Astellia Review In Progress - Star Callers Unite? - MMORPG.com

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Astellia Review In Progress - Star Callers Unite? - MMORPG.com

When it comes to new MMO’s entering the market, many keep their eyes peeled for the next big breakout hit. Unfortunately, for many of us MMO gamers, the genre has become rife with homogenized games that rarely, if ever, deviate into something truly spectacular. Does Astellia have what it takes to be a unique title in the ocean of mediocrity?

Read the full story here

Iselin

"...but it does seem a little strange to me that many of the Astels you get are little girls..."

I'm going to guess from that comment that the writer is neither a little girl nor a perv. That's why you find it strange.

fcwedd

Walks into Gamestop to buy Astellia.

Chris Hanson appears. "Take a seat."

gunklacker

i am going to give it a spin and see how it is. 30 days burned me out on classic wow

ReesRacer

I was led to believe through official announcements and even another recent review-in-progress that both the Warrior and Assassin classes had been gender "unlocked" and were available to play as female characters. Is this actually not the case as your column suggests?

Groqstrong

Thanks for the review, agree with it all. Its a decent 7/10 for me so far. I have some wierd UI issues also not the one you have but with the chat box when you scale your ui.

lotrlore

ReesRacer said:

I was led to believe through official announcements and even another recent review-in-progress that both the Warrior and Assassin classes had been gender "unlocked" and were available to play as female characters. Is this actually not the case as your column suggests?

Logging into the game to find this out for myself. I'll update once I do!

StevenWeber

lotrlore said:

ReesRacer said:

I was led to believe through official announcements and even another recent review-in-progress that both the Warrior and Assassin classes had been gender "unlocked" and were available to play as female characters. Is this actually not the case as your column suggests?

Logging into the game to find this out for myself. I'll update once I do!

No worries Bradford. Yes the warrior and assassin are gender "unlocked" which means you can be a male or female Warrior or Assassin.  However you cannot be a male scholar, mage or archer at this time.

Quizzical

ReesRacer said:

I was led to believe through official announcements and even another recent review-in-progress that both the Warrior and Assassin classes had been gender "unlocked" and were available to play as female characters. Is this actually not the case as your column suggests?

The official claim is that they're going to make it so that all classes can be either male or female. They've already done that with the classes that were previously gender-locked to male. For the others, if you want a male scholar or whatever and make a female one now, they promise that they'll offer a free gender switch for that character if you want it when they release the male version.

DavodtheTutt

"....which will allow you to build a team that will make your battles infinitely easier."

Ignoring the "infinitely" as hyperbole, I still suspect this is inaccurate -- what MMORPG gets easier as you go along? I expect that the enemies will scale up as you go.

And they're not little girls and furries, they're M A G I C A L creatures (imagine Spongebob Squarepants saying it as he slowly moves his hand overhead in a rainbow-producing arc), spirits from the stars or something like that. Although I can see how being surrounded by a harem of what even appears to be little girls could be creepy...

QuarterStack

fcwedd said:

Walks into Gamestop to buy Astellia.



Chris Hanson appears. "Take a seat."

What? I was just delivering this pizza, and I was concerned that they were home alone so I wanted to check up on them and make sure they were okay. Yeah, I drove 6 hours to get here. So what? Is that weird or something?

Mensur

QuarterStack said:

fcwedd said:

Walks into Gamestop to buy Astellia.





Chris Hanson appears. "Take a seat."

What? I was just delivering this pizza, and I was concerned that they were home alone so I wanted to check up on them and make sure they were okay. Yeah, I drove 6 hours to get here. So what? Is that weird or something?

Underrated comment right here... I pissed my self. Thanks mate

Exocrism

I very much hope that the Eu version will have an optional gender. Because I've always hated the restrictions, and I don't even match the gender of the game. Black dessert was an exception, the old mage actually fit into the game world. There was a problem, it was not realistic because his elder man had been moving young enough, but the damage to his abilities did not show that the old magician really passed through magic. Because the skills are terribly damaged! On the other hand, it would be nice if you didn't have to fight with a kid army to play the game! It's not that those kinky Koreans couldn't have been more creative! For me, these things break the fuse, but very much! I just don't understand what the hell needs to stick to such restrictions in a game like this. At the very least, the lore would explain why little girls are natural spirits and why only a female character can be a wizard!

F2Plague

This game is already toast. I was almost desperate enough to try it for 10$ (Currently laid off from work).
I hop onto the forums and learn that Streamers are already regularly streaming end game content...

End game content... the game isn't even out of early access yet!

Don't get me wrong I perfectly understand that these streamers no life anything they get their sweaty, carpel tunnel riddled hands on into oblivion. But the fact still stands that this game has only been out for 6 days...

Now we can write this off as another example of streamer culture ruining video games (It 100% does), but we can also dissect this information a bit and come to some other conclusions.

1. Not everyone can operate on a Streamers Schedule. Which means these guys probably solo'd a lot.
Which to me means, the game is not very team oriented, and most certainly lacks any form of difficulty.

2. Max level in a week and already nailing shut end game content. We can surmise the game is probably
pretty shallow. End game content does not seem to be very difficult to bang out either, from what I
have seen a trained monkey could handle the mechanics.

3. A Korean Title that is shaping up to have a very short life span. Lets be realistic here.. end game in 6
days, even if these people didn't sleep the whole time is far too short. I'm sure we can all smell a cash
grab by now. How much end game content do you think this game has ready for launch day? How
quickly do you think the publisher can roll out more content from the original game?

Conclusion:
This game will be dead before the people who pre-ordered use up their 2 month exp buff.
Wont be long before that cash shop is flooded with pay to win items in order to keep the lights on.

Needless to say I will be saving my 10$. Hopefully this information will keep your wallet safe tonight too!

VicusEQ

Getting to the endgame content in 6 days is not hard because you can start the end game content in your 40's.  Also streamers play for 8+ hours a day because that is how they make money...so it's not a "normal" 6 days of play time, that is full on grinding.  Most people will take 1-2 months to hit max level, which gives devs more time to release content after release.  ALSO some of the content is locked right now, the Devs said they would unlock it once it got to a week or two into live to allow those who didnt buy early access to not be at a disadvantage (hence their no p2w stance).  I haven't played it yet but I've been doing my research on streams to ensure I don't waste money, and right now I don't see a reason to not sub or buy the game.  Game launch has been smooth and there is plenty of launch content for a new MMO.  Only thing lacking is raids IMO, which is my favorite part but they do have 8 man dungeons currently...so thats something.

Anyone who says this game is already toast or just a cash grab havent watched any Dev videos.  The Devs have actual Korean employees in their San Diego office to make sure there is a smooth transition of the Korean version (p2w) into the US version (no p2w).  That alone means this is not the "normal" korea cash grab game.  It wont be perfect but they are trying to do this one right and are off to a good start.

ashianatigerlily

I've been waiting for a long time for a new MMORPG to come out (Pantheon: Rise...) and actually gave up gaming for IRL activities (and got things done). I do addict to games so I have to keep that in reign.

I loved BDO's beauty but hated open world PVP and the P2W aspects. Co-founded and built a great fun guild that fell apart over the PVP and how it affected everyone in the guild. Moved on and tried several old titles, but they all lacked that certain beauty that Korean games seem to have.

I'm not a loli fan, but in this game I hardly notice, TERA freaked me out at first with it's sexy childlike Elun, but I got over it. I'm not staring at my character or anyone else's, but playing the game instead. In Astellia the first Astel most players get, Rota, although childlike in appearance is actually a clockwork creation and a tank. You go on to collect up to 32 more pets that you must utilize wisely according to the situation due to energy usage. They definitely help you both in gameplay and with crafting.

The game is quick for the motivated to get to the endgame asap...or is it? There is much to collect, elevate, and learn. There are easier classes and hard ones - and with a magic class that is mobile! Yes, you can play it on your own, but much more slowly. It's best to find a guild that suits your needs. Fortunately I found one that is social and has non-Astellia events as well. If you want the best experience in any MMO, find a guild that uses voice comms like Discord where you can all laugh together, or plan strategies, play other games like Jackbox or Cards Against Humanity, have karaoke nights, etcetera.

Barunson is hard set against pay to win and have made mainly cosmetics cash shop items. There is some pay to convenience stuff available, and loyalty shop perks as well. I used to be against even P2Convenience until I realized that there is a vast portion of players that can't devote 16 hours a day due to IRL restrictions. I want them to be able to play as well and not always be behind - fun people come from all sorts of circumstances.

Sure there are players who've hit the first milestone of maximum level, but that's just the beginning. I'm taking the slow route as some things become unavailable after you level past them, then comes the requirement to build alts to complete regional maps. I'm not a min-maxer, more immersive completionism style. There is something for every type of player to do, and I've heard talk of a raid being introduced down the line. My only complaint is the lack of player housing - I really miss WildStar's sky plots with their versatility with plugins and how you use every item you place.

My question is what are the gaming demographics at this time? Think of all of the retirees/early retirees who are looking for something, how about the audience who values beauty as much as content. There are a multitude of players out there that don't want to MOBA/PVP or only do so, and most are looking for a social community that's mixed in every way. Beautiful graphics games bring in those who need aesthetics as well as gameplay. Astellia has content for everyone: PVP (separate map), arena, PVE.

Astellia won't burn a hole in your pocket at $10 month, or instead $30 for the whole game. That's either 2 Starbucks coffees/month or @ 2 hours/day = $0.167 hour for the $10 option, 6 coffees total or ??? per hour for the buy to play copy as long as Astellia runs.

I'm here for as long as they let me, it's so pretty and I don't have to worry about getting ganked every time I go gathering...

Quizzical

F2Plague said:

This game is already toast. I was almost desperate enough to try it for 10$ (Currently laid off from work).
I hop onto the forums and learn that Streamers are already regularly streaming end game content...

End game content... the game isn't even out of early access yet!

Don't get me wrong I perfectly understand that these streamers no life anything they get their sweaty, carpel tunnel riddled hands on into oblivion. But the fact still stands that this game has only been out for 6 days...

Now we can write this off as another example of streamer culture ruining video games (It 100% does), but we can also dissect this information a bit and come to some other conclusions.

1. Not everyone can operate on a Streamers Schedule. Which means these guys probably solo'd a lot.
Which to me means, the game is not very team oriented, and most certainly lacks any form of difficulty.

2. Max level in a week and already nailing shut end game content. We can surmise the game is probably
pretty shallow. End game content does not seem to be very difficult to bang out either, from what I
have seen a trained monkey could handle the mechanics.

3. A Korean Title that is shaping up to have a very short life span. Lets be realistic here.. end game in 6
days, even if these people didn't sleep the whole time is far too short. I'm sure we can all smell a cash
grab by now. How much end game content do you think this game has ready for launch day? How
quickly do you think the publisher can roll out more content from the original game?

Conclusion:
This game will be dead before the people who pre-ordered use up their 2 month exp buff.
Wont be long before that cash shop is flooded with pay to win items in order to keep the lights on.

Needless to say I will be saving my 10$. Hopefully this information will keep your wallet safe tonight too!

You're seriously arguing that no-lifers reaching endgame within a week proves that a game is toast?  By that argument, Guild Wars 1 would have been terrible.  It says right here that Guild Wars 1 is the best game ever made.  Therefore, your argument is invalid.

Quizzical

DMKano said:

VicusEQ said:

Getting to the endgame content in 6 days is not hard because you can start the end game content in your 40's.  Also streamers play for 8+ hours a day because that is how they make money...so it's not a "normal" 6 days of play time, that is full on grinding.  Most people will take 1-2 months to hit max level, which gives devs more time to release content after release.  ALSO some of the content is locked right now, the Devs said they would unlock it once it got to a week or two into live to allow those who didnt buy early access to not be at a disadvantage (hence their no p2w stance).  I haven't played it yet but I've been doing my research on streams to ensure I don't waste money, and right now I don't see a reason to not sub or buy the game.  Game launch has been smooth and there is plenty of launch content for a new MMO.  Only thing lacking is raids IMO, which is my favorite part but they do have 8 man dungeons currently...so thats something.

Anyone who says this game is already toast or just a cash grab havent watched any Dev videos.  The Devs have actual Korean employees in their San Diego office to make sure there is a smooth transition of the Korean version (p2w) into the US version (no p2w).  That alone means this is not the "normal" korea cash grab game.  It wont be perfect but they are trying to do this one right and are off to a good start.

Have you seen how utterly dull end game dungeons are?

Single pull every mob - and just tank and spank.

Boss - tank and spank - dodge 1 shot mechanic


There is zero tactical combat just a boring whittle down the bosses health for 20min.

The gameplay is bad, end game fun factor 1/10.

The game is dead on arrival 

As opposed to all of those other MMORPGs with endgames that aren't terrible?  If you want endgames that aren't terrible, you're looking in the wrong genre entirely.

Kyleran

DMKano said:

VicusEQ said:

Getting to the endgame content in 6 days is not hard because you can start the end game content in your 40's.  Also streamers play for 8+ hours a day because that is how they make money...so it's not a "normal" 6 days of play time, that is full on grinding.  Most people will take 1-2 months to hit max level, which gives devs more time to release content after release.  ALSO some of the content is locked right now, the Devs said they would unlock it once it got to a week or two into live to allow those who didnt buy early access to not be at a disadvantage (hence their no p2w stance).  I haven't played it yet but I've been doing my research on streams to ensure I don't waste money, and right now I don't see a reason to not sub or buy the game.  Game launch has been smooth and there is plenty of launch content for a new MMO.  Only thing lacking is raids IMO, which is my favorite part but they do have 8 man dungeons currently...so thats something.

Anyone who says this game is already toast or just a cash grab havent watched any Dev videos.  The Devs have actual Korean employees in their San Diego office to make sure there is a smooth transition of the Korean version (p2w) into the US version (no p2w).  That alone means this is not the "normal" korea cash grab game.  It wont be perfect but they are trying to do this one right and are off to a good start.

Have you seen how utterly dull end game dungeons are?

Single pull every mob - and just tank and spank.

Boss - tank and spank - dodge 1 shot mechanic


There is zero tactical combat just a boring whittle down the bosses health for 20min.

The gameplay is bad, end game fun factor 1/10.

The game is dead on arrival 

Interestingly enough your endgame assessment actually appeals to me.

I'm not a fan of "Dance with the Stars" or action combat, I'm just here for the progression so tank and spank sounds just fine, probably pretty easy to watch Netflix while playing.

If I wanted interesting, engaging and exciting combat I'd go join the US Marines.

  

Quizzical

Kyleran said:

I'm not a fan of "Dance with the Stars" or action combat, I'm just here for the progression so tank and spank sounds just fine, probably pretty easy to watch Netflix while playing. 

If all you want is progression, then why not just play a clicker or idle game, such as Clicker Heroes or Adventure Capitalist?  Games like that offer progression in its purest form, without really having any other features to interfere with progression.

Tindale111

The point about some people getting to max level in 6 days is a bit moot ,Wow classic was done in under 4 days and i expect that every mmo that has come out probarly has had someone do it in less that a week ok maybe not EQ but that shouldnt be the reason to put you off .Im not defending the game i havent tried it yet but i think their business model is pretty fair you can buy for around 30 bucks or try for 10 for a month for anyone on the fence trying a game for 10 bucks seems a great idea to me 

st0rmM0nk3y

I decided to try this game out. It is beautiful, but as far as being a great MMO? RPG? I don't think so. I paid the $9.99 to sub for a month to see if it was worthwhile, but I'm pretty disappointed. This game, to me, is nothing more than a glorified watch it play itself browser mmo. The kind I try to stay away from because every minute in them bores me.

Someone explain to me how I'm wrong.

azonic69

Exocrism said:

I very much hope that the Eu version will have an optional gender. Because I've always hated the restrictions, and I don't even match the gender of the game. Black dessert was an exception, the old mage actually fit into the game world. There was a problem, it was not realistic because his elder man had been moving young enough, but the damage to his abilities did not show that the old magician really passed through magic. Because the skills are terribly damaged! On the other hand, it would be nice if you didn't have to fight with a kid army to play the game! It's not that those kinky Koreans couldn't have been more creative! For me, these things break the fuse, but very much! I just don't understand what the hell needs to stick to such restrictions in a game like this. At the very least, the lore would explain why little girls are natural spirits and why only a female character can be a wizard!

Mrawglrlrlglelrre LEelrglergelrlggelrr grearlglrearelr.

Sorry, but that's how clear you are.