Friday, March 23, 2012

Spirit Tales - A First Look - Beta Closed Server

http://st.koramgame.com/guide/

This has to be the cutest game I have ever played!  I'm sure its designed to appeal to the younger generation, specifically girls. That said its still a solid MMO and I spent far more hours in the game than I originally planned. I think what kept me in the game was the number of new types of gameplay and goals. Its not the typical grind fest I've come to expect from these free to play games.

SP Intro 1

Gameplay of Taylor and I

SP Intro 2

 

Troopie

Throughout the game I kept finding cute little things that made me laugh. Like the army troops named "Troopie." Or when switching levels paw prints replace the typical progress bar!

Changing Level Progress bar

Its the little things that make me remember a game for years. Seriously when will we see paw prints in a progress bar again?

 

The Story

Three tribes lived in peace and harmony until one day the Northern invaders attacked. The world is devastated because no one was prepared to fight. Finally pushed to the very bottom of the land the people regroup and start to fight back. You choose from three different tribes. Each tribe has two unique classes giving a total of 6 possible characters to choose from. Once you character is chosen you start off on your adventure working your way North determined to help take back your land.

image

I followed the story until around level 10. After that the story line seemed fairly repetitive. The quests are not the focal point of the game. In the Item mall (I assume this will be for pay to play items) they had an item called Telefether that instantly transferred you to the next location the quest called for. Once I discovered these I knocked out some serious quests and gained a few levels within an hour. That kind of took care of the story line for me.

The Characters

From the Gold Kirin tribe:  Fighter and Shaman

12

From the Maned Dragon tribe: Archer and Warrior

34

From the Lunar Fox tribe: Sorcerer and Assassin

56

I only played the Shaman since that typically fits my gameplay style. I like to sit in the background casting heals more than charging forward leading the pack. I also like to explore other parts of the game. To be honest I could do without the fighting all together. I like to see what type of economy exists in the game; or what type of crafting system it has. Sadly most games seem to have crafting thrown in as an after thought. Skills - TEAMMATES

One feature that really surprised me was only being able to heal IN A PARTY!?! While running along if I seen someone in trouble I must first ask them to party before I can heal. Most say no thinking I only want in on the boss kill. I made it to level 20 and didn't see a way to heal those outside of my party. 

This is a major turn off for me. One way I get into parties is by sitting on the sidelines casting heals. Eventually someone from the party comes over and asks me to join. Or if I see someone with 1/4 health while heading somewhere I always stop and cast a heal. Were all on the same side right? Not in this game. I would really like to know the reason behind this limitation. Really my Shaman is forced into being a Sorcerer but with fewer attack spells and power. Also look at the skills tree... NO REVIVE?? How can you be a healer and not have a revive skill?

This is really my one and only real complaint about this game. I have yet to play a game that doesn't allow healing outside of your own party. Several times I stood and watched a player slowly die and I could do nothing about it. 

You are able to reset the Skill tree and that's nice. This allows you try out several types of gameplay and tweak the tree as new spells come into play.

Item Crafting  Crafting

  Pretty straight forward. Looks like a few consumables and your classes weapons. The way this dialog is setup you would have a hard time not understanding crafting in this game. A huge plus because I have played games that after three months of playing I gave up on ever understanding the crafting system. You shouldn't have to go out to a webpage to figure out a major part of the game.

  Weapons never really wear out, sure if you don't repair them they may break in some games, but typically you can repair them forever. That feature in itself usually renders the crafting side of a game useless. That is what I seen here as well. As long as your weapon is repaired your good to go. I was only able to craft a few weapons and they did seem more powerful than any drops I picked up. But since they never wear out (if repaired) what's the point of making more than one?Character Info Dialog

Character Setup

The character setup is more about dress and less about configuring stats. There are all kinds of stats that show on the character screen but there is little you can do besides equip different items to affect these stats. Collection

That besides weapons there are all kinds of items the characters can wear. According to website there are over 40 million combinations of dress. As you can see in the picture above there are eight pages of headgear alone! The website also has a link for a Fashion Show. Currently it's a dead link but with this many combinations of dress I'm sure the fashion show will be up and running when the game releases. ClanThere also many pets that can be collected as well. These pets can fight with you or just tag along.

What About Clans?

The clan side of Spirit Tales is fairly well thought out. I found a clan fairly easily and was able to receive help quite often. Since I had a late start to the game I was of little help to anyone else. So to do my part I tried to contribute to the Clan Funds whenever possible.

The tax system can be put into play to buy islands that become available after your clan has leveled enough through clan quests. Members can also donate to the cause if they care to. The islands give the clan warehouse space inside their own private town.

Clan 1

 

Clan 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clan 3

 

 

 

♥♥♥♥ Relationships ♥♥♥♥

This really could be a great Social MMO. There is a lot here for groups to do together. Oh and I did I mention relationships? Yep, by expressing love to another player you end up in a relationship. This gives an automatic 5% buff when the two of you are in the same area. As the Love Meter goes up the buff percentage increases as well.

My son thought you should receive a -5% hit to defense if you break off the relationship.

Community - Relationship

Conclusion

I would say Spirit Tales appeals to the younger crowd but there is a lot for adults as well. It has a good interface and an easy to learn quest system. The maps "roads" sometimes seem restrictive if your used to being able to free roam. However that negative is easily offset by never getting stuck on something while running around. Tell your character to go to the other end of the map and it will. If you leave for a drink and come back you don't have to worry about it getting stuck on a fence somewhere.

The worlds are beautiful! Quite often I stopped to check out a rainbow in a valley or watch the sun set. I have to also mention how the world rolls as you walk. (watch the videos!) That takes care of the setting a render distance and gives a really cool effect in the process.

All in all this is a HUGE game. I didn't even mention PVP and most of the topics above are covered in a single paragraph. Just not enough to do any one of the topics justice. My guess is this will be a free to play so there's nothing keeping you from giving it a try once it releases.

Spirit Tales - Gameplay

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