Remnant Knights: Heroes of Kasmari Impressions
By Meredith Watson, OnRPG Journalist
Remnant Knights –Heroes of Kasmari is a Free to play Anime MMO published by GameSamba featuring PvP, questing, dungeons and crafting with an emphasis on social activities.
Remnant Knights is a bright, cheery, and colourful game which is strongly anime. There is a very childlike, cutesy theme throughout. Graphically it isn’t spectacular but it doesn’t need to be. This game does have a very distinct look and feel which is partly Asian with some American junior high school thrown in for good measure meets Harry Potter. I would have thought Remnant Knights would have been aimed towards tweens but I was assured, after chatting with a GM, that it is aimed towards young adults that appreciate anime.
Remnant Knights also has a varied soundtrack. The intro music can only be described as cute and pop-like whereas the music from Sunset Pier is almost haunting. The only issue I have with the sound is that there isn’t a way to turn off the characters combat vocals (which are very repetitive and somewhat annoying) without turning off all sound effects except music which has its own setting.
If you are a lore fan, this game might be a bit of a disappointment. The backstory is rather weak but to be fair lore isn’t really the selling point of this game.
Character creation is much like most games out there in that there are very few choices for hair, face and colours. There are three class “circles” to choose from when deciding class. Each of these three circles split into two distinct classes after level 10. The three circles are gun, magic and fight. The Magic Circle becomes the elementalist and the priest, the Gun circle splits into Heavy Launcher and Dual Gunner, and the Fight Circle leads to the Striker and the Crusher. I have been playing casters lately so picked the magic circle. Aside from determining the circle I needed to choose between the Owl Academy and the Dragon Academy. The Owl Academy is focused on magic whereas Dragon is science. It isn’t immediately obvious how the two Academies impact gameplay other than acting as a faction. There is a persistent theme of school throughout from registering a student ID card to acquiring a dorm room.
After each level, including before level ten, there are skill points to spend. The skills before level ten seem to focus on enhancing your existing spells/skills. After level ten they are spent in your chosen specialization. The skill tree is fairly straightforward and offers some choice but isn’t very in depth nor is it overwhelming.
The tutorial phase of the game is done on your school campus when first entering the game. Here you learn all the basics of the game. Remnant Knights is fairly standard in its tutorial and does a reasonable job of acclimating the player to the game. Controls are the usual WASD, click to move or arrow keys.
Now where this game truly shines for me is in the combat. Combat is very fluid with no awkwardness in the controls or hotbars. Combat feels comfortable. There isn’t a steep learning curve though I will point out, because most spells seem to be AoE and the mobs are fairly close together, it is easy to get overwhelmed by mobs. It isn’t an issue as long as you are aware. Some would call the questing in Remnant Knights a grind. I didn’t see it that way. I personally prefer kill quests versus a lot of running around, talking to different NPCs and whatnot. Remnant Knights is absolutely chock full of kill quests and to a lesser degree drop quests There are many dungeons on Kasmari but I’ve only visited one which allowed me to choose the degree of difficulty before entering. It was recommended for three players but was easily soloed.
While chatting with one of the GMs I was told that there isn’t a raiding end game and that what there is of an end game is PvP focused. There are only a few high level dungeons for 55-60 but there are multiple ways in which to engage in PvP and it is always optional. Marble Battle is a 5v5 point capture, Arena Battle is level 60 tournaments, and Club War is to capture a region. World PvP and duelling are also available.
Not to be overlooked is the club (guild) PvE event called Club Challenge. As well as the Club Challenge, there appears to be an event going on at all times of some description or another. There certainly isn’t a shortage of things to do in Remnant Knights.
I do love crafting in games so it was nice to see there was some gathering available. Resources seem to primarily be mines and plants. The actual production of items is done a little differently in Remnant Knights. For example, if you want to make a potion you will need to find a nurse and ask to make something. This will then bring up an interface in which you pick an icon of what it is you want to make from the left hand side. On the right side the ingredients would be listed for the item chosen and you would then insert the ingredients from your inventory in the appropriate place. This seems to be the way to make clothing and gems as well. There isn’t any real depth to the crafting and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of choice as far as what can be created. Fishing in Remnant Knights is a little different as well. Instead of just casting your line and waiting for a bite you have to struggle with your fish by pushing arrow keys until the fish tires. Think of The Abyssal Ride quest in World of Warcraft which utilizes arrow keys and you will have it. Once you’ve caught your fish you will need to find a cook in order to prepare it into a food that acts as a short term buff.
A bank and an auction house are both available on your school grounds. The bank requires a password and is taxed, which ties into the PvP element. I did find the search function on the Auction house subpar and the interface wasn’t as helpful as it could have been. That being said, the UI for the most part is quite tidy and streamlined.
Remnant Knights is a very social game. There is both Twitter and Facebook integration but in game as well there are a lot of activities centred on being social such as a bonding system and a matching system. The bonding system is a mentoring program whereas the matching system is quite literally a matching system for players to find like-minded players. This is done by registering your student ID card. Your student ID card states where you are from, your gender, interests and very oddly, your blood type. Any of these categories can be ignored when filling out your ID, which also isn’t mandatory.
Remnant Knight also has a pet system . The pets, when out, will need to be fed using a pet feed card but they also provide some boosts such as defence, mana, or movement to name a few. The higher level the pet the higher the boost. Pets can be stored in your dorm room. Pet feed cards and skill cards as well as additional pets can be found in the item mall.
At level ten I got my dorm room and after a cut scene explaining how I can have friends around, I was able to decorate it. Decorating my room included placing the furniture and picking a lighting colour. The placing of furniture and the room interface was similar to Runes of Magic. Different styles of room furnishings can be purchased on the item mall.
The item mall, which can be quite obtrusive on other free to play games, is not in Remnant Knights. There isn’t any in game spam advertising specials or the like. The item mall is full of fun mounts, costumes, and furniture.
The other very unique aspect of Remnant Knights comes in the way of their customer service. Remnant Knights boast “If you are online, so are we” and they aren’t lying. Every time I logged in, which was many, there was a GM online announcing his or her presence and interacting with the community through events, contests and trivia. I did want to see how helpful they were and if they would in fact answer any questions as they claim. Maenon, the GM I spoke to, was very accommodating and was able to answer my questions while being very pleasant. This degree of customer service in any MMO is unheard of and I think it ties in with Remnant Knights’ social aspect nicely.
My time in Remnant Knights has been fun which is all one can really ask for in an MMO. This isn’t the type of game I would normally play due to the anime styling and overly cute art direction but I was pleasantly surprised by the gameplay and found myself enjoying it. If you are looking for a fun, cute, social game with a strong competitive spirit instilled in the community then this just might be the game for you. Give it a try!