Yearly Archives: 2016

Kingdom Story: Brave Legion Review A Tale as Old as Han

By Jason Parker (Ragachak)

 

Kingdom-Story-Review51

Anyone who has read my work might know by now that I love the Three Kingdoms Era of China. Ranging from roughly 187-250 or so AD, it was a time of turbulence and chaos, warlords vying to control the vast land of China. The characters depicted in both history and novel form have been portrayed in a variety of ways, most of them serious [we’ll ignore Kessen 2], but this is a much different telling. Kingdom Story tells the Three Kingdoms story in a light-hearted, comical way. The characters being adorable and small, befitting a mobile game, but in some ways true to their original depictions.  My favorite example of this being Yuan Shu. Yuan Shu declared himself Emperor and was known to be shiesty, duplicitous, cowardly, but more importantly, a trickster. He deceived many, allies and enemies alike. So in this version of the story, he resembles a monkey, who is astride a horse, wearing the traditional [and I still say stupid looking] hat of the Han Emperor. It’s not a simple hack ‘n’ slash like Dynasty Warriors was, either.

Kingdom-Story-Review02

Kingdom Story does use an automated combat system though, where groups of up to six characters do battle, utilize special moves and traits, and can create sickening combos and synergy, depending on what they can do/who they are historically.  There are several modes to unlock as well, in addition to special events like Domination, where you conquer the Chinese cities and hold them for rewards.  There are goals and targets to hit, and some cities will be too powerful for you to take in the early going. But it will be worth pursuing once you’ve had time to get into the game and level up your characters/Monarch. Yes, Monarch! You fight for one of the three factions, Shu, Wu, or Wei, and receive starting characters that befit that faction. You won’t likely start with Guan Yu if you follow Wu, et cetera.  Everyone I can think of is represented, and even the crappiest one or two star character can become a force to be reckoned with. But if you want to collect certain characters [as I do] you’re going to want to put in a lot of time and effort.

Kingdom-Story-Review09

So you picked a faction.  Now what?  You go through the story, of course! Starting with the Yellow Turban rebellion, each storyline has a map, and each map has levels that have 3 battles/stages to them. Characters fight, and you can easily turn on autobattle, which will utilize special abilities as soon as the meter fills up. It’s really standard fare for an action-RPG on mobile, but the synergy/combos are easy to figure out.

Kingdom-Story-Review49

There’s a collections tab that shows a variety of groupings/pairings that have buffs/benefits to give if they are together, and in the pre-battle menu if there’s an exclamation point on it, you can press your finger there to see what abilities you have that will combo together for deadly results.

Kingdom-Story-Review04

The stages are very standard fare: fight officers/soldiers, and the final stage will have a boss. You can get up to three stars on a stage, and three more for the Elite/Expert version. The normal and elite map both have rewards you can collect based on your star collection.  The game will hold your hand a bit and suggest things for you to do to help you learn the game which is definitely helpful. But is there more to this game than simply fighting through stages? Of course there is! You have a main city to develop as well, which is the source of food for your army, skill books to upgrade/learn abilities, and so much more.

Kingdom-Story-Review27

You start with a small walled area, made of wood and a few complexes. You can clear land, for a price, and tear down those walls and place new ones up to hide your farms, mines and more behind them.  You can also upgrade the walls from that wood to stone, which appears to primarily be cosmetic at this point at least. You can upgrade structures, based on your Monarch level. You can upgrade your stronghold to level 2 at 20 Monarch, and then you can upgrade your structures a bit higher, which does take time, like any building game. You can speed it up with currency, or you can wait it out. Speaking of food, those farms are incredibly important. As time goes on, you can get gold from mines/food from the mines, and that’s how you go through stages.

Kingdom-Story-Review31

Instead of an “Energy System” you have a Food System. Using the food gives a few stat bonuses and lets you get into the heat of battle. You can also battle stages repeatedly, whether it’s 3 or 50 times, however. . .it will NOT auto fight those battles. I started a 50 battle, and it slowly plods through them, one at a time, and that’s nightmarish. I was afraid that my phone might melt if I left it on for fifty battles. Please, consider auto doing those. Especially for how much they cost to do! But it does seem like the longer you last, the better the rewards are at the end. There are also PVP Modes, where players compete for prizes, and a Survival Mode where characters cannot be reused. Thankfully there is a huge roster of characters to unlock, upgrade and evolve so building a vast army never gets old.

Kingdom-Story-Review50

If you have two copies of a character, you can upgrade them to a higher tier by combining them, you can sacrifice characters to gain exp, or use different characters of the same or even lesser rarities, to increase the character’s power. There are so many damn different ways to become powerful, but thankfully the game will explain these as they become possible. However, this is still a mobile game. Yes, there are microtransactions; free games need these to turn a profit. But there is the small matter of the game beating you over the head with them. Everytime you log in, they will hit you with like seven advertisements, but at least you can “turn them off for the rest of the day.” This is sort of annoying, but at least they let you opt out for a day.

Kingdom-Story-Review44

There are plenty of scrolls out there to summon new heroes to your team, or you can spend currency, not to mention your free ones for the day. But special event summons will cost you a few in-game duckets. It’s not hard to get them via achievements and gameplay though, so take heart. It’s a small price to pay, and I don’t think it’s going to be pay to win at all. You can get tons of damn soldiers to sacrifice to your better characters, and put in match-winning officers. However, it IS pay to go faster, to unlock more characters and better items.  Speaking of equipment, you get pieces of gear from matches, and you merge them to get cool new stuff for your characters. And Skill Books come from your city, and can level up officer skills. Some of them can only be unlocked with higher character rating [stars].

 

Kingdom-Story-Review36

To Achieve Hegemony

Conclusion: Great

I have to say, this is probably one of the most fun mobile games I’ve played in a while. It took an engaging story and made it funny, entertaining, and will certainly not alienate people who do not know the story. It’ll tell the Three Kingdoms era tale in a great way filled with clever jokes, historical bits, and simple, easy to get into combat. It’s not something that will take a lot of time to learn, but will require a lot of time to invest into it to be powerful.  If you aren’t interested in doing PVP/online challenges, that’s not going to be an issue. But if you want to PVP, I have the feeling you’re going to have to be a whale, or to spend a lot of time in.  Do bear that in mind!

 

+ Three Kingdoms Story done in a comical way.

+ Not required to PVP, can just play the game and love the story.

+ Lots of synergy, combos, and tons and tons of historical characters.

– It IS pay to go faster for Dominion/PVP.
– Ads are more than a little heavy-handed.
– Newcomers might not know the characters and feel confused on who they should get, star ratings aside.

 

Final Fantasy XV: Initial Thoughts

FFXV Editorial 1

This is not a review. Repeat: Not a review! That’s coming later. This is just my initial thoughts about playing it for a day or two. A day or two and I still haven’t progressed the main story very far. I keep getting distracted exploring, killing things, and doing Hunts/et cetera. For example, I was going to write this editorial about an hour and a half ago. I awoke at about 6:30 AM, to start playing Final Fantasy XV and just get my day started. Told myself at about an hour I’d get up and go do something constructive, like maybe eat. Then 8:00 rolled around and I said “one more thing”. . . then 8:45 hit and I finally stopped. I have such a hard time not playing! I keep exploring the same area, finding new stuff, more items, new recipes. I’ve been waiting for this for about eleven years now, so I’m soaking as much of it in as I possibly can. Everything about it feels good. There are things I don’t like, of course, but I will likely save that for the full review. But there are far more positives than negatives. And driving around with your best friends, playing Final Fantasy music on the radio? Yeah, that’s something I’ve done more than once. It makes me smile, and it’s been a true joy to have access to it.

FFXV Editorial 2

This does not feel very linear to me, and that’s perfectly fine. Sure, it has a main storyline that you can follow, and people on the Internet are proclaiming that it’s kind of short [20~ hours], but there is simply so much side content to explore. At least double that. I admit, I’m a little surly about people breaking street date, posting their collector’s editions days before the game went live, and bragging about it. That doesn’t make you special, that makes you an asshole. That’s neither here nor there, though. What I really like so far, are the character interactions. Sure, the puns are kind of annoying, but that would be any puns. But there are so many little things that make me happy about this game. The character dialogue feels real, it’s not forced. These are definitely things a group of friends would say to one another. Combat is a lot better than it was in the version I played back at Pax, the cooking makes sense, and you have plenty of reasons to explore. You can get cooking materials without spending gil, free items, picking fights with the local baddies. Hell, I found a Megalixer on the side of one of the roads! You can’t beat that.

Expect a full review in the very near future. It’s going to be what I spend a lot of my free time doing. . .I hope you guys are getting as much out of it as I am. This was in summary, definitely worth the wait. And if this is an idea of what they can do now, the FF7 remake is going to be absolutely insane.

Heroes of Newerth Avatar Spotlight 3.9.14

Heroes of Newerth introduces a slew of sweet new avatars including the heavy armor set and much more. The total list includes:

Cyber Assassin (Gunblade, Cyber Set)
Daemon Dragoon (Emerald Warden, Heavy Armor Set, Gold Collection)
Blood Fiend (Bloodhunter, Heavy Armor Set)
Scourge Trooper (Pestilence, Heavy Armor Set)
Sanctum (Andrenaline, Debut Edition)
Blade of Blackwal (Adrenaline)
The Iron King (Jeraziah)

Linkrealms F2P Review – Now that’s it’s F2P, Time for Another Look

By Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF)

 

Linkrealms F2P Review

Introduction

Linkrealms is a self-stylized “Old-School Sandbox MMORPG.” In many ways it follows the example of the games of yore, such as Ultima Online. If you’re a sandbox MMO player, you’ll probably understand that pedestal that old-school Ultima Online is placed on within this community, and you’ll instantly be interested at the prospect of a more modern MMORPG trying to fill those shoes. But you’ll probably also have a bit of apprehension, which is understandable. So, does Linkrealms succeed? Well, that’s what we’re here to decide.

 

Linkrealms F2P Review

Customization

Your first slice of the nostalgia-pie is character creation. It feels very similar to old-school MMORPG character creation. Few options, clunky interface (which I will get into later), and an overall sense of “I hope I won’t be gimping myself…” despite the fact that there is a warning that your choices in character creation essentially don’t matter. I’m not sure how I feel about that, as I’m part of the school of thought that choices should have consequences. Not necessarily negative consequences, though. There are a few race choices, which only have an aesthetic effect as far as I can tell, and some ‘starting classes’ to help point you in the right direction.

 

I had difficulty figuring out how I felt about the Character Creation in Linkrealms. On the one hand, it’s true to its goals in emulating an Old-School Character Creation experience. But on the otherhand, why would you want to do that? They sucked and there are still plenty of old school MMOs still around (Ultima Online, again). So why do we need the same exact clunky experience that isn’t fun? Personally, I don’t like it.

 

Linkrealms F2P Review

Graphics

Simply enough, the graphics are fantastic. No, not because they’re masterpieces of artwork in incredible HD and every corner is a new vista to be stunned by. They’re fantastic because they so completely capture the aesthetic of the old top-down and isometric 2D Games from back in the day. They look great in their own unique way that will invoke the nostalgia is anyone who was a kid in the 90’s and early 00’s. The graphics are easily one of my favorite things about Linkrealms.

Linkrealms Graphics

 

 

Controls

The simplest and nicest way to describe the controls in Linkrealms is…Shitty. Yep. Old-School games have a lot to offer the modern gamer. There’s nostalgia, of course. But then there’s the rich lore and deep sandbox features like open world PVP, player property, and other stuff that the new MMOs seem to be rediscovering lately. But the complete package comes with their shitty, shitty User Interfaces. Why, why why why would you want to have that in your game?

Linkrealms

On top of that, the default controls are unconventional by modern standards. You have to use the mouse and then you can go into your settings and begin creating keybindings. Then there are things like alt+I to open inventory. That’s another relic of the past I don’t like. It’s very common for old games to have things like inventory require a key combination to open windows. Thankfully that died out, except for in Linkrealm’s. If you haven’t noticed, I am a little salty about the controls and UI in this game.

 

‘Invalid Item’ was the most annoying thing I came across while playing, especially in the beginning hours of the game. I’m not even sure if this was a bug or just some sort of obscure game mechanic that was never explained to me. But nine times out of ten, when I tried to use an item to process another item, such as a hide stretcher of some hide to make leather, I would get “Invalid Item” whenever I tried to use it. It happened with the juicer, too, and every other processing item. Sometimes, picking up the item and moving it around my inventory would help. The most frustrating thing is that it could just be a normal mechanic that I couldn’t figure out and nothing was ever mentioned to me. Perhaps there’s a limit to how often you can use these items and then you have to take a short break? Maybe it was related to inventory weight? Perhaps it was just that I was standing to close to a certain NPC or object. Who knows.

 

Well, eventually I figured it out and it turned out I would sometimes triple click without realizing it, which caused the issue. This is why I’m not happy with Linkrealm’s UI and archaic control scheme. In the past, I would have just accepted this as part of the game. Sure, I would be annoyed but it would have barely phased me. Now, though, I’m too used to convenience and it was just an annoying experience. And these things keep popping up while I’m playing Linkrealms and each time I ask myself, “Why am I bothering?” Then either the Nostalgia leaks in and I keep going or I just force myself to stick with it because I’m here to review the game.

 

Linkrealms F2P Review

Community

You would think a game like this would attract a lot of older players, people in their late twenties and early thirties and such. However, almost all of my interactions with players were with those who appeared to be younger. It was very similar to playing Runescape, in a lot of ways. In some ways that makes sense, but not what I expected. Whether this means that community is good or bad is up to you.

 

Linkrealms F2P Review

Gameplay

Gameplay is where Linkrealms shines. Sandbox MMOs are something special, they take the term ‘virtual life’ to a whole new level. They allow you to do things other genres simply won’t such as having a home, raising crops, fighting cockerels… There’s simply a ton of things to do and the game allows players to ‘create their own content.’ These are all key features of the sandbox genre, but Linkrealms takes that to an extreme. It’s called Linkrealms because players can create their own ‘realms’ which are all linked together.

 

There are two servers to play on. The original server offers open world PVP with full loot and other PVP sandbox staples. It resembles the original Ultima Online. Then there’s the PVE server, which is PVE focused and doesn’t have the non-consensual PVP features. Essentially the PVE server is similar to Trammel in Ultima Online. The experience learned from Trammel was that if given the choice, a majority of players will simply go to the PVE server and neglect the PVP server altogether or only visit when they wanted to participate in PVP (which wasn’t often).

Linkrealms F2P Review

To put it simply, it is widely considered that Trammel is what started the downfall of Ultima Online, so I have to admit that I’m a bit worried about the effect this will have on the game’s server. I prefer PVP, so I obviously chose to play on the PVP server. And it seems, right now, decently populated. However, I’m not sure if I should chalk that up to the transition to F2P and being on Steam, or if it’s something that will stay. Only time will tell, but I am worried.

 

Unfortunately, while Linkrealms certainly looks like a retro 2.5D MMO, it also plays like one. I was hoping when I originally looked at the Steam page that I would be getting a game that mixed the aesthetic of the old school MMOs like Ultima Online or maybe even Mu Online, but with improved quality of life features. While Old School MMOs are a fantastic source of nostalgia, they are also an impressive source of frustration. Their clunky UI’s, bug-ridden code, and glitchy gameplay all make for a rather… unique experience. And, like I said, unfortunately Linkrealms has all of this. They take the Old School, retro aesthetic to a whole new level, and I’m not sure if it was done on purpose or not.

 

But I’ll admit that there is a certain charm to it. Nostalgia is a hellava drug. When I first logged into Linkrealms and started playing, I was a bit frustrated. However, within an hour I was transported back to my own little personal Golden Age of MMO gaming, over a decade ago when I was thirteen going on fourteen. Any MMO I could get my hands on was incredible. And most of them played a lot like Linkrealms. I again felt like I was that geeky loner who sprinted off the bus, through the door, and straight to my computer to play whatever MMO had my fancy at the time. Nostalgia is powerful, and if you were playing MMOs over a decade ago, you’ll be hard pressed to not find something to trigger it within you while playing Linkrealm’s.

 

This game has a hefty feature list, so I’m obviously not going to be able to talk about it all. The skinny of it is that there is something for everyone. If you like to craft, there is an interesting and in-depth resource collection and crafting system. If you prefer combat, there are tons of unique monsters to slay and challenges to overcome. If you’re into PVP, there is the PVP server and it will provide you with one of the best sandbox PVP experiences you could hope for.

 

When you start the game, you’ll be lead through a decent tutorial on crafting. It’ll have you do the basics of resource gathering and processing, creating basic potions to drink. Then you’ll get into some more advanced stuff such as killing animals for pelts to process into leather which can then be used in tailoring. The crafting is very traditional and no different than in many sandbox MMOs, so you won’t be blown away from the complexity, but you’ll find it familiar.

Linkrealms

Personally, I’m more of a fan of the crafting you can do in games like Mortal Online, Wurm Online, and Star Wars Galaxies. Each of those games is a sandbox MMO, with crafting that required experience and knowledge with the system to produce high quality goods. Linkrealms is not like that, preferring a more simple and straight-forward resource gathering system and your typical ‘choose-from-list-of-recipes’ crafting. You do need to raise your skills to successfully craft things and there’s even some things that WILL require you to do research, but in general it’s not something you will worry over and may not even be something you’ll want to spend much time on.

Linkrealms

Combat isn’t going to be as intense as you’ll find in more modern MMOs. If you’ve ever played Ultima Online, it’s very similar to that. At the start, it’s as simple as turning on combat mode and clicking on a target. Later on you get into other abilities, spells and whatnot. This is one of those games where the combat becomes intense because of the high stakes and strategy that goes into it. I personally prefer that type of combat, but that may be since I spent 7~ years or so playing Wurm Online which is similar in some ways.

 

The game has a Claim system, in which you can ‘upload’ realms that you’ve created using the game’s editor. It’s an interesting system that I’m still a bit iffy about. I’m more a fan of normal player housing that you find in games like Star Wars Galaxies or ArcheAge. Or a more brick-by-brick system such as that found in Wurm Online. This system allows for a lot of creativity, though, which is awesome. I love visiting players’ houses in games to see how they’ve decorated. This is similar but with a bit more potential.

 

Linkrealms F2P Review

Conclusion

Linkrealms is a unique game in that it captures a specific time in MMO history, before everyone tried to clone World of Warcraft, and we were plagued by a thousand Free-to-Play Asian MMOs. Its closest relative would be Ultima Online, but it shares qualities with many of the sandbox games available today. Its crafting and combat are passable, but the strategy and planning that go into both exceed expectation. The Claim system allows for a lot of creativity, which is good because there isn’t too much of that in other parts of the game. Overall, now that Linkrealms is Free-to-Play on top of being on Steam, you should definitely download it if you’re looking for a retro gaming experience in the form of a sandbox MMO.

 

 

 

Features: 4/5 – You won’t run out of things to do, that’s for sure.

Customization: 3/5 – The Claim system saves Linkrealms’ Customization score.

Graphics: 3/5 – It fits the style it’s going for very well, but is otherwise not the most impressive I’ve seen.

Controls: 2/5 – Rage inducing until you finally get familiar with it.

Community: 4/5 – It’s a decent community from what I saw.

 

Overall: 4/5 – The stars are aligning and I would say that now is a great time to give the game a chance. There is a certain sub-group of MMO players who will find Linkrealms to be the perfect home for them.

 

Trion Whales

Futurama-Moby-Dick

“As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.”   – Moby Dick, or The Whale, Herman Melville.

What is a “Whale”? Well, to most people, it’s a massive mammal of the sea. To the F2P community, Whale is a generally derogatory term given to people who spend thousands of dollars on free-to-play games. They’re the top 1-2% of a game, they simply cannot be beaten, but the catch is, they’re the people that are funding the game. They’re the reason, most likely, that the game is still going. You might hate them, but they’re the reason you can play the game. That’s just the way it is. However, when a Free to Play game comes out with an expansion, they are free as well. ArcheAge Ascension is on the way out from Trion Worlds, which will feature some pretty cool stuff. The Dwarves and Warborn are two new races that are featured, but there’s something else lurking on their website. There’s a preorder for the expansion, that will give you credits, potions, a storage chest, a permanent post parrot, a warehouse, some other miscellaneous stuff, and a mount. The catch? This preorder is 149 bucks. $149.99 to be precise.  Now, I know you might be more than a little salty. “Why the fuck would I spend 150 fucking bucks on an expansion for a free game!?”

Trion Whales 2

But it’s the Hellwing Pegasus. It’s only available to people on legacy servers, not fresh start servers. But it’s the Hellwing Pegasus! Come on! It’s a Pegasus with a horn, the dark hue of a Nightmare, and the fire of a nightmare, but the wings of a mystical, holy pegasus! Did I mention it flies, and has fire? Because it totally does. This absolutely blows my goddamn mind, though. 150 bucks for a damn free-to-play expansion? I don’t care if people spend money to go faster in an MMO, or in any F2P, because it’s not my money, and more often than not, it won’t affect me. But Christ on a Carousel, it’s 150 bucks for a mount! Sure, it has other stuff, but the big feature is the fiery flying horse! Maybe it’s because I’m not a Whale, but I cannot by any measure justify spending 150 bucks in one sitting on a free game. Have I spent money on f2ps? Duh. A lot of it, if I’m being honest. But never that much in one go. Want to see for yourself? Click here! But what do you guys think? Is that reasonable? Fair? Or is it just a ludicrous price-gouging technique?