system with multiple character powers.” But what stands out is that it’s a mobile game that uses the Unreal Engine — which is no surprise, since one of the companies that Tencent has a stake in is Epic Games, the makers of the Unreal toolkit.