Shaiya Review: Light Vs Dark

By Jeffrey Kerkdijk (Hyarume), Onrpg writer

Shaiya Online is a MMORPG developed by  Asian company Sonov Entertainment, and published by Aeria Games. Shaiya features two factions to join, six classes, and  gameplay which relies on teamwork. Shaiya is a game that is played by a lot of people all over the world.

Let’s start out!

The basic story behind the game is that there was one goddess long ago and she was split into two sides. One light and one darkness.

The first thing you notice when you log into Shaiya is that you will have choose between two factions. You can pick either the country of light or the country of the fury. The country of the light has the Human race and the Elf race and the fury side has their Vail en the Nordain races. The Nordain race is also known as the Death eaters.

Every race has its own appearance and all of the playable races can be male or female they all have several customization options. You can change the hairstyle, eyes, facial features and height of all the races.

Both sides have the same classes to choice from although they have different names. But when it comes to creating your character Shaiya has a new thing for you! Difficulty modes. You have the easy mode and normal mode available at your first play. You can unlock two more modes: hard and ultimate.

Easy mode gives you the fastest experience rate to level but you won’t get any special skills and you cannot level further than level 30. Normal mode gives you a lower experience rate than Easy mode does, you will get more skills than you do on easy mode, But not all of them. However, with normal mode you can level to the maximum level which is 60.

Hard mode can be unlocked when you hit level 40 on a normal mode character. You will get the exclusive hard mode skills, but not the exclusive ultimate mode skills. Experience rate this time again is lower than on normal mode. And you get seven stat points every level, instead of five.

And after having reached level 40 on hard mode, the final mode is unlocked ultimate mode. This mode gives you all the skills in the game, and is really hard to level and this time you get nine stat points every level. But there is a catch: if you die you must be resurrected within three minutes; this can be done with a cash shop item or with a priest/oracles spell. If you don’t get resurrected within these three minutes your character will be deleted permanently.

I think that this is an interesting concept for an MMORPG as it does add a lot of replay value to the game. But I also think that this can be a bit overwhelming also it can be a game you simply don’t want to get into because of it.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Shaiya Online is like an  console-action game mixed with a  MMORPG, with smooth WASD the ability to jump over and on things and combat that can get pretty intense. Quests aren’t much different from other MMORPGs on the market. This means you have the talk/kill quests here as well. Combat is amazing, it seems like there  is little or no delay when you are in combat and everything seems to work fluently. You can even dodge attacks by sidestepping!

There is an armor and weapon upgrade system in the game, you can get mounts to ride on as well. These mounts will make moving around a lot easier.

There are challenges in the game that you can’t do on your own, you do them in groups. A typical tank, healer, damage dealer setup is used most of the time. Also some of these challenges require some serious tactics.

The borderlands

The borderlands are lands that both opposing factions share, the faction of light and fury. Since you are enemies, you can attack all players from your opposing faction within that area. This will mean that in those areas you can PvPvE. (player versus player versus environment) This adds a lot of depth to the game, and makes playing it much more exiting.

You can also dual with other players, just for fun! You can dual against any character from your own faction all you need to do is select the player and select dual. Then you and the other player can fight against each other to see who is the strongest or to see who has the best tactic to win.

Visuals and sound

Shaiya looks great the character models look nice, the animations look awesome, and the atmosphere in the game is great. The game world looks detailed and has a lot of variation, monsters look different from what you see in most MMORPGs. It looks great.

Another thing noticeable is the sound of the game, the music in the game adds a lot to the feeling of a fantasy world when you are playing the game. When you discover a new place you will hear some new music. It really feels good when you are playing it. I can’t imagine playing the game without its music. It would not be the same.

Personal recommendation

Shaiya online is a great online game, the difficulty modes add a lot of depth and replay value to the game. The quests in the game are just like other MMORPGs, they aren’t really renewing. There is little story to the game.

The borderlands are lands where PvP is enabled, you can only attack players from the faction that you oppose. But it is a fun way of engaging in PvP while you can continue to play PvE. In these lands you can PvPvE.

If you are looking for an MMORPG with a great combat system. Look no further Shaiya is a game for you!

Pros:
- Difficulty modes
- PvPvE
- Great combat system
- Graphics and sound
- Mounts

Cons:
- Difficulty modes
- chance to lose a character for good in ultimate mode.