Twelve Sky Review: Brutal Faction War
By Mohammad Abubakr (Abubakr), OnRPG Writer
Twelve Sky is an MMORPG based around martial arts in an oriental fantasy theme of middle-age China. This game is for older gamers (17+) as it contains mature content (blood, alcohol reference…). You are however allowed to play the game if you have parental consent.
Factions
Twelve Sky offers you three different factions to choose from, which could be considered as classes if you’re used to other MMORPGs. These factions are constantly in conflict. Since these factions are enemies you are limited in character creation to one faction and if you want to create a character not of that faction you have to delete and start again. You can choose between the Guanyin, the Fujin, and the Jingong.
The Guanyin are a well balanced clan. They are balanced fighters, proficient in all weapons. They can wield a blade or just fight with their fists. If you aim for a character that is well balanced, then the Guanyin is for you.
The Fujin are the masters of the double-edged swords. The Fujin have the lowest defense, health, and chi (mana). To make up for this they are able to wear the most powerful armor. The Fujin are the fastest of all the factions. If you want to create a character that can attack very fast and wear heavy armor, Fujin is for you. I love to use dual blades, so I created a Fujin.
Lastly, you can join the Jingong faction. The Jingong are by far the strongest of all factions. To even out this power, the Jingong are slow. If you don’t mind coming late to a battle but dealing a lot of damage, I suggest you create a Jingong. Since Twelve Sky is based around martial arts, there is no mage class. Sorry! =[
Choosing between the three factions
Building your character
Like most MMORPGs Twelve Sky features a stat system. If you have played an MMORPG before you probably know what each stat does. You can skip this part if you are familiar with the stat system, but for newer players you might want to carefully understand each stat. Each time you level up in Twelve Sky you are given five stat points. You can do whatever you like with these points. To make sure you build your character correctly, I’ll give you a quick guide on how each stat works. There are four different stats you can level up; Vitality, Chi, Strength, and Dexterity. Vitality increases the player’s health points. Chi, obviously, increases the player’s Chi points. Strength increases the player’s damage, and Dexterity increases your chance to dodge and hit. Read the complete guide on what each stat does for every faction.
Graphics
The graphics in Twelve Sky aim towards an oriental feel. This goal is easily achieved, but the graphics aren’t the best, although the weather, such as snow, really helps to improve the graphics. I’d say the graphics are alright, not the best. The main problem is that you are not able to change the resolution! You are stuck with the default.. The graphics look good, but since my monitor is 19′ it requires a larger resolution to prevent the game from getting stretched.
Community
Like many other games, Twelve Sky has gold sellers. The developers knew this could become a problem, so you are able to ignore people. It doesn’t have to be gold sellers; it can be anyone who is bugging you. Just type in /ignore [name] and you are good to go! If you are new to the game, you can ask any person with [GS] (Game Sage) in their name, and they will gladly help you out! The GMs also do a very nice job with the daily events. Every day of the week offers a new event. For example, there is 2x EXP on Saturdays!
Gameplay
Twelve Sky plays like most other MMORPGs. You left click on a spot to walk there, left click to target and attack an enemy. Right click to change camera… You know how it works. Unfortunately Twelve Sky does not offer WASD movement. I was very disappointed when I found this out. Sorry to everyone who prefers WASD over mouse. When I first started Twelve Sky, I looked around for a starting quest/helper. Unfortunately there is nothing to help you start out, besides the basic tips you get. You are expected to find out where to train by yourself. You get your first beginner quest at level 14. At least that is the level for Fujins.
The gameplay is very similar to other MMORPGs. You kill monsters, level up, add stats and learn skills. Keep leveling and hope you find rare items. One thing you might notice is that monsters don’t always drop items. The interface in Twelve Sky is done very well. It is simple, but displays all the information you require to play the game.
One, out of many, feature which makes Twelve Sky stand out from other F2P MMORPGs is that you do not have skills in your skill book when you start. Although other games include this feature, most of them give you the skills to level up once you job advance. In Twelve Sky however, you must go to your trainer and learn the skills. Kind of like World of Warcraft’s system, but you don’t need to pay and you can level them up! You do however need to use skill points to learn and level up the skills (obviously). I highly suggest you learn the running skill. This will help you a lot when you are traveling long distances to your training area. One thing I don’t like about the skill system is when you level up a skill, you must place the new upgraded skill onto the hotkey bar again, or you’ll keep using the lower level skill!
Learning skills for my Fujin
Twelve Sky is mainly about the PvP. Although there will be much for all you PvE fans to do, the game is based around PvP. You can fight other players anywhere you like. You have the option to do a friendly fight, by challenging them to a duel. To keep things interesting during duels, no consumable items are allowed. This means you are not allowed to use potions, as this will result in the duel taking a very long time.
You can also just attack the player. Notice how I said player, and not enemy. Which means you can also kill your own faction! This is not recommended though, as you will get -1 honor per hit, and -100 honor per kill. Honor is only lost when you force attack someone in your own faction. You must be within 30 levels to force attack someone. This is to prevent all the high levels from owning the new players.
Another way you can PK (Player Kill) is by joining the various formations. Formations are level restricted PvP areas which open after a certain amount of time, depending on the level. The aim is like King of the Hill. You must capture the formation before the other factions. Once a player stays alive for five minutes in the middle of the formation, that player’s faction wins.
Not only do you feel proud, but the game rewards you by letting the winning faction into a secret cave. This cave lasts for one hour. In here you can find rare items. Once the one hour timer is done inside the cave, that formation will open up for another RvR fight after a certain amount of time. Your whole faction will also gain an additional EXP bonus if you win.
Dueling a player
Conclusion
I would like to thank everyone in Twelve Sky who helped me learn about the game, so I could accurately review it. If you are looking for a game that has intense PvP, you don’t mind training until you are able to enter the first one (Level 30), and do not care much for graphics… This is the right game for you!
Pros:
– Intense PvP
– /ignore command
– EXP per hit
– Daily Events
– Able to trade time played for Mighty Rewards
– Weather
Cons:
– Minimap in cities can get confusing
– Gold sellers
– No WASD
– No choice of resolution
– 17 years of age/parents consent require (Con only for kids)
