In this day and age, it’s hard to be successful when it comes to turn-based combat games. The buzzword driving MMO and RPG development is action, action, action. Saying fi to that, Northern Tales: Flamefrost Legacy is a turn-based browser MMORPG put out by Epic Dragon. The game’s main view is an aerial view map where you move your icon (representing your character) around the grid like surface. You can interact with points of interest around the map that vary from shops to other characters. The only time you leave the world map is when you are battling, which brings the game into turn-based play and your character into view.
The combat is fairly vanilla when you get it figured out, starting out with no abilities and a basic attack it really leaves you wishing there was more from the get go. Right off the bat we got handed a bow and arrows which our character couldn’t equip, as well as two ranged combat moves which our character couldn’t use. Once you get passed speed bumps like this it becomes fluid and a lot more fun. There are thirty second timed rounds even when you are battling alone, which can catch you off guard if you aren’t paying attention. As far as PVP goes, you can battle other players right from the beginning of the game just by finding them and asking to battle. If you happen to lose in your adventures, it simply puts you back to the closest healer, which are usually stationed near the towns.
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As you would expect from any RPG you start out with a character creation screen. As for race you have the typical choices of human and dwarf, and then the troll-minotaur type race called the Tul’Rahx. Along with that you have three choices of class: Theurge, Wayfinder, and Vindicator, which are all pretty much fancy names for mage, ranger and warrior. Flamefrost likes to focus more on the lore and backstory of a character rather than skills and abilities. However, the background of your characters helps determine the amount and placement of the stats that you start the game with. After you’re done creating your character you have to choose a faction, one that will stick with your character throughout the game. The importance of your faction comes up in a lot of different parts, like determining which players are your enemies or allies according to their choice of faction.
Flamefrosts’ tutorial is very poorly crafted, if you could even call it one. After you gather yourself from a shipwreck, you talk with a man that was one of your mates on the ship. This is the guy that is supposed to teach you the basics of the game. Instead, he only tells you he can’t help and then points you in a direction of where to go to learn whatever you’re asking about. With little to no help in some areas you feel as if you have to figure this game out on your own, which is pretty rough but nothing so steep as say EVE or Black Desert in terms of learning curve.
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Flamefrost takes a while to get used to but once it does you realize everything isn’t as complicated as it first seems. While it does get easier to play it doesn’t get any more exciting. With the only animations being in combat and as half grade as they are, it may be hard to actually get into this game if those are what you typically look for. However, this game is extremely lore driven and thrives in story-telling, enough so that it could keep you around even if you aren’t a fan of these types of RPG’s. Northern Tales: Flamefrost Legacy is a great game for those who want something to play in their browser, perhaps at work or class, and don’t have a laptop powerful enough for any other sort of game.
This is also a special treat for our readers from the Flamfrost Legacy team:
We have created a Flamefrost reward code for your website - "mmorpg.com2016".
There is a special chat channel in Flamefrost named "Reward Codes" (accessible by pressing "Enter" in the game and selecting that channel in the drop-down box), which accepts any referral keys like this one.
Entering this particular code will reward players with a unique "Friendly Welcome Badge" item, improving all character attributes slightly.
