• 27Jun 09

  REVIEW: Jade Dynasty [Second Coming Of MMORPG's]

  PROS:

  +Beautiful Graphics

  +Good Sound Design

  +Plenty of contents to keep you busy for Days, even Months or maybe even years

  [And trust me, Maybe even years. Too much content.]

  +Unique Factions and Gameplay

  +Easy to Navigate In-Game(no, seriously, it is way to easy to be true)

  +Same server for PvP and PvE (with a solid PvP)

  +Free To Play[specially keeping in regard of the sheer amount of content]

  CONS:

  -Limited Factions(compared to other good Free To Play Tiltles)

  -Needs beefed up computers to be able to play in high settings

  [These next ones can be taken as either a PRO or a CON but for me these were CONS which I will explain in the following segment]:

  -THE INVIGORATOR & THE MEDITATION (a.k.a BOTTING)

  -Can only select a faction after level 15

  Some of my friends said to me, a year ago, that MMORPG's are about to die. My answer to that was nothing at the time, because frankly, I kinda felt the same way, due to genres deviation towards more "INNOVATION = Not In Use" franchises rather than adventurous time-pass. But now, if I to meet them [which is highly unlikely], I would tell them that they were partly right and partly wrong. How you ask? It's simple, MMORPG's that we use to know as, before a couple years ago, are dead. Thus letting a new breed of Free-To-Play MMORPG's to evolve into this wild world of GAMING. Such tale is of Jade Dynasty.

  

  Based on Internet novel from china, "Zhu Xian", Jade Dynasty is a Free-To-Play MMORPG brought to you by the people behind "Perfect World International" and "Ether Saga", The Perfect World Entertainment. At a first glance you might ask, how is this game different from any other MMORPG's out there, specially in the midst of plethora of free ones? But if you are patience enough to dig deep, you might find Davi Jones Heart, literally. It is set in an ancient oriental theme based world, which is not only evolving around you but is filled with eye candy to your hearts extent. You might end up comparing it to Perfect World. But no matter what, you will never compare this game to World Of Warcraft and any of that sorts, because fortunately this game has brought totally different things to the table than those, for the beginners, it's story and theme. Well, as any other MMORPG's these days, story in this game is pretty simple. Your world has reunited against this great evil, which you have to defeat, by creating a highly skilled character and collaborating with other players.

  
  

  When you first play the game you are asked to make a character. Even though you dont have the amount of characters facial customization as you may find in Perfect World International(What? The comparison was bound to happen.), it is still decent. But, However, you dont choose a faction yet, instead everyone has the same Faction as initiates (or Paladins). That is till level 15, after that you get to choose a Faction. There are 5 factions in total, as of now. Vim, also recognised as the TANK faction of the game, is probably the most easiest to play. Lupins are the supposed melee and damage dealer with good criticals under their belt and a cool looking circular blade in their hand, are probably the best ones for PvP. Jadeons are the ones with Area Of Effect Damages in their skill slot, in other words, they can be taken as mages in this game. They are probably the most balanced ones. Skysong are your basic healers in the game, you know, the loved ones in their party, "The saints". Then comes MODO. Well, one might take this one as a mage rather than the Jadeons, but is still one of the most misunderstood faction in Jade Dynasty, dealing in curses.

  

  The gameplay mechanics are pretty similar to any other MMORPG's out there, you click a monster (MOBS), you use your skill, then you level up when you have enough experience points. And as for skills, there are five tiers of skillset for each faction and you start from 1st when you pick a faction(before that you will have four basic skill for your initiate, which also can be levelled up). You get a skill point everytime you level up but you have to be very careful as to where you want to spend your skill points. The game animations are pretty fluid with great looking spell effects, and by what you can see, there is a slight resemblence to Perfect World(Not again, enough with the comparisons already). But where this game sets itself apart from the norm, is in these few game functions, which for some people might be amazing, and for others might be too much. Take for example the "Auto Locate" function in quest log, all you have to do is click on the quest target and voila! you will start to run towards that quest location, automatically, which was, for me, a great deal of relief[remember how tedious it was to find the target, not anymore]. Even though it is not available for all the quest, still is very impressive. And then there is, THE INVIGORATOR. All you have to do is get to a location with mobs, then you press a button and you will start to kill whatever is in your way, for a limited time period, which does not mean you are invunerable, only means that you no longer have to grind day and night to get a decent experience. This might be taken as a good addon for the game but it takes you away from the excitement of playing MMORPG, and bragging about your level, because any novice player can do it without hassle. Then there is MEDITATION, where you press a button and your character cocoons itself in a white orb and starts gaining experience without even playing. Eventhough this takes longer than your usual grindfest and can only be done is safe environment, is still nifty if you are into that sort of leveling. there is even an advance mode of this called dreaming where one don't even have to be logged in to gain experience, all you have to do is buy one of these dreaming scrolls from ingame cash shop and before you log out click on dream and you start gaining experience. Like I said earlier, this is purely one's opinion as to whether this is bad or good, but if you are one of those players who play with a lots of friends and are about to go somewhere(for instance, a vacation), and want to level up you character so that you dont get left behind among your friends, then this is for you.

  

  The PvE(Player versus Enviroment) in this game is pretty standard, that being said, doesn't mean is average. You have all kinds of crazy, bizzarre looking NPC's which constantly evolves as you level up and you can find Bosses in every sector of this huge game world. There are 10 different sectors which can be traveled at the moment and loads everytime you travel to another sector(i.e it is not seamless). There is a huge, and I mean huge library of weapons and armors you can equipe, besides the fact that you can craft one for yourself with the right materials found ingame(although you may have to buy some material with real money to get a very good armor, but is totally optional). Then there is the PET system. Not every game can incorporate pets in the game that good, but dont worry this is not pne of those games. There is a huge array of pets you can raise, ranging from pigs to wolfs and many more. You can even level up your pets as you do to your character and even equip them with weapons and armor and what not. But the most intriguing aspects of miscellaneous gameplay in this game is definitely the Marriage and Fashion. If you have your loved ones playing beside you or you have met someone new, you can get married ingame, which might sound outrageous but has a technical standpoint to it, giving you quest exclusive to this. Besides your armor you can also outfit your character with other ornaments and clothings, which adds to asthetic much more and makes every other player feel and look different. Like any other good MMORPG's these days, this one also has many different MOUNTS in it, both land and air. But one mount seems to be more intriguing than other, is the skysword. Which lets you fly around in a sword(How cool is that?), even though it was already incorporated in Perfect World(OK, this is the last one). But to buy these stuff you need ingame currency which are divided into three subset, copper, silver and gold, being difficult to earn respectively. Current level cap for this game is 150 but you can reroll your character to an initiate after you get to certain high level and make it even more powerful from the start, which adds a lot of replayability to it.

  Whereas. PvP is better than most of the Good MMORPG's out there. The main thing that seperates this game from other in PvP is that not only it is player versus player but it is clan versus clan, and Alliances versus alliances also. You can either join a clan or start a clan, then you can take your clan and join it with other alliances which makes those alliance very powerful and battles very exciting(80 vs. 80, think about that). You not only gain level and ranking for your self, or you clan or your alliance but you also get clan and aliance exclusive quests when you join one, which makes this games PvP one of the best there is, and for a free to play MMORPG to have all these features is very remarkable.

  Then there is one thing that we always wished WOW had had, PvP and PvE merged. Once you make a character, you can goto any "realm" with the same character to play either PvP or PvE, no need to reroll or remake another character, nifty.

  

  Even though this game is fairly new in the field of Free To Play MMORPG's, it is one of those games that you either love it or hate it. But one thing I can assure you about it is that, if you bare with it for about an hour or so till you get to level 15 and choose your faction, you will see that this game is much more than you ordinary MMORPG's, besides it is free to play. And with the sheer amount of content it has, there is no doubt that this game is setting the bar pretty high for upcoming MMORPG, regardless of payment.

  9/10.

  To get more Information regarding the game and its features goto:

  http://jd.perfectworld.com/info/feature

  -JGoWild(Suyog Bhattarai)

  • Posted Jun 27, 2009 2:02 am PT
  • Category: Editorial
  • 0 Comments
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