f13.net

Everytime I see the name of this game I put on my Spanish shoes and eat a strawberry granola bar.   (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LVqbwW18WU)

Pretty good trailer. I liked the early game play of the Japanese version, but the language barrier made it too hard to figure out if the overall game was great. I couldn't figure out how to do a lot of things or complete many quests.

The art is beautiful, but with the wide array of new western releases in 2007 (Vanguard, Conan, Pirates, possibly WaR and some others I'm missing), I don't know if this is really the year for an import. They tend to have much better launches in the off-periods when theres nothing new to try. Right now it seems that the largest niche of Asian MMO fans is the PvP/PK crowd (Lineage 2 and it's cousins RF Online, Archlord, etc), and GE is limited in it's PvP to duels (albeit really awesome duels with 3 characters per player and lots of tactics involved). Maybe I'm underestimating the non-"zomg open pvp kill everyone political metagame" FFXI people~

edit: changed my broad sweeping description of FFXI players.

Hmm....I saw my boyfriend "playing" this about a month ago.

He logged on, moved his little team of 3 to a certain spot, and then went to watch TV.

His fearless trio would fight on against the endless spawn of mobs, SLOWLY levelling and occasionally dying.

My kind of game!

XTREME AI

Yeah, I remember playing this in Japanese and being completely lost.

Maybe it'll make more sense in English.

You know better.

Wohoo! Beta begins!

Unusual in that there is no mention of an NDA in what I have access to so far.  Of course I'm at work, so no details either way.

I know...

But you know as well as I do i'll be standing on my tippy toes trying to get a peek in the window as soon as they start handing out beta keys.

It looks like Lineage II with pirate paint.

I think I'll try Pirates of the Burning Sea first.

So.

About that BioWare MMO?

Don't do that.

On the trailer.. that voice work was terrible.  Gah.

I agree completely.

Is it just me or did they rip off the Dracula music (1992 version)?

I hate the way they're doing the download.

Me too.  I saw it and haven't bothered yet.

I was 80% through piece 4 and 35% through 5 and they both crapped out. Bullshit. Just make it one big download.

Is it open and they hate me or are you just lucky and got an invite for closed beta?

It's closed but it's probably not lucky.

Can't tell because the download is so fucked up.

I left it to download overnight.  01 is corrupt and 02, 03 and 04 don't exist.  Except they do.   :roll:

I torrented the ones I could.  Didn't have any problems with the 2 files I couldn't torrent.  Don't know why they weren't torrentable.  It just meant they were MUCH slower to finish.

Once they were all done, I moved them all into their own little temp folder, double-clicked the exe file, and it installed quite easily.

But yeah, the download method sucked.  They better fix that if they want to do digital distro on release.

It's ok so far.  But it feels very Lineage-y.  As in, run into quest area.  Run around finding a space with spawns not already claimed by another group.  Park self and grind until quest complete.

I had thirty minutes to play last night.

I love the outfits.  The barracks where you collect characters is interesting.  The music is great, but I imagine it will get repetative.  The gameplay is almost completely automated.

Is it in closed beta?

Yes.  It's kinda pretty (I'm a costume whore), but rather...pointless.  I feel no drive to do anything.

I'm back at home for a couple days and using the time to remote torrent the files for this game so it doesn't feel so tedious. it's working. just need to download file 6 when i get home and I'm done.

Thanks to advice from a wonderful person named MinaAu, I downloaded Gigaget and was able to get the whole mess done in a flash with no problems at all.

NOW you tell me! You're evil, Signe. Pure evil!

I would have told you sooner if I had known before I found out! 

What's a strawberry granola bar?

(http://www.naturevalley.com/naturevalleyimages/chewy_strawberry.gif)

(http://www.tothenextlevel.org/images/layout/misc/granola_bar.jpg)

How can you live anywhere in the civilised world and not know this?

I think Falconeer is from Italy.

I know.  I just don't believe they don't have granola bars!  God, especially strawberry ones!

Granado is not Granola!

When I think of 'Granado Espada', I think of 'Grand Spade'. Or something.

Which could really bizarre, or horribly bad, if you think about it.

I've taken to calling it Granola Espadrille.  It just sounds right.

(http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/s/shovele2.jpg)

Mystery Men rocked.

That sounds like some sort of an American bastardization (involving adding granola) to some Spanish soup or something.

Something like I would go into a restaurant called 'El Caliente Bistro', and they'd have it on the menu.

Espadrilles are shoes!   :roll:

(http://mydailylook.com/garment-images/shoes/s_espadrille_kors_bleeker_red.jpg)

Why do I have to show everyone pictures of what I'm talking about lately? 

Indeed. Who would have thought that a bunch of IT career gaming nerds would not have immediately recognized the name of a subtype of women's shoes. At least they got the Spanish origins right though.

As my dad loves to say I am from Roma. We owned the world when you used to live on straw huts (at best).
Now my dad is a known asshole, and I don't like my country. But don't even start me on the "civilised world" thing and strictly keep strawberry granolas that side of the ocean, in the United Snacks of America.

P.S: Espadrilles rock.

I speak in Google Image searched-pictures, obviously.

Language is obsolete. All hail our new overlords.

Man, how was I supposed to know it was chick shoes? I have a hard enough time with them, let alone paying attention to the type of shoes they're wearing.

Now that I think of it, I remember that back in the 90s a friend from the US used to talk a lot about "granola girls", and the best explanation I could get from her more than 10 years ago was that they were "those girls... you know.. who wear Birkenstocks".
That must be how I forgot the word.

I knew what they were!

I thought it was something sold at Taco Bell.


Also, I still have access to this beta. I still haven't even tried to download anything.

Download it you bastard. I want to play with someone.

This is actually remarkably fun.  Will it have long-tern appeal, dunno -- it certainly needs some cleanup on UI (text presentation in particular), but the world is pretty looking, the combat is just silly fun, and I have a bunch of friends trying it out.  Feel free to drop the "Quinton" family a line in-game.

EDIT: adding more commentary:

- After a few hours playing I have a Lv15 Wizard (offensive caster), Musketeer (ranged gunslinger -- have been using rifles not pistols so far), and Scout (oddly named healer class).  I also have a Lv12 Fighter (tank/damage dealer type).
- It would be nicer if there were more quests.  The quests tend to give EXP cards (usually in sets of three) which can be applied to any character you like (though some have a minimum level). 
- Some quests launch you (immediately!) into an instance where you need to kill some number of monsters, defeat an opponent, etc
- The world is really nice-looking.  There are some spots where it could stand to have some higher resolution textures, but there are also spots that are just wonderful look.  I'll try to throw some screenshots of the first dungeon up somewhere later -- I really love the look of the place and the nice lighting effects.
- Combat is pretty crazy.  Zones can literally be wall-to-wall monsters and fighting piles of them at a time is pretty cool.  I'm still figuring out how to know when I'm doing fine and when I'm going to be overwhelmed.
- Death penalty: your characters auto-rez in-place after a short time (even if all three members of your group are KO'd).  If there's XP loss it's pretty minor (haven't noticed it the couple times I've died).
- So far I've only soloed.  I have a number of friends playing and want to see what grouping has to offer.
- If there's crafting, I haven't found it yet.
- I make money by selling assorted drops from critters I kill in large quantities while exploring/leveling.

-Q

Post more info, or give me whatever sekret code you have that I dont have...

For those that said they like the style of CoH with tons of monsters being fought at all times, this game might appeal to you. As much as it's automated, you can make it fun even while it being automated. Wave after wave of monsters spawns and attacks you. As Quinton said there are quite a few instanced quests and some of them are quests where you have to defend something and you're attacked by waves of monsters and just have to survive till the timer runs out. So far they've been pretty easy, but I can see how they can get hard.

The grind can be pretty damn rough, but you really don't notice it because your characters, especially in their group setting, don't have much trouble for same level or higher level monsters. There isn't much variety to the equipment, actually I won't lie, there isn't any at all. It's all level based and is done in tiers. The best you can do is "enhance" the item (think +1, +2..etc system) or replace the look of your armor by buying a costume that covers up the look of your armor and makes your character look fancier. I have to admit that some of the costumes are really nice and true to the culture/era they picked for the setting of the game. Belle dresses, feathered hats and all that stuff.

Most games run you through a seriously long and tedious tutorial, but I'm sure those go a long way to helping some people who aren't too familiar with MMO systems and how they work. For me the tutorial was quick and easy, though they did skip a lot of introducing you to the UI. Luckily they have a hotbar at the top of the screen that when moused over shows you the hotkey associated with it.

Overall I think it lacks quests and drive. Mostly I find myself playing because I don't have to play. Really doesn't make sense, but I find it interesting being able to hit space , walk away and not have to worry about my group dying because they'll fight pretty well on their own. It really only appeals to catasses, but I'll play it for a bit longer to see if there might be more to it.

Collecting character cards is kind of interesting.  There are the basic classes:  Fighter, Scout, Muskateer, Wizard, Elementalist (and maybe oneI am forgetting).  All of these can be made as male or female and you can make them as you wish, up to your number of character slots.

In the tutorial you get a Soldier, which is similar to a fighter but comes with a spear.  In doing quests I have gotten Jack, a miner, and Ramiro, a kid that at least in acquiring him beat my poor Curlett family senseless a couple of time.  All of the cards which allow you to add them to your family are single use.  I do not know if you recover the card if you delete the character or not.

Where do you get the cards? I've only obtained the soldier card so far and want to find out how to get more.

Okay, I think the shiny just wore off for me.  Admittedly GE did better than LOTRO and VG, keeping me entertained for maybe 8-10 hours of gameplay before I started losing interest.

- Combat could use more variety.  "Wade through a see of foes" is neat but it does start getting old.
- Autorez is nice but if you die in that sea of monsters and there aren't other parties clearing it, prepare to die repeatedly as your party revives one at a time and gets clobbered again
- the instanced boss battle at the end of Al Quelt Moreza is brutal.  Got my butt handed to my twice so far (at lv15ish and lv17ish).  Defeated so soundly that the game crashed the second time.
- You start to really feel the grind at 15-17.  I see forum posters claim it gets bad in the 40s and 50s.  If what I'm seeing at lv15-17 isn't the bad grind... eep.

-Q

You do some quests for the people then they have a final one where they vow allegiance.  So far I know of Ramiro in the zone just outside town and Jack in the first zone with mobs.

Necro.

Gamestop got in the preorder stuff. Game is only going to be $20 and the preorder gets you a character. Kinda stoked. Should be able to run on my current PC too. Oh and beta access of course.

The notes say it is free to play and download.  Does that mean the $20 is just for the 10k VIS and beta access?

I think there's a retail box. Gamestop reported as getting one. It might be a Guild Wars situation, honestly though, no clue.

Download Version = Trial Version
Premium Boxed Version = More Content & Gameplay

Seem to be using the Guild Wars money-making scheme.

Honestly, I haven't played this at all because I've got a "Collect-em-all" complex. If I can get into it, I'll probably enjoy it more than most.

Doubt it, while it is a fun'ish little diversion the typical Asian lack of character customization dooms a game like this.  You are never going to enjoy a loot free game Schild.  If you've already pre-ordered, well learn to love the mage aoe.  Once you have that you can just go off on things.

A lot of people are saying that this is the best Asian game so far.  That might be so, but it still doesn't elevate it out of the barely mediocre category.

It's crap.  Everyone looks the same and all you do is run from one little area to another, plant your ass in place, and then have your team of clones kill loads of stupid looking crap while you eat an apple.  Repeat for 200 levels.   This is probably the easiest game to macro level in history as there's one button commands to kill everything in sight as well as loot everything in sight.

Looked like some interesting dress up options once you get to catass levels, so eventually you stop looking like everyone else.

It's a nice idea that has too much Asian MMO stink all over it.

Actually if everyone looks the same and there's no loot, it has too little Asian MMO Stink on it. Even in Ragnarok online, gear that differentiated and wildly fluctuating amounts of different types of gear were staples.

I'm surprised they fucked that part up. Though, given the art style, it seems pretty easy to get fucked up if they went with TONS OF LOOTS.

Did this get renamed Sword of the New World or somesuch?

A couple buds at work wanted me to beta test that game, and it sounds remarkably similiar to what was said here.  Also, I'm just bored enough that I might give it a whirl, gay male characters and all!

Yes, that's the name for the English language version or something.  I don't know why they did that, either.  The original name sounds cooler and more exotic.

Well, is it worth trying out?

Don't know. Still not... in the beta - lols.

I didn't like it very much but it does have some interesting bits.  You can control three characters at the same time and cycle between them.  There different modes you can choose, like defensive and aggressive.  I really disliked movement and the camera.  It made me seasick.

It's worth spending like 2-3 hours playing perhaps.  It'll take you at least an hour to figure out what the hell you're doing.

Enh, it's a time waster for a short while.

Fileplanet has the beta out.
I tried it. It's theoretically engaging, the barracks, the family, the dresses...
But combat is on autopilot. And no you can't turn it off.

I don't like it.   :-(

Yeah they need to patch in some actually challenging mobs with abilities that forced you to manage your team.

Atm its a total 100% grindygrindy game.  You can be involved in pvp in an arena of sorts but the gameplay doesn't lend itself to the setup very well.

Holy holy.
I played two more hours and changed my mind completely.
It's not that the game is on autopilot, I was a complete fool. It's just that it is more an RTS than a traditional MMORPG.
Actually it's the blend of RTS and DIKU. Well, I have to say.. I am impressed.
I am not saying it is fun, or that it is in a working state (let alone the translation) but it's the most original MMORPG I saw in a long time. It's classy, and it got the looks too.

Is it as original as....


Vanguard?

No, it is as original as RTS meets DIKU, or Diablo. Try it for yourself.

Weird double post.
Anyway I am not saying it's a good or fun game.
I am just praising some out-of-the-box thinking.

I was just being snarky.

You can check page one of this thread for my impressions already.

The more you all tickle me about Vanguard, the more I think you all miss my foolish years. Should I politely ask Geldon back too?

I really wondered where Geldon went. He hyped Vanguard so much, played it and suddenly he just vanished into thin air  :-D

That's cause he self-banned himself.

I tried this out and oddly I'm just captivated. It strikes me as the odd bastard child of Diablo and Guild Wars. I like the fast action and while you can leave it afk to level, it's not like you get anything for levelling. And if you push your limits, it does take some management to keep them going. I wish it was full RMT/microtransaction though, but it apparently has a $9 a month subscription as well.

On the other hand, I'm also got a charming summer cold and I'm running a fever of around 100'F, so staying power when I'm in my right mind isn't guaranteed.

This is so not ready for prime time though. I can't believe it's a month from release and major parts are still appearing in Hangul, never mind all the Engrish.

I've been poking at the beta off and on, it's basically your typical Korean MMORPG with a few new wrinkles and slightly more polish.

There's quests but not a lot of them, and they're all pretty grindy with poor rewards.
The party control aspect is really cool until you realize it's impossible to make full use of character abilities in most situations since casting spells or using skills tends to make your characters drop out of their Auto-attacking/Auto-Healing.
The Interface needs work.
So does the translation.

Not to be cliche, but I spent more time downloading this game than I did playing it.

It does have some neat features. I liked building my little team. The character models and terrain are gorgeous, and the game itself ran pretty smoothly.

Right up until I'd been in the quarry (lowbie leveling area) for 5 minutes. Then the game booted me for being in "defensive mode" for five minutes, or some such nonsense.

I logged back in, and 5 minutes later I was looking at the login screen again. And I'd been actively playing the whole time, clicking to move, clicking on loot, moving my characters near the monsters so they'd attack them.

If your game's anti-macro tool boots a player who is actively playing, your anti-macro tool sucks. Better to not have written it.

It's a bug and it's featured in the forums. It's actually a beta.

That must be why I didn't have to give them any credit card information! Thanks for clearing that up!

Since I don't think it was clear and sounded sarcastic, which wasn't what I meant, so by "actually a beta" it actually is still in translation/localization. From the PR it looks and smells like a "publicity release" but they're actually deep into working on things right now. The current translations are placeholders for example. The new ones are far better. Though I'm skeptical about a 7/10 launch given the state the beta is in now.

The thing that puts you into "defend" mode automatically also puts on the 5 minute timer. If you go into the settings inside the game and turn off "lock defend mode" you're fine. You just need to click into defend mode manually or hit alt e. This would be a bit of "localization" that I think is pretty hated. The original system is that space puts you into defend mode and control-space puts you into loot mode, which works out as very convenient with point and click movement and leaves your fingers close to the asdfzxcv etc keys for popping off specials.

Moving your character doesnt change your mode, looting doesnt change your mode. If you ctrl-shift click somewhere, it changes your mode but it doesn't register for the timer.

What you need to do to avoid the issue is ctrl-h ctrl-e every now and then. Ctrl-h will put you in hold mode, ctrl-e will throw you back in the defend mode. (might be alt and not ctrl, i don't remember).

If I remember the key is that right now the timer doesn't reset from mouseclicks. So if you use the keyboard in any way you're ok.

The US/Europe version is launching commercial tomorrow. It's probably not really ready for the kind of launch they are doing, with real boxes on shelves, and stuff like that. K2's previous work has been the Global English version of Mu, a standard cheap import with translations, no boxes and cheap play. I think they're in for a rough surprise from "normal" consumers that grab a box from Best Buy rather than people who play obscure imported Asian games.

The downsides are that it is a grindfest. It's a little more palatable because to me it's more like playing an action game than an RPG. And the sub is cheaper than average ($9).

I got my characters up to 30 and I had a chance to fight a few duels. And while me saying this might make people's heads explode, the PVP is really really a lot of fun, and I'm probably going to play on one of the PK servers. You have three characters to work with and lots of different special abilities with freeze, slow, knockdown, aoe, fire fields, and all sorts of other stuff. Also, because you tend to fight huge mobs of low HP opponents, you hit for far less than a standard PCs hitpoints, plus you have a heal bot, so you can take an awful lot of "normal" hits before you die, so my experience was that fights lasted longer than I've seen in most other games and I was able to turn things around. In addition to dueling and standard random PK stuff, there's also a faction system and guild vs guild fighting over land control in scheduled "colony wars."

I'll stick to my reformed opinion. It's a nifty, original, interesting game.
The monthly fee is a bummer but I guess it could make sense if it means a good, working, stable service.

I think the game at least shows the Asian market might finally move in a promising direction.   It has way more polish and "thinking outside the box" than it's predecessors.  Maybe in a post-WoW world some of them finally get it.

After you get over the stump of understanding its half RTS and learn to use the hotkeys for different characters the combat opens up and you find yourself much more effective than if you played on auto mode.   This seems to make the game much more interesting.  Fighting the first boss shows the potential of such a system.

That said though it's still got too much yucky grind fest going on.  The leveling seems fast enough but who wants to level by grinding mobs anymore?

The concept is good though and easily quells any arguments that restricting players to one Avatar in an MMO is the only right way to do things.

In particular, with PVP games. Every single one seems to get infested by multiboxing and bots, why not just build it in. You can still specialize in support when you party up, but for solo levelling and fighting, you've got everything you need without buying additional accounts.

Tried to buy an account today (19$) to circumvent the 20 levels limit of the free version.
Couldn't.

When I put in my CC info it says "Transaction failed". Apparently lots are having the same issue.

What's worst for a MMORPG than not being able to collect money?

Game didn't get shipped out on time either.

I'm the odd one out, I was able to register online the evening of launch and I haven't had a problem since other than the market workaround.

They have botched up some stuff though. The web programming is simply not there for registration and all that. They've never shipped boxes before and screwed that one up and nobody seems to know when they're coming in or not. In the game they tried to change the names of some of the stances to make them more palatable to Americans and it just caused problems with their database. Frankly, I hope they change them back because it's far easier to find information from other versions if you know the original names. They also had a rollback and have issues with restoring preorder items that were received during that period because they reverted the servers, but not the cash shop. (Which is what is handling the preorder items.)

On the other side of things, the translations are hugely improved. They really did pull off a miracle on that one because they were a disaster and their first pass on fixing them was pathetic. I do wonder if at some point around level 40 or something they will simply run out and be junk though.

Given the resources they have, they seem to be pretty responsive and doing a decent job. But this is really like the kids screaming "Let's decorate the barn and make it an MMO datacenter!" That is ok with a "weird Korean game you download from the web" but it's not for something trying to be a first tier title.

Let us know how the first day or so carries on.   :-)

Would it be possible to play the game with 3 musketeers, or 3 fighters, etc? And would it be soloable, that way?

If you bought enough potions it would be, but you really need a scout as a healbot.

The more I play this the more I like it.

It's Diablo meets Guild Wars meets copious and unexpected amounts of polish (save for the horrendous techno music and the idiotic menus).
The Diablo side is in the loot and in the dungeon carnage feeling. Waves and waves and waves of minions to destroy for your loot 'n grind pleasure.
The Guild Wars side is in the PvP, which is enhanced by the self-team concept, in the beautiful visuals, and in the point 'n click galore, actually expanding the subtle RTS aspect of GW.
Superior to both, the world is actually MMO, not hub-based or instanced at all (save for some boss rooms, which is better).
The amount of overall polish is a real surprise. 

The PVP is hella fun, provided that you can find opponents. I set up some matches with friends (lev 1 chars, or stuff like 1 char vs 1 char, sky is the limit on the PvP options) and it was like the best fun in the last month. Looks like everyone is out there running to level 100 and expanding his/her faimly.
Oh, the family concept is so neat I hope it will be adopted by every future MMORPG. It reminds me of games like Disgaea. It only needs a reincarnation mode and it'll be Nirvana. Alt-a-holics are in heaven already anyway.

It's a repetitive game and it suffers of the same flaws of Diablo and Guild Wars (ie: it can be playes almost completely solo), so no one looks fro groups or stuff to do together. It has its downs, but overall it keeps surprising me. It's worth a look or two (because the first usually gives the wrong impression: "auto-played Lineage 2 clone". That's not the case).

I just downloaded and played for a good spell this evening, and I'm pleasantly suprised, thus far, with some issues here and there.

The good:

Unbelieveably nice artwork and sound. High polish. Nice 'free2play' set up where you can play till level 20 for free. Fun instant game play, mongo loot. Very good performance on my mid-range machine.

The bad:

Poor engrish, but better than most. Hilarious gramatical mistakes in Spanish. Bad explanations on how skill points in skill trees work. Seems like its gonna be grindy, although I'm only level 12. Limitations on character customization and appearances, but miles better than most Asian MMOs.

This game is too complicated for me. I preordered it solely based on the artwork.

I don't understand it. I have less trouble wrapping my brain around the ridiculous math systems of N1 titles.

Artwork? I'm going to buy it based soley on the voice in the trailer.

I'm still enjoying the game, but it really isn't doing much for the reputation of Korean games in the US market. They did a really great job fixing all the Engrish errors in the tutorial voyage, but ran out of time for, well, the entire rest of the game. Virtually everything there is a placeholder they got directly from the Koreans. About the only localization they did was to open the high level premium costumes for beginners. The billing is a mess. My account still doesn't recognize my free month for being a beta tester. People have lost pre-order items when the server and billing systems weren't synced during a revert.

I don't know how long I'll last. To me this is a game that cries out for a cash shop model. I like it, but I'm not sure I can really justify paying ten a month for it in the long term. I'd probably end up spending more $ in the long run if they ran a cash shop.

While not able to really do a lot to help people, they have a very good customer relations team on their message boards. I like the fact that they're not playing "people who call us expletives are valuable customers who we must treat with respect" game.

I appreciate the fact that they are asking 8.95$/month instead of the usual 12-15 bucks. It's like they are conscious of their limits. Plus the whole play for free the first 20 levels is not that bad. I agree 20 levels are nothing, but you could do PvP leagues and PvP tournaments just for free players stuck to lev 20. Easy, nice and fast way to get into "capped" PvP (isn't Guild Wars capped at 20 too, after all? :) ).

Just a note, but Sword of the New World, the US/K2 version, has gone to a free to play with cashshop model. I think it's a pretty good game, but not good enough to pay for, so for me I think this is great.

Interesting. Now if only they would get rid that fucking X-Trap I might keep playing it.

Still have to pay for the box or is there a free download?

Free download.

I am going to guess that they'll have some kind of poison pill coming like the caps on free players in Silk Road or glacial xp with triple XP cards or something. But for now, it's free.

It's double exp through August 28th so levelling is blazing fast at the low levels though the non-PvP server is pretty crowded at the moment so it can be hard to find a good grinding spot.