more thoughts on archeage cbt4 (us version)
1. Plot/Lore: Now that I've gotten further into the game/finished the storyline with various characters (I made two opposite faction humans and an elf and spoiled myself on youtube wrt catpeople), I really like the lore -- don't care for what we know so far about the villain's motivations (Harani side has the best take on it though for the record), but in theory I really really love the corrupted hero trope and the things they've done with the pantheon (and world portals). A lot of it is stuff I mean to play with someday in my own writing so it's interesting to see a different take on it.
That said, the main plotline(s) are very Korean-drama-y (seriously, you'll know exactly what I mean), but I don't mean that in a bad way. Certainly more entertaining than the typical fantasy MMO plot. (It shares this aspect with Vindictus/Mabinogi*, actually, though Vindi/Mabi are less "Korean" LOL [still sorta is but].)
That said, the main story quest chain right now is very very short for an MMO (ends officially at lvl 30, though I finished them as early as 25-26 or so). But I do have high hopes that there will be more plot material in future expansions (even though I understand why they stopped where they stopped, because it's very much a "now you make your own story" setup), as the game is still relatively young and it feels like there's so much potential.
* the game very much reminds me of Mabinogi but with better graphics. :P
2. Localization: Trion's localization is VERY good. (I'm still furious about Age of Wushu cutting corners on the translation while Wulin got a nice translation. OK, furious is probably overstating it. But still.) The voice acting is also very nice -- although I find the Firran narrator really obnoxious with her fake accent. (I'd say Harani > Nuian > Elf > Firran)
3. (Starting) Factions: The elves are more interesting than typical fantasy elves. Both human factions are excellent (put their own spin on tired tropes), and the catpeople are decently interesting (I hate beastpeople "races" as a rule -- especially when they're almost always pseudo-aboriginal, or as in this case, basically fantasy Mongolian -- but these are tolerable. Like I said, the writing is strong to begin with, and is helped along by very solid localization)
4. Community: Not terribly fond of the community right now, but the only not-shitty MMO community I've ever been in is probably Atlantica Online (Vindictus is fine too I guess, but it's much less of a community-oriented game). But this is probably a) a server thing, b) a CBT thing, as it's not overwhelmingly shitty (individual encounters have all been pleasant so far, but faction chat....) and I've heard good things about certain servers.
5. Misc Gameplay: mounts/pets galore (NOT cash shop only), ships (both on sea and in sky), and gliders. What more could you ask for? :P
Crafting apparently sucks right now due to economy issues, but I'm not a crafter so whatever.
You can also farm and fish and do all sorts of other stuff anyway so~~ (The game is truly sandboxy despite the linear questing*.) I did not get far enough to build ships/houses/whatever, though I do have a rowboat and a glider. :')
What I love most so far though in the early levels is the class system. The way it works is there are 10 different skill sets -- and you can combine 3 at a time whenever you want (making for a total of 120 "unique" classes), and wear whatever you want, and use whatever weapons you want. I've been playing a bard/healer/cc hybrid, a magetank, and a stealthy archer/swordsperson type, and they're all really fun. (Magetank is my favorite though, surprisingly, though I also enjoy trolling around on my bard. I normally don't like playing mages, but it's SO hilarious watching my dude slowly fireball things to death while they do little or no damage to him. HAHAHA.)
* the quest design actually is really impressive. I think the repetitive nature of questing is unavoidable to be honest, but what Archeage really does right is the quest flow. There is pretty much no irritating backtracking at all, so questing goes by really quickly and directs you very smoothly across the map.
6. MUSIC.
This is my favorite track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEpxDLTCXr4
But the entire OST is really wonderful. There are more tracks at the official site (Royal Procession is my favorite there): http://archeage.xlgames.com/en
- - -
NOTE: Some of my textures are still bugged and I was still experimenting with graphics settings
comments at the original Dreamwidth post
That said, the main plotline(s) are very Korean-drama-y (seriously, you'll know exactly what I mean), but I don't mean that in a bad way. Certainly more entertaining than the typical fantasy MMO plot. (It shares this aspect with Vindictus/Mabinogi*, actually, though Vindi/Mabi are less "Korean" LOL [still sorta is but].)
That said, the main story quest chain right now is very very short for an MMO (ends officially at lvl 30, though I finished them as early as 25-26 or so). But I do have high hopes that there will be more plot material in future expansions (even though I understand why they stopped where they stopped, because it's very much a "now you make your own story" setup), as the game is still relatively young and it feels like there's so much potential.
* the game very much reminds me of Mabinogi but with better graphics. :P
2. Localization: Trion's localization is VERY good. (I'm still furious about Age of Wushu cutting corners on the translation while Wulin got a nice translation. OK, furious is probably overstating it. But still.) The voice acting is also very nice -- although I find the Firran narrator really obnoxious with her fake accent. (I'd say Harani > Nuian > Elf > Firran)
3. (Starting) Factions: The elves are more interesting than typical fantasy elves. Both human factions are excellent (put their own spin on tired tropes), and the catpeople are decently interesting (I hate beastpeople "races" as a rule -- especially when they're almost always pseudo-aboriginal, or as in this case, basically fantasy Mongolian -- but these are tolerable. Like I said, the writing is strong to begin with, and is helped along by very solid localization)
4. Community: Not terribly fond of the community right now, but the only not-shitty MMO community I've ever been in is probably Atlantica Online (Vindictus is fine too I guess, but it's much less of a community-oriented game). But this is probably a) a server thing, b) a CBT thing, as it's not overwhelmingly shitty (individual encounters have all been pleasant so far, but faction chat....) and I've heard good things about certain servers.
5. Misc Gameplay: mounts/pets galore (NOT cash shop only), ships (both on sea and in sky), and gliders. What more could you ask for? :P
Crafting apparently sucks right now due to economy issues, but I'm not a crafter so whatever.
You can also farm and fish and do all sorts of other stuff anyway so~~ (The game is truly sandboxy despite the linear questing*.) I did not get far enough to build ships/houses/whatever, though I do have a rowboat and a glider. :')
What I love most so far though in the early levels is the class system. The way it works is there are 10 different skill sets -- and you can combine 3 at a time whenever you want (making for a total of 120 "unique" classes), and wear whatever you want, and use whatever weapons you want. I've been playing a bard/healer/cc hybrid, a magetank, and a stealthy archer/swordsperson type, and they're all really fun. (Magetank is my favorite though, surprisingly, though I also enjoy trolling around on my bard. I normally don't like playing mages, but it's SO hilarious watching my dude slowly fireball things to death while they do little or no damage to him. HAHAHA.)
* the quest design actually is really impressive. I think the repetitive nature of questing is unavoidable to be honest, but what Archeage really does right is the quest flow. There is pretty much no irritating backtracking at all, so questing goes by really quickly and directs you very smoothly across the map.
6. MUSIC.
This is my favorite track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEpxDLTCXr4
But the entire OST is really wonderful. There are more tracks at the official site (Royal Procession is my favorite there): http://archeage.xlgames.com/en
- - -
NOTE: Some of my textures are still bugged and I was still experimenting with graphics settings
comments at the original Dreamwidth post