Monthly Archives: June 2010

Blade of Eternity

Blade of Eternity (BoE) is a brand new text-based MMORPG. It is set in a fantasy realm and offers players many unique and dynamic character progressions. Engage in ruthless battles or defend incoming attacks in a world where combat not only proves your self-worth, but also gains respect and strikes fear into your enemies hearts.

 

Blade of Eternity offers players various PVE aspects, such as quests, skills, crafting. The main conflict is resolved through PVP, which can be done individually, or in clans. Blade of Eternity also features strong online social interaction with players via forums, messaging and chat. Other features include, customizable profiles, mini-games, statistics and a helpful and friendly staff.

 

Do you have what it takes to survive in the world of Blade of Eternity?

The Warlord Online Review: The ‘Massively’ in MMO

The Warlord Online Review: The ‘Massively’ in MMO
By Kei Beneza (dividelife), OnRPG Journalist

 

If you’re looking for an MMO that actually serves its MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER purpose, then The Warlords online is the game for you. The game concentrates on the world of Ancient China. Some historical facts are detailed in the storyline as well, but much like other Asian MMO games, the story is poorly implemented. You’re technically stuck in one moment in time and the only progression in the story you will ever see is your character reaching a higher level. If however you’re that interested in learning the in game lore, everything you need to know is jotted down in the game’s website. The game does revolve around action so I suppose putting in an ingame storyline would change the whole feel of the game, so technically it’s a casual non-lore-heavy MMO game.

 

TQ Digital is well known for releasing famous MMORPGs, and this game is no different when it comes to success. The game has a large player base and a good community that keeps players from leaving the game which is perhaps one of the most important parts in any MMO. The Warlord Online is one of the most basic MMOs in the market with a learning curve that can be played by amateurs and first time MMO players. The game being “Newbie friendly” as you may call it is not really such a bad thing to begin with. It may lack a lot of technicalities which may disappoint hardcore gamers but it’s always good to have an MMO that most people can enjoy.

 

Starting up

Starting up in Warlord Online may come as a big disappointment to experienced players. The character creation interface is quite poor, with a small array of features to help you customize your character’s physique. The game offers two classes to choose from (two? No shi–), this is perhaps one of the biggest disappointments in the game. After picking your gender, you will be prompted to pick your class. The only thing that differentiates each class from the other is their form of attack. Footmen are masters of close combat (especially since they’re the only close combatants in the game)and the archers/marksmen are blessed with long ranged damage but greatly rely on arrows that must be restocked before embarking on your journey. There are 2 factions in the game: Soldier and Thief/Bandit. Note that the two factions don’t differ when it comes to playstyle so a random pick wouldn’t hurt at all (that is unless your friends decide to play on the same faction).

 

Warlords SHowing
A random day in The Warlords

 

Further customization?

Other than stronger armor and weapon mastery, nothing separates you from the linearity of each class. There are certain weapons in the game that make you look different but the object of each is no different from the others. Some weapons are actually stronger than the rest (regardless of its item level), making it more than likely for people to end up choosing the same thing. You can also use other skills to make yourself SEEM different, but I suppose the Ancient Chinese army has no plans of letting you be different from the others (LOL). What separates you from the others? You don’t have character sheets to customize, so may the guy with the best armor win.

 

Bane of leveling

The game has a high level cap (120+ or something) and you may think that this is the game’s way of separating individuals but it’s not. Unlike other games, a small level gap may not serve that much of a difference. You can still lose to people who are lower than your level, so always make sure that you have everything on when dealing with other players. After grinding for a long time, you’d think that you’re getting stronger by the minute. I hate to burst your bubble but you’ll only feel that difference in power after leveling up 5 times. A hard goal to deal with as the game makes reaching new levels more difficult after a short period ofgrinding.

 

Note: You can even be killed by players 10 times LOWER than your level

 

OHNOES!11!1 is there any way to level faster?

Tip: if you’ve started to experience the game’s unforgiving exp rate, believe me when I say that you do INDEED have a long way ahead of you. The best way to quicken your pace would be to do quests. The game does have a lot of quests which reward well, so ALWAYS do quests… unless you want to waste your gold buying sucky items.

 

The Warlords Lineup
Lined up against enemies

 

Open PVP

Since the newbies pretty much have all the fun when it comes to character development, hardcore gamers can take charge of the Open PVP feature. You can kill enemy players at any given time so go ahead and enjoy your tier whoring. Other players may hate this feature, but the persistent PVP trait greatly emphasizes the war-based setting. They could however make a non-PVP server but that wouldn’t do you much good now would it?

 

Dragon ball Z?!

Nothing says IMBALANCED like the power brought by XP skills. To be short, XP skills are IMBALANCED skills that can kill players and monsters that are hmm… TONS OF LEVELS higher than you (yeah, I know right?). Executing these skills is as simple as pushing the GET FURIOUS button that appears every time your XP skill finishes its cool down. No, these skills don’t have long arse cool downs like your hearthstone to Undercity… These things only take a mere 10 mins to cool down. IMBALANCED I know, but I suppose it’s a good way for people to stop being tier whores and start focusing on strategy. KAME…. HAME…. HAAAAAAA!!!

 

Light Up
Light up your energy balls

 

The graphics

Oh! The graphic are amazing believe me. The game has a lot of diverse areas with awesome visuals that completely make the terrain breathtaking. There are also special effects that swirl around when you execute skills, making it look awesome even if you were the one taking damage. Weather effects such as snow look terrific as well, increasing the ambience as you transfer from one area to another.

 

The verdict

It’s an awesome game! Quite basic and newbie-like but the game does have a lot of things to make people enjoy. The graphics are good so visual addicts are sure to enjoy themselves. The Open PVP is awesome as well, making the game quite competitive for hardcore players. There are various PK events hosted in the game so watch out for it. The Imbalanced skills are exquisitely fun to use as it did save my life after encountering a bunch of DEADLY enemies. An awesome game overall! PLAY IT AND ENJOY!

 

The Good:
– Awesome community
– Excellent visuals
– Open PVP
– Tournaments
– Simply fun to play.

 

The Bad:
– Imbalanced
– Low character customization feature
– Character individuality isn’t exercised
– WHERE ARE THE CLASSES?!?!

Maple Story Interview: Maple StoryÂ’s 5th Anniversary

Maple Story Interview: Maple Story’s 5th Anniversary
Questions by Albert Delgado (Devi@nt), OnRPG Journalist
Answered by Crystin Cox

 

Maple Story is a 2D free-to-play side scrolling MMO that is now one of the well-known powerhouse MMOs’ in the online gaming industries. With its quirky and friendly characters and player population of over 10 million (Global), there is no doubt in the fact that Maple Story is destined for even more success as it celebrates its 5th anniversary.

 

OnRPG: Hi, I am Albert Delgado (Devi@nt), an OnRPG’s journalist. Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Hello, my name is Crystin Cox and I am the producer for global MapleStory at Nexon America.

 

OnRPG: First off congratulations on yet another successful year with Maple Story! With Maple Story being in its 5th year, would you have ever imagined of being able to achieve such success the game has now from day one?

Five years is a huge milestone and we’re very grateful to our players for allowing us to get to this point; without them there really would be no MapleStory. Of course you always hope your game will last forever, but really five years is pretty astonishing even to us. It was clear from the start that MapleStory was fun, but we really had no idea how many people would be interested.  We are definitely glad they have been so interested and we look forward to five more years of Mapling!

 

Maple Story Cake And Pie

 

OnRPG: What celebration events will be expected throughout the month of May?

We have all kinds of events planned to celebrate MapleStory’s birthday. There are special quests, items, contests (both in game and out), and chances for users to level up twice as fast. We are hoping Maplers, both old and new, join us all month long!

 

OnRPG: With a new year of Maple Story coming around what, can players expect to be updated/changed?

There are plenty of big additions and changes coming to MapleStory this year. We have new classes, new quests, new items, new maps, and new events, but we haven’t forgotten about what is already in Maple World. Some big, long awaited updates are just around the corner. Players can check out our website, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get more updates.

 

OnRPG: Besides the new dragon master classes; will there be any more new hero classes that will soon make their appearance in Maple Story?

The story of the legendary heroes reborn does not end with Evan. Maplers will get a chance to see the story unfold further soon, but heroes aren’t the only classes in Maple World. Users should expect to see a little more attention paid to the original classes, the Explorers, before any new heroes are revealed.

 

Dragon Master Class Evan Maple Story
Dragon Master Evan

 

OnRPG: When can the Global users expect to be up-to-date with others like Korea, Japan, and China etc…?

Each version of MapleStory is updated specifically for the region it services. We don’t consider any one version the “lead” version that all others are following. We share content between all the versions but a lot of different factors go into how quickly one region gets a specific update. We try to listen to our players to find out what they’d like to see first and even to develop new content just for Global. Of course, when one of the other regions gets something really great, we’d like to add it right away, but it does take time to localize and test new features.

 

OnRPG: The meet and greet GM event is coming up on the 14th, what do you hope to accomplish with the players in this event?

We want to offer our players more ways to interact with us directly. We receive all kinds of feedback from our players on our forums and through Facebook and Twitter, but we wanted to be able to answer question, concerns, and suggestions in real time for a change. It also gives us the opportunity to interact with our players in a more casual way. We hope that lots of players come and participate so we can do more of these events in the future.

 

OnRPG: I have noticed the certain increase in banned player announcements. Maple Story has always had issues with players operating various hacks. How are the efforts to keep hackers out and banned coming along?

Unfortunately, as the game becomes more popular there are more and more people that want to abuse it and our players. We are making more efforts than ever to find these abusers and remove them from the game. Of course, hackers are always coming up with new ways to exploit the game, so it takes a constant effort. Patrolling the game for abusers, and removing hackers from the game is very important to us and we want users to know we’re always working on it, that’s why we post the banned account list publicly every week.

 

OnRPG: With the success of Maple Story what are your future hopes and admirations in order to maintain the epic status Maple Story is commonly credited with?

Mostly I just hope that MapleStory remains a fun place. We will keep adding quests, items, maps, and classes, but it takes the players to make a community. Right now we have the best players in the world and my biggest hope is for it to stay that way.

 

OnRPG: Thank you for your time, and once again congrats on another successful year with Maple Story!

Battle of Destiny: Asian Version of Golden Axe Anyone?

Battle of Destiny: Asian Version of Golden Axe Anyone?
By Vincent Haoson, OnRPG Journalist

 

For those who grew up playing old school side-scrolling adventure games, Battle of Destiny is a prime example of such a theme being put in a MMO situation and the way I see it, Battle of Destiny has in fact infused the two masterfully.

 

Characters

Battle of Destiny uses the default character system in most MMOs. However, instead of using job classes, the characters are separated by their weapon of choice. The job class serves as the starting stat allocation for your character and serves no other purpose because you have the capability to allocate your skill points in every job skill available.

 

Battle of Destiny Character

 

The game system reminds me of Grand Chase however the difference is that unlike Grand Chase where you get individual characters with their own exclusive skill path, in Battle of Destiny you have one character with multiple skill paths open.

 

Skill Based Gameplay

Battle of Destiny is basically a skill-based MMO. While the weapon class determines your stat growth you have complete control over the skills you character can have. You have five general skill types to choose from, which includes every weapon available plus general skills.

 

The skill tree in Battle of Destiny makes the game an interesting game to play in terms of being able to customize your character’s skills. You can have various builds where you can go down the path of a pure sword character or you can mix it up with other skills coming from the mage or the ranged class.

 

BOD Map
City of Dusk Map

 

Weapon Locked

What I liked about the game’s skill system however is that the skills are weapon locked. Yes, at first this seems to be a con for the game but you can use this to trick other players. One may think that a person’s main weapon is the bow when suddenly he switches to melee.

 

What I liked about this system is that it keeps you on your toes especially in PvPPvP and this makes the game all the more interesting especially if your at a higher level as you would then try to branch off into different weapon types.

 

Of course the other side of this kind of system is that you have to keep track of the skills you allocate your points on, but this is for the advanced players. If you’re just starting off the game advises you to be a purist first before trying to mix it up.

 

Leveling

Speaking of which, Battle of Destiny is strictly linear in terms of leveling. In normal MMO fashion the way for you to level up is to do quests and beat the sense out of monsters you find in instanced dungeons.

 

The game does become repetitive once you’ve been playing it for a few hours, and unlike in old-school side-scrolling games, there’s no concrete story therefore making it all the more laborious once you get to higher levels.

 

Higher Levels

One of the ways for people not to get bored with the game especially when they reach the point where it seems too laborious to level is to branch off to other weapon types. Though this serves no practical purpose in the overall gameplay some players do try to level up other weapon types just for the heck of it.

 

The game system shows the weapon experience points you earn for each weapon type available in the game. Though personally I don’t think this serves any purpose save for making yourself look good, nothing really beats having the satisfaction of seeing lots of numbers on your character.

 

PVP

Battle of Destiny has a lot of MMO systems included however the most interesting and of course sought after system for this kind of game is the PvP system.

 

The game’s PvP is basically the same as how you traverse the world. The only difference between the two is that in the PvP you get to fight other people instead of just the AI. As I mentioned the game system provides an interesting mix for battles because you can’t just assume the person would only be using the weapon you see them wielding.

 

As an added plus factor, the game pushes you to be more creative in your builds hence immersing you more in the world of Battle of Destiny just by having the best PvP character.

 

Battle of Destiny Fight 
Battle of Destiny Combat

 

Balance

Speaking of which, there is no such thing as the perfect character here in Battle of Destiny. Each character has its own strengths and weaknesses. Plus there’s an added player skill element in the game which makes PvPs more exciting and challenging. Plus, it eliminates the whole idea that your character is only strong due to your items and not because of your skill.

 

Newbie Friendly

Battle of Destiny is a game that’s fun and easy to master and play. There are also little game systems that make it such an enjoyable gaming experience for newbies. One example is the auto pilot system that makes traveling less laborious and helps you concentrate on the task at hand rather than searching for the NPC that gives you the next set of quests.

 

Another added feature in the game is Battle of Destiny’s pet system. Your pets serve as your support in the game as they provide bonuses and even help you defeating those monsters by attacking them as well.

 

Conclusion

The game’s roots stem off from the nostalgic feel of old-school adventures and it seems to have worked well with the MMO gaming system. The game has kept things down to bare necessities making it such an enjoyable game to play regardless of the size of the game and even the platform it supports.

 

However, the problem with the game is that once the nostalgic feel is gone there’s a high chance that you would drop the game and move on to another MMO. As most old school side scrolling games cannot keep a captivated audience much, which is evident with the amount of people I came across while playing the game.

 

Personally I liked how Battle of Destiny plays out and any sane player out there would also feel the same way as me, the question really right now is how long will you stay in the game?

 

Pros:
– The game is an authentic side-scroller MMO
– Controls are simple and easy to grasp
– Doesn’t need a powerful computer to run.

 

Cons:
– The game can’t keep you interested for a long time
– Feels too much like an old-school side-scroller
– Populations not that big to make you enjoy the game.

Angels Online: Get the Inside Scoop on the Next Expansion

Angels Online: Get the Inside Scoop on the Next Expansion

 

Are you ready for the next awesome expansion for Angels Online? While the residents of Eden were busy enjoying the wonders of the Floating Island, Satan, leader of the Evil Lyceum, was planning his next move. Now a struggle looms in the near future between brave Angels and the Demons of the Evil Lyceum. The Escape from Candy Land expansion is coming, and here’s a preview of what players will see when it goes live in July.

 

Angels Online Time Castle
Angels Online Time Castle

 

New Storyline

The mysterious fairy realm known as Candy Land was created by taking the most wonderful memories of the world and preserving them in a paradise protected from the ravages of time. Satan has his sweet tooth set on controlling both time and Candy Land itself. Using his mastery of dark magic, he created a teleportation portal between Eden and the sweet paradise. Legions of demons and devils from the Evil Lyceum marched through and corrupted everything they touched.

 

New Items
New pets anad items

 

New Skills and Equipment

The enlightened tutors of the Angel Lyceum have created new skills and spells after decades of research. They are now ready to share the fruits of their labors to assist the Angels who are busy fighting against the Evil Lyceum. Powerful new skills and spells will be available to players when the Escape from Candy Land expansion is released.

 

New Fusion and Pet Systems

Several new systems are set to revolutionize the game. The most prominent of these is the new Fusion System, which will allow players to create brand new items by fusing two or more different items together. There’s also a new Pet-catching system that will give players the chance to capture any monster that catches their eye and raise it as a pet.

 

Candy Land
Candy Land

Sherwood Dungeon Celebrates Six Years of MMO Freedom

Sherwood Dungeon Celebrates Six Years of MMO Freedom

 

Maid Marian Entertainment Inc., is proud to announce the sixth anniversary of its free browser-based MMO game Sherwood Dungeon- without an ad campaign, a fancy press event or a celebrity endorsement. Instead of celebrating its anniversary, the company’s creator has launched the new Sherwood Dungeon: Prophecy of Bane quest series to players.  

 

“Sherwood started out as a hobby while I worked in the console games industry and grew organically. It’s been a game that’s in constant development while it’s live,” says Maid Marian founder, Gene Endrody. “Originally players came back just to see what I had added and this created an interesting player culture because their feedback affected my choices. It’s also a bit of an anti-corporate entity; more like the crazy guy who turned his house into a haunted castle and invited people in to make suggestions.”

 

Maid Marian Mount 

 

In a massive and expanding MMO space, Sherwood Dungeon stands out from a long list of cookie cutter competitors by creating a high-quality 3-D retail-style game experience that’s easy to access for new MMO players with simple controls, runs in any browser and doesn’t require a login, monthly fee or signup process. It’s the type of formula that might make any seasoned business person cringe but for Maid Marian’s one-man team, the result equals a global fan base of more than a million monthly unique visitors without any marketing plan.

 

Sherwood Dungeon also deviates from the tenets of modern MMO games. Combat is based on twitch reaction skills with minimal leveling up required to be potentially competitive with any other player in the game. Relying on 100% melee combat with a mere eight actions (attack, five power moves, tally and block), battles  with monsters and players is kept close by not including ranged weapons — thus giving it more of a Fight Club-style of play where respect is earned, not given.  Unlike other MMO games, Sherwood Dungeon allows players to change their avatar and identity and since skill is the motivation here, there are no classes. 

 

Socially, Sherwood Dungeon players have also dictated how they communicate, even with 99 rooms that often serve as meeting areas for clans. Such behaviors make for exciting clan vs. clan wars as players merely move to their opposing clan’s room to get the battle started.  A dominant chat interface also keeps communications flowing between friends and foes and with combat being Sherwood Dungeon’s primary goal, none of the chat keystrokes interfere with combat (and yes, there are still control keys for dancing). 

 

Sherwood Dungeon grew from an underground secret to global success through basic word of mouth. And those words come in many languages as 29% of the game’s players live in Poland, 19% in Brazil, 8% in the United States, 6% in Turkey, 5% in France and 4% in Argentina, worlds away from Maid Marian’s humble and suburban Vancouver, Canada headquarters. 

 

Sherwood Dungeon’s full and free 3-D game experience, including the new Prophecy of Bane quest series can be accessed through the official website. Lacking the need for a gaming PC, a credit card or login, Sherwood Dungeon proves that high-end fantasy gaming doesn’t need a box, a download or a monthly subscription fee to deliver high quality gaming for casual MMO players.

 

Maid Marian

Grand Chase Interview: Crazy GM Team on Season 3

Grand Chase Interview: Crazy GM Team on Season 3
Questions by Rick Charbs (Jammart), OnRPG Journalist
Answered by:  them crazy GM guys (and girls) at Ntreev USA

 

The “crazy” GM team at Ntreev USA has graciously agreed to answer some questions regarding Grand Chase (and most importantly, it’s most recent update: season 3)! This update offers a wide range of additions to the game, and Ntreev seems to have released it with utmost care and attention. The very GMs of the game said that:

 

“Season 3 not only paints a pretty picture with new art, animation and overall feel. All of the item drops, effects, rewards, Exp. gain, direction, and PvP competitiveness have all been enhanced with Season 3 in mind. I say the best way to see it is to play it yourself.”

 

Forest Life

 

Couldn’t have said it better myself! Read on to find out more about the Grand Chase Season 3 update in more detail.

 

OnRPG: As the Grand Chase community is mostly composed of veteran or experienced players, do you think this update will incite new players to try Grand Chase?

We’ve had a consistent mix of veteran and new players alike. Since we’ve had our major Season 3 update, more new players have been signing up. Many of our veteran players have come back, and the average stage of players in general has increased. We’ve applied a major aesthetic overhaul and progress indicators to not only help new players, but also to guide veteran players on features they might not have been aware of.

 

OnRPG: One of the largest additions to Grand Chase with the coming of this expansion is the addition of two new game areas. Could you give us a brief overview of them both? What will these two lands add to the gameplay value of Grand Chase?

Adding 2 new continents in Season 3 is simply explained as “natural progression”. We wanted to capitalize on and expand upon our highly anticipated dungeon lineup. If you take a look at the Grand Chase World Map, it is evident that our dev team KOG has redesigned and expanded the size of the World Map in preparation for future game content. This was not only done for Season 3, but in anticipation of creating an entire world for Grand Chase.

 

 

 

So our two new dungeons Goblin Work Site & Hammer’s Reach showcase the new art direction and production technology incorporated into Season 3. For example, take Hammer’s Reach: The textures, modeling, rendering and overall “steampunk” feel sets the stage with a fresh new attitude. Keeping that in mind, the set of the Goblin Work Site expands the epic story of our heroes, and pits them against a twisted boss encounter, burning desert sands, goblins (who doesn’t need goblins) and powerful magic; you’ll need to bring a friend or three for a much needed assist. 

 

Season 3 not only paints a pretty picture with new art, animation and overall feel. All of the item drops, effects, rewards, Exp. gain, direction, and PvP competitiveness have all been enhanced with Season 3 in mind. I say the best way to see it is to play it yourself. Grand Chase is free to join and free to play!

 

OnRPG: Is there any particular reason you have decided to add one game area for low-level characters and one for high-level characters? What about the middle-guy?

We haven’t forgotten about the middle-guy! We originally had 4~5 new dungeons ready for Season 3 but it was a matter of how much stuff do you cram into one major content expansion, and not lose players in the mix; too much can be a bad thing. The “other” new dungeons will open soon.

 

OnRPG: Another anticipated change in the world of Grand Chase is the user interface. What changes will be the most noticeable to current Grand Chase players?

 

I would say multiple resolution support. It has been extremely nice to play Grand Chase with more detail. It’s hard not to notice the mode detailing on their characters and items. I personally prefer to play full screen to glorify this particular aspect of the UI update. That aside, we’ve received some great feedback about the revamped World Map and the new dungeon related UI modifications that have been implemented.

 

Grand Chase Maps
World Map

 

OnRPG: What brought you to decide to change the user interface?

With the game’s engine technology getting better and better, the 3D aspect of the game kept on improving, but our interface has stayed the same. Season 3 gave us a chance to go back in and retool, add and tweak our existing UIs. Grand Chase’s UI needed the facelift; users requested some new features (and a little direction) for support. The UI scales with different resolution settings and we are now able to support multiple aspect ratios as well.

 

OnRPG: We have also been brought attention to the new item customization features that will be implemented in the game with the Season 3 update. What are they, and how will they function?

A large number of items will now be customizable. Players will have the basic properties that they’re familiar with, but they’re able to select 1~3 “Sockets” to fill with a number of different killer attributes.  So, not only does this allow a player to tune that item to their liking and play style, but even though a player may be wearing an item that the “other guy” may have, the customized additions will put an unexpected twist on the outcome. In short… ok, you hit for 15 additional points of damage, I’ll take the gamble with my Critical Strike percentage for max damage. It puts the game in the player’s hands.

 

OnRPG: Does this new item customization upgrade bring the possibility of customizing one’s character even more in the near future? Do you consider character customization essential in this game?

Yes! Even as we’re writing this bit, we are about to launch Act 2 of the Season 3 update. We’ll be introducing the Monster Card system.  This new system will allow further customization to your character and gear.  By collecting and adding the card to your character, you get another chance at giving your gear a whole new twist.

Our players are very attached to their favorite characters and their items. In the competitive worlds of dungeon crawling and PvP mayhem, we believe it is absolutely essential that our players have the tools necessary to make Grand Chase their own, and to customize their characters with their own design.

 

Grand Chase Red Wyrm 
Plains of the Red Wyrm

 

OnRPG: Season 3 also brings the update of item proficiencies that Grand Chase has never seen before. What do these equipment bonuses entail?

Various stat boosts and all sorts of buffs! J  There are too many to list here individually, but you do get to enjoy special bonuses such as reduced level requirements, EXP bonuses, in-game currency buffs, critical attack bonuses and these are in addition to stat boosts.

 

OnRPG: Missions will also be receiving an overhaul. You claim that they will be more engaging story-wise and have clearer objectives. How is that so? Could you give us a ”before and after” example?

As far as story goes, we are not going back and changing anything drastic. We’ve simply made it flow better and let the player follow the progression on a smooth curve. In Season 2, many players were lost as a number of missions may not have been experienced “in order” nor was there a lot of info as to what content should be done in any specific order. It was up to the player to “follow the path”.

In Season 3, we’ve labeled each mission to their assigned level range and reorganized the distribution so players can take on the challenges at their appropriate level. So even if one strays off the beaten path, you’ll still be in the right ballpark.

 

OnRPG: I see you have also added a new scaling reward system! Does this imply that players will receive more rewards from completing missions? What are the conditions of these XP rewards?

We wanted the players to not only push themselves to achieve (because you get better loot and Exp), but instill that return on investment.  Long story short, don’t sit on your laurels and let your friends do the dirty all the work. I don’t want to spoil the fun and tell you exactly how the system works, but let’s just say we reward the heroes. Play hard!

 

OnRPG: You are dividing this update into two large acts. What brought you to the decision of separating Season 3 in two parts, and how do you think it benefits Grand Chase?

With an update this big, you always run into the trouble of either yourself or your players biting off more than we can chew. We carefully looked at the scope of Season 3, brought everybody to the table, held countless meetings and decided that we should split it into 2 parts. The biggest reason for doing this was that there was just too much content. In an MMO world, you can’t change too much at once. Change is good, but change can easily and inevitably be met with apprehension. When you go to a buffet, you can’t eat all the food you want at once. You look through what’s on the table and decide what you want on your first run and go grab a second plate with what looked too good to pass up on the first round. We had too much food to eat and it would have been messy if we tried to tackle it all at once. In the end, I think we gave ample time for our veteran players to adjust and soak in all the OMG’s and new changes abound, all the while keeping Grand Chase fresh and exciting for our new players.

 

Grand Chase Marshes
Marsh of the Blue Dragon

 

OnRPG: Are you planning on releasing new characters soon? How about new character class upgrades?

We always push for new characters and class upgrades (Jobs). We have been extremely fortunate to work with the passionate developers at KOG. Seriously, they never let up. You can certainly look forward to more characters and jobs in the future. We should be introducing more jobs during the summer season and who knows, maybe a new character sooner than later?

 

OnRPG: Will you be hosting any special events at the release of Act 1 of Season 3?

We’ve hosted a live broadcast with our staff here at Ntreev USA. We were showing off the new features of Season 3 and we had a great turn out. We are working with many cool partners (including OnRPG.com!) to showcase and share our new exciting Season 3 updates. We have in-game prize give-a-ways as well as other in game events. There is even a special shadow image of a character that’ll bring a new “caliber” of fun to the game. We are always planning more events so come check out our website at http://grandchase.ntreev.net for all of the latest information.

 

OnRPG: As the release date for Act 1 was set for April 27th, users have had quite some time to test the waters of Season 3. What has been the feedback of your loyal players so far?

We’ve had a lot of interesting feedback. I am going to be brutally honest; we’ve seen great, good and not so good feedback from our loyal player base. As stated earlier, some players weren’t pleased about big change, or change in any capacity. However, feedback in general has been good. We have been enjoying a lot of growth in Grand Chase, and this applies to both game tech and player-base. Season 3 was a much-needed addition to Grand Chase.

 

OnRPG: Are you anxious for the release of Act 2? Do you think it will revolutionize Grand Chase as a whole? If so, why?

I would say it is the continuation of offering great content for players to enjoy. It’s like the next episode that you’d cancel a date to see… ok well maybe, but for some it might be revolutionary, for others it might seem evolutionary, but all we can hope for is that our players enjoy what we’ve done, and that it keeps them coming back for more.

 

OnRPG: Thank you for your time!

Thank you for taking time to read this interview.  Thank you to OnRPG.com for giving us a chance to share some information about our new Season 3 update!