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Ether Saga Online Review: Ether Saga Online Review - Edit
6
Mediocre
| Pros |
 
|
 Rich Storyline |
| Cons |
 
|
 Generic Gameplay |
Overview
There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical that Ether Saga Online is a decent MMO, even for one that's free to play. Its title bar is still in Chinese, so you know localization hasn't been a priority in bringing the game to a western market. Your first fifteen levels are practically handed to you. Combat can be simplified to a single button press, and the game can automatically walk you to any quest objective you have. If you're not alarmed by this, the only sane assumption is that you're already playing Ether Saga and finding that it does, indeed, have its own brand of fun.
Story and Immersion
Ether Saga Online's story is based off the Chinese classic, Journey to the West (also known as The Monkey King.) Players are determined to be part of the sacred team that will journey westward to retrieve the sacred texts that were lost due to the Monkey King's antics. For those who love this tale, the game's telling of it is a real treat. A light-hearted take on the classic, most of the quests are only loosely related to the story, and are instead whimsical or silly side tales in the world itself.
Gameplay
Upon character creation, there are a few choices to make. There are three races or factions you can be a part of: Ren, Shenzu, and Yaoh. Each have a different back-story, but are functionally the same, except for their starting pet's appearance. There are six classes available: Rogue, Dragoon, Conjurer, Ranger, Shaman, and Mystic. You'll also need to select your character's date of birth and zodiac sign, which will influence which three Nascent skills they receive - a different set of three for each selectable day of the year, and each different per race. As players level, they're also capable of customizing their character by choosing affinities to provide them passive boosts to skills and attributes.
;)
As you start the game, you'll be given a series of tutorial quests that will help give you your beginner gear, teach you the basics of game play and, yes, get you to level 15 without killing a single creature. I'll note that this is a changed system from the closed beta of the game; while the tutorial quests still existed, there was a little more integration in the game than simply granting a level upon each tutorial quest completion, and I'm not sure why this change was made. In addition to tutorial quests, you'll be introduced to the in-game guide. The guide not only provides the basics of game concepts and game play, but also serves as an encyclopedia of such details as Nascent skill calendars, tameable pet lists and abilities, and even boss loot sorted by area.
Eventually you'll find your way to Pokari City, the main city of the game; this is where, for the most part, you're released on the world with your knowledge and allowed to get to the meat and bones of the game: quests and adventures.
Quests are more plentiful than your quest log can handle; those who love doing quests will not be disappointed. The problem with quests, however, is that you'll progress very slowly through the game: after hours of questing in Pokari City, five levels worth, I was still returning to kill the same low-level mobs around the city, with only two quests starting to break me out into more difficult areas. And for those who get lost easily, or prefer having maps or directions, don't worry: there's an auto-routing feature that will guide your character to any quest objective.
Adventures, on the other hand, are realm based instances, which you can also obtain quests for. Adventures also include "Warcries," which are essentially PvP arenas of up to six versus six. Each requires a set amount of players to begin (usually one to six), and the adventure interface will display the requirements, status, and number of players already present. A queue system is used to enter, although it's rarely necessary to wait for entrance. Although these can be done solo at higher levels, these are generally designed for group play, but will not force you to group with the players already in the adventure. Between the awkwardness of difficulty versus reward, finding a group, and the fact you can only queue for an adventure every 15 minutes, adventures felt like a strange implementation that could safely be ignored.
;)
For those looking for PvP, you will be forced to wait until level 45. Combat can be made against any other player, including that of your own race, and even those of your own clan or alliance. The PvP system is somewhat complicated, allows the looting of player dropped items, and includes an Infamy system which severely penalizes a player for killing lower-level players, or players without a PvP history. These penalties include slowed movement, reduced mana regeneration, hostility by the guards of cities and towns, and an experience penalty on death (reducing experience by 5% per death until it reaches zero).
User Interface
One look at the user-interface can see that it borrows heavily from World of Warcraft. The upper-left hand corner offers your character's current status. Below that are placed the mini-bars for pet status. In the upper right hand corner is the mini-map, which can track NPCs, players, and monsters, and has various radial buttons . A quest tracker appears below this. Along the bottom of the screen, from left to right, are located a chat window, the basic skill bar and the pet skill bar, and the various game menu options. Most of these UI options (outside of the skill bars and game menu) can be resized or collapsed, but cannot be entirely removed from the game screen, leaving you feeling a little choked.
There are a host of windows that can be opened: the character screen and attribute screen display the character's equipment, statistics, and affinities. There are virtue and title windows, pet windows, skill windows, in game guides, inventory, quest logs, access to the in game item mall, and yet more. There's even an in-game Event Calendar (and yes, there are dozens of events all day, every day.) In fact, it's hard to not hit a key and get some window popping up, blocking your view with information about something. A casual player might find themselves overwhelmed with keeping track of all the information they have to manage via so many windows.
I had some fun playing this game for a while, but after being set into the world you feel pretty lost for a good while. Not enough is explained without going to guides to figure out what to do. But atleast you can autorun to all the quests.
Sounds alot like Jade Dynasty, the game was fun for about a week. Now its just repetitive and boring, same as ESO. quests that seem to drag on forever, the same old kill a ridicules amount of mobs over and over. Its like the quest givers give the same stupid quests over and over again, and if you take multiple quests to kill the same mobs, you only get credit towards one quest. Meaning you will have to kill those same mobs again to complete your other quests
As a fan of the cult Japanese 70s tv show ( which translated into English as Monkey Magic) - I was rather let down by this game.
I only played the beta briefly so not sure if you get to , at a later stage get to meet Tripitaka or his disciples like you get to meet the main characters from Lord of the Rings story in LOTRO.
I think that if I want to reliive the adventures of Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy - I will just have to watch the dvds !.
I was very exited when I started playing this game thought would be a good one since had different ideas that in other games you won't see. Like everyone could transform in monsters if you get their card(which is not easy) but could grant you boost in stats and some even able to fly.
I love lvling with quests and at first you will notice your lvling pretty fast but once you get to go in other towns you will notice the exp reward from quests will start to give less and less and less till a certian point that if you werem't doing the daily quests and events you wouldn't lvl.
Dungeons are not easy and most of the time you will find some ks/er beating your mobs/bosses (dunno if they made them instanced now they were planning it) and some of the best exp reward quest were dungeon quests that you could barely do. Dungeons also had lvl limit so you couldn't wait till higher to do them.
Like in Jade dynasty and maybe PW(Didn't play it much) mounts ingame are very expensive and many choices of mounts in cash shop.
All in all I enjoyed the first few weeks I been playing this game I liked that you could transform in monsters you had their cards and the pet system but it still remains a big grind with questing.
The storyline and graphics are outstanding. Unfortunately I have to agree with the reviewer and some posters, some of the game mechanics drove me away from this game: 1) group dynamics and 2) mob grinding. As the reviewer mentioned it's very difficult to foster community here, and while I loved the quest stories themselves, the last time I was told I had to go kill another 25 of mob X, I just gave up. Grinding is what it is but I just wasn't willing to invest the time. Anyway, I would still recommend that you should at least try this game, I think it has great potential.
Pretty much agree with the review, although I would say that understanding that some of the simple things in the game are for the benefit of a younger audience.
Also, the click to move or click-to-go-to-quest auto run thing isn't forced in any way, and is a good option for those with limited abilities to play.
It's a fun, casual, pretty game. Pretty much what the review said.
Beau
The beginning levels of the game are a bit easy but the character transformations are quite neat. There is something appealing about getting to kill all the little cute things.
I don't think mmorpg.com gives Ether Saga as much credit as it deserves. I read some of the comments and reviews and I'm thinking, "are we playing the same game"? I've played to level 50 now and thought I'd weigh in. What I like about Ether Saga:
1. First and foremost, this game has the most lush, beautiful graphics that I've ever seen in a cartoon-anime based game. The water is realistic and the colors are just so vibrant. The characters don't look like they were drawn with MS Paint and the scenery is so detailed, I actually just fly around looking at stuff.
2. It has an extensive pet system. Pokemon anyone? You can capture, level, trade and sell almost all the monsters in the game. Each pet has it's own unique abilities, elemental affinity, and pitting one pet of one type against another of a different type can have advantages and disadvantages.
3. Flying Capabilities. Very early on in the game you get a free cloud to glide around on - which you'll need because looking at the graphics from above is sooo neat.
4. Transforming. You can collect cards in the game that actually allow you to transform into the monster of that card type. Which, like I was saying before, can prove advantageous depending on which card you pick.
5. None of the armor is boring. You start right off with a colorful, really detailed and interesting set. Some of the Armors I didn't even want to leave behind after I leveled up beyond them. The customization is pretty extensive in that, you won't see 20 of the same characters walking around in the same outfit with the same hair and same face.
6. Quest based game play. Leveling is based on quests, not on kills. Granted there is still the ubiquitous "kill x monster" quests and a little bit of a grind, you still don't have to sit there all day killing stuff.
6. The Possessor. If you don't feel like grinding on your own, just turn on the possessor and grab a sandwich and it will PLAY THE GAME FOR YOU. I've gotten about 5 of these just doing training quests.
After almost a year out of beta, the game has worked out a LOT of kinks and language barrier problems. Yes, there is the kill x amount of monster quests and a grind just like any other MMO. To be honest, it's not nearly the grindfest as other MMOs are. This is the first MMO where I actually made it to level 50 relatively easily. I think the game definitely ranks up there in the F2P anime based games.
That has got to be the lamest, dumbest, most idiotic "feature" I've ever seen anyone outside of botters use as a plus for a game.
That has got to be the lamest, dumbest, most idiotic "feature" I've ever seen anyone outside of botters use as a plus for a game.
I thought it was kind of strange too at first. I mean, if you want to play the game, why would you have a bot play it for you. I threw the feature in there more or less as a response to grinding and as an option the game provides for you.
I love this game
ive been playing since day 1 and its a pretty awesome game when your playing with friends and other people but when u solo its boring in the end i would have to say its not a bad game