By Michael Justice (Alphamage), Onrpg writer
The beginning
Once you log in and start to create your character, you’ll be a bit taken back by the fact that you are not in control of facial features, hair and pretty much anything other than the fact that you can be a girl (LunLun) or a boy (Niki). This is supposed to add that feel of “You play a role, you don’t make your own”. LunLun and Niki do have somewhat of a backstory, as do the other characters, but I didn’t really come to hear a bunch of silly biographies of made-up characters, I came to play tennis…
After you’re done having gender issues, you’ll be taken to the tutorial where you will learn the basics and such. It’s all fairly simple, nothing too fancy. Perhaps a smash shot here and a power shot there, but that’s pretty much as far as the game has to go into “advanced” forms of playing.
You’ll notice that there is indeed a level system and a status point system. Neither of these really has anything to do with playing in Basic matches, but they do play an essential role in Battle mode, which I will talk about later.
So when you first get to the lobby and join a game, you may lose or you may win. Some people are just natural-born at this type of thing, but hey, if you like to play the game, it doesn’t really matter if you win or lose.
Hopefully you’ve noticed by now that Fantasy Tennis is an MMORPG. It does have a massive amount of people online and it has RPG elements. Luckily, it’s main factor focuses on gameplay, rather than accomplishments, adventuring and “epic lootz”.
Gameplay Modes
Fantasy Tennis contains a variety of game modes which continue to keep the game fresh.
Basic mode is the standard of the entire game. It is simple, you hit a tennis ball over a net, if the other opponent(s) do not hit it back after one bounce, you get 15 points. Basic Singles is just a straight up one on one match. One screw up usually leads to losing the point and it’s as simple as that. Basic Doubles, however, can lead to some amazing and intense matches. There might be one person at the net and one person at the back or both people might be in the middle, who knows. It is a battle of wits and co-operation.
Battle mode is where you gather crystal item powerups on the ground while hitting the ball back and forth. Each player has a set amount of HP and if a team’s player(s) are both out of HP, they lose. If the other team fails to hit the ball back over the net, they lose HP. It sounds simple, but the outcome varies from person to person. First, status points of Strength, Dex, Will, etc. effect the outcome of items heavily. They might increase the potency of items or they might double the times an item goes off. The items themselves can be enough to win the match, even without a planed-out status build. Luck plays a very important factor in battle mode, because it decides if you get a potion while your HP is low or if you get a resurrection while your other team mate is down.
Guardian mode is where up to 4 players can join together and compete in battle mode against various creatures. Guardians play just like players do, except their status points are usually boosted extremely high, making teamwork vital in defeating them. Generally, players use quick slot items to get the job done faster. (read below to learn more about quick slots) Guardian mode only offers experience and some etc. items which might be used in crafting.
Battlemon mode is where you can team up with your battlemon to fight other people and their battlemon. It’s quite fun to rely on your pet to help you with the match, and sometimes you’ll be surprised with how good your battlemon can be. Of course, if he’s a rank 1 chick, he won’t be doing much except letting the ball hit him in the face.
The Shop and Items
As you continue to play Fantasy Tennis you’ll notice that you will acquire gold with each match. You spend gold at the shop, but what you buy is entirely up to you. There are the basic things like new Rackets and Clothes which help increase status points, and then there are things like new characters and Battlemon. You’ll notice that some items require funny looking blue chips to purchase, which means they require AP, or real life money. There are still plenty of items that you can buy with gold which have only slightly less better stats than AP items, so don’t fret too much over them. You can also buy hair styles, face styles and hair color for characters, but they are all AP.
There is only one character card you can buy with AP and 3 others you can buy with gold, so if you didn’t like Lunlun or Niki you are more than happy to change.
If you have wandered over to the recipes section you’ll notice that you can make all kinds of things from quick slot items to clothes to fruit for your Battlemon. One of the latest patches has allowed people to create enchant stones, which are used to add status points to various equipment. Quick slot items are special items you can put in your QWERTY keys and use them during battle or guardian mode. A lot of people simply get their quick slot items from guardian matches instead of buying or making them, so it’s a bit of a waste.
Battlemon are also available in the shop. There is only one pet you can buy with gold, but hey, at least they aren’t all AP-only. Battlemon can be good and bad at the same time. You feed your pet fruit and that is how it can gain status points. It will level up as it participates in battles. Battlemon can be brought out anywhere as long as there is a free space on your team. Their AI will increase as they level up, allowing them to help you even more. If you buy an in-game controller with AP, you can let a second person control the battlemon with a second set of keys on your keyboard!
Lastly, there’s the other special things like housing furnishes and tools. Yes, Fantasy Tennis does have it’s very own personal housing system, however, I will discuss that in a little bit. You can buy a basic house in the shop and then you can buy some furniture. There are AP-only furnishings, but again, they are only slightly better than the things you can buy with gold. The tools you buy in the shop can be used in fishing and fruit gathering.
Housing
At your house, you can visit your battlemon and feed them and take care of them. You can also go fishing for ingredients or go shake some trees down for fruit to use in recipes. If you don’t want to do any of those things, you can just invite some friends over and talk for a little bit. It’s a nice little break in between the high-paced action.
Wrap-up
To conclude, Fantasy Tennis is one of those games that you can just login and start having fun within seconds. Everyone should have their own little game that they might play in between their daily MMORPG life, and if Fantasy Tennis sounds good to you, I highly recommend you to grab a racket and get in the game!
Pros
– Easy to pick up and play
– Basic RPG elements
– Allows casual players as well as hardcore players
Con
– No character customization other than clothing and accessories.
