I’ve been trying to stay away from this one. My concerted effort to skip any and all upcoming Korean MMO’s due to my history with them was bound to fail. I really thought i could do it this time and stay away. In fact, I’ve skipped any opportunities to read up about the game and i certainly avoided participating in beta events. Other than my random curiosity leading to some stream viewing, i tossed this one in the pass bin before the notion of playing even began. I was done with Korean MMO’s for good.

Then the subsequent nudges from friends to try the game began. That coupled with the current doldrum we’re in right now MMO wise has only pushed me into the awaiting arms of yet another new game. Even with everything in the universe conspiring to get me in bed with another Korean mistress, i was still hesitant to do so. Unfortunately i then saw this informative video from someone that i have to curse at for rustling my jimmies. There are actually some good points i was surprised to hear about. The bad are still there of course. Those are unavoidable with this type of game unfortunately.

I like the fact that the game will require a time investment to achieve anything. This is my main gripe with anything out today in the market. Call me a fan of the old school model all you want but i just think game aspects are better when players are invested long term instead of disappearing for months at a time. Daily logging in isn’t foreign to me and i still prefer this play style over any other. This has been more and more difficult to find in recent years.

The art style and game world are absolutely spectacular. I was surprised to see that the map seems pretty open with no loading screens between zones. The fact that there’s no quick travel or flying is yet another aspect i absolutely adore. Want to get somewhere? Better start walking, or running, or riding! This makes a game world so much more immersive to me. Not being able to bypass it is something i wish more games would do. I like my quick travel to be handled by certain classes in game. Whether or not this is available in game is unknown to me though.

Also the character creator is absolutely phenomenal. Finally we have something that’ll surpass Aion in terms of options, which is six years old now. It took long enough but hopefully this feature inspires more studios to stop skimping on a feature i find just as important as anything else in the game. I know fully well that my first couple of hours in game is going to be spent on the character creator alone. Such is the gaming life of an appearance junkie i suppose. I welcome it though.

All this would be perfect if it were not for two major gripes i still have with the game. It’s still going to be PVP focused and it has action combat with no trinity. I’m not sure if i can overcome these two features and enjoy a game like this long term. I’m probably going to be spending the majority of my time dealing with both of these as they’re obviously the main selling points of the game. Am i a fool for thinking i can overlook such overarching aspects and still enjoy the game? Possibly and probably. I’m still going to make up my own mind by trying it instead of just writing off.