What do you guys think of the game?

[Keitaro]

Hi guys! I figured I want to share some of my input with regards to this game.

My in-game name is Keitaro (this will most probably change at official launch, and good luck to everyone getting dibs on popular names), and I'm from the east coast of the US. My highest level is only a level 19 archer, but I think I have played enough to see the current status quo of the game. Overall I like it very much, its a typical korean grindfest mmo but this time with japanese influences which I think is a very refreshing uptake on rpgs, not to mention that this game being so anime'ish it surely would have a niche market (come all weeaboos and anime fans). They compare this game to Dark Souls, but to be honest I haven't tried playing that so I can't say.

Onwards to my review. UI-wise at the log in splash screen, I do hope they have a remember log in tick box and hopefully later on they forget your password so that not anyone can just log in to your account and do damage (please correct me if I'm wrong, but I totally haven't seen this feature and everytime I open the game my email and password is already filled up). Their website do not show https either, so beware of the usual password hacks and tools. Their character creation is fun to play with though, it does look like you have a variety of appearances for your character. I also appreciate the fact that you can mix and match different set parts in order to prove your own individuality on your character. The beginning tutorial looks very cluttered for me, I don't know if I should look at the left side of the screen or the right or the middle, and there is no option to take these starting guides off if you're a veteran player making another character (example would be when you're trying to save Shizuka from the big serpent and you have all these guides on what to click to guard yourself or dash and then sometimes they say something like "Please help me~ or whatever" you barely notice this since there are a lot of things going on in your screen.

Gameplay-wise I notice a bit of a lag, not really sure where they base their servers on, or it might just be me at the wrong optimal location in playing this game. There are some ghosting happening here and there, but I can easily overlook these, over all it hasn't affected my gameplay anyway. I like the fact that you can switch weapons, but don't like the pause that happens when you do. There's like a 0.5 second pause that annoys me to no end (this is more noticeable if you are running straight, and you switch weapons while doing so) but I guess it was put there as a safeguard for not being to OP depending on what character type you are (this is just purely guesswork). I'm not sure about ks'ing in the open world, like who gets credit with exp or who gets the loot, but since there aren't any world bosses yet I guess it isn't that important for now. I like the fact that you can level up with a partner bot who is not only helping in tanking, dealing some damage but has some extra bonuses too if you level up your relationship (one question with Lady Shizuka, if you're levelling up with her and since she has that thing that increases the chance of getting rare drops, does this affect the loot or only during identifying would you increase the chance in identifying a rare weapon? Anyway I keep thinking of the former that's probably why I never use anyone but Shizuka XD) One thing I realized later on is that they only last a while, and that bar isn't really a hp bar but a timer on how long your partner will be by your side. To recharge that bar you're just going to have to wait, not sure how long it takes to fill up the entire bar. I also wish that when you tab and focus on a target mob you would see its name and hpbar on the center of your screen even if you aren't facing it, sometimes I have to wait for 5 seconds before attacking for the name of the mobs to show up, and see if these are the ones I have to kill etc. I also would like a drop-down loot list to show up when you control click or alt click the target you're focusing on so at least we get to know which one drops which, but for now we have the community to help you with that.

Lore-wise I am so sorry I tried to keep on reading but eventually after doing a few quests finally gave up. I think the interactions of the different characters of the story is fun, but eventually I find everything dragging itself out so most of the time I just press skip and try to see some keywords with the fast flashing of text. When there are cut scenes though I tend to watch all of it and not press escape. I wish I had the patience of reading all of it, the story seems interesting but if only they find a way to try and keep it as short and sweet as possible that would be great. I think with what little time they have now they probably wouldn't bother. So if there's someone out there who read it all and could give me a tl;dr version, please do so and I will love you long time Mainly the thing I see is there are some monster that popped up, ruining the balance of good and evil, and you're there to be a hero. I would definitely love to know the lore about the other characters, like that big bouncy wholesome liquor loving cat woman, or the girl with the eyepatch who isn't a human and that's the only thing I've read about her lol.

The game having no class restrictions, making it entirely up to you to do whatever you want is kind of a downfall for me. I know people love this system because you can do whatever you want be whatever you want to be. I may just be a little dumber than you guys that I want a path laid out for me. Say if I want to be an archer I just stay an archer, and just roll another class when I get tired of it. To be honest though there are more pros in having no class restrictions than the other way around, maybe I'm just lazy haha. One good thing here is you don't have to level a new character from ground up, I'm assuming there will be a cash shop item that will let you restat or change whatever to suit a new gameplay. I like that you put the stat points yourself, some games automatically does that for you and I think that's a crappy idea. I know I sound confused, that I want classes subjugation but at the same time I want to be in control of where to put my stat points in, its just the fact that the automatic stat point allocation in games I think is designed very poorly.

The community in here seems a bit active, if only for a little bit. I appreciate the work done by alot of people, giving guides and advice to people who need them. There even is an unofficial subreddit for this game, along with a soon to be complete wiki too. I cheer on for these people who moderate these websites, more power to you guys. There isn't much activity or replies from admins or gms on some pending questions regarding cash shop and other stuff, but I guess that will be for later on with the official launch.

I'm sorry for the huge wall of text, but I guess all I'm trying to say is I would definitely continue to play this game at its official launch. I hope they fix some stuff up here and there but all in all I'm quite satisfied with the way it is. How about you guys? What do you think of this game?

TL;DR the game is awesome, just has a few clinks in it.

See you guys at the official launch! <3

[Corvalia]

Everyone seems to get some sort of delay, same thing happens when you press W once to move forward and you start sprinting 10 steps.

Shizuka's ability works when Identifying items. I thought it worked as drop rate as well, same with Momo and his "Skill Leveling Speed" most of it is passive.

You're not missing much on the story, nearly all of the dialogue is mindless banter between the characters that doesn't progress the story at all.
Top that off with the all the typical "XD CUTE ANIME" stereotypes and "B-Baka UGUUU!~~" descriptions, don't even get me started on all the dumb memes they forced in.

Game feels like a poor mans PSO, which I like. I don't have to party with anyone if I don't want to, I can go at my own pace.

[Keitaro]

Thanks for the clarification with Shizuka's skills. I think I'll keep on using her as my partner though, she seems to help more than the others because by the time the melee ones engage my target they're usually already dead (archer here).

That would certainly be hysterical, seeing a few memes along the way on their dialogue. It makes me laugh too, the fact that they were able to put in all the usual anime stereotypes in the game (princess who ran away from home, protective protector, tiny girl calling you oniichan caster, jiggling juggly nekowoman, etc)

[Kaminari Seiya]

don't even get me started on all the dumb memes they forced in.

Kaguya (the non human girl with eyepatch) is a hardcore otaku.

[Tigerruss]

Everyone seems to get some sort of delay, same thing happens when you press W once to move forward and you start sprinting 10 steps.

Shizuka's ability works when Identifying items. I thought it worked as drop rate as well, same with Momo and his "Skill Leveling Speed" most of it is passive.

You're not missing much on the story, nearly all of the dialogue is mindless banter between the characters that doesn't progress the story at all.
Top that off with the all the typical "XD CUTE ANIME" stereotypes and "B-Baka UGUUU!~~" descriptions, don't even get me started on all the dumb memes they forced in.

Game feels like a poor mans PSO, which I like. I don't have to party with anyone if I don't want to, I can go at my own pace.

I agree with most of what you have said about it.

Hmm, I have trouble figuring how much is truly delay and how much is just how the game is designed. Since except for some start up time for attacking and some skills I don't notice much in the way of delay. Though I do feel like the minimum I can move in any one direction is 1-2 meters.

My opinion about the mindless banter is that it could have been better. (though I enjoy it from time to time) And If it went through a couple more drafts it might have been more appealing. That being said I am one of those people who likes to read the story in a game their first time through even if it sucks. And this storytelling format is easier than the walls of text many other mmos give. Though I do see missed potential with some of the characters, and I find Kaguya the most unbearably done of all of them. (I have encountered all but Susanoo's sister so far.) Sorry to everyone who's favorite character is Kaguya.

When I was playing this game I was thinking of PSO as well. And I agree that it is always nice to be able NOT to play with others unless if you want to.


Hmm other thoughts.
I feel the game only has challenge in these early stages because of the low EXP rate. But I don't think that makes the low EXP rate right, a rebalance would be better than EXP rate modification for this purpose.
Another gripe I have is how hard it can be to find a useful weapon of the type you are looking for in the level range you are at. Which is made harder by the low EXP rates.
That being said I like the inventory system, and how it lets you hoard almost everything. Also it is nice that the inventory size increases are free and not a cash shop items.
I don't understand the low durability weapons that can't be repaired. I know they sometimes have powerful skills, but still they just seem like a waste.

I think my final thought about this game is that I wish it had a larger budget. There is a lot of good in it, but there is a lack of polish. And I haven't seen major improvements added to a mmo outside of season updates. Even when going from CBT to OBT to Full release.

[*Lai]

Honestly, I'm enjoying the fact that they've shown a sense of humor with the English localization.
I also appreciate the fact that there are actual vocal parts, and I'm glad those haven't been re-dubbed.

So far, my biggest gripes are the frequent disconnects (it's really frustrating trying to beat Kishinden just to progress your story, and you're doing it for the 5th time in a row, to be DC'd every time before you can even complete the dungeon),
and the limited soundtrack.

I know a lot of people just disable a game's music and play their own, and sometimes I do too, but I do enjoy when a game as a good musical score. Here, though, it's fairly repetitive and lackluster.
I was into it for the first half an hour, but then it began to wear on me.
I know fight scenes tend to have more intense music, but the synthesized electric guitar and metal jam for dungeons is tiresome, and there are so many nifty traditional Japanese musical themes which could be used for the basis of many of the game's BGM pieces; instead, most of them sound like western compositions attempting to insert an "oriental flavor" with them.

[Hunter]

Well, yes. It's a poor man's PSO2, to be clear. From the weapon identifying, to the cheesy "rock" during dungeons/bosses, to the skills being linked to your weapons, to active weapon switching, to the animations for consumables and healing, bringing along story NPCs into your dungeon if you wish, comic book style chat bubbles - etc.

Even the art style is imitating PSO2. In fact, if you cut out that blue haired character from the above image, I would swear it was a PSO2 model.

It's pretty much PSO2 but worse... and somehow laggier than playing from America to a Japanese PSO2 server.

The biggest difference between Onigiri and PSO2 that I can tell (besides the lag and lower quality, and lack of any settings) is that there's open areas in between dungeons rather than a central hub area like PSO2 has.

Unfortunately they totally screwed this up, Onigiri's open areas are puke-worthy, they look like ghost towns, totally lifeless and flat and too big and just useless.

So in short it's a PSO2 knockoff - not original at all.

[*Lai]

I remember PSO, and though I haven't played PSO2, I have to say that things like.... summonable companions, word balloon chat bubbles, similar heal/consumable animation, weapon identifying, anime-style character designs.... Honestly, if PSO2 is the only game you can think of that this is knocking off, then there are a lot of MMOs you've never played.

[Tigerruss]

I remember PSO, and though I haven't played PSO2, I have to say that things like.... summonable companions, word balloon chat bubbles, similar heal/consumable animation, weapon identifying, anime-style character designs.... Honestly, if PSO2 is the only game you can think of that this is knocking off, then there are a lot of MMOs you've never played.

For me it is the combat system. The multiple weapons, the jump physics (though the jumping is a bit better in PSO2), the targeting system, though I can't remember how similar the dodging and blocking are in PSO2 to this. I tried out PSO2 in the JP open beta, and then I stopped. But after a short while of playing this I felt like, wait this combat feels similar to PSO2.
So it was an honest first reaction. As for all of what you said? I did not draw any conclusions off of that.

[Hunter]

I remember PSO, and though I haven't played PSO2, I have to say that things like.... summonable companions, word balloon chat bubbles, similar heal/consumable animation, weapon identifying, anime-style character designs.... Honestly, if PSO2 is the only game you can think of that this is knocking off, then there are a lot of MMOs you've never played.

I really think you need to actually play PSO2 to understand where I'm coming from, because it's one thing to type it, but this game is literally trying to piggyback off of PSO2's success/ripoff blatantly. It's not even subtle. From the target market to ... UGH, just everything, they're copying PSO2 (poorly, lol). If you played PSO2 you would understand (and btw PSO2 isn't that much like PSO, so you wouldn't understand my comparison having only played PSO1)

I don't even think PSO2 is that great, but at least it's technically sound and... works. PSO2 probably played like Onigiri in its first week of development.