ive been playing this game for years. even outside of steam. and i can say without doubt: this is litterally one of best mmo's ive ever played. decent graphics for its time. a great story, enjoyable gameplay. it is by far one of my most recommended games of all time, with warframe and DDO being close to it.

of course lets cover each of the major criteria i grade games by: these are gameplay, graphics design, sound design, story, character customization/progression, game economy, player base, controls, bugs, miscellaneous annoyances, and micro-transactions. the last of these are only listed in games where such a thing exists.

gameplay: 7/10
i legitimately enjoy playing the game. the gameplay is equally fast paced but also slow enough that you can take your time planning your next moves. or just wander the game world and just enjoy the scenery taking your time exploring. most quests, unlike modern or classic mmo's arent "go here kill this many of x", while those exist they tend more towards optional sidequests that you purchase from npc's for additional gold. in addition while there are fewer quests in total compared to your more traditional mmo. almost every quest is unique in some way through story or otherwise. more on this under the story section. in general however the gameplay is solid, for its time, and is easy to learn but hard to master. most skills follow a logic similar to rock paper scissors where most skills have another skill that you can use to counter. this is most obviously seen in the 5 basic "skills": normal attack, defense, smash, counterattack and windmill: normal attacks cancel smash, but is blocked by the other 3 in some fashion. defense increases your defensive stats, stops debuffs from landing, and generally is good vs ranged users due to its defense increase, but is broken by smash. smash is basically a heavy attack, it deals more damage but is slower, it breaks defense but in general is blocked by most other skills. counterattack takes time to start up but upon being hit by a melee attack you redirect the damage to your foe, it blocks most physical hits. windmill: a wide sweeping area of effect attack: it breaks through counter but fails vs defense, and due to its range generally stops the attacks of smash, you can also use it automatically to counter upon being knocked down which makes it a great get off me tool. these 5 base skills color most of the other skills in the game and generally speaking are the baseline of most others.

graphics design: 7/10
okay ill admit the games graphics arent the greatest all the time. it shows its age and its anime aesthetic may not appeal to everyone, outside of that though many locations feel unique and the character graphics for npcs are pretty steller. it wont win any awards compared to say the likes of modern games, but taking into consideration how old the game is, its pretty decent.

Sound Design: 5/10
the soundtrack is actually pretty steller, some early areas do have a strange "synth" sound to it, and earlier soundtracks have this as well but the later areas get better treatment. skills do have generic sound effects but they arent terrible. id say overall its middling.

story: 8/10
this was one of the first mmos that i have played with actual story. every npc, every quest, every location has its own unique story. each npc feels unique, and each has their own personal story.

character customization/progression: while at the start a player characters appearance is kinda limited, each character can wear and equip whatever they desire to suit them the most. giving a decent level of customization even as a free to play user. character progression is influenced by skill use. if you use a skill you earn exp for it, when you level up you gain ap, which you can spend to upgrade skills which permanently raise your stats. every 2 weeks or so you can "rebirth" your character resetting them to level 1, but keeping all skills at their current level. what you wear is your class essentially. every rebirth you can also choose a particular class to gain a bonus to training skills of that class.

game economy: 3/10
okay. ill admit. the in game economy is... pretty bad. due to how common the in game currency is, and due to the rarity of the more hyper rare stuff, gold is basically worthless in the player market. thankfully however genearelly premium items are tradeable so thats kinda helpful. generally gold comes easy and passes easily.

player base: very helpful, old and experienced, generally friendly and tightnit.

controls: id like to call it unique, but its still fairly solid. it does take a little bit getting used to but eventually it becomes second nature.

bugs: okay. im not gonna lie: the game has quite a few bugs. years of updates with spaghetti code with bandaid style patches. its not surprising. so far i have not found a fatal bug, the game doesnt crash often, however sometimes.... weird stuff happens. for instance in some areas you can go into areas out of bounds or occasionally if you use a certain specific skill and get knocked down you become unable to use skills until you can reuse that skill. again, slight annoyances at worst but they do exist and id be lying if i didnt say that they didnt.

miscellaneous annoyances: sometimes the world feels a bit empty, especially on the continent of iria. sometimes the servers are empty except for a single channel out of 7. generally dungeons are samey and get boring after a while. grinding skills can also get boring at times but thats just what happens in mmos in general. the descriptions of some items refer to an old premium package that no longer exists, because it was made free to all players, these descriptions havent been updated.

micro-transactions: due to the game being made by nexon, the microtransactions can be pretty hard to a wallet, and most are gachas. the only thing worth it are pets, as they have extra inventory space. everything else is not super useful.

ive been playing this game for years. even outside of steam. and i can say without doubt: this is litterally one of best mmo's ive ever played. decent graphics for its time. a great story, enjoyable gameplay. it is by far one of my most recommended games of all time, with warframe and DDO being close to it. of course lets cover each of the major criteria i grade games by: these are gameplay, graphics design, sound design, story, character customization/progression, game economy, player base, controls, bugs, miscellaneous annoyances, and micro-transactions. the last of these are only listed in games where such a thing exists. gameplay: 7/10 i legitimately enjoy playing the game. the gameplay is equally fast paced but also slow enough that you can take your time planning your next moves. or just wander the game world and just enjoy the scenery taking your time exploring. most quests, unlike modern or classic mmo's arent "go here kill this many of x", while those exist they tend more towards optional sidequests that you purchase from npc's for additional gold. in addition while there are fewer quests in total compared to your more traditional mmo. almost every quest is unique in some way through story or otherwise. more on this under the story section. in general however the gameplay is solid, for its time, and is easy to learn but hard to master. most skills follow a logic similar to rock paper scissors where most skills have another skill that you can use to counter. this is most obviously seen in the 5 basic "skills": normal attack, defense, smash, counterattack and windmill: normal attacks cancel smash, but is blocked by the other 3 in some fashion. defense increases your defensive stats, stops debuffs from landing, and generally is good vs ranged users due to its defense increase, but is broken by smash. smash is basically a heavy attack, it deals more damage but is slower, it breaks defense but in general is blocked by most other skills. counterattack takes time to start up but upon being hit by a melee attack you redirect the damage to your foe, it blocks most physical hits. windmill: a wide sweeping area of effect attack: it breaks through counter but fails vs defense, and due to its range generally stops the attacks of smash, you can also use it automatically to counter upon being knocked down which makes it a great get off me tool. these 5 base skills color most of the other skills in the game and generally speaking are the baseline of most others. graphics design: 7/10 okay ill admit the games graphics arent the greatest all the time. it shows its age and its anime aesthetic may not appeal to everyone, outside of that though many locations feel unique and the character graphics for npcs are pretty steller. it wont win any awards compared to say the likes of modern games, but taking into consideration how old the game is, its pretty decent. Sound Design: 5/10 the soundtrack is actually pretty steller, some early areas do have a strange "synth" sound to it, and earlier soundtracks have this as well but the later areas get better treatment. skills do have generic sound effects but they arent terrible. id say overall its middling. story: 8/10 this was one of the first mmos that i have played with actual story. every npc, every quest, every location has its own unique story. each npc feels unique, and each has their own personal story. character customization/progression: while at the start a player characters appearance is kinda limited, each character can wear and equip whatever they desire to suit them the most. giving a decent level of customization even as a free to play user. character progression is influenced by skill use. if you use a skill you earn exp for it, when you level up you gain ap, which you can spend to upgrade skills which permanently raise your stats. every 2 weeks or so you can "rebirth" your character resetting them to level 1, but keeping all skills at their current level. what you wear is your class essentially. every rebirth you can also choose a particular class to gain a bonus to training skills of that class. game economy: 3/10 okay. ill admit. the in game economy is... pretty bad. due to how common the in game currency is, and due to the rarity of the more hyper rare stuff, gold is basically worthless in the player market. thankfully however genearelly premium items are tradeable so thats kinda helpful. generally gold comes easy and passes easily. player base: very helpful, old and experienced, generally friendly and tightnit. controls: id like to call it unique, but its still fairly solid. it does take a little bit getting used to but eventually it becomes second nature. bugs: okay. im not gonna lie: the game has quite a few bugs. years of updates with spaghetti code with bandaid style patches. its not surprising. so far i have not found a fatal bug, the game doesnt crash often, however sometimes.... weird stuff happens. for instance in some areas you can go into areas out of bounds or occasionally if you use a certain specific skill and get knocked down you become unable to use skills until you can reuse that skill. again, slight annoyances at worst but they do exist and id be lying if i didnt say that they didnt. miscellaneous annoyances: sometimes the world feels a bit empty, especially on the continent of iria. sometimes the servers are empty except for a single channel out of 7. generally dungeons are samey and get boring after a while. grinding skills can also get boring at times but thats just what happens in mmos in general. the descriptions of some items refer to an old premium package that no longer exists, because it was made free to all players, these descriptions havent been updated. micro-transactions: due to the game being made by nexon, the microtransactions can be pretty hard to a wallet, and most are gachas. the only thing worth it are pets, as they have extra inventory space. everything else is not super useful.