This game, and it's publisher, are unexplainably atrocious. I despise ijji.

Pijama

So I've been looking for an MMORPG to play (like everybody else) and I decided to give this game a try, seeing as I've heard of it over the years and didn't even know it was released.

My first experience with ijji at all was when I got into the Huxley beta when that game was finally put into some kind of testing after 6 years of being under wraps. Needless to say, the game was very unintuitive, awkward controls and more than enough times did you get errors (why the hell do you start the game from the website?) that left your account locked in for hours so that you couldn't even log back in.

 

Well, if you think that's bad, ijji wants to remind you why they are the worst publisher of free2play MMORPGS in the world. If it wasn't bad enough that the download link is ridiculously hidden in the entire website, but after you get the game installed, you get sent to the website (I see no real feedback has been taken since this was the method of launching Huxley; nobody must have complained!) to click "Game Start."

 

Does the game start? Whoops, nope! Looks like you didn't download REACTOR, the ridiculous ijji-made pseudo-platforming half-webbrowser spawnchild of the worst appealability in the world.

 

Look, I don't know how you guys are, but I'm very skeptical about putting random shit on my computer. One time I downloaded Mabinogi with it's download manager and I got a virus. Needless to say, I deleted Mabinogi and completely cut myself off from their publisher (nexon) entirely. I refuse to play nexon games. I'm no idiot, I did nothing to get a trojan. It was all Nexon's terrible download manager.

 

Either way, installing REACTOR was another thing I'm skeptical about. While it was installing, I was browsing some sites. Without your consent, REACTOR also implements it's addibility into Firefox and doesn't uninstall itself when you delete it! So, when the installation was done, my Firefox restarted. (You have to remove the REACTOR .add files from Firefox yourself. They don't show up on the Addon screen.)

 

Either way, I went with all this garbage, skeptical enough, REACTOR.exe and all, to begin playing the game. You'll recognize the interface quite quickly because it looks like a Korean version of Steam, fit with stupid cash shops, dumb lists of currency and options to install every other garbage game ijji has ever released. When you finally launch REACTOR and click on "Soul of the Ultimate Nation" to run the game; guess where you go? REACTOR acts as a web browser and sends you right back to the website for the game! You click gamestart anyway! REACTOR exists for absolutely no reason! Woohoo!

 

Then I launch the game. There's only one server and two channels, which should give you some idea of the population. Character creation is a complete drag as the way you choose which class to roll (Valkyrie, Berserker, Dragon Knight or Elementalist) is articulated by four characters, wearing identical looking armor and in identical stature, staring at a boss. The worst part is, when you click on one, it zooms into the character creation screen which you then have to press 'back' on to zoom out and watch the 3 second cinematic again in case you didn't randomly pick the class you wanted.

 

Alright, so I picked an Elementalist, chosen a face and hairstyle from the 5 availabie (3/5 faces and hairstyles are rehashed with palette swaps). I entered the game.

 

The first thing you'll notice is that nothing is on your action bar except "Auto-attack" and "Sit/Rest". There is no indication of your abilities or how many you have, however you have the option of randomly pressing "K" to access your skill/spellbook.

 

You're then instructed to do a couple quests to collect armor and stuff. Okay, this is what really bugs me the most. First of all, there is NOBODY in the area from level 1-10. Not to mention, every single quest you do and every single monster you kill is the exact same as the first quest and monster you ever do. Your very first quest in the game you killed 3 Beastmen Sentries. Then you kill 3 more. Then you kill 3 more. It's the same model every time. They didn't even bother trying on this part, honestly. I didn't get past level 10 so I can't tell you anything. What's the point? The first hour of a game is supposed to draw you in, not give you a foreshadowing of how fucking boring the inevitable asian grind is going to be for the remainder of it.

 

Oh, by the way, when you assign spells/abilities to your hotbar, there are input issues. I would be standing in front of a monster, auto attacking, spamming "2" and "3" to try and use Fire Missle or Ice Blast with both of them off cooldown and it would just sit there auto attackign for four seconds. I was not lagging in any sense. The game engine is atrocious and the combat feels very awkward.

 

Not to mention, this game is operted by point and click with this hilarious option to move with WAQE. Yeah, you read that right. You strafe with Q and E. Are you even being serious right now? This game offers 'adaptive abilities which react to your movements of strafing, backing up or moving forward' and you are controlling your strafes with Q and E? Turning left and right is obviously given with A and D, but you turn with the mouse anyway (which is done by left clicking, not right clicking, like most modern day MMOs).

 

You're probably saying, Pijama, what's the problem, why don't you just rebind the abilities, afterall there is a "Key Mapping" option on the options menu, isn't there?

 

Yes, there is a Key Mapping option on the options menu. Contrary to what you might think, though, you can't set up any controls! It's just a splash image of a keyboard and a list of controls! You can't change a single thing! ^_^

 

Oh yeah, the translations are garbage too. Extremely awkward grammar and spelling at some points. You can tell it was done with a translator. This game is complete garbage, don't waste your time with downloading it and ijjis terrible game manager REACTOR. Move along, there is honestly nothing to see here.

djhellsinki

You could try webzen's SUN,but i don't know if it's any better.Anyway the game was made by(original publisher?) them so some things might be better,such as service and population.

MajHavok

Interesting, what you were actually expecting from a F2P game. Did you expect WoW? I have played this since the open beta in October. I took to this game more than I did any other MMO I have played, yes I have played a couple from GW(for three years), Karros Online, D&D online,and Champions Online to name some recent ones. I have played three of the four races and all my characters are over level 70...

The graphics for a F2P are top notch, of course they aren't perfect. Character creation is limited and gender locked no big deal.   I didn't experience the cut scene every time I changed characters...Combat does have it's hitches but overall  responsive.  Movement is W,A,S,D, this is like  a few other MMOs I have played, or "right click" to where you want to go, so I'm not sure your problem unless adaptation is one of them. The mouse buttons for look are opposite of most games, but you get used to it. Yes, key mapping is non-existant, and that is bad.  You can use the "tab" key to target enemies you do not need to just point and click. You move the skill from your skill tree to your bar where you can use a skill either by clicking on it or hitting the corresponding number and they have cool down...so what do you do when a skill is in cool down, hmm, well stand there or  auto attack...PvP is not my area so I'm not one to comment although the PK system is a little unforgiving to the victims. And there are high levels that prey on lowbees for armor drops(something that can happen if PKed), but new players are safe to level 20.

As for Reactor all iJJi games use Reactor and it tells you that on the front page of the website if you look under installation instructions...you DO NOT have to integrate it into your browser, or use the start game button on front page. If you read you would have seen that as well. I'm sorry you choose not to go past level 10 (I do agree with you there are hardly any new players).

Grinding???? Really,  from someone who never went past 10, you actually can get to level 94-95 by just doing missions...no real grinding. Even trying to get to 130 (current level cap) you just repeat missions which you could call grinding but not in the true sence. The game is not for hard core MMO players, as the content isn't coming out fast enough. There are some "ok" events and contests every now and then. it is a nice diversion to hop in and play.  I'm on most nights and find something to do or someone to help out. Your experience should not stop anyone from trying the game, as there are thousands of others still playing. I would say give it a try if you don't like it after playing you have only lost time.

socalsk8tr

first off for someone that didnt even play past lvl10 u cant realy say much as for gameplay on anything theres still alot of actual gameplay thats yet to be released for us such as skill combos as well on this version of the game.

secondly as for your computer's antivirus reading the game or the reactor as an trojan program this happens when playing mmos online sometimes merely cause your computer doesnt recognize the file type or any of its associations i have kaspersky 2010 and it has a gaming set up just for this kind of problem.

ive been playing the game around a month so far ive already reached lvl95 on one character the lvling is fairly easy which is a releif seeing as the last mmo i stuck with takes 250 mil from lvl 100 to 101 making lvling anymore beyond this pointless

however this game is based mainly around its pvp aspects, there is alot to do in the game pve wise such as area conquest but alot of that entails getting groups of ppl together for killing rare spawns that have tons of hp or luckys wich no matter what lvl u are u can only do 1-5 damage or so depending on equipment.

graphics wise this game has some pretty good graphics most ijjis games use the unreal 3 engine giving the textures a much richer color and makes it look less cartoonish in my opinion theres large land scapes making traveling around kind of a pain but hey at least youve got something pretty to look at lol.

theres still alot to be released in this game they are taking there time releasing new content but i think that the sooner they release it the sooner theyll lose players having seen some ppl with new shadow characters at lvl100 within three days of the shadow patch being released. I for one am looking forward to the rest of the crafting list more quests another lvl cap increase to 150 ridable mounts and the skill combo system ive read about on the full versions of the game already released in other countries

im srry your personal experience with the game was bad and you dont care for the company however go play one of iggs games if you think this company is bad especialy on a game like tales of fantasy where its free to play but all the events in the game are surrounded by buying platinum their in game cash shop currency

like purchasing 6000 over the course of a week and youll recieve an epic permanent mount however 100 platinum is = 5.50 $ in usd making that mount cost u well over 300 real life dollars

shassell

Ouch! some fierce criticism there. Watched this in development for awhile then thought it had dissapeared, wife found it and downloaded, fromm ijji.com as they support UK. She didn't have many probs or trouble, and for a free to play it looks really good and seems to play quite well. I've payed a good few pounds for MMO's that were junk but this seems quite a decent game. Free to play with cash shop doesn't seem the evil bogey i first thought it would be, might even flex the plastic for her... if she's happy then the world is an ok place...

just2duh

 All complaints aggainst the ijji version are no longer valid, ijji is closing it's doors to SUN and are moving it's players over to a new server on the Webzen version (which has more content, less effective CS items along with cheaper prices).

  If you have characters there you want to keep you need to apply for a transfer or they will be deleted :P

 Not only that but the orginal Webzen servers no longer have an ip block, so if population (or the way that population worked) was an issue, now would probably be a good time to try the Klippe server, it has the most activity I think i've ever seen in the game.