55 people found this review helpful
6 people found this review funny
4
3
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 70.2 hrs on record (12.3 hrs at review time)
Posted: 5 Feb, 2024 @ 11:38pm
Product received for free

Long time MMORPG player here to set the record straight. There are mostly negative review for this game so far, and I sincerely believe it does not deserve it. I will attempt to articulate why.

The Positives:
  • Wonderful Art Style and World-Building - As a fan of games like Planescape Torment, I really enjoy the overall atmosphere. The art direction of the creatures and characters is really top notch. There is a surprising amount of flavor-text - your character automatically keeps a journal of your missions in excruciating detail, illustrations and all!
  • Unique Setting - I love when MMO's do something different from the typical high-fantasy setting. It's not just for show either, the story has some very dark moments. This is far from the boiler plate YOU ARE THE CHOSEN HERO story, many NPCs will despise you or actively conspire against you. The world is bloody, filthy, stinky and cruel. There's no knights in shining armor or angels showing off their wings, just crust covered beings as far as the eye can see.
  • No Autoplay - An unfortunate side effect of our mobile era of gaming is the Auto Quest Mechanic. Most MMORPG's released nowadays are made for mobile devices with merely a port for PC, and while a few mobile UI quirks isn't game breaking, I find the mobile auto-play function is incredibly game breaking. It's honestly refreshing to install something and my character isn't being auto-routed to the nearest objective, skyrocketing me a dozen levels without me even having to click. Does a good job of keeping the bots away as well.

    The Negatives:
  • Translation - There's no English voiceover audio, which isn't a huge deal. I have however found several cinematic moments where the characters will speak in Korean but no English subtitles appear. This hasn't been game breaking, as I have still managed to follow the narrative, but I'd like to see it fixed. From time to time, text dialog with NPC's will have awkward grammatical moments, leading me to believe it might not be fully localized for English speakers understanding.
  • Micro-Transactions - As with most MMO's nowadays, there's a plethora of in-game currencies and premium-bought currencies for the player to purchase. While I am nowhere close to endgame, I only see two negatives thus far. One being the cost of the currency in general seems a bit high, with 500 diamonds costing about $10.99 if I recall correctly. Beyond this, there are several steps to convert these diamonds into other in-game currencies used for purchasing different things - this is a convoluted and predatory practice in my opinion. Additionally, the cosmetic system - while gorgeous - is equally convoluted and gatcha-oriented. You will need to purchase special orbs to make gacha rolls for apparel pieces, randomly getting different outfit pieces for different sets. This means you will likely need to make a large investment to potentially ROLL the outfit you want to wear, as opposed to simply purchasing it in one piece from the shop. There is, however, a player shop where you can sell your unwanted cosmetics, though I have not explored this.
  • Heavy Grind - The game is no cakewalk. This matches the aesthetics of the game perfectly. You will die to low-level enemies, and your progression will be slow. I personally LOVE this, but I understand that this play-style is not for everyone. It's really much more like ToS, Ragnarok and even to some extent BDO in that way.

    The Criticism and Conclusion
    To be honest I am not sure what people are expecting. It's a free game. You can download it and play it entirely for free and not worry about micro-transactions inhibiting your play, at least for the first 10-20 hours. Might you have to pay to be competitive and/or make it to end game? Perhaps. Can the tutorial be re-balanced? Absolutely. I don't know, I just could not bring myself to call this a bad game. I have played about 10 hours and not spent a single cent, I have had lots of fun following the dark story line, enjoying the immaculate artwork, and slowly grinding my build. I have played dozens - if not hundreds - of other far worse MMORPG's. Honestly it's exciting to see something like this get released, I hope more people give it a try.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
Comments are disabled for this review.