Petroglyph announces Rise of Immortals, calling this upcoming free-to-play game a "fresh take on the multiplayer online battle arena genre." The Rise of Immortals Website is live, offering a first look trailer and signups for the game's closed beta test, which they say is imminent. Here's word on the game, which they say is designed to appeal to both core and casual players:

Rise of Immortals is set in the world of Graxia, 300 years after the events of “Guardians of Graxia,”™ Petroglyph’s fantasy-based PC game released last year. Rise of Immortals features the popular action-strategy gameplay of traditional MOBA games, but adds enhanced socialization features, along with persistent character progression – a first for the MOBA genre. Instead of an account-based leveling system, players can advance their Immortals through a diverse, persistent skill tree, customizing and upgrading the characters to unlock unique abilities that persist from match to match.

In addition, Rise of Immortals features a social hub where players can show off their enhanced Immortals, chat, emote, browse leaderboards, shop, manage friend and guild lists and more. Players also have the option of taking their Immortals through cooperative Player versus Environment (PvE) scenarios to learn the game, try out new abilities, and earn persistent experience before jumping into Player versus Player (PvP) matches online.