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Swords of Legends Online Review - Chinese MMORPG Features
Butcher79
Legend of the Ancient Sword is a colorful and enjoyable PvP MMORPG from YYinc.
This summer, Gameforge plans to launch European and American servers for the Chinese MMORPG Swords of Legends Online (hereinafter simply SOLO), which went into open beta testing in its homeland in 2018. In order to give you an idea of what this MMORPG is all about, we have collected all the information about the various features of SOLO (of course, based on the Chinese and Taiwanese versions).
Although Legend of the Ancient Sword is an MMORPG, it is still more like a MORPG, where the world is divided into small zones-instances. All of them, in turn, are well filled and colorfully detailed. As for the theme of the project, it is more of an oriental fantasy. A great choice if you're looking for something like Moonlight Blade. As mentioned above, the gameplay of the project now looks much more interesting.
Most mobs signal a powerful attack by giving a special red signal and at this moment, by pressing the W, A, S, D keys, you can dodge in the right direction. There are two types of attacks, normal on LMB and powerful on RMB, which consumes mana and stamina. In addition, you can use a huge number of skills and make combos out of them, including air ones (like Blade & Soul).
There are six classes in the game so far, these are DD (damaging) Warrior with a scythe, Cleric (healer) with a staff, Mage with an unusual dragon staff, Warrior with a one-handed magic sword, Warrior with two-handed weapons and Warrior with two khopesh swords. Each class has a unique type of attack, weapons and skills. So far, there is no tank in the game, and dodges play the main role. It is not known if this class will be added in the future, but so far it looks pretty interesting.
In general, the popular Havoc engine, oriental style, various PvP and PvE modes, non-target and colorful graphics - what else does a good Asian MMORPG need? Of course the plot. Here he is represented by a classic confrontation between good and evil, and it is still difficult to say how good he is, since there are no direct reviews of the game passed yet. Let's hope that the developers will not leave this element in last place and it will become a nice addition to a good concept.
And now let's go into more detail:
Donation
One of the important aspects of any MMORPG is donation. The Chinese developers did not get smart and filled the range of the donat store with a large list, I would even say just a huge amount of “cosmetics”, from costumes to decorations for a personal home. Based on a recent stream with Gameforge representatives, they will not change this aspect, that is, there is no P2W in the game. From myself I will say that I have not seen such a quantity of “cosmetics” for a long time.
More about the donation, you can say the following:
- The store will have several types of currencies, and if I understand correctly, one of them is issued for the purchase of items. For it, you can also buy only externals and decorations.
- The store has a special donation currency, which is issued for a daily login and in various game events.
- Donat things cannot be sold, but only donated.
- The store will not expand slots for characters, they will be given out for free with the release of new classes.
- Costumes and mounts are account-bound and can be used on different characters.
- Weapon skins are also account-bound, but available to all classes, regardless of which one they were purchased on. Roughly speaking, you are buying not just a separate skin, but, as it were, a universal set.
- I'm not sure if this is related to donation, but there will be a battle pass in the game, again with cosmetic items and a special donation currency.
- Below you will find a video example of the assortment of a Taiwanese store, and an example of a European store can be found here.
Graphics
To be honest, I thought for a long time whether it was worth touching on this topic at all, since the graphics in SOLO, in my opinion, look nice and do not hurt the eyes, but on the other hand, you cannot say that in the game you will see masterpiece effects and a god-like picture AAA- level. Of the negatives, I can only note the optimization, in some places it is lame. An example of graphics can be found in the video below (twitching is high ping + optimization).
The situation with graphics in the “soon” time may change dramatically, since back in July 2020, the developers sort of announced an update to the game engine on Unreal Engine 4 with support for Nvidia RTX technology. They even released a short roller with a demonstration of the changes, only when it will be installed for the Chinese / Taiwanese version is unknown, but you can’t even talk about the European version.
Classes
At the time of writing, in the Chinese and Taiwanese versions, there are 10 classes to choose from, but at the start of the European one there will be only 6 basic / initial ones. Classes in SOLO according to the standard scheme are divided by roles into tanks, healers and damage dealers, however, almost every class has 2 specializations, the roles of which may differ:
- Spearmaster: melee damage dealer and tank.
- Berserker: Melee damage dealer and tank.
- Spellsword: Melee and ranged damage.
- Bard: Ranged damage and healing.
- Summoner: Ranged damage and healing.
- Reaper: Melee damage and healing.
Thus, all classes can play two roles at once, freely switching between specializations outside of combat. Although it should be borne in mind that when switching from a damage dealer to a healer or a tank, the character will need completely different equipment for certain characteristics.
By the way, 6 elementary classes are not tied to a specific gender, you can create both male and female characters. Unfortunately, in the future, 3 classes will be released with reference to gender, and 2 of them will be limited to 3 gender variations - lolka.
Level system
The game has a slightly unusual level system. Instead of the usual levels, say, from 1 to 100, the developers decided to use the “cultivation” system (if you ever read a manhua about cultivators at least once in your life, you will immediately understand what I mean). For example, as soon as the player leaves the starting \ noob location, he starts with the first layer of cultivation called “Concentration”. By increasing the cultivation (aka level) to 35 layers, the character will move to the “Physical” stage, which also has 35 layers.
Combat system
- The developers have added 2 control modes - action and tab-target, in fact they differ only in the camera mode. In the first case, the camera is rotated with the mouse, and the left \ right mouse buttons are tied to the Q \ E buttons. The second mode looks more or less standard: to rotate the camera, hold down the right mouse button, select the target with the left (or press tab), activate the abilities with the buttons or by clicking mice.
- Regardless of the selected mode, the combat system in the game is essentially a tab-target, yes, a character can cast spells in front of him, but when dealing damage, the enemy is still highlighted with a tab and all attacks will fly exactly at him (of course, if you turn away from the target, attacks will fly in front of the character).
- The game uses an attrition system. Under the HP bar of opponents and bosses, there is another additional line, as soon as it ends, your target will be incapacitated for a while. At this moment, unique abilities and a kind of mini ult become available.
- Opponents may have a special effect that enhances performance, endows with a special ability, or increases resistance.
- 5 more can be attributed to this item windows with various combat information, starting with the DPSmeter and ending with the level of threat.
Equipment
- There is an equipment level (GS) acting as one of the criteria for various activities.
- If I understand correctly, the main ways to get new equipment are drops from PvE activities and for various currencies.
- Items are divided into PvP and PvE options. That is, if you only like PvP, you will first have to work hard and collect a set that enhances the desired characteristics.
- Each role has its own separate equipment, if I understand correctly, in PvE things fall out only for your class. To be very precise, items drop sealed and are converted to a class spec with a click of the mouse.
- Some equipment can be enchanted and luckily there is no chance of failure, you just need a certain amount of resources which increases with enchanting level.
- Runes can be inserted into equipment, enchanted and encrusted with dragon stones. The first 2 items increase various characteristics of the character, and the last one adds a special property with a certain activation condition.
PvE
- Regular side quests.
- local quests.
- Daily activities.
- World bosses.
- Guild activities.
- Various dungeons - from 5 to 10 people.
- Various raids - from 10 to 20 people. Example.
- There are several difficulty levels for dungeons and raids.
- Dungeon and raid bosses scale to group size.
- There are no passing tickets and other things in the game, but only recommendations for the level of equipment.
- You can go into raids as many times as you like, but you only receive a reward on the first passage on each difficulty.
- Based on the information I've found, the new raids are not that easy to complete, especially on higher difficulty levels.
- If I understand correctly, the game has something like an encyclopedia, which describes the boss mechanics for each dungeon and raid.
PvP
- PC.
- Duels.
- Seasonal PvP.
- Arena 1v1.
- Arena 3v3. Example.
- The battlefield is 5v5v5v5. Example.
- The battlefield is 10v10.
- A unique 10v10 battlefield that combines PvP and the Chinese board game Go. Example.
- The battlefield is 15v15. Example.
- PvPvE battlefield 15v15.
- GvG. Example.
- Battle Royale for 10 teams of 5 (you cannot enter alone). Example.
- An unusual mode in which players control robots and fight against each other. You can only enter in a team of 3 people, and I could not find exactly how many teams take part. Example.
- + 2 more modes, the purpose of which I could not understand.
- It seems like the game already has or will have a faction war in the open world.
Other
- The game world is divided into 28 locations, they vary in size from huge open spaces to small rooms. Also, each class has its own location, this is a kind of unique territory of martial arts schools.
- Constellations are a system of passive skills through which various character characteristics are enhanced. Constellations consist of nodes that are opened for special points (the same interface details where to get extra points). Also, at a certain stage, the constellations are divided into several branches, giving the player a choice of what exactly to upgrade, although to be honest, I don’t know if all the nodes of the constellation can be upgraded.
- Pets - one might say, a passive character enhancement system, opens during the passage of story quests. By themselves, pets do not affect the character in any way, they provide additional functionality - a special equipment store and passive abilities. In return, they ask only for special energy, which accumulates after disassembling equipment and other items.
- There is an exchange between players and an auction.
- The interface can be customized, ranging from changing the overall download scale to detailed settings for each individual element.
- There is a traditional fast movement system for such games. Characters can run on water, jump a few meters up, etc.
- You can create a guild only from the first physical layer, and its functionality is quite extensive: you can create alliances, declare enemies, hold banquets (provide bonuses), participate in special PvP and PvE activities.
- Mounts of all shapes and sizes for movement on land and air, ranging from standard flying swords to luxurious wagons.
- Craft - fishing, cooking, manufacturing. Through crafting, you can create various equipment, useful items, consumable items, equipment runes, and more. All in all, a very standard crafting system.
- Player home systems - here they are located on sky islands. The system somehow reminded me of FF14, for 800 "gold" you can buy a plot (it is tied to your account) in one of the sectors and then build a house there. If the player does not enter the game within 30 days, he will lose the site.
- There is a simple system for developing relations with the NPC.
- Various achievements, a collection of special items, achievements, profile backgrounds and more.
- Photo mode for colorful screenshots.
- The ability to choose one of the in-game filters or customize it yourself.
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