Atlantis Online

Standard Korean MMO for most intents.
Twist is you create a party with mercs you recruit and can evolve up, upto 9 mercs per player (every many levels you can have additional one) and the combat plays as turn based strategy (HM&M/final fantasy/whatever fans?).
There’s PvE and PvP and you can party with 3 others (upto 27 creatures on the battle field per side).

It also get a bit lineage-y at some point with running entire cities and doing raids of sorts…

How come there isn’t a Qt3 guild there yet?

Korean games are terrible and at some point they’ll expect you to pay real money to accomplish anything. Would be nice if they could all stick to a standard subscription for once. I don’t buy into this “spend 50 dollars on experience cards and elite items because it’s cheaper than a mandatory 15 dollar a month subscription” bullshit that a lot of their games hawk.

I kept seeing banner ads for it here and thought it looked interesting, yet that “Korean MMO” bit has made me hesitate.

They also tend to go with a borderline anime look that just doesn’t quite capture the look of real Japanese anime and looks like garbage instead. Unless it’s made by the Ragnarok Online guy (or the Aion guy for that matter), the art tends to be terribly generic.

Personally, I’m as anti Korean MMO as it gets…but I thought we can storm in, do our thing, and pull out if it gets too much yawn like after a while.
Heck, they use RMT to support the game so it’s free, so it’s basically zero risk.

I’m downloading it.

It’s hard for me to get into any games where I know there are some strings attached and I don’t like them. I have no problems with subscriptions because they’re a flat rate. Everyone who’s playing the game is paying the same amount and sits on an even playing field. Having to pay for items or experience cards or crafting materials for better items just doesn’t work for me.

Look man, I’m not going to debate RMT with you, it is moot…probably because we’re on the same page here anyway, but…my perspective is this:

  1. It cost me nothing to play this - can’t get burned if product turns out shitty like a redneck’s backyard/sewer system.
  2. If I hit a brickwall reading “pay to progress” then I’m just hitting delete (no strings what-so-ever).
  3. I’ve tried just about any other game, I’m tired of everything else, I’m tired of replaying old singleplayers, too, needed something more new.
  4. This is kinda TBS shtick that I haven’t had played in a long while and might enjoy it again (and the entire grow-your-own-party shtick on Granado Espada ended up tanking after they nerfed the design).
  5. No matter what I play, soloing kind of suck balls after being over a decade in the MMO space…I NEED other people to play with me to make it the least bit ‘o’ fun.
  6. Running around with Qt3ers in a MMO provides for a much more interesting and enjoyable experience (not to mention awesome idle chatter between 'bouts).

I played for 5 minutes and then uninstalled. The combat is early Final Fantasy rather than Ogre Tactics.

The banner ads are friggin’ everywhere on MMO sites. How can you not have the real name “Atlantica” seared into your vision?

I was actually interested in trying the thing since the combat is supposed to be of the TBS variety. Fascinating for a MMOG and a subgenre I was hoping for in the now defunct Tactica Online that was in development.

Ten Ton Hammer was giving it fairly high marks during Beta and their release review raves about the game.

THe final thought reads thusly:

I fell in love with Atlantica the first time I played it, and I tell anyone who will listen that it’s a terrific game. It’s groundbreaking in that it requires gamers to think a little instead of just mashing buttons, and it’s rare in that it has earned the highest review I have ever given a game in my time with Ten Ton Hammer. I could stop playing pretty much everything else and be happy with just this game for a long time to come.

Finally, as I have already noted, NDOORS has shown a dedication to keeping the game 100% F2P for those who don’t want to spend money. The merchandise available in the item mall does not break the game but provides conveniences to those willing to spend some cash. Unless you have a serious axe to grind with F2P games, you owe it to yourself to try Atlantica Online.

THe two highlighted items (which I have seen repeated elsewhere) are the driving force behind my willingness to try. If I was not all covered up in WoW, I would give it a shot. Maybe in a few months.