MMORPG.com's Joe Iuliani has been spending some time trying out IGG's ZU Online and today he files this preview report.

Character creation begins with choosing your Zu mascot. These mascots are based on the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Besides having a cute and cartoony mascot you also benefit from the fact that, “during the blessed hour of you mascot you will get twice the result for half the effort”. This can be an important factor when choosing your mascot. I went for the one from the year I was born, then l I realized that it did not corresponded to the times I played. Lucky me.

Next you choose your faction. The factions are more of a training philosophy. It appears that all factions use the same common areas. A quick summary of the factions are:

• Tai: The Power of the Element
• Wu: Renascent Energy
• Xun: Soul and Faith

There are bonuses and penalties to the faction you choose. I haven’t found what they are yet. But during this selection stage it is mentioned rather clearly...

Finally you choose the clan (character) you would like to be.

The characters of Zu are imbued with fantastic physical and magical abilities. Players can choose from your “standard” gaming classes: tanks, casting, dps, healing and summoning.

Check it out here.

First!

I have a lvl 32 Moonmaiden

I hate MMO's that are F2P and have Item Malls that are the only way to be able to play when you get ahead in game and that all just for money...thats just stupid.I think that all the devs that make Item Mall like a part of the the game and a must for future playing in the game,i think they are 100% pricks and dont know the meaning of a real F2P.

Originally posted by m00r3

I hate MMO's that are F2P and have Item Malls that are the only way to be able to play when you get ahead in game and that all just for money...thats just stupid.I think that all the devs that make Item Mall like a part of the the game and a must for future playing in the game,i think they are 100% pricks and dont know the meaning of a real F2P.

I agree, its a way to get you into the game "the game is free" but then to say "but now you have to pay to get to the higher level".  Its a hook. I like the item malls that make things easier like Silkroads loot monkey that just picked up your loot for you.  Or item malls that have costumes that make you look unique, and cooler but the states of the items aren't any better than what you can get as a drop.  In other words item malls that have luxury items instead of items that give you a leg up above the non-paying people.

Let me tell you few thing about this game , it has a lv cap at 300 and i had a lv 115 char

on lv 120 if you don't buy equipment for a pet you get really gimped and from lv 120 equp. for pets is for real cash and they are bound (cant trade)free game my ass lol and pet is important in this game it changes your atack and def stats and so on.

And there are senior pets that you can get from senior eggs , and this eggs cost around 100$ for one and he get you a lot of bonus power and so on .

So no ZU isn't really a free game and it isn't fair for paying people to ,because if you cant spend alot of cash and someone can then he will be far better then you .

Well not being that high yet i have to see to belive imo ,

Still having great fun with this game but i play it casual about lvl 25 atm

but i havent checked item mall for this game , i know silkonline premium service is pure scam ridiclous expensive for what you get.

Just had a look at it (lvl 16), and im quite impressed.

pros:

- Superb Map Navigation (One-Click to find your NPC)

- Great Chatting System

- Nice and Clear UI

- Newbie Motivation (Item Drops, Quests etc.)

- Nice Teleport/Ride System

- Well done tutorial

cons:

- Some Sounds stolen from WoW (Equip etc..)

- Music stops playing from time to time

- Some quests need partys/friends (which can be hard to find sometimes/when you're lowlvl)

- Some Faction (Race) Stats not proper explained

- The Crafting-System looks too complex (But then again some people dig that/See LotR:Online)

I will def. try this game out for some time.

See you in-game!

F2P game is not free indeed.

I'm spending some time on this game. It's about grinding though it's cartoonish.

F2P is exactly that...its free-to-play.  Looking different or advancing later on is optional{costs RL money}, but the game is still free-to-play...