Holybeast Review: Unleash The Beast!
By Jason Gallienne (Jrgsubzero), OnRPG Journalist
First, let me tell you the basics. This game uses the point-and-click method of movement and there is no WASD movement. You start off choosing an animal race, which include Bird, Monkey, Dog, Buffalo, Tiger and Dragon. Each race offers different strengths and available classes. For example, Dragon excels in magic and can be one of the three mage classes while a Dog can only be one. Combat is your basic target and use skills deal but leveling is more quest-based than most free-to-play games.
When you first begin your adventure, you’ll be in your animal form. But not to worry, you didn’t customize your character for no reason! After a few tutorial quests and a scuffle with the local monsters you’ll be transformed into a human again along with the ability to switch between the two forms at will. Your beast form evolves as you level as well, increasing your stats. After a few more levels you will be able to take an easy quest that turns you into the class of your choice. You will notice a RP meter where your health and mana is. This allows you to berserk while in beast form, which gives you a limited but large boost to certain stats depending on which berserk you use.
Out in the Wild
So, now that you know the basics here are some features you’ll need to know about to be successful in the game. First let’s go over the refining system. During your adventures you may find fragments of an item. Once you collect 10 of these fragments you may take them to a Fragment smelter in town and have him turn it into the item the fragments are made of. In addition to that, you may add clovers to increase the success rate. Next the appraisal system is pretty simple. If you find a non-appraised item take it to the appraisal NPC and for a fee he will appraise it for you. These items have a better chance of either being enhanced or being able to be enhanced. Now you probably want to know about the enhancement system. If you find a jewel and have equipment that can be enhanced, take it to the Enhancer NPC and he will attempt to enhance for you. Just like with the fragment system, you can use a clover to increase the success rate.
You may also have a pet but not only is it a companion it can also fight alongside you. Divine Essence is the first form of your pet and it just follows you around but when you evolve it into a second generation pet it can fight and speak. In order to do this you’ll need a pet card and take that along with the Divine Essence to the pet manager. Don’t worry, your pet won’t be an uncontrolled beast, you have a command bar and you can put it on certain behaviors. If your pet is on aggressive mode it will attack any monster it can get its appendages on. When in guard mode your pet will only attack monsters you’re currently fighting. And lastly, when on follow mode it will just keep you company. In addition to all that, a second generation pet will also pick up money and items for you. As your pet battles alongside you it will gain fairy points. Once these points are maxed out and you have found an enhancement card, you make take them to the pet manager and she’ll do the rest. Also, note that your pet can only be enhanced twice. Now if you happen to get two +2 enhanced pets, you may fuse them together to get a third generation pet!
Once you get to level 60 you may start getting talents. You unlock the first row of talents known as the sage class, at 75 the legend class, and 90 the myth class. In order to get talent points you must trade in your experience points. You may have a max of 18 talents and they have various effects such as increasing strength, health points, etc.
As you get that high in level you may also want to check out the Phantasmal Castle. It’s basically a dungeon where the deeper you go the harder the monsters get. Each level has three warp gates which take you to a different floor as well as one in the middle of the room that takes you to a boss. You can obtain weapons and armor here which range from level 50 items to level 100.
And once you’re high level and equipped with nice gear you may want to test your mettle in the Beast Battles. You must go to either Seraphim Tower or Hallowed Tower to enter the battle. You may only be in a party with your own guild members and you may only attack opposing guilds so if you’re solo it’s you against everyone else. If you win the battle you will get Battle Merit Points which come in either Guild or Solo flavors. The guilds and characters who have the most points every week will be displayed on the battle board at the main town.
The Litter Box
With every game comes its problems and here are the ones that bugged me. The game isn’t perfectly translated which caused me to re-read some things several times before I understood it. The community, which is friendly, has quite a few non-native English speakers. The map is cluttered with huge text and is, in my opinion, ugly. The graphics are stylized but show serious age and the font used is very boring.
Overview
That concludes my review for Holy Beast and I hope it informed you of the game’s mechanics. If you’re looking for a game where your race is an animal and you can choose between animal and human form, then you’ll be hard pressed to find any other game than this one. Holy Beast has a unique cover but you’ll find many of the same old things inside the book.
Pros:
– Unique beast form system
– Friendly community
– Many events
Cons:
– Translation leaves much to be desired
– Aged graphics
