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First Impressions
AstralDio
Member Posts: 4
I decided to sit down and play this game. Square Enix or Gamepot USA names did not factor into my "try it" decision. Also, keep in mind this is still in Beta.
During character creation I was a little put off by the limited class options. Warrior, Scout, Sorcerer. You have options to adjust body type, face type, hair type. Body type is really just a size script. Even though one is "muscular" it just means fatter polys. And the young body is just smaller and not younger in appearance. Face type lets you select from 7 presets only for face type & 5 for eye color. Hair type is same as face except its for your hair. Long, spikey, messy, or clean cut.
Next you get to pick your Affiliated Kingdom, which really just seems to set your starting point more or less without any other real explanation. It is not clear if it is beneficial or not to choose a Kingdom that is in line with your class. I created a sorcerer and chose the Yelsord nation because I was a magic user. At the start I spawned in a City, can't even remember the name but before I could move I talked to a that asked me to help fight off the guess what.... monsters! next thing I get teleported to another area, no ask to wait or warning. To me that is not good. I mean here I am, in a brand new city, ready to explore/learn and I can't even talk to 2 people before I am yanked to another location. So here I am in some outpost looking getup and get told to go off on my merry little killing spree without so much as a "The bad guys are over there" nudge. This made for a very poor introduction to the game as a whole for me.
After looking past my dismay I desiced to go on a romp anyways. Took me about 15 minutes to find the monsters because I took off in the wrong direction to begin with. At first I started fighting and mistook the combat to be the general click shoot monster, stand there and deliver/take a beating like a good little Avatar. I soon realized that these monsters were going to beat me down fast so I stared running and realized they started missing. You actually need to attempt to avoid their attacks by strafe jumping to the left or right. After I figured that out, I could easily dispatch all of the monsters with just some quick hops to the left and right while keeping a line of fire on the mob. This was a nice change of pace I thought, I don't stand here and trade blows to the face like so many other MMO's... then I realized it.
The game keeps count of how many monsters I have killed. I was on #15 and not a drop of experience gained. I was still lvl 1. I decided that this was too poor of a first intro and decided to stop playing.
This game has some potential, just like all the rest do! But I am going to bet that just like most of the other games, that potential is going to go to waste. It will never finish development and will most likely remain in patch mode just like most other MMO's out there. I hope I am wrong, but I doubt that I am.
Pro's
Change of pace for combat not a standard trade blows game. You actually play more like a FPS rather than RPG with WASD controls and mouse targeting and click to fire. Scroll wheel toggles spells/skills.
Con's
No real story/background. Limited classes. Very poor guide or combat explanation. Where are the monsters? Quests are very lackluster in explanation and information. HP does not regenerate slowly over time which I consider to be a game killer in most cases.
Summary: This game is too unpolished and rough around every edge that exists from graphics to gameplay. This game feels too old for this day and age. I still play old games from the 1980's so I focus on "fun" and "content" more than anything. This game lacks in those 2 primary areas!
Comments
Not to be rude but it sounds like you missed the main part of this game. The PvE is honestly a joke and the AIs are awful. The only purpose it serves is gold, VERY MINOR exp, and some war supplies.
The main point of this game is the constant war waging. I suggest you give it another shot and check that aspect out otherwise you haven't really reviewed the game.
You have reviewed the tutorial. You didnt get as far as the game.
I did not mean to insult any fanboi's. I just don't like about 99% of the MMO's produced and this just another one of the ones I don't like.
I will admit that I regret not being able to remain interested enough to explore the game further, but this game felt like a rehash of the same old mindless brawling that so many other MMO's have. I prefer to have a little more realistic impact on the worlds in which I play. I also prefer that there be more realistic impact on the player for failure as well. What happens in most MMOs where a player failes a "Mission/Quest"? They just get to do it over and try again. How about a boss monster that respawns? Yes, todays mission is to kill the Dragon King... and 1000 people before you did it 1000 times already! I don't see the fun in that!
I can deal with feeling small or large in a game, but I do not want to feel 'pointles/ineffective/nonexistent'. In the end, what impact does my character and travels have on the environment and world? If I embark on a campaign to slaughter the orcs will there be less tommorrow after I destroy their den... or will it just respawn, completely undoing and resetting everything I have done? I don't remember anything from my days at playing RO because I did nothing to change the environment. I do remember a lot of things from my days in EVE because I helped protect fellow players/starbases/systems. I also remember a lot because the threat of loss of a good ship and equipment were real. The excitment of warping in with a massive fleet to melee with over 100 ships on screen shooting, is far more memorable than other MMO's where I walked into a PvP zone where I would die and then respawn to rejoin battle over and over again. The thrill was more realistic for me in EVE because I personally had a stake in the battle and everyone else knew that because they faced the same threat of loss that I did. Big names were made in ways that cannot be made in other MMO's.
I don't want a game where I just fight and quest endlessly without changing or impacting the world in any significant way.
With all that said, this is just my opinion. For those of you whom do like to play these games, don't let my review stop you. But I think the vast majority of MMO's are equivalent to couch potato TV watching. Mindless monster slaughter is just too much for me. I would prefer fewer but more difficult battles rather than several easy beatdowns. Forget the grind and forget the static unchanging worlds. If your fun game is to fight endless pointess battles and to mindlessly slaughter little creatures over and over until you fall off your chair and keyboard drooling then you have no shortage of entertaiment provided by the multitude of available MMO's.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some people like what others do not. I just want more, and no one is stepping up to deliver.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
To MMO doubter:
The alternative is to setup a senario that requires the cooperation of the players to take down. Think of it as a senario like this. The Evil Dragon King is causing havoc through the countryside conducting your standard pillage/slaughter/destruction. His local kingship or authority sends an edict out to either pay Hero(s) X & Y a handsome reward to putting away the Evil Beast and saving the Kingdom or conscripts an army to protect the kingdom. Once the evil is defeated a bit of peace occurs in the land. During this time people rebuild and develop things and recover from the destruction. Then the Content developer cracks up a new story plot where another baddie arrives and causes trouble once again causing heroes to assemble and fight.
Yes, I know this senario requires a little extra effort than the average MMO, but I think its time to step away from the short sightedness of current MMO's. There are so many ways to stage a senario like I spoke of but that would require a lot more than the rest of this page. Public Quests are a near great way to explain what I am thinking of, but its more than that.
Here would be some cool highlights to have possible in such a game.
Defending a castle from a seige fighting along side NPC and Players alike in PvE and PvP skirmishes dealing with real seige weapons and castle destruction. The possility to lose or win must exist. How about the thrill of protecting the citizens while escaping from a castle now lost from the seige? Moving to a neighboring kingdom/city or rebuilding one from scratch?
Story and purpose is the most missing component of just about every MMO out there. We really can do better. Therefore I refuse to play the games on principle. If you are just fine with taking what you can get, then so be it. But I assure you this. If you keep taking what you can get, you generally don't get what you want! As long as we play these cheap MMO's they won't build better ones.
Meh, this is one of the very few games that actually has all the things I want in a game.
action, strategy and variety of roles you can play.
Building structures so it damages enemy keep(I know, it sounds unrealistic) and protecting it so your keep don't suffer damage. Yes, pvp plays a big role but in the end it's just a mere fraction of what actually matters.
The need of teamwork. You can't just do a lot if you're all alone. Fighting can drag on forever, destroying buildings feels like an endless chore.
Plus the fact you won't survive for a long time if you don't have anyone to help you out when there are like 10-20 enemies around you?
Major reason I play this game is because it's very challenging. Leading a 50-50 battle for example is very challenging as half or more of the people don't even listen to you or even have their chat closed. Yes, you surprisingly need a commander, since most people tend to head to the frontlines while there's more important tasks at hand. So yeah, just you alone can make a difference in a war.
It's more fun than you think after you taste the first experience of the war system in fantasy earth zero, though I can't guarantee that for 100%
Haha, I actually ditched assassin's creed for fantasy eath zero. But maybe because this kind of game is my preferred game.
Although there's not much purpose and story in this game but heck, war is still war, and you can think of some story or purpose like I did xD. To create the most organized corps(guild/clan etc etc) for the purpose of unifying Ecetia(main continent in the center), is my purpose in this game I guess....Well, the nation leaders do request taking over a territory and holding it for x amount of time but yeah...
All in all, it's just what you want in a game. This game has real time strategy, action and RPG elements in one game what attracted me to this game.
And yes, I once quit in open beta 1 before I even got into the first quest, because the directions were confusing, but then I tried it again after the open beta 2. I'm really glad that I actually did or I would've missed a fun game.
btw, the monster killings in the beginning is just for you to get used to the controls, that's all, you won't get exp from it. You hardly would fight monsters except for money or items. There's also one thing that they did wrong which is not telling you when you reached 5 kills. They register it, but you have to go through a certain place for it to check if you've killed that many.
Edit: I don't think you should be reviewing the game without seeing all of it's features. You'll have to force yourself to play further than that if you want to give a good review.