Recommend me an MMORPG...

[BlackLurker]

A friend of mine is up and ready to play with me again, and she wants to burn some time with an MMORPG. She picked the last two, though, so she wants me to pick out one.

The previous two we've played together are Luna Online and Flyff. She likes the cute stuff, and so long as someone's being stabbed, smashed, sliced, or exploded with pretty colors I couldn't really care.

Any chance the Escapist can give me a few suggestions? Before anyone does, let me state a few guide lines:

1: The Game must be free to play. Yes, the quality compared to games you pay weekly/monthly for will be lesser, but that's a sacrifice worth taking for a free game. Everything we need to be able to play should be readily available in game.

2: Standard Fantasy RPG type. Sword and Sorcery, but Light Hearted coloring and details. Both Luna and Flyff were examples of the kind of thing that she enjoyed, and while she says it's my choice what to do next, I wanna pick something that she already has a predisposition towards. Again, so long as the peoples are being made dead, I can't say I care all that much.

Optional: Things like Costumes or Pets or whatever the bonus items are that the game has should be capable of being purchased from other players for in game currency. Yes, we are fickle and broke as heck. I'm sure as hell not gonna deny it.

I'm looking at Dungeon Fighter Online a little, and it seems like it's cool. I tried Dungeons and Dragons Online, and I just plain didn't like it, if that says any further about my tastes. As for her, if I may sound like a jerk, she seems to just enjoy the supportive/squishy options in games and likes being able to customize cute characters. Any chance you guys can suggest an MMO for me and my friend? I'll provide more suggestions if there's anything you wanna know before you suggest something.

 

[Chris Barber]

Dungeon Fighter Online might work but I don't know much about it.

NEStalgia is free but it's turn-based and your friend might not care for something modeled after, well, NES era RPGs. There are subscriptions but they're entirely optional. And while you won't be able to use the dyes and costume related things, you will by this month's end be able to capture monsters to use as pets/party members. And soon be able to have your own player housing in the form of boats. So it's something.

If curious I suggest typing "NEStalgia MMO" into YouTube and finding the trailer. That'll give you a far better idea than anything I could say here to explain the game. It's very much a niche game so it might not be for you guys.

 

[JCBFGD]

Runes of Magic. Straight-up WoW rip-off, right down to the art style, except RoM has a dash of anime added to it. It also has some unique things like dual classes and player housing. I enjoyed it, but I quit because I leveled so fast that I never had enough time to do all my quests. That's the only complaint I had, though.

 

[ThongBonerstorm]

right now you can play WoW or something like WoW that isn't quite as good

 

[AzureRaven]

Fiesta seems like something you'd enjoy. It's pretty well done. Gets a little grindy in the upper levels, but it's still not all bad.

 

[BrailleOperatic]

Mabinogi is a fun game, but it unfortunately suffers from Nexon Customer Service, so if you ever lose your password or get hacked or something you're fucked. But if you're willing to brave playing a Nexon game, I think it'd be right up your alley.

 

[Shinsei-J]

DragonNest its still in open beta but damn its good.

 

[ModReap]

I'm looking at Dungeon Fighter Online a little, and it seems like it's cool. I tried Dungeons and Dragons Online, and I just plain didn't like it, if that says any further about my tastes. As for her, if I may sound like a jerk, she seems to just enjoy the supportive/squishy options in games and likes being able to customize cute characters. Any chance you guys can suggest an MMO for me and my friend? I'll provide more suggestions if there's anything you wanna know before you suggest something.

Definitely go for Dungeon Fighter Online, however it does not have any really "supportive" classes except for a full support crusader.

Edit: oh and dragon's nest is coming out soon so have a look at that too.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

right now you can play WoW or something like WoW that isn't quite as good

Or Eve. But somehow I don't think that's what the OP is looking for.

 

[Kae]

Mabinogi is a fun game, but it unfortunately suffers from Nexon Customer Service, so if you ever lose your password or get hacked or something you're fucked. But if you're willing to brave playing a Nexon game, I think it'd be right up your alley.

I play this game and I like it but before you play I must warn you that mounts cost real money and if you play for free you will only have a mount the first week, I play completely free cause I'm broke and it's kind off annoying to walk everywhere but you can fetch a ride from time to time by asking random people since most mounts are for 2 people, also the combat is rather odd so I would suggest watching some video on Youtube before you decide.
As for some positive features It has a story mode and it's not bad, there are 4 different classes but you may combine the abilities as you wish since you can get all the abilities, you can even have no class but that way the game will be harder, also a neat feature is that you age as the game progresses (you age per week), you can start at 10 year old although I never saw the appeal on that BUT when you turn 20 you can do a Rebirth which let's you re adjust you're age and more importantly you're level now although you go back to lvl 1 every time you do this you keep all of you're skills just as they were and you level up very fast in comparison to other MMOs, and this doesn't really make the game that much easier BTW, anyway by far my favorite feature (although very minor) is that you can have a flamethrower, it's not a gun you see it's alchemy but it's a flamethrower and it's my main skill, and I went on for too long and I better end this here.

 

[Shadrouge]

I've played Flyff before, but not Luna Online.

As far as I know all these suggestions have a F2P option to varying degrees:

Dream of Mirror Online (DoMO):
Gameplay looked similar to Flyff when I looked at it last. Even has a flight mechanic, where people fly on their swords and such. Graphic style looks very similar to the two games you mentioned.

Maple Story:
Cutsey manga graphics, but very different gamestyle. 2D platforming game with emphasis more on real time combat. I've heard a lot of complaints about hackers in the past, though I only saw one or two when I played. The game style lends itself to lots of secret passages and places hidden behind scenery that you'll just find.

Rose Online:
Looks similar graphically, but I have no idea what its gameplay is like. I don't think you can fly in this one... But I'm not sure. There's some pictures of them with wings, but they could just be aesthetic.

Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online:
Not really cutesy, though is anime-esque. It's a little grey at times, but the gameplay revolves more around the devils that you tame and use for combat, sort of like pokemon. You fight alongside the creatures I think, but there are a lot of them to tame from the wild, or discover by merging ones you already own. You don't get many slots for monsters unless you pay though. Controls can take a little getting used to also. I enjoyed the concept of this game, but got bored quickly because I had no friends to play with.

(Three pictures because it's a bit different to the other ones.)

 

[Sinspiration]

Perhaps Mabinogi? Very, very interesting concept with that one.

Other than that, I don't really have any suggestions.

Edit: Oh, Rappelz is pretty damn awesome too, but it lacks the 'cutesy' element.

 

[Googenstien]

Everquest 2 Extended is a free to play server and it offers quite a bit for free, but like others will eventually require you to spend a little eventually.

Lord of the RIngs Online isnt that bad, I am not a fan of it but I know people like it alot and since it went free to play it has really taken off with people buying things from the e-shop making the company tons of cash.

I think these are the best free to play MMOs out and I have tried most, they dont try to hide that you will spend in the e-shops eventually if you really are into the game.. which every free to play game is designed around. I do actually think its overall cheaper to subscribe to a full game.. in EQ2 for example you can trial the game and afer 14 days just pay the 14.99 a month and you dont have to buy the boxed game at all (only would have to buy the last expansion which you dont really have to bother with until you are at end game pretty much)

 

[The Pinray]

Got Steam? I'd recommend Forsaken World. It's pretty damn fun. Completely free-to-play. You don't even need Steam to play. It's a great game. Good tutorial quests, simple to get into.

 

[muskrat_love]

Phantasy Star Online

http://schtserv.com/

It's my most favorite game ever, and it's the first ever online console game. Never really feels grindy, tons of awesome and legitimately interesting quests, and you can fight your first boss by level 5 if you know what you're doing. It's great. Just a warning though, this server takes a bit to get into. You need to use a gmail account while registering, and I'd recommend reading up on what Mags are before getting into it. Also, search the forums for the download files. Actually no, here they are.

http://schtserv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=12422url

Do the first download.

Edit: This game IS free. Everything about it is free. EVERYTHING. No cash shop or anything. Also, if you do choose this game, I can help you get started in it.