A while ago I was looking at a game called 9Dragons by acclaim and when I got my new video card I was going to try it, but since then Ive heard nothing but bad things about it....is it really that bad?
Like most asian mmorpgs the first 20 levels are easy. Then you hit the grind wall and everything slows to a crawl.
"I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone." Robin Williams
No, it's not bad at all. It has great fighting animation and authentic oriental martial art flavor.
But imo there are two serious flaws in it:
1) Grinding is made worse by the fact that dev. are VERY VERY slow to add in new content. Instead they increase the xp required to level to delay people's exit from the game for lack of new maps/skills. Grinding is the reason most upper level players quit.
2) Skills: all skills got unique animations, but much of that great work goes to waste. Because you need to grind training your skills, so naturally ppl will stick to the most powerful ones. In the end, same skills get used over and over with same animation ----> boring.
There are many other small flaws like class balance issues, and lacking quests and poor quest rewards etc. But those are the two that made me quit playing.
I didn't like how vagabonds get treated not just by the developers for how they designed exp gain, but also by the players. Its really hard to get into a party when you are using a perma-vagabond.
Also like others said. Kick ass fighting animations, just like Fung Wan Online. However, just like fungwan the lack of updates and contents makes it suck.
Not a bad game just very hard to lvl at a certain point and yeah it does become a grind fest after that.. But the plot is amazing and the graphics are very smooth (unlike 2moons which people somehow think it looks better ...BULLSHIT) The players also seem to be a lot more helpful and kind then in 2moons... Give it a try, you wont be disappointed..
Well this game is one of those asian grind-a-thon game. But this game isn't really that bad, what it has of is plenty of atmosphere (specifically that of ancient chinese wu-shu world). However if you're gonna talk specifically about gameplay the game is your typical "click to move" asian grind fest. It is fun for the first 50 levels then it becomes simply rediculous as the amount of grinding you need to level up past Five Dragons level (lvl 60) is simply rediculous and get even more grindy (imagine getting 0.02% xp per kill and gets worse) but that's understandable for a level based advancement system. As for skill, it uses a point system that levels up the more you use the skill kinda like UO's system, that's fine and all except that the major disappointment here is that 9 out of 10 of your attack skills are worthless (most people simply take the first skill and level it to max then get the last skill of each category type you'll learn at around level 70 and max it -- there's simply no point in taking all the other attack skill), simply put an amazingly broken skill system.
Each of the clans has 4 classes altho they are named differently and "seem" to have different fighting styles but that's just an illusion, the skill set are all the same but with different graphics/names. A Wu-tang "white tiger" (hybrid class) is not much different from a Beggar's sect hybrid class. The most popular clans are of course "Wu-Tang" and "Heavenly Demon" this creates a disproportion in regards to player economy. See some skills like "light foot" that allows you speed travel are restricted to specific clan specific spell scrolls (ie. Wu-Tang members can only use Wu-Tang light foot scrolls/books). The books/scrolls are very rare random drop from monsters that you defeat. This creates a disproportionate demand and high price for specific clan members to pay.
The 4 classes are of course standard of most RPGs you get the warrior/fighter class, the mage class, the hybrid (melee/mage/hybrid) class and the buffer/priest class. The most popular ones are the mage and hybrid class and the least popular are the warrior and buffer/priest class. The reason is while warriors can solo on their own while in the early levels, once they reach their mid-high level they find it harder and harder to solo as mobs tend to hit harder and harder and the warrior/fighter simply cannot stand up to prolonged fights. Hybrid class tends to have the easiest time soloing (even soloing bosses which nobody else can do) due to their extremely good ability to both heal themselves and fight. This creates a disproportionately high number of Hybrid class and shows that the class system is "unbalanced".
One last issue that broke the back is that Acclaim seems to have no interest / don't care / can't do anything about balancing the game. When pressed for answers it seems all they can do is say that their hands are tied by the Korean developers and they can't do anything about it. Such passing the blame is simply sad. If you're gonna publish a game then at least have some form of creative control over your product. Note that the game hasn't been updated with new content for the past 6-8 months and it only recently (December 2007) has a patch been released to fix bugs and a little content update. A lot of players who "used" to love this game has left and hasn't looked back.
i don't recommend playing this game... unless you want to spend a huge amount of hours on a game that you will inevitably quit due to lack of content/updates....
i played in the beta, at first i was like wow, these animations are great and all the weapons and armours looked visually pleasing, but once i hit level 50 or so i got bored, there was nothing new, it was the same old animation on the same old monsters.
I'm not a big expert on the area, but the game have good graphs, I have been playing for 2 weeks and never have a problem. Nice tools to comunicate with other user and change the view of the area. Finally I personally love the idea of the different martial arts and the ability to battle with other users in groups too.
I also played during beta and like most people back then i enjoyed the game...for a while. The grind was just too tedious of a task (with the lack of AoEs) and nothing changes after you reach a certain point in the game. A certain point that you reach pretty early that is. I Had in time learned every skill to the Fire Demon class (which i was pretty P.O.ed to find that we couldn't learn flaming sabers and other saber techniques. I mean come on, it was in the class description for crying out loud) and maxed most of the skills at FD 7. At this point seeing the same attack, the same animation, and nothing all that exciting to look forward to i just stopped playing all together. It has been god knows when since any real updates (New skill, Items, Clans, etc) have been implemented, This is one of those games where there pretty much is no such thing as endgame. Even if you get to level 160 and join the advanced clans you will never get much farther than that. With around 260 levels of countless grind time this game i fear is doomed to die out. To those of you who did decide to stick around and grind your life away, may god have mercy on your soul
The shadow lives, fights, and dies in darkness so that the light can continue to shine.
It's a grindfest with no new MMORPG elements. The combat is also extremely simple. the enemies don't even have a unique "recoil" animation when being hit. It looks like your sword is going through them while the same animation is being played over and over again until the enemy is dead or you are dead. The graphics are also horrible even with the best settings (have a hard time seeing stuff sometimes because of the horrible contrast settings - everything is so blurry). Rappelz is similar, and is a really boring game too, but at least it has better graphics and better combat system.
Gameplay: FUN! Till you reach level 20 or so, then you can count on spending countless hours grinding away, dealing with Kill-Stealers, etc.
Censorship: HIGH! 3 characters of mine have been banned due to Names, etc. Not names like "F*CKFace" or anything like that. No, names like "RongDingDong" and "MonkeyPoo". Just silly names in general. I'm assuming they have 2 year olds playing that might take that as "offensive". The chat is also highly censored.
Put it this way, if you're over 12, or offended by ANYTHING--- AVOID.
You won't get "banned" right away though- they'll wait till you've played a few months, built up your character and THEN ban you.
Yea, a bit of a grind-fest, but at least you can always pick up Quests to boost experience.
I'm not keen on Pet Systems either. Just more stuff to bog down player advancement. Why spend all my energy & time boosting a "Pet" when I could Boost My Character??
ive played this for a few weeks now, im lvl 43 at the mo, at lvl 40 the grind starts getting a bit heavier, its not ridiculously slow tho
i must say im suprised by this game, i like it graphics are good enough, cool animations/kung fu techniques, stuff like tomes/elixirs give the game some more depth. It aint too hard to make money, community is overall friendly, only seen one goldspammer that spammed during the night, didnt see him when the (v)gms woke up =p
something that wasnt so nice was the recent virus attack on acclaim which also affected my computer (i had a crap anti-virus, my own fault) but hey shit happens... i havent seen a gm so far, but the vgms and mods are very active and dedicated!!
yea there aint many updates but the latest was one with a whole new quest line, and the quest rewards can be quite rewarding in xp or items.
MMOs currently playing: - About to play: Lord of the Rings Online Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
Comments
mostly people hate on it, and yet have never tried it...
I know I never will try it, I hate these kind of asian grindfest games... but I wont judge it, it may actually be good.
So what people say sometimes doesn't matter, one mans trash is another mans treasure
It's a fun game, you have nothing to lose except your time. Try it make your own opinion.
Like most asian mmorpgs the first 20 levels are easy. Then you hit the grind wall and everything slows to a crawl.
No, it's not bad at all. It has great fighting animation and authentic oriental martial art flavor.
But imo there are two serious flaws in it:
1) Grinding is made worse by the fact that dev. are VERY VERY slow to add in new content. Instead they increase the xp required to level to delay people's exit from the game for lack of new maps/skills. Grinding is the reason most upper level players quit.
2) Skills: all skills got unique animations, but much of that great work goes to waste. Because you need to grind training your skills, so naturally ppl will stick to the most powerful ones. In the end, same skills get used over and over with same animation ----> boring.
There are many other small flaws like class balance issues, and lacking quests and poor quest rewards etc. But those are the two that made me quit playing.
I didn't like how vagabonds get treated not just by the developers for how they designed exp gain, but also by the players. Its really hard to get into a party when you are using a perma-vagabond.
Also like others said. Kick ass fighting animations, just like Fung Wan Online. However, just like fungwan the lack of updates and contents makes it suck.
Not a bad game just very hard to lvl at a certain point and yeah it does become a grind fest after that.. But the plot is amazing and the graphics are very smooth (unlike 2moons which people somehow think it looks better ...BULLSHIT) The players also seem to be a lot more helpful and kind then in 2moons... Give it a try, you wont be disappointed..
My objective review:
Well this game is one of those asian grind-a-thon game. But this game isn't really that bad, what it has of is plenty of atmosphere (specifically that of ancient chinese wu-shu world). However if you're gonna talk specifically about gameplay the game is your typical "click to move" asian grind fest. It is fun for the first 50 levels then it becomes simply rediculous as the amount of grinding you need to level up past Five Dragons level (lvl 60) is simply rediculous and get even more grindy (imagine getting 0.02% xp per kill and gets worse) but that's understandable for a level based advancement system. As for skill, it uses a point system that levels up the more you use the skill kinda like UO's system, that's fine and all except that the major disappointment here is that 9 out of 10 of your attack skills are worthless (most people simply take the first skill and level it to max then get the last skill of each category type you'll learn at around level 70 and max it -- there's simply no point in taking all the other attack skill), simply put an amazingly broken skill system.
Each of the clans has 4 classes altho they are named differently and "seem" to have different fighting styles but that's just an illusion, the skill set are all the same but with different graphics/names. A Wu-tang "white tiger" (hybrid class) is not much different from a Beggar's sect hybrid class. The most popular clans are of course "Wu-Tang" and "Heavenly Demon" this creates a disproportion in regards to player economy. See some skills like "light foot" that allows you speed travel are restricted to specific clan specific spell scrolls (ie. Wu-Tang members can only use Wu-Tang light foot scrolls/books). The books/scrolls are very rare random drop from monsters that you defeat. This creates a disproportionate demand and high price for specific clan members to pay.
The 4 classes are of course standard of most RPGs you get the warrior/fighter class, the mage class, the hybrid (melee/mage/hybrid) class and the buffer/priest class. The most popular ones are the mage and hybrid class and the least popular are the warrior and buffer/priest class. The reason is while warriors can solo on their own while in the early levels, once they reach their mid-high level they find it harder and harder to solo as mobs tend to hit harder and harder and the warrior/fighter simply cannot stand up to prolonged fights. Hybrid class tends to have the easiest time soloing (even soloing bosses which nobody else can do) due to their extremely good ability to both heal themselves and fight. This creates a disproportionately high number of Hybrid class and shows that the class system is "unbalanced".
One last issue that broke the back is that Acclaim seems to have no interest / don't care / can't do anything about balancing the game. When pressed for answers it seems all they can do is say that their hands are tied by the Korean developers and they can't do anything about it. Such passing the blame is simply sad. If you're gonna publish a game then at least have some form of creative control over your product. Note that the game hasn't been updated with new content for the past 6-8 months and it only recently (December 2007) has a patch been released to fix bugs and a little content update. A lot of players who "used" to love this game has left and hasn't looked back.
9dragons is the junk its mad fun and creative
Basian Baby
but yeah it did get boring after a while
Basian Baby
its not that bad, its worse.
The only thing missing is apet system but still is a great game
The skill system is great too
i don't recommend playing this game... unless you want to spend a huge amount of hours on a game that you will inevitably quit due to lack of content/updates....
i played in the beta, at first i was like wow, these animations are great and all the weapons and armours looked visually pleasing, but once i hit level 50 or so i got bored, there was nothing new, it was the same old animation on the same old monsters.
i have quit since then and i haven't looked back.
I'm not a big expert on the area, but the game have good graphs, I have been playing for 2 weeks and never have a problem. Nice tools to comunicate with other user and change the view of the area. Finally I personally love the idea of the different martial arts and the ability to battle with other users in groups too.
I also played during beta and like most people back then i enjoyed the game...for a while. The grind was just too tedious of a task (with the lack of AoEs) and nothing changes after you reach a certain point in the game. A certain point that you reach pretty early that is. I Had in time learned every skill to the Fire Demon class (which i was pretty P.O.ed
to find that we couldn't learn flaming sabers and other saber techniques. I mean come on, it was in the class description for crying out loud) and maxed most of the skills at FD 7. At this point seeing the same attack, the same animation, and nothing all that exciting to look forward to i just stopped playing all together. It has been god knows when since any real updates (New skill, Items, Clans, etc) have been implemented, This is one of those games where there pretty much is no such thing as endgame. Even if you get to level 160 and join the advanced clans you will never get much farther than that. With around 260 levels of countless grind time this game i fear is doomed to die out. To those of you who did decide to stick around and grind your life away, may god have mercy on your soul
The shadow lives, fights, and dies in darkness so that the light can continue to shine.
It's a grindfest with no new MMORPG elements. The combat is also extremely simple. the enemies don't even have a unique "recoil" animation when being hit. It looks like your sword is going through them while the same animation is being played over and over again until the enemy is dead or you are dead. The graphics are also horrible even with the best settings (have a hard time seeing stuff sometimes because of the horrible contrast settings - everything is so blurry). Rappelz is similar, and is a really boring game too, but at least it has better graphics and better combat system.
Graphics: EXCELLENT! A+
Gameplay: FUN! Till you reach level 20 or so, then you can count on spending countless hours grinding away, dealing with Kill-Stealers, etc.
Censorship: HIGH! 3 characters of mine have been banned due to Names, etc. Not names like "F*CKFace" or anything like that. No, names like "RongDingDong" and "MonkeyPoo". Just silly names in general. I'm assuming they have 2 year olds playing that might take that as "offensive". The chat is also highly censored.
Put it this way, if you're over 12, or offended by ANYTHING--- AVOID.
You won't get "banned" right away though- they'll wait till you've played a few months, built up your character and THEN ban you.
Actually Suki, I liked Rappelz.
Yea, a bit of a grind-fest, but at least you can always pick up Quests to boost experience.
I'm not keen on Pet Systems either. Just more stuff to bog down player advancement. Why spend all my energy & time boosting a "Pet" when I could Boost My Character??
Out of 10, I'd give it a 7.
ive played this for a few weeks now, im lvl 43 at the mo, at lvl 40 the grind starts getting a bit heavier, its not ridiculously slow tho
i must say im suprised by this game, i like it
graphics are good enough, cool animations/kung fu techniques, stuff like tomes/elixirs give the game some more depth. It aint too hard to make money, community is overall friendly, only seen one goldspammer that spammed during the night, didnt see him when the (v)gms woke up =p
something that wasnt so nice was the recent virus attack on acclaim which also affected my computer (i had a crap anti-virus, my own fault) but hey shit happens... i havent seen a gm so far, but the vgms and mods are very active and dedicated!!
yea there aint many updates but the latest was one with a whole new quest line, and the quest rewards can be quite rewarding in xp or items.
MMOs currently playing: -
About to play: Lord of the Rings Online
Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
9dragons is not bad after playing few hours. However I do hate the embedded ads.
Nothing like having the view of whats attacking you blocked.
I really agree with that, the embedded ads are too big and way too much.