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[Review] Aura Kingdom: A World Full of Critters & Bad Guys
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Aura Kingdom is a free-to-play MMO from Aeria Games. Your character is one of a handful of classes of beings who are gifted with special abilities by a mystical cube called Gaia. You can call upon Eidolons as companions and warrior-pets and battle it out with a world full of critters and bad guys, and generally have an adventure all over the landscape to help people and learn about your abilities.
Read more of Jean Prior's Aura Kingdom: A World Full of Critters & Bad Guys.
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Comments
i think its a bit to early to give a Rating since most content isnt implemented yet.
The content is only good until lvl 50 but this Areia Version goes till lvl 75. Wich means you have to spam lvl 50 Dungeons, where you get 0.1 % per run or something like that.
Foreign version has the lvl 75 content implemented and also goes till lvl 90.
Areia does this to promot the lvl 75 conent as big new update, wich this the longelivity is streched- otherwise ppl would stop playing after 2 weeks.
You already get in 10h to lvl 50 if you know what you do.
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Far as I am concerned when they start taking money from people to play it is released. This nonsense of open beta is a joke.
Everything I have played from Aeria is just a flat out boring grindfest and that immediately knocks 5 points off the score. This game looks no different.
For a f2p asian mmo, it was pretty good. Compared to any AAA mmo - it's absolute garbage. Still, ok time waster I guess. The content is very thin though, it's perfectly normal for people to get to max level in 3-4 days leisurely and 1 day if they push hard. Surprisingly it's the opposite of an asian grinder in that sense, but once you're done the leveling content which flies by all there really is left to do is grind dailies for Eidolon keys, achievements, etc. So it is a grinder in that sense. The zones are super small and there are only 5 of them, each one taking anywhere from 1-4 hours to complete I would say. I had fun for about 5 days then uninstalled.
It's pretty much a family-friendlier Scarlet Blade. The machanics, the grinding, the shop, all similar. A generic, average game, not bad, but not very good either.
I'm with Margulis, it's decent for a few days if there's nothing else to play or if someone likes this type of grinders. Or if you want some mindless fun without any effort - with auto-pathing the game is almost playing itself
To be fair, should Shroud of the Avatar and Trove be reviewed right now then? :-p both have taken money from customers and had playable versions of their game.
If any game allows free access to all comers, announces there will be no wipes of anything from that day onwards and opens the Cash Shop for daily business, then it can be considered as a de facto release.
Paying a one-off fee for alpha or beta access is not quite the same thing.
Most of the so-called "open beta's" I have played in F2P games were indistinguishable from the released product. The game's status just arbitrarily changed from "open beta" to "released" at some point. The supposed "release day" was mostly just an additional marketing opportunity for Cash Shop promotions.
NOTE: For people that don't know how game developement works, Aura Kingdom is still in beta, will be wiped out again when the game fully releases after finishing with it's content. The only "excuse" (its not even a reason) to not wipe out when moving from beta to fully finished game is when the game is an actual failure and cant afford to lose players due to the reset. Otherwise a wipe out is a must. Beta game = game under construction. Would you live in a building that's under construction? Do you think it's finished? No, but do the ones building it let you i nto see how its going? Yes. Same here.
Boring, it's monotone, you have to do the same thing again and again and again in each zone. The game uses recicled models all the time, and it's noticeable.
It's not open world, there is nothing to explore and it's small. It was impossible to do anything the first days due to overpopulation, opposite, if you start a new character the low lvl places will be so empty it will feel you are the only one playing there.
The background story is lame, the main character (you) gets a celestial being as companion and you go on a quest to get rid of it? really? That aside each zone has its own story, pretty much like a poorly made anime thats fillled with random adventures instead of following the main storyline.
The game is fast and still lacks content, ergo, a serious community cannot be made. You wont find here guilds raiding seriously like in WoW (for a crude example). There are no jobs/professions, the crafting system is bad and doesnt incite you to do it for anything good since its way easier to run a dungeon or spend that time leveling for better stuff.
The game doesnt incite you to communicate with other people either, all the dungeons have the "solo" option and there isnt anything that asks you to make a party to do anything. There is a group finder for that and doesnt even last for long, its click to join, get in, kill the mob, get out, end of the party.
Aeria Games wanted to make a second Eden Eternal with discarded ideas it seems. It has less amount of classes, less amount of skills, smaller maps, a lot less customization, less quality quests, in Eden Eternal you look for group manually and you talk to people to overcome difficulties, the story is a bit better, has more content.
Both are classic style mmorpgs, class based, you play that class and nothing else. In many games you have subclasses or some sort of upgrade. The game doesnt let you play how you want, its forward or backward in the same path, for that matter i'll be better playing final fantasy 10, it has better graphics, characters, story, even though its a game on a rail it still gives you minimal freedom and i'll be playing alone anyway.
Let me put it this way, McDonalds is the best hamburguers seller, it started low and got high. Now do you really think that if you start low today, making hamburguers you will one day compete with McDonalds? No. Same here, the leader in classic style mmorpgs is WoW, anything in the same category will be worse no matter what.
That's why sandbox mmorpgs or classic mmorpgs with sandbox features are becoming more popular every day. Well made? Yeah I can say Aura kingdom is well made, but i would not invest on it, it wont live long, not with Warlords of Draenor, Wildstar, Black Desert and ArcheAge coming out soon. This is just an appetizer, a snack.
Agreed. Nice ideas, combat is more sluggish than I would like. Overall a nice time waster for server downtimes, but nothing I would invest heavily in.
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
No it won't , they have already said no more character wipes.
Edit
Also ridiculously small zones. Also did not die until first time attempting AH (first 5 person party dungeon) with 3 people (2 dropped). That is never a good sign if the game is that carebeary.
Major or Current Characters
AC - The Brute lvl 85 macer -HG (retired)
SWG - Lihone Su'alkn Master Ranger/ MCH - Flurry (Retired)
EVE - Sulone - Cruiser Lover (Retired)
LOTRO - Sandric lvl 50 Burg (and others)- Brandywine (Retired)
GW2 - Sandric lvl 80 Thief - Dragonbrand (Retired)
NeverWinter - Sandric lvl 60 Rogue - Dragonshard (Retired)
Archage - Sandric lvl 50 everything - Naima (Active)
Others (Lots) (Retired)
the clunky combat animation and combat in general drives me off.
yes, it's descent for a f2p mmorpg, but if you've played past AAA mmorpg (most of them are f2p now though), you won't have the passion to play, except if you really have nothing else to play.
It isn't a full blown MMORPG, but it is a fun action MMO with enough elements to keep you entertained, would definitely recommend this to Phantasy Star Online fans tired of waiting on PSO2 as it has alot of that vibe.
One thing imo that is lacking in this review is the failure to mention the item system in this game as it is single-handedly the best feature of the game as every piece of loot is randomly generated and may be better than what you have equipped, this is what really takes the game to the next level imho as you can log-in maybe get lucky and get a slight gear upgrade and feel satisfied in a short session.
Maybe its because you like cartoons and remote controlling children?
That shouldn't be doubted, cuz the cash store is already set up.. wipe what?
its not bad mmo, at least cash shop is for aeria standards extremely non oppressing. honestly slap item mall on open beta is release but that is what aeria does with all titles they release ...beta is just title of it to call "its release but we fear there might be bugs and we prolly change item mall later on" still like I said of all titles of aeria, this one is least pay to win of em all with least oppressing to even know there is item mall.
also to add, this is quite fine as mmo overall ...at least its not wow remakes^^ yeah to add AAA mmorpgs have gone bit stale with big investors wanting only secured money ...and concepts of wow been proven to bring money (to at least in wow) which is kinda sad and innovations been low for looong time by now (not saying there aint any good releases, just saying the actually good ones are far and wide away)