Mo Siang Online Review: Explosive Combat
By Kei Beneza (dividelife), OnRPG Journalist
Looking for an MMO that looks like Dynasty Warriors with elements from Dragon Ball Z? And I thought that Cabal Online had a lot of explosions. Mo Siang is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) that takes the words ‘explosive combat’ to the next level.
One look and you know that it’s greatly influenced by the ancient Asian culture. The ingame fighting styles are also composed of ancient Chinese martial arts, complete with ancient weapon usage like bo staffs, twin blades and even Japanese katanas. Although the game looks a lot like a virtual derivation of the ancient Chinese mythology, it’s quite fun to see it being mixed with some ancient Japanese elements (those gate things). Nothing wrong with Hybrid concepts! Not only do your characters explode like crazy, they also fly around even though they’re practically bound to the ground like other MMOs, this looks like a pretty interesting MMO so let’s check it out.
A New Warrior Is Born *bows* (GONG!!!)
Unlike most MMOs Mo Siang does NOT respect the basics of character archetypes, instead immersing players into a whole new form of character customization (technically, your weapon type IS your class). After typing in your in-game name and filling up other details, you’ll be taken to the character details interface where you must choose between a few hairstyles and faces to further personalize your character. It lacks selection at some points and may even lead to countless clones; still, I’m quite thankful that the game was nice enough to let us personalize our characters at all. Ok Leo you get the katana… you sure you don’t want the bow?
Instead of sharing the common archetype feature, the game lets you customize your own class. During the character creation phase, you’ll have to choose which weapon to use. This is merely your start up weapon and does not limit you from using other weapons later in the game. Choosing your weapon is almost the same as choosing your class. Each weapon is enhanced by a certain stat so you tend to have fewer weapon options as your character gets stronger. For example: The spear is the best weapon for splash damage wielders and is enhanced by your STR stat. Once you grow proficient with the spear, you might have some trouble using the bows since it uses the DEX stat. You can raise both stats in order to use both weapons but you won’t be as proficient with each as those who just went through with a single weapon.
As for the skills, you can always choose the linear path to success, meaning you’ll be seeing a single skill tree till the end. Hybrid-ing is rather fun in this game due to the non premade character system. What really sucks though is that hybrid characters always end up being weaker than pure classes, the same way hybrid weapon users are weaker than pure ones (so I guess it’s not fun on the long run).
Leveling
I have to admit, I was pretty confused when I started leveling since the game had two experience bars. Two? What the hell do we need two for? It then occurred to me that the second exp bar was the games way of making it easier for the players. The second experience bar represents your extra stats. You gain extra stat points whenever you level this on this bar so that should makes things faster for you. The first one is your average MMO experience point bar that levels you up once it is filled. The game is stat based so you might want to think about how to build your character thoroughly, especially since a dead ended weak veteran character is worse than a slow paced newbie. Check your stats and make a good draft of what you want your character to be, so as not to end up like those who hit for thousands but can’t survive to do get their first swing.
More grinding! Great!
One thing I really didn’t like about this game is the Skill grinding system. Your skills don’t really hit harder nor power up when you level. Instead, you have to use them repetitively in order to make them level up. I’ve encountered this system in RF online and it pissed me off at times. Sure there’s nothing better than disregarding the attack button for skill spamming but sometimes, it gets pretty dull when you HAVE to do it just to get stronger.
Graphics and Visuals
The graphics are nothing new though, and are similar to that of Cabal Online. The explosions are just terrific as it spreads through your screen, especially when you have a lot of characters performing them at once. The map is not really that big but definitely bigger than Cabal Online’s <_<. You’ll be going through some diverse terrains which get old after hours of gameplay, though I think most MMOs suffer the same fate. The characters are mainly simple and do not posses anything out of the ordinary. The armor sets look terrific but not as flashy as most games. Perhaps they were trying to keep the sense of realism, which won’t do them any good since we know than the flashier the armor, the better the characters look. Aesthetic-wise, this game doesn’t have much to offer, but the elements do work well together so it’s not that bad (just not so good either).
The verdict
When it comes to explosive combat, I’ve yet to see anything that WHACKS things as hard as this game. Intense combat IS one of the key features to any MMO, and when it comes to that, this game doesn’t lack anything. The music isn’t as invigorating as other MMO BGMS since it lacks the adrenaline to keep up with the action packed combat system. My PC however has a music player so I guess I can improvise. The lack of archetypes doesn’t seem to slow this game down one bit as it lets players immerse themselves further into the aspect of character creation. Hybrid builds may lack on certain parts but it just goes to prove how many more builds players can discover. Instances and Giant bosses are pretty hard to resist so I guess that’s a big plus in my book. All in all, the game is quite amazing! If you’re looking for an MMO that caters nonstop skill butchering, this is it.
The good:
– Deep character creation system
– Well rendered skills and environments
– Presentation (it just looks terrific)
– The game is quite lenient when it comes to acquiring stats
– Fast paced gameplay.
The bad:
– Lack of character design options
– Graphics are a bit outdated
– Skill grinding gets old over time
– Hybrid builds aren’t recommended (so expect more skilled clones)
