by Chris Scarbrough, Onrpg writer

Dream Of Mirror is a free to play MMO that takes place in a world alternate to our own. Developed by Softstar, leading brand of Chinese video games industry. The game takes place in the alternate reality known to be inside of the “Kunlun Mirror.” Exceeding numbers over the 400,000 mark in Taiwan alone, I decided to see exactly why this game is so popular.

Storyline
The main storyline is quite good from the very start. While unique, it manages to still maintain the usual RPG storyline feel that we all know and love. You’ll start of in a beginner area with no idea what’s going on. The beginner areas offer things such as beginner quests, where basic things will be explained. From here, you can level up a little to support yourself in the upcoming adventures.

You’ll learn all about the main storyline from the twelve Mirror Kings, rulers of the world in which DOMO takes place. While not physically able to help, they will often guide you often through the main storyline along with the help of other key NPCs. Once you’ve completed the beginning quests of the game, the main storyline will begin to take off. You’ll be given the option of pursuing freedom and peace between humans and monsters, or to uphold the law in all it’s glory. Depending on what path you take, certain things throughout the game will change. Giving this game a wide array of possibilities when it comes to storyline options.

Sadly, the storyline can be a little confusing at times, and the directions on what to do extremely unclear. That’s the only bad part about it.

Gameplay
Considering that the game itself requires one to have -a lot- of friends to enjoy, you’ll need to actively be social and be out and about trying to find yourself a guild and buddies to do things with after about level 25. If you’re not a social person, chances are DOMO is not for you.

In most MMO that are quest oriented the game will quickly wear your will to play down by repeatedly sending you out of your way to do things that really aren’t very relevant to anything in the main storyline itself, much less assist you in building a bond with the characters involved to make you interested. In DOMO, many of the quests available attempt to tell a story about the people involved, regardless of how silly or senseless the story may be.

That having been said, the game as a whole doesn’t revolve very well around the main storyline. I found myself in many situations where I questioned if what I was doing was relevant to anything or if was just something placed there to waste time.

For progression, it’s basically do quests and level up enough so you don’t die miserably whilst trying to do something. As far as actually completing the quests goes, it’s your typical deliver X item to John Doe, or take a bunch of your buddies, go out and kill a monster and return to X with its drops.
Combat is boring and shallow because it consists of clicking the monster and having at it with whatever weapon you have equipped. There’s not really much depth to it.

Customization
DOMO uses a system where leveling up nets you points to use to power up your characters. Once your character is created, the possibilities are endless. Leveling up will net you 3 Stat Points that you can use to power yourself up, and 3 Skill Points that you can use to raise your Job Abilities.

Aside from powering up, theres a Job system, after a certain level, you can choose from one of thirteen professions. Since you can and probably will choose all professions in the end, the amount of customization available for your character is enormous. Always a plus.

On top of ALL that, there’s a relationship system that can give you special abilities and attacks. I wouldn’t go pretending to like someone just for an ability or attack, though.

Sadly, whatever race you end up picking, it’s a purely cosmetic choice. No matter what you pick, your stats, skills and class choices will be the same.

Interface
I felt this was one of the more simplistic areas of the game. Sticking to the usage of hot keys or macros to use your frequently cast spells, commands and items.

Seeing as your Hot Keys only support F1-12, you’ll find yourself in a situation where you simply can’t put all of your necessities at the press of a button eventually.

The menus are located at the bottom left side of the screen, you can hide them or choose to display them for quick access when you might need to change one of your hot key macros on the fly.
The camera itself is the only -big- problem I had with this game. Due to a camera that doesn’t like to move with the characters themselves, and having to use the mouse to change camera angle or view, it was hard to navigate in smaller or enclosed areas, such as caves, dungeons or even shops within the towns.

Communication
The main problem most MMORPG have is that they design their communication systems poorly, making it too complicated or adding too many features that just aren’t needed at all. Thankfully this game, for the most part, has it together. My only problem was I found myself typing when I was trying to move around the maps. Other than that, everything is organized and easy to understand. Thought bubbles for communication between NPCs and PCs, and a chat log for PCs to communicate with other PCs was the route taken in this game.

Aside from your basic text your character can express emotion bubbles depending on the situations they’re in. Incredibly comical most of the time, you’ll be seeing things from sweat bubbles with snide remarks, to confused swirling marks when your character doesn’t understand what’s going on.

Graphics
The ever so popular Anime graphics are implemented yet again in this game – And it’s done quite well! The environment is lush and the characters are smooth. Best of all, lag is minimal, even with multiple objects or people on screen. Even if you’re having lag, the game has the option to turn off PC models.

Music
DOMO unfortunately, doesn’t thrive in the music department. What few music tracks it have are incredibly annoying at times. I muted my sound after about thirty minutes, mainly because none of the music is constantly playing. It would catch me enjoying the silence, surprise me, and make me want to rip my hair out

Extra Game Features
Pets! In DOMO, players are given the chance to raise their own pets from an egg. From the Pet Menu you can set it to give your pet, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of the exp you would otherwise obtain, be it solo or in a party. Right clicking your pet will give you one of six options, Attack, Alert, Follow, Special Skill, Stay, and Recycle. To find out what these commands do, and the different possibilities with a pet, you’ll have to play for yourself!

Seeing as the possibilities for a pet are almost endless, it’s hard to find two pets that are the same. Since pets are a fundamental part of the game, you’ll find yourself leveling and having fun with your pet often.

Pros
– Good storyline
– Good graphics
– Good communication interface
– Original, easy to use menus and hot keys
– In-depth character customization
– In-depth pet raising system

Cons
– Game doesn’t revolve around the main storyline very well
– Annoying camera
– Annoying music
– Mediocre combat system

Personal recommendation
In DOMO’s case, the good outweighs the bad, easily. If you aren’t playing another MMO right now and are looking for one, try this out.

by Joshua Temblett, Onrpg writer

Dofus has had a long life (it was released back in 2005) and stood very proud and tall against the backdrop of the depressing Free to Play market. This title stood as an example of how if you break conventions in a saturated genre, you can still achieve success. Dofus featured tactical battles, a wonderful art style and a lot of depth when it was first released. Does Dofus still hold up against much more developed MMORPGs, or has old age taken its toll against the title?

Dofus’s story is rather unique. Whilst there is not really much story in the game itself, the background to the game is interesting. The tale goes, there was an evil dragon, Balgrot, which came to Amakna. Rykke Errel stood up to the dragon, and because of this the dragon swore loyalty to him. Rykke then feel deeply in love with a young enchantress called Helsephine. Rykke showed the dragon his new found love, but then the dragon got mad and killed Helsephine.

Rykke swore revenge and tried to take down the mighty dragon and he succeeded. However, the battle left him with a very deep wound and he died shortly after the battle. After Rykke’s death the wise men gathered and found six eggs inside the dead dragon’s body, these eggs were called “Dofus”. The wise men tried to keep the eggs away from the rest of the world, however one day they found that the eggs had been stolen. News went out about the theft and everyone began searching for them. And that’s where you come in; you have got to find the six Dofus eggs. As you can tell the story is basic, however it does provide a nice reason to pay for players who feel that they need some sort of motivation in order to play the MMORPG.

Dofus is a 2D MMORPG, however this is definitely not a bad thing. Dofus’s hand drawn graphics are simply amazing to look at. You can see that a lot of effort and time has gone into the very artistic looking backgrounds which, whilst they may be still and unmoving, can be utterly jaw breaking when you get to certain places in the game. The avatars you control don’t really compare with the beautiful backgrounds, however they suit the game with their slightly anime feel and their fluent and entertaining animations. The sounds are also well done, despite being “midis”, most of them are chirpy and upbeat compositions however there isn’t any truly inspiration music in here but it does achieve its job and represents the game’s world very well.

Gameplay
Gameplay wise, Dofus is brilliant. There is a lot to do, with the crafting system being particularly fun. The battles are tactical and definitely one of the strongest points of the game. The battles are turn based grid battles, with each character taking turns to move and then attack. The battle system works well and suits the game. The only problem is that anyone can attack you during battles, which might become a bit of a problem if you do enjoy PVE and really do not like the PVP aspect of games.

Despite that though the game works well and is generally fun to play and with a whole host of classes available there is something for everyone and not only are there a lot of classes there are also plenty of skills for your character to learn. Quests do however seem a tad unrewarding at times and sometimes you can find yourself confused about what to do next (this could be due to the huge scale of things available , which can become a bit overwhelming), however when you do know where you are going the game is incredibly fun.

Dungeons are definitely the highlight of this game which of course is because of the fluid and original battle system. Nothing can beat joining a big party and taking down a hoard of enemies.
Whilst the core gameplay is fun the community that plays beside you is less so and overall ruins the general experience. There are a lot of annoying idiots in this game, and that is polite vast understatement. Players will sometimes attack you during battle for no reason no matter what class you are, and yes even if you are a healer.

The community is particularly mean on the free server available and during the starter sections, and whilst there are some nice players among this mess of a community, the game is full up of people whom really do not have anything better to do than ruin your experience and unfortunately there is no way to ignore these people as they will pop up everywhere. The community can either make or break a game, and in this case it breaks the title. Never before have I seen such a bad gathering of players. I must warn you, be prepared for the worst when playing this game.

Dofus is unfortunate, it’s a title with a very strong core and features addictive gameplay, good design and artwork however the community makes this game experience less fun and more annoying as you’ll constantly be bombarded with wave upon wave of imbeciles who will vastly affect just how much fun with you have with this game. Despite its pitfall that is the populace, I definitely recommend that you try this title just so that you can evaluate your own stance on MMORPGs and because the core gameplay is so well glued together it would be a shame to miss out.

You will need to pay to play if you want to experience much of what this title has to offer, however there is a free to play section which allows you to decide whether or not this game is your cup of tea. No matter how you find it, playing this game is an experience (be it positive or negative) and can really put things in perspective for you.
A must play.

Legend of Ares Online is a free-to-play MMORPG by MGAME, an Asian company hoping to make headway in the US marketplace of games. It has many interesting features available, and although different, will seem slightly familiar to anyone who has ever played Runescape. It is also a game that, like its name hints at, is all about the warfare. The storyline, and the entire game, revolves around two nations that are in perpetual warfare and there is really no way to avoid it.

Gameplay
Legend of Ares has four distinct classes you can pick when you begin playing: Knight, Archer, Sorcerer, and Spearman. Each class has a distinctive spot, whether you’re talking about PvE or PvP, and the jobs are much more differentiated than jobs in many other games.

Legend of Ares is also very PvP based, and the entire endgame revolves around this. You aim to join a guild, and just do large involved PvP fights against guilds formed from the other nation. There are a few zones that you are unable to be attacked in, but in the vast majority of zones, you simply cannot avoid being attacked by even large groups of people from the other nation unless you’re involved in a guild that can help protect you. This gives the game a very ‘sink or swim’ mentality where if you don’t really enjoy PvP, you won’t like this game.

MGAME also included a feature in Legend of Ares where you can purchase in-game items and currency with real money to smooth the way to reaching endgame and jumping right into the action. Items for the game range anywhere from $1.80USD to $27.00USD for the more elite items.

In the past also, Legend of Ares has had many problems with hackers and bots and item duplicators. There have been many purges attempting to rid the game completely of these bottom-feeders, but unfortunately there are still a few hanging around in the game with hacked stats and gear. It is simply something that has to be endured in this game.

Graphics
Legend of Ares has a lighter, more colorful look than many other MMOs. Everything is set in earth tones with no blindingly bright blues or reds, and they use many (very well done) different shades in a well-lit background to keep everything from looking drab. The actual graphics themselves are decent, although not as crisp as you would expect for a game as new as Legend of Ares is.

The character customization isn’t very detailed either. Every job has the same character models, and until you reach a higher level to get fancier gear to separate you from everyone else, you look pretty much the same as every other person you run across. Even the men and women models look so closely related that they could even be fraternal twins.

Summary

Legend of Ares is a solid game to immerse yourself into and spend a good bit of time playing, if you’re a person that enjoys large group PvP. There is really absolutely no way to avoid being involved in PvP unless you simply never leave the beginner towns, and the PvE leaves much to be desired.

Pros
– Solid look in-game.
– Very nice music and sound in-game.
– Good class separation.

Cons
– Too little content for people not interested for PvP
– Graphics aren’t as crisp as you would expect