Netmarble used Tokyo Game Show 2026 to put real detail behind Solo Leveling: KARMA, releasing a game overview trailer and a cinematic alongside a media presentation at Makuhari Messe. The headline is that KARMA is not another turn-based collection game wearing the licence — it is a roguelite action RPG, and the demo on the show floor is built to prove it.
Developed by Netmarble Neo, KARMA is due out on iOS, Android and PC before the end of 2026. Netmarble still has not named a day, but pre-registration is now open in Korea and Japan.
Weapons change the run, not just the numbers
The overview trailer spends most of its time on the loop rather than the licence. Runs are built around weapon classes — sword, bow and gauntlets among them — and each one reshapes how a stage plays rather than simply adjusting damage. Netmarble has been drip-feeding individual weapon introductions on the game's channel for weeks, and the TGS build is where they finally sit together.
The build on the floor carries more than 200 buff types and eight playable characters, which is a meaningful number for a roguelite demo. Hunters and Shadows both fight, with distinct battle styles, so the roster is not purely cosmetic variation on Sung Jinwoo.
The Monarch War, from the inside
The cinematic covers the story side, and it is reaching for the part of the source material that adaptations have mostly gestured at: the 27-year Monarch War, and Sung Jinwoo's fight continuing inside the dimensional gap. Netmarble is pitching this as the untold portion of the story rather than a retelling of beats fans already know, which is a sensible position for a licensed game arriving this late into the franchise's run.
Whether that holds up past the trailer is the open question. Licensed gacha titles routinely promise original narrative and deliver a highlight reel, and Solo Leveling in particular has been adapted often enough that genuinely new material is a real claim to make.
Boss design is doing the work
The demo's boss encounters lean on readable gimmicks and attack patterns rather than stat checks — telegraphed zones, positional pressure, the sort of thing that rewards actually moving. For a mobile roguelite that is the right instinct, and it is the clearest signal that Netmarble Neo is building around play rather than around a banner schedule.
KARMA was one of three Netmarble titles at TGS this year alongside Shangri-La Frontier: Seven Bestiaries and Pearl in Blue. It is the one with the largest built-in audience, and on this showing, the one with the most to prove about whether that audience gets a real action game out of it.
Solo Leveling: KARMA is in development for iOS, Android and PC, due in 2026. Pre-registration is live in Korea and Japan.
