Luna Online Review: Oh They’re So Cute
By Kei Beneza (dividelife), OnRPG Journalist

When it comes to having the cutesy characters, nothing comes close to the cuteness factor of Luna Online. Big eyed cell shaded anime characters, petite build; it’s like a whole world of chibified (small dimension) characters ready to kill you with their jolly smiles. Luna Online has a certain charm that no other MMO could mimic. I know we’ve seen tons of big eyed MMOs but this game just has everything going for it.

Lune online is all about meeting new people online as well as fighting alongside them in order to overcome the hardest obstacles. You could say that the game lets players focus more on their social status rather than the game itself. There’s nothing bad with that concept, considering that this is an MMORPG after all. And what better way to role play than to actually use your character to converse and make new allies?

Starting Up

I was a bit disappointed after seeing only two races in the character creation screen. You’re basically supposed to choose between Human and Elf which are only separated by their future class types. There are no racial abilities and both races start up with the same three archetypes (Fighter, Mage, Rogue). Aside from their appearances, the only thing that separates these two races would be their stats upon starting the game Worry not because these classes tend to go separate ways as you progress in the game.

Absolute Pinnacle of Cuteness

The game has a lot of classes to choose from (40+ at the most) once you reach their designated level. Some of the classes are exclusive to each race so you shouldn’t really worry about them being the same. After picking your hair style and eye color, it’s time to start playing.

The Game Actually Helps Us!

Unlike most MMOs, Luna Online is quite charitable with gears and necessities. After going through some tough leveling, the game actually rewards you with a bunch of items that can be acquired through some sort of reward box. This is actually a good feature since MMOs are starting to feel like work nowadays.

Come Here, Honey

If you’re looking for a romantic activity for you and your date then you’d probably want to consider going out to kill monsters with her (works for me LOL). The dating system lets players pair up with other characters who share their likes and dislikes. It’s more or less a virtual blind date but it does have its merits. Dating is one way of getting good gear as this feature lets virtual couples access the game’s special instances. These instances give tons of special stuff so you might want to consider getting a date as this instance is reserved for couples only. Think of it as a free class A restaurant that’s only available for dating couples (what are you waiting for?).

Start a Farm Together

Grab em’ Kids! We Be Steadyin’ Up Da Farm

After you enjoy raiding instances with your loved one, you might want to consider making a farm since it provides a nice set of items for you and your family. Having a family is the same as having a guild, letting you duke it out with enemy guilds (Families) as well as benefit from having to own your own farm. Farms are exclusive only to families and require a hefty maintenance fee. It’s not meant to discourage you really, farms are quite important and could help you make your character better (not to mention richer).

Character Development

The game respects the traditional Stat system which is quite similar to that of Ragnarok online and Fiesta. There are five main stats to choose from which makes the game even harder as each level gained only offers you 1 point to distribute. Worry not, for a single point does make a lot of difference in terms of your character’s performance.

The game also lets you craft items (what’s new?) for your character to wield. Although as troublesome as most crafting systems, it always pays to have better gear. Why bother buying and purchasing items if you can make your own kickarse one right?

Craft Your Own Gear

One thing that most MMOs don’t have is the Fishing System. You might be familiar with this gimmick after playing games like Dekaron and World of Warcraft; however, fishing in this game gives you something else other than money. FP or Fish Points as they call it lets you purchase rare items like gear and consumables. Fishing is a boring hobby, but if it gives you better items then why not?

Graphics and Gameplay

Starting off with the game’s control scheme, Luna online uses the point and click system which is a bit outdated in today’s MMO Meta. You basically have to click on your target while pressing the number keys to execute your skills. Since the game doesn’t feature that many obstructions, the click and point system is greatly accepted. You’ll be surprised at how competitive this game is despite the user friendly controls.

The graphics are composed of cellshaded characters that blend well with their bright and colorful background. Since the game is all about cutesy characters, there’s no reason to add much detail to the structures (as well as trees). The interface is pretty much a buffed up Ragnarok Online, with a hotkey bar, upper left status bar, and a trusty map box. Most of the NPCs have anime portraits as well but are currently a bit too sexy compared to their “chibified” in game models.

The Verdict

Is it worth playing? Damn hell it is! The game is pretty awesome when it comes to character development as it lets you pick between an array of 40 classes (no need to ask for more right?). Hybrid builds are strongly discouraged as the stronger skills cannot be unlocked while sharing other class skills. Your best bet would be to head on a linear path in order to compliment your character’s original playstyle. Graphics are dated but still acceptable. Even though they’re nothing but cellshaded characters, I don’t see the reason why we should improve the game’s graphics any further.

The dating system is quite fun although I’ll have to agree with some speculations regarding other men making female characters. You better be careful since your soulmate may actually be of the same gender. There’s a lot of things to do and it doesn’t look like you’re about to run out of tasks any time soon. Cute and fun, this game is a must try.

Pros:
– It’s extremely cute
– Instances
– Lots of fun things to do (Fishing, etc.) with tons of good rewards
– The game doesn’t burn labor out of you.
– 40 classes man… what more could you ask for?

Cons:
– Outdated controls
– Lack of hybrid building
– Everyone starts off with the same 3 classes
– Needs more character creation features.

Runes of Magic Review: Most Solid Among MMORPGs
By Joshua Temblett (Dontkillmydreams), OnRPG Journalist 

As a gamer, familiarity is something that you’ll either love or horribly despise; this particularly applies to MMORPGs. How you feel about the genre and its lack of evolution throughout the years will deeply impact your perception of Runes of Magic (RoM), and whether or not the entertainment it provides is something you’ll actively seek or run away from. Finding out if this MMO game is for you, unfortunately, will require you to go through a lot of hoops. Is it worth it?

Getting Into The Game

The registration process on the official Runes of Magic website is quick and easy, but the downloading process can be a long one. If you have an internet speed which is as quick as an Olympic runner this won’t apply so much, but if you lack a fast connection then just be warned that it will take a long time to actually be able to play the game. It took nearly all day for me to download the client and to then install the patches. Of course patience is the key, however just be aware that it may be a while before you can jump into the world of Taborea and experience its riches.

After you’ve logged into the game and begin to create your own character, you’ll be welcomed by a huge array of customisation options. You’ll be able to adjust a lot of features whilst creating your character, most remarkably you’ll be able to change the size of your character’s breasts. Hopefully I don’t have to elaborate any further about how great the character creator is.

Visual Masterpiece?

Before we dive into the gameplay, let’s take just a moment to talk about the visual approach the developers (Runewalker) have taken to Runes of Magic (obviously they like runes a lot). The game has been somewhat criticised for looking a lot like World of Warcraft. Whilst the look may put some off, the developers have really done a great job by making the world look beautifully appealing. 

Appealing Visuals

Although shadows are pixelated and character animations are horrible and un-synced, the game pulls off a cartoony visual style that really suits the world the developers are trying to create and portray. The game’s architecture looks particularly stunning as it takes on an medieval/renaissance/fantasy look, which is very visually appealing. The visuals certainly make up for many of Runes of Magic’s technical flaws. The landscapes you’ll explore will look barren and generic for a fantasy game; however the truly beautiful cities are something to be admired. 

You’ve Got A Friend In Me

Runes of Magic is surrounded by controversy, much to do with the running of the game by the admins and because it looks like World of Warcraft. Despite these issues more than two million people have created an account and played this game. This shows in the forums and in game as you will see plenty of people running around, leveling up and chatting to each other. A strong community builds a solid foundation for any MMO.

As with any online game as it can be hard to become accepted within the community and truly enjoy the experience. Runes of Magic doesn’t break this formula, but once you take the plunge, you’ll never regret it.

How Does It Play?

Once you get into the game you’ll encounter a load of similarities with many other MMORPGs, which gives it a high level of familiarity and ease to get into. Everything is where you would expect it to be. Whether or not this is a good thing is completely dependent on your tastes, for you see as soon as you enter Runes of Magic you’ll either cringe in disgust or happily clap your hands.

Allow me to explain. If you’ve played a modern MMORPG then you’ve played Runes of Magic. Perhaps I’m not giving the game enough merit and just classifying it as an unoriginal, uninspiring piece of interactive entertainment, when really that’s not the case. You see, what the developers have done is taken ideas and features from other MMORPGs, most of them Pay to Play, and have skilfully implemented them into Runes of Magic. This means you’ve got a game that can easily outdo other games in the Free to Play market, whilst at the same time being slightly better than some of the P2P titles available.

Runes of Magic Class Change Options

Features such as houses and class changes (to your secondary class) make an appearance in Runes of Magic, all of which work very well and are all designed to accommodate your hopefully long stay in the game’s universe. Of course, you can put a whole bounty of features in a MMORPG, however if the gameplay is somewhat lacking then surely that eradicates the purpose of such things. Unfortunately, this is where Runes of Magic slightly slips up.

Before I go any further into the matter, I just want to say that if you’re looking for a solid MMORPG experience, then Runes of Magic will suit your taste. The WASD controls work perfectly and the battle system is substantial (if not generic) and enables you to quickly and efficiently deal with any monster that you come across. You promptly gain new skills, although some of them do feel slightly worthless or similar to others, which will always give you an incentive to level up. The skill bar is adeptly positioned, at the bottom of the screen, to suit your array of spells and the HUD is nice and clean.

The problem is that whilst the gameplay is concrete, the design simply doesn’t support it and emphasises its lack of evolution as you progress through the game. What this essentially amounts to is a long grind that may completely discourage you from the game after the first few levels. In fact after roughly the seventh or eighth level you’ll suddenly encounter a lack of experience points from quests and monsters that may completely put you off. Again, this fits in the general MMORPG class, but I was hoping for more.

To put it simply, leveling in Runes of Magic is a routine. You’ll pick up the quests from a town, or a camp or wherever else there’s congregation of NPCs, go out into the map, kill monsters, talk to another NPC or fetch some sort of item. You’ll then return to said town, trade in your quests and gain a minimal amount of experience points. What really doesn’t help is that even though you’ll only spend about an hour or so completing the quests, it’ll feel like you’ve been doing the same monotonous chore for hours.

That’s what the quests are: they’re chores, and the lack of variety in them doesn’t really help. So whilst you’ve got a solid game that plays well, it’s designed in such a way to only offer you a time sink. For people looking to also kill some time in a good looking environment, that could work. You’ll spend ten levels in one map, doing the same old quests and fighting the same old monsters, then after you’ve hit the appropriate level, you’ll move on to another map and so forth. Runes of Magic’s cash shop items don’t really do anything to alleviate the grind. Whilst the offerings in the cash shop are quite cool, you can buy mounts, pets, items for your house, whether you’ll find yourself truly invested in the game to want to buy them is another question entirely. So they haven’t allowed the cash shop items to unbalance the game, but some questing or leveling options might have been nice.

I personally could not deal with this constant cycle as the motivation Runes of Magic provided wasn’t enough for me to continue struggling through the flawed game design. However, it may well be a completely different experience for you. Next to that, the higher levels offer new content as well. If you and your friends are looking for a solid game to play, then really you couldn’t go wrong with this one as having some companions along will definitely increase the fun factor. 

Fun is in the challenges you face together

Conclusion

To summarise, if you’re looking for something unique then Runes of Magic won’t appeal to you. If you’re looking for an appealing, generic MMORPG, then you need not look any further. It completely depends on what you’re looking for in your online fix. If you’re wondering about trying it, in my honest opinion, you should download it (unless you deeply hate the familiar) as you’ll quickly find out whether or not it’s your cup of tea. 

Pros:
– Solid gameplay
– Beautiful cities
– Large community.

Cons:
– Repetitive
– Technically inferior graphics
– Game Design.