i enjoyed eden eternal but that game is published by aeriagames where they milk the game for money as much/fast as they can then move on to the next new game.

what im looking for

anime/cutesy graphics (dont hate D:)

fair cash shop - fluff only or no impact on pvp whatsoever (no gears/gambling/upgrade boosters)

pvp

fun instances

healthy population (steady influx of new players/not top-heavy)

that's about it. i dont care about quest/grind

edit: forgot to mention it doesnt have to be f2p. i just dont feel like spending $200+ to deck myself out for pvp. i did enjoy aion for a while but they added that horrible cash shop on top of sub...wtf????

What you're looking for isn't out there. Broken cash shops are a  feature of the vast majority of F2P games and X-Legend, the makers of EE and other anime/cute MMO's,  all have broken  CS.  There are a select few F2P MMO's that aren't strictly P2W but not surpisingly, none of them are any good.

You get what you pay for?  Nothing in life is free.

Ether Saga from Perfect World Entertainment? When i played it the cash shop was not an issue, dont know now because its been a long time since i played it. But hey its free.

Sadly Kitsu Saga from Aeriagames shut down but theres also Grand Fantasia from them, and Lime Oddisey comming soon i think.

Fiesta Online from Outspark

Iris Online

Luvinia online

Florensia online

Cloud nine

there are more but i cant get their names right now. All F2P, nothing to lose

EDIT: OP you also might like Legend of Edda, since you want a cutesy anime :D

From where IM sitting every MMO out of Korea is an Anime MMO, so you should have 100's to choose from.

Mabinogi, if you can deal with Nexon. The only thing from the cash shop that would be "needed" are mounts, if you want to move rather fast and hold items.

Its a classes game and has a rock,paper,scissors style combat. It can be very addicting and the instances (the shadow missions/dungeons) are fun. The game is currently going through some rather tough times, but it should rebound like it usually does.

Elsword is pretty much all pvp after a certain point, it is all instanced except for towns, and I don't think the cash shop is bad...

After that I suggest checking out more of Nexons games, or Perfect World Entertainments...Apologies for the rather starved post, a bit tired.

I wish you luck in your endeavors.

Originally posted by Clocksimus

 

You get what you pay for?  Nothing in life is free.

this statement is very very true. But sadly none of the sub based mmos we have so far worth the sub. Maybe WoW did but its already old. The rest are just not good enough for subs. IMO i would rather play a f2p with broken cashs hop (i dont buy cash shop anyway) until a good sub based mmo comes out or something like GW2 with box prices and no monthly fees.

Have you tried Wakfu?  Was just released recently after a pretty long beta.  It's not technically anime, as it's made by a French company, but it seemed to have an anime style when I played it (it's published by Square Enix).  Was too 'cutesy' for me, might be right for you.  It's isometric view though, takes a bit get used to.  It's f2p, there is also an optional sub, not sure about the cash shop, I only played in the beta.

Originally posted by Worstluck

Have you tried Wakfu?  Was just released recently after a pretty long beta.  It's not technically anime, as it's made by a French company, but it seemed to have an anime style when I played it (it's published by Square Enix).  Was too 'cutesy' for me, might be right for you.  It's isometric view though, takes a bit get used to.  It's f2p, there is also an optional sub, not sure about the cash shop, I only played in the beta.

I'm a fan of anime and I thought Wakfu's artistic style was pretty awesome. Again not exactly anime, but very similar. 

Decent anime genre mmo's are hard to find. harder still since knowing what you want and finding it compares closely to walking into a pitch-black room with a pissed off handful of critters and one cupcake, you may not win unscathed.

OP, thought about ffxi at all? I'd consider that anime though the graphics are kinda old.  Fair warning its not a pvp game. The class system is unrivaled imo. You can be anything from a samurai to a corsair.

FFXIV is a bit more updated if you want good graphics. I've heard the game has improved since launch. Can't tell you much about that game though.