From the depths of despair rises the dragon?

So for any others of you that attempted to play Forsaken World yesterday, you were in for a big surprise. Basically signing up early and the beta keys do not guarantee you into the first phase of CB.

So this has lost the meaning of "CB":

CB originally meant not everyone could play. Hence the "closed" part of it. Elite testers would get selected to post about bugs and such for the game while everyone else waits patiently for an OB to play.

Beta keys were handed out as events so the most diehard fans could get a chance to play it a bit.

With time most games lost this meaning Now CB for games are handed out in the billions and anyone that wants to join a game can easily get one. This is nearly no different from OB except games can now drop OB forever to avoid some liability. (though this is a whole different can of worms)

Now you come to FW, which totally lost the meaning of beta keys. Having a limited number of participants for CB is the original purpose but WHY MAKE USELESS KEYS? You enter a beta key that does nothing except give false hope to players thinking they can play come CB. I mean I was shocked to find I couldn't play yesterday and they beta key meant nothing. This has strayed so far from the original purpose of CBs and Keys. I mean I wouldn't be pissed if they didn't mislead me to believe I could play, mainly the lack of clarification was what hit hard. I was sad for a FULL HOUR staring at other people QQ on forums. So much spam in 1 hour, was pretty funny.

But this morning I came across something that made me happy. Pretty sure no one remembers but roll back 3 months, when I was still anticipating Soul Master I came across another game worth playing, Loong. Apparently the CB started yesterday, can't wait to try it today. (for those that don't know "Loong" sounds exactly like dragon in Chinese hence why game is hugely based on dragons and blog title)

For now Rho is in game and I can't yet and this is news from it:

It has 1 amazing feature like Megaten, no classes, instead your class is more based on skill tree. The jump in the game is real (~yay!)

There is stat points!?!??!?!!? I don't get it but every new age MMO has removed stat points. Why must we simplify things??? I love stat points.

The Quest autowalk system suppose to be really good. Color code the things so you can tell which are NPCs and which are mobs.

This is all what Rho says and I haven't tried it yet, either way, psyched to try this later tonight.

Other note: I rushed to beat Super Robot Taisen Og Saga: Endless Frontier on my DS (wanted to finish before FW came out which I failed to do but had plenty of time when I couldn't play FW)

Really long and fun game. Gotta be really good on the timing of attacks, the random encounters seemed less of a grind this way. Only thing was this game took a long time to play due to large amount of talking and billions of boss fights that each eat like 30 mins. Either way, loved the game though it was filled with fanservice, sigh, heavy Japanese culture game.

Vindictus patch came out early yesterday with introduction of their 3rd character, Evie. Normally I would be jumping for Joy but this is the crappier version of her. She is still mage only at this point. It isn't until later she is able to be a scythe user with a teleport for a dodge. Played her a bit to know I prefer Fiona over a have baked mage D:

Don't know why I keep posting about FF14 even though I didn't even try the beta, but since all eyes are watching and waiting for it to crash and burn, here:

That is their server stats for players logging in per day. Chunked off 18% of their player base in 20 days and during this time period they even extended the free trial period too. ~tsk tsk

~Pearz

What We Do On Vindictus These Days

Preface: The marketplace is where players put their items up for sale (set price, set time). The said item is taken from their inventory and placed in the Item Server for the duration of the sale; either the buyer takes ownership or the seller takes it back (at any time before someone buys it); in either situation, the item is mailed to them.


The sell window, where you put in the item and set specifics. Pay attention to the white box I've highlighted near the bottom. The story goes like so:

I was cooking earlier today and I heard Rho and Pearz in the other room.
Rho: "My sword looks cooler than yours!"
Pearz: "No wai~ My sword is so much cooler!"
R: "Mine is blacker! That's win!"
P: "You're blind! My sword's a better black!"
(That's how I assume the conversation went. I wasn't paying that much attention.)


The marketplace allows the buyer to see swatches of the main 3 colours in the gear for sale; this is a feature that can't be found anywhere else in the game (other than, you know, looking at the item on someone else). This information allows Rho's next suggestion to make some kind of sense.

R: "Yeah, okay, fine! Let's put it up on the marketplace for like 10mil [so no one else buys it] and then we can see!"
P: "Yeah! Let's do that!"

(Some time passes in between. I'm done cooking.)
R: "Oh, okay. My sword is a dark kind of purple. Yours is a grey or something."
P: "Told you~"
R: "Yeah, yeah."
Aaro: "Did you really put those swords in the marketplace?"
R: "Yeah, for 10mil."
A: "...you guys know that there's a 2% fee on it?"
R: "...liar. You lie."
(Pearz checks.)
P: "...we're never getting our swords back."


Dumbasses. Learn2read.

For reference, I'm carrying about 250k on me; I see that Rho has about 130k. I'm too lazy to check how much Pearz has; at the least, not 200k to drop on rebuying her own sword. These things cost about 8k+mats to craft, and are selling on the marketplace for 49k. (Yes, some people have a few million and more, but that's another story.)


So they just ended up downgrading to another sword for aesthetic purposes right now. xD

~Aaro off

Just some more randomness

So looking at Rho's last post all I can say is, "IT'S A TRAP!!!"

She makes it look so easy, but the gaps between those combos are tiny and you can land only weak hits in and takes like 30+ mins to take out with that method. Granted she doesn't get hit at all, but its slow as hell.

One thing that does keep me going back to Vind is the forums. Due to lack of GM moding their own forums, every other post is filled with rage and flaming. It is absolutely hilarious to read.

So for now, waiting on Etrian Odyssey 3 for DS to have roms surface. Being a huge grind fest game might turn me off but I guess I will see.

I believe they think that players will play any game they churn out. Just found this game Myth Angels Online. The main video on main page is fukin hilarious. At least they could find people that could speak english to do their talking in video. Either way wow. The game even looks like crap.

Though extremely late, Okami-san finally ended last week. Hope they make a season 2 as most things are left as loose ends. Overall a decent anime 8/10

For new anime season so far

definite Yes: Bakuman, A certain magical Index (though watching it more cause need to finish things), Arakawa under the bridge ( same reason as Index), The world god only knows (maybe, reading manga and it seems decent)

Definite No: Hakouki Shinsengami, Letter Bee, Iron Man, Sora no Otoshimono

As season begins, see if anything else is worth watching.

Random Note: Realized looking at tag cloud, their is no Megaten Tag. Guess never occured the topics wouldn't be about Megaten. 1 day I might go back and retag all those posts D: ........... maybe..........

Side note: Sharing internet with Aaro sucks. Maxing bandwidth almost a week before month roll over and can't download anything now. /wrists

Legend of Edda ETA: 5 days

~Pearz

Vindictus: How to solo White Tyrant (Giant Polar Bear)

Cuz I said I would ;c

Intro cutscene: Awsome

RULE No.1 : Always run left!

RULE No.2 : Don't go behind him!

Left paw pounce:
If you've never fought him before run around in circles for awhile and pay attention to his tells. This is his most used attack, its a basic pounce, limited range with a long as tell, it's when you want to get most of your damage in. He will pound the floor with both hands, the raising part is fast, but you won't miss the pound. He will attack with his LEFT PAW forward. If you're starting where I'm standing in the image, you can start your attack combo already, aim right.

Look at that wussy ass hit zone (displayed in red). I chose to stand a bit further out for this one because that way you can hit his Savage Eye, however if you don't care, you can pretty much have his whole head land on you, it'll just clip and slide you away, no damage or stun.

Right paw dive:

Now this tell is fast, if you're not used to seeing it, you're eating it. He will slide his right paw back like he's presenting, but you're the one getting mounted if you don't get the hell out of the way. I'm still busy getting out of the danger zone in this image, however if you're already out, start your attack combo, aim left first then right as to not wander back into the danger zone.

Right paw dive landing, this attack has a significantly longer stagger time than others, perfect for that hard combo you started in the last image. Just remember when you're rolling back, roll away from him, not left of right.

Double Dive:

A very long tell, he'll pause with his paws up in the air for like a whole second for you. I hope you've been moving left this whole time, because if you weren't then you're taking a big angry paw to the face (see below). The basic rule to tell if you're safe is whether or not you see the inside of his palm, if you do you're not safe yet.

This is the launch, notice that big angry paw I was talking about? If you're standing where I'm standing, you're safe, if you're not, big angry paw. Now you'll want to start a quick combo, or just a basic bash, cuz you won't get much of an opening. Pay attention to that ice pillar right in front of me.

See that ice pillar from the last image? Yea it pissed itself. Anyway, it's called a double dive for a reason, you get about half a second before he launches the other paw and is gone. Catch up and get back into position before he does it again.

Death Roar:
Don't be scared, the death roar means he's gonna die, not you. He starts getting on his hind leg and roaring when he's a bit over one bar of HP. If you've been staying close to him like you should, you can do a full amaranth kick combo onto his right leg. After the raor he'll go apenuts on everything in front of him, so just stay still, you're safe there.

I realized I never mentioned what happens when you go behind him. If you never did, good for you. If you did, you won't do it again will you? I thought so.

~+* Rho

First Look at Vindictus

First of all, from now it's going to be called Vind, 'cause I can never remember how to spell it. At the moment, I hit level 26 and that's the level cap. I'm pretty much done the game, since there's no new content coming any time soon. The content is broken down with "boats". There are two boats accessible now with a third one that can be glitched to enter. They fixed it today, so you can't access that map any more, and Boat 2 content ends around level 21-22. It's pretty much a dry grind to get the last couple of levels.

So, on to the review:

Pros:

Gameplay
Hack-and-slash action gameplay using the source engine makes it different than your usual MMO. This is a swing-or-miss, depending on whether you like the style. Generally, it's more skill-based than purely gear, which I like.

Graphics
They are amazing. There's nothing else to say. This has just absolutely stunning graphics.

Cash shop
From the looks of it, the cash shop is mostly vanity in this game, most likely due to the game being mostly based on skill. You get to customize more with the cash shop (like armour colours and hair styles).

Cons:

Customization
Due to there being only two classes right now, with gender locks, the customization is limited. You do get a selection for your looks - but, with so many people, you're bound to run into a twin soon. Stat-wise, you don't get any option and skills are bought with AP (which you obtain from running dungeons).

Story
It starts off good; too bad all the cutscenes kind of end after the tutorial. So far, there are no more cutscences. I started skipping the text pretty quickly when I got too lazy to read it all.

PVP
Currently, there is no PVP implementation. There is a capture-the-flag system that exists on the KR server, though. It remains to be seen how good that is.

GM support
Overall, Nexon seems like a bad publisher in general. There is talk of mass bannings for abusing small glitches and generally never getting responses from GMs about anything.

Lag
This isn't because we were on US West. Basically, in the beginning, all the missions were hosted on the server and you were connecting to the server to play. The server, very obviously, crashed in the first couple of hours from too much stress. They quickly patched it and then instead, the party leader would share some of the hosting load. Players would connect to the party leader first, who in turn would connect to the server. This led to some games having horrible lag, due to bad hosts.

Overall: 

This is a fun game, but I'm not sure if it's a long-term thing. The lack of content seems to be bad. From the videos, the next class (a mage) seems horribly overpowered. Every player video seems to be that class, due to her OP skills and higher customization (she can be a mage, melee scythe user, or healer, from looks of it). The KR version has been out for 9 months now, and they only managed to add one class. The content updates might be extremely slow. Like I said, this is a fun game to play for a while; you'd just get bored quickly due to the lack of content.

In a mere 3-4 days, I pretty much cleared all the content. I sport the best set of weapons and armours (armour is extremely rare now, since Boat 3 is closed off and the next tier can't be made anymore), and soloed the final raid boss.

tl; dr: It is fun, but the lack of content will be the downfall of this game. There's pretty much no point logging in anymore now that I beat everything. Rho already wants to start HONing again, instead (although she's only level 24 and didn't solo the polar bear yet :O).

Legend of Edda ETA: 10 days.

~Pearz

First look at Vindictus~

nuff said.

~+* Rho

Mass Effect 2

So finished Mass effect 2 last night, and it wasn't as bad as Rho put it out to be. Basically the game focuses almost entirely building your team and your teams back story. The main storyline is actually really short but how thoroughly you did your side quests determine how the main storyline will progress.

Overall, I found fully exploring the characters side quests was fun. Gives it more back-story on the races and stuff rather then a long winded quest for main character.

So not really going to really break it down for this, it gets a 7/10. Nothing special, but was decently enjoyable overall.

On a side note: Vindictus should open up in a few hours, be in chat box for on spur key :O

Side note 2: Highly likely Rho and I will still be playing HON. MMOsite is hosting keys to get 10 free (no stat) matches with HON. If you wanted to try it out first.

Disclaimer note: In 10 matches you won't be able to learn the ropes fast enough and be raged on hard for feeding the enemy. Hope you like people screaming at you over chat system about how bad you are XD

~Pearz

Vindictus

I was informed early join for Vindictus Open beta starts on September 15th. Person came and gave me a key to get early start Yay

So everyone thats invited gets 2 more keys to get early start. So pretty much anyone that knows 1 person can spread out keys like wildfire.

So if you wanna join me and Rho, leave a message and I'll get you a key.

~Pearz