Krafton appears to be moving closer to establishing the final identity of its ambitious fantasy RPG Project Windless, with a newly discovered trademark filing revealing the name “Windless: The First King” for the game based on acclaimed Korean fantasy novel series The Bird That Drinks Tears.
The trademark filing was first reported by Inven Global, which spotted the application on South Korea’s KIPRIS intellectual property database. According to the report, “Windless: The First King” appeared under Krafton’s name on September 18, marking the first public appearance of “The First King” as an apparent subtitle associated with Project Windless.
Krafton has not formally announced that Windless: The First King will be the final commercial title of the game, and a trademark application should not by itself be treated as confirmation of a name change. The timing and wording of the filing are nevertheless significant for a project that spent years in development before finally receiving its major public reveal earlier in 2026.
Project Windless was showcased during Sony’s State of Play in February, giving audiences their first substantial look at Krafton Montreal’s single-player open-world action RPG. The game is being developed for PC and PlayStation 5 and is based on the universe created by Korean fantasy author Lee Youngdo in The Bird That Drinks Tears, although Krafton is not directly adapting the events of the novels.
What could Windless: The First King mean?
The newly surfaced subtitle is particularly interesting because of the character at the centre of Project Windless. Rather than retelling The Bird That Drinks Tears, Krafton Montreal has taken the game approximately 1,500 years into the past, placing players in the role of the Hero King, a legendary Rekon whose history predates the events of Lee Youngdo’s novels.
As Inven Global noted in its report, “The First King” appears to point towards the Hero King, who is remembered within the mythology of the series as the first monarch of the Arajit Kingdom. If that interpretation proves correct, the trademark would not simply give Project Windless a more conventional commercial title; it would directly connect the game’s name to the protagonist and the period of history Krafton Montreal has chosen to explore.
That would also explain why Krafton may retain “Windless” rather than adopting The Bird That Drinks Tears itself as the game’s title. Project Windless is using the world, races and mythology established by Lee while telling a story set long before the novels, giving the studio considerable freedom to build an original narrative without simply recreating the source material.
Krafton has spent years building The Bird That Drinks Tears game
Although Project Windless only received its major gameplay reveal in 2026, Krafton’s plans for The Bird That Drinks Tears stretch back considerably further. The company announced in August 2022 that it had begun active development of an untitled game based on the novel, describing Lee Youngdo as one of the pioneers of Korean fantasy literature and signalling its intention to introduce the property to a global audience.
Krafton also brought veteran concept artist Iain McCaig onto the project to help establish its visual identity. McCaig’s career includes work across major Hollywood properties such as Star Wars, The Avengers and Harry Potter, and Krafton subsequently released an extensive collection of concept art depicting the characters, creatures and environments it was developing for its interpretation of Lee’s universe.
The publisher’s commitment became clearer with the establishment of Krafton Montreal in 2023. The Canadian studio is led by Patrik Méthé, a veteran of Ubisoft whose credits include senior roles across multiple Far Cry games, and was established with The Bird That Drinks Tears as its first major project. In an earlier interview with Inven Global, Méthé discussed the challenge of translating the Korean fantasy series into a game capable of reaching an international audience.
The source material offers Krafton considerably more than the familiar medieval-European framework used by many fantasy RPGs. Lee’s universe contains four principal intelligent races — Humans, Rekon, Tokebi and Nhaga — alongside its own mythology, political history and cultural structures, giving Project Windless an identity that Krafton has repeatedly sought to preserve while adapting the property for an international AAA production.
Project Windless finally emerged in 2026
After years of concept art, recruitment and development updates, Krafton finally showed Project Windless in action during Sony’s State of Play in February 2026. The footage introduced the Hero King as an enormous Rekon warrior wielding two swords and demonstrated large-scale melee encounters in which the protagonist could fight groups of enemies simultaneously.
The reveal also established the project’s broader direction as a single-player open-world action RPG rather than a multiplayer title connected to Krafton’s better-known PUBG business. For Krafton, which remains internationally synonymous with PUBG: Battlegrounds, the project represents one of its most substantial efforts to build a major global franchise outside the battle royale ecosystem.
It also represents an unusual approach to adaptation. By setting the game around 1,500 years before the events familiar to readers of The Bird That Drinks Tears, Krafton Montreal can draw upon Lee’s established world without being constrained by the precise narrative of the novels. The Hero King’s relatively unexplored history consequently provides the studio with room to tell an original story while retaining recognisable elements of the source material.
Is Windless: The First King the game’s final title?
For now, that remains unanswered. Krafton continues to publicly identify the game as Project Windless and has not announced Windless: The First King as its official title. Trademark registrations are frequently made to protect names and intellectual property before companies decide how, or even whether, those names will ultimately be used commercially.
The filing nevertheless provides the clearest indication so far of a potential final title for the project. The inclusion of “Windless” maintains continuity with the codename Krafton has used for several years, while “The First King” aligns closely with the Hero King and the ancient period of The Bird That Drinks Tears history in which the game takes place.
Krafton has yet to announce a firm release date for Project Windless. Inven Global reports that the game is being targeted for 2027 or later, although that timeframe should not be treated as a confirmed release date until Krafton provides a formal launch window.
What began several years ago as Krafton’s attempt to translate one of Korea’s best-known fantasy worlds into a global game has now progressed into a dedicated AAA production with its own studio, an established protagonist, publicly demonstrated gameplay and confirmed PC and PlayStation 5 versions. If the latest trademark ultimately becomes the game’s commercial name, Project Windless may also have taken another important step towards shedding its development codename and emerging as Windless: The First King.
