by Benny Bray
While this may be pegged as a typical cartoony style MMO, it has some features within the game that separate it from the others. Some of it you may or may not enjoy, it really depends on how you stand on the art styling and layout of this game. It might be a simple point and click game but there are a few simple things about it that require some pre-game guide reading on their forums. Those that like to do other things besides combat can take a break and do some fishing or if you want to craft items you’ll be able to make a numerous amount of them if you so choose to, you’ll just have to see how for yourself. If that doesn’t suit you then you can spend some time in pvp or player versus player and even have your own pet you can evolve into a variety of things. There are several aspects of the game that I took a look at.
First things first I’m going to point out some of the things about the graphics and controls, even being cartoony isn’t quite enough to cover up for the bits that stick out the most. While zoomed in characters, creatures, NPC’s and objects alike are fairly "sketchy" making the pixeled edges stand out noticeably. On the plus side everything else is done quite well aside from dirt and grass being graphically defined but it’s not particularly expected from a free to play game, let only a cartoony one. Now about the controls, while being a typical point and click game combos are added in as well making use of the A, S, and D keys in different sequences for added damage and even some rather silly names to them. One of my niches though is the camera, controlled by the right mouse button and the mouse wheel it can get quite annoying trying to get it to face just the right way or distance you want it to. Most everything else is typically controlled through some form of Alt and a key or the quickslots ranging through F1 to F8.
Now about the first part of the interface, this part to be honest is basically the reason for players enjoying Seal Online, in which it involves the party system, friends list and pet system. Now the interesting bit about Seal Online is their speed party system in which a player can simply click and search through a list of formed parties by name, the party leader, the area, and how many members it allows plus how the exp rate is distributed. Another thing is the party leaders ability to be able to summon fellow party members to their area which is quite convenient until one becomes lvl 30 in which a fee is implied to the person wishing to be summoned. While there may not be an option for the leader to promote someone else to leader, all they have to do is leave the party and rejoin making the next name in the party become the leader then request to be summoned. The friends list also provides much convience in itself, allowing you to see who is or is not online and with a few clicks gives information about the player including their current level, class and what area they are in. You may also create different groups in your friends list if you wanted to separate them for whatever your reason may be. As for pets it’s about as simple as clicking your pet when it says it’s hungry and feeding it any assorted item you don’t need in your inventory though usually it will specify what food it wants which if fed it will make it grow twice as fast. Evolving is quite complicated but is also interesting as you can throw in different ingredients for the evolution and end up with who knows what sort of pet next.
This second part of the interface involves the guild system and the quests that are available throughout the game, which can be said have some big turndowns to them regardless of how useful they may seem at first. The guild system is much like the friends list only simply providing the same amount of information to the different people that are currently in the guild with their levels, classes, and current areas. The bad part of the guild system is if you leave or are expelled from a guild there is a 3 day waiting period to be able to join another guild, and in the case of people accidently being invited then expelled they have no choice but to wait out the 3 days. Now for the quests each providing exp some with fame and others with exp, fame and even rare items, while this may seem good at first there’s just one detail, they are all collection based. That’s right, all of the quests in the entirety of this game are collection based in some way, not a single kill x monster x amount of times to be found. Though really it might seem the same, collection based killing usually requires killing the monsters at a larger amount than the number of the item needed.
Combat is a section in itself, being based off the players attack speed or aspd, the player attacks either fast or slow accordingly. While it is a point and click game later on in the game you’ll soon find out that’ll you’ll be heading your mouse or fingers over to the hotkeys and carefully watching your hp(health points) and ap(ability points). Interesting enough each useable item and skill has it’s own speed, meaning that there is some delay between using them but it is not always specific since it depends upon the power of the item or skill. Some powerful potions have enough of a delay between using them that it makes the player cautious about how many enemies they try to take on at once. As for skills a player has to pay attention to how much ap the skill takes out when they use it so as to not run out or they may end up in a bad situation if they can’t use their skills to escape from it. This is no expection for pvp either, basically you must choose your opponents wisely as someone with faster attack speed or faster skill speed will most likely end up with you dead. Exp rate is also adjusted accordingly, sure high level monsters give a lot of exp but you’ll most likely die a lot, while a good party in a lower level area will provide with equally as much exp at a safer situation.
Now for the classes, one thing that caught my attention right off the bat was having the choice to start as a beginner class if you were unsure of what you wanted to play as or pick one of the main classes if you did while giving you a full introduction to the game. While this may be a good option there are some niches about each class that don’t truly give the player full control over what style they want to play. You can play as a Beginner up to level 10 at least, Warrior, Knight, Craftsman, Priest, Mage or a Jester. Warrior and Knight are obviously the melee classes while Mage and Jester are the ranged classes, Priest and Craftsman being somewhere in-between. There are significant differences to the Warrior and the Knight, Warriors are more of a one on one based class while the Knight is more suited to using area of effect skills both with large amount of defense and hp. Mages and Jesters have their obvious differences, Mages being elemental spell based while the Jester can throw darts or use a combo of skills. The Priest can be suited to a pure healer and supportive class or a player can forgo some of that effectiveness in turn for the ability to melee. Cratsman is in about the same situation either having to focus on crafting or melee skills individually. All this being said sadly there are very few ways each class can be made, good Warriors and Knight stats only involve some form of adding strength and agility along with very little vitality making a literal "tank" with even more hp impossible. Mages are stuck using some form of intelligence and wisdom, while Jester uses either pure intelligence or some form of strength and agility. Priest and Craftsman are perhaps the most confusing, being that it opts for using strength, agility, luck and wisdom in some form of manner for their individual melee skills or supportive skills.
As for the classes skills, each of the separate classes seems to have skills taken from their opposite side only to be unused. Warriors have area of effect skills but no where as near as good as a Knights, Knights have one on one skills but no where as good as a Warriors. Mages can use either ice or fire skills both with their advantages and disadvantages depending upon what monsters your going to be fighting. While Jesters have their choice of throwing darts or using comboing skills they tend to be very expensive. Priests and Craftsman have their mix of skills that can lead to much confusion, should you choose the melee skills but not be quite as effective as a Warrior or Knight? Or should you choose the supportive skills and be required to spend fairly large amounts of cegel the games currency? What’s interesting though is that sleeping, selling, trading, upgrading, pvp and fishing are skills you learn from NPC’s though you spend no sp or skill points in acquiring them, and you can even manual fish using your mouse which can be both fun and provide you with good items.
In the end if all of this seems confusing, disappointing or your thinking it’s not really your type game, I would definitely recommend it as something to try regardless of how you stand on cartoony MMO’s such as this one. Sure some might claim this as "grindy" but this game is only grindy when your not playing it right, get some friends or just find a good party and you’ll be having fun for hours on end. No game is perfect and this is no exception, so if your bored of whatever your playing and you can’t seem to find something to occupy your time this is definitely a good choice.
