Notes: I'm back. Yay.
Korean MMOs are a sub-genre of games that have gained a certain degree of infamy from the gaming community over time. Many would be quick to argue that there are, for the most, dime-a-dozen grind festivals, playing off the same bag of fantasy cliches over and over. More often than not they'll be free-to-play, but with the catch that you'll need to sink a serious amount of time or your own money in the game to get anywhere, lending them a dubious reputation as simple cash grabs. Dragonica Online is a game that doesn't do much to buck this stereotype, but even though it holds quite tightly to the formula, it's fairly well executed and perhaps worth a look in if you can get a few friends to play with you.
Dragonica Online's premise goes that way back in time, a god created the world of Dragonica, allocating the land to humans and the sky to dragons. Feeling pretty chuffed with his efforts, he went back to sleep, but as he slept humanity decided it couldnt live peacefully with the dragons and drew them into a war. The dragons were forced to retreat, until eventually one dragon, Elga, tried to take revenge, casting fire and destruction over great cities. A band of five heroes was strong enough to imprison Elga, and the world was safe once more, until now at least. A sorceress has now freed the dragon, and everyone across the land has been taken aback by the hordes of once peaceful, cute and fuzzy beings suddenly turning against humanity.
Well if they only found traces, I doubt she's all that alive.
You start by choosing from one of four staple RPG classes, Warrior, Magician, Archer or Thief, pick out a couple of facial features and get dropped into a tutorial before visiting your starter town, picking up your first few quests and getting into the game proper. Combat works in a hybrid arcade and RPG fashion; you'll begin with just a basic attack, but as you level up you gain points that can be put into your skill tree to unlock new moves, opening up possibilities bigger and more damaging combos. If you can chain together a combo to go on for long enough the experience you gain will be multiplied, and phrases such as "unbelievable" and "god-like" will flash up screen to cheer you on.
The progression between levels goes at a pace that can vary between being decent and rivalling a sloth, so to reward you in both the short term and the long is a monster counter at the corner of the screen. At intervals of 100, 300, 500, 700 and a thousand monsters slain you'll be granted a shiny chest, which will likely have some valuable loot in it, though sometimes you'll find a disproportionately lesser value item, like a glass of milk, which can be a kick in the teeth.
Throw enemy in air, start air combo, rinse, repeat.
Towns, cities and little outposts littered between monster occupied zones serve as nice quest and trade hubs. There's a nice, but not massive number of quests available for you to do at any one time, and most of them will involve you going out to kill a certain amount of so-and-sos, or finding a certain amount of thingamybobs by killing so many so-and-sos, and they'll often ask you to repeat the task a couple of times needlessly. The experience rewards for quests are usually fairly high, making a nice compliment to that gained from combat, but the number of quests you're allowed to take at a time is somewhat low, and the descriptions of where you have to go and what you have to do aren't always clearly understandable. Traders are happy to buy almost anything you come across which can help you create a steadily growing income for yourself, though most only sell a few basic things like potions and return scrolls, and the range of armour and weaponry for any one class isn't exactly bursting at the seams, unless you put your real world money into the cash shop.
Dragonica boasts a user interface and design stunningly similar to the World of Warcraft. There's a quickbar along the bottom of the screen, map up in the top-right, trackers for your quests on the left and small pop up windows for your inventory, stats, skills and everything else. NPCs with new quests even have the iconic yellow ! over their heads, which changes to a ? when you're ready to turn in. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though, as it's streamlined and easy to live with, but it's hard not to draw the design similarities when you've played both games.
The game isn't bad looking either, but there are more than a few complaints that can be made. It presents itself largely in an anime style, bordering on caricature, with nice bright colours and exaggerated features, like monsters' eyes popping out of their skull before they die. Sometimes it goes a bit far, like when it creates a broken glass effect on the screen, which serves only to obstruct vision, as can some of the foliage around the place. There are also some annoying glitches though, such as when a dead enemy doesn't fade out like it should, but rather gets up and stays in place with it's idle animation. They won't pose a threat, but it makes telling a dead ogre apart from a live one that could start throwing axes at you any second difficult, even more so when they accumulate.
It's like being in a wax museum...
Sound work is reasonable, but it might get on your nerves after a while. There is a collection of musical pieces that will play on a loop over a couple of zones, however they're all quite short and none are all that spectacular, so putting the music on mute and playing your own tunes through Winamp becomes a tempting prospect. Most actions have their own unique sound effect which does it's job, but again, isn't anything amazing and the very nature of the game, rapid firing attacks into dense mobs of enemies, can make the effects tiresome after a while.
The other big problem is how stunningly difficult and annoying the game can be when played solo. You'll find you'll need a hefty dose of healing and mana potions to get you through alone and even then, you'll likely die often, which will cost you money or experience. The classes appear to be set up in a way that ideally they work as a team of two or more, and this becomes very much apparent when you get to the mission maps (instance dungeons), which will require you to fight through one to four stages of monster mobs followed by a boss.
Bosses are defined in Dragonica as being a) bigger than regular monsters, b) having a ridiculous amount of health and c) having a lot of knockdown and area of effect attacks. One person by themselves can take them down, since their attacks go in semi-set patterns and you can make some sort of guess as to when to move and when to attack, but doing so is an incredibly tiresome endeavour that'll chew up healing items like trees to a wood chipper, especially with bad ping. What's more, the previous boss you've fought will usually be thrown in against you as well, dragging out the fight to some degree. The game will then judge you harshly.
Went though four stages? Killed both bosses by yourself? Pah! Your time is pitiful. Have an insulting grade and a crappy belt.
Alone you'll find Dragonica Online is a bit difficult, even boring, to play. The story breaks no real new ground, nor does the setting, and without friends to play with grind will become a real tedium. However if you do have a group you can play it with or even just another friend, it becomes a whole lot better. Fighting in a party is a much faster and enjoyable way to go through the game, and the instances become a lot more fun to complete. It looks nice, it plays well, but multiplayer is what it's really about. However, the game is also free, so if you have the time to spare and think there's any possibility you can get a few friends to play together, you might as well Download It.
Korean MMOs are a sub-genre of games that have gained a certain degree of infamy from the gaming community over time. Many would be quick to argue that there are, for the most, dime-a-dozen grind festivals, playing off the same bag of fantasy cliches over and over. More often than not they'll be free-to-play, but with the catch that you'll need to sink a serious amount of time or your own money in the game to get anywhere, lending them a dubious reputation as simple cash grabs. Dragonica Online is a game that doesn't do much to buck this stereotype, but even though it holds quite tightly to the formula, it's fairly well executed and perhaps worth a look in if you can get a few friends to play with you.
Dragonica Online's premise goes that way back in time, a god created the world of Dragonica, allocating the land to humans and the sky to dragons. Feeling pretty chuffed with his efforts, he went back to sleep, but as he slept humanity decided it couldnt live peacefully with the dragons and drew them into a war. The dragons were forced to retreat, until eventually one dragon, Elga, tried to take revenge, casting fire and destruction over great cities. A band of five heroes was strong enough to imprison Elga, and the world was safe once more, until now at least. A sorceress has now freed the dragon, and everyone across the land has been taken aback by the hordes of once peaceful, cute and fuzzy beings suddenly turning against humanity.
Well if they only found traces, I doubt she's all that alive.
You start by choosing from one of four staple RPG classes, Warrior, Magician, Archer or Thief, pick out a couple of facial features and get dropped into a tutorial before visiting your starter town, picking up your first few quests and getting into the game proper. Combat works in a hybrid arcade and RPG fashion; you'll begin with just a basic attack, but as you level up you gain points that can be put into your skill tree to unlock new moves, opening up possibilities bigger and more damaging combos. If you can chain together a combo to go on for long enough the experience you gain will be multiplied, and phrases such as "unbelievable" and "god-like" will flash up screen to cheer you on.
The progression between levels goes at a pace that can vary between being decent and rivalling a sloth, so to reward you in both the short term and the long is a monster counter at the corner of the screen. At intervals of 100, 300, 500, 700 and a thousand monsters slain you'll be granted a shiny chest, which will likely have some valuable loot in it, though sometimes you'll find a disproportionately lesser value item, like a glass of milk, which can be a kick in the teeth.
Throw enemy in air, start air combo, rinse, repeat.
Towns, cities and little outposts littered between monster occupied zones serve as nice quest and trade hubs. There's a nice, but not massive number of quests available for you to do at any one time, and most of them will involve you going out to kill a certain amount of so-and-sos, or finding a certain amount of thingamybobs by killing so many so-and-sos, and they'll often ask you to repeat the task a couple of times needlessly. The experience rewards for quests are usually fairly high, making a nice compliment to that gained from combat, but the number of quests you're allowed to take at a time is somewhat low, and the descriptions of where you have to go and what you have to do aren't always clearly understandable. Traders are happy to buy almost anything you come across which can help you create a steadily growing income for yourself, though most only sell a few basic things like potions and return scrolls, and the range of armour and weaponry for any one class isn't exactly bursting at the seams, unless you put your real world money into the cash shop.
Dragonica boasts a user interface and design stunningly similar to the World of Warcraft. There's a quickbar along the bottom of the screen, map up in the top-right, trackers for your quests on the left and small pop up windows for your inventory, stats, skills and everything else. NPCs with new quests even have the iconic yellow ! over their heads, which changes to a ? when you're ready to turn in. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though, as it's streamlined and easy to live with, but it's hard not to draw the design similarities when you've played both games.
The game isn't bad looking either, but there are more than a few complaints that can be made. It presents itself largely in an anime style, bordering on caricature, with nice bright colours and exaggerated features, like monsters' eyes popping out of their skull before they die. Sometimes it goes a bit far, like when it creates a broken glass effect on the screen, which serves only to obstruct vision, as can some of the foliage around the place. There are also some annoying glitches though, such as when a dead enemy doesn't fade out like it should, but rather gets up and stays in place with it's idle animation. They won't pose a threat, but it makes telling a dead ogre apart from a live one that could start throwing axes at you any second difficult, even more so when they accumulate.
It's like being in a wax museum...
Sound work is reasonable, but it might get on your nerves after a while. There is a collection of musical pieces that will play on a loop over a couple of zones, however they're all quite short and none are all that spectacular, so putting the music on mute and playing your own tunes through Winamp becomes a tempting prospect. Most actions have their own unique sound effect which does it's job, but again, isn't anything amazing and the very nature of the game, rapid firing attacks into dense mobs of enemies, can make the effects tiresome after a while.
The other big problem is how stunningly difficult and annoying the game can be when played solo. You'll find you'll need a hefty dose of healing and mana potions to get you through alone and even then, you'll likely die often, which will cost you money or experience. The classes appear to be set up in a way that ideally they work as a team of two or more, and this becomes very much apparent when you get to the mission maps (instance dungeons), which will require you to fight through one to four stages of monster mobs followed by a boss.
Bosses are defined in Dragonica as being a) bigger than regular monsters, b) having a ridiculous amount of health and c) having a lot of knockdown and area of effect attacks. One person by themselves can take them down, since their attacks go in semi-set patterns and you can make some sort of guess as to when to move and when to attack, but doing so is an incredibly tiresome endeavour that'll chew up healing items like trees to a wood chipper, especially with bad ping. What's more, the previous boss you've fought will usually be thrown in against you as well, dragging out the fight to some degree. The game will then judge you harshly.
Went though four stages? Killed both bosses by yourself? Pah! Your time is pitiful. Have an insulting grade and a crappy belt.
Alone you'll find Dragonica Online is a bit difficult, even boring, to play. The story breaks no real new ground, nor does the setting, and without friends to play with grind will become a real tedium. However if you do have a group you can play it with or even just another friend, it becomes a whole lot better. Fighting in a party is a much faster and enjoyable way to go through the game, and the instances become a lot more fun to complete. It looks nice, it plays well, but multiplayer is what it's really about. However, the game is also free, so if you have the time to spare and think there's any possibility you can get a few friends to play together, you might as well Download It.
