Lost Ark coming to NA/EU! Smilegate to pair with Amazon Game Studios as Publisher!

[Fencers]

Not offering both genders option for all classes is so 1999.

Not a fan of this either. I am almost always gonna play a tank if the option exists. Nothing else. But I want to play a representation of myself. Not a dude with humongous shoulderpads looking a hundred years old or as a boy band member.

[Scyth]

Realised last night that this game has been out for a while where I live so decided to start playing over here. Since it's not on steam and uses some other launcher it takes ages for me to load and get into the game, which has been quite frustrating but other than that I've enjoyed it so far. Not sure I will play it as much as other games but it's something new at least.

[Onikaroshi]

Not a fan of this either. I am almost always gonna play a tank if the option exists. Nothing else. But I want to play a representation of myself. Not a dude with humongous shoulderpads looking a hundred years old or as a boy band member.

They're remedying the gender lock, slowly, instead of just offering male/female models they decided to do mirrored classes for some reason

[Fencers]

They're remedying the gender lock, slowly, instead of just offering male/female models they decided to do mirrored classes for some reason

The ole' Black Desert trick.

[Video Games]

I'm not really a fan of most of the hair styles but i didn't even know it had customization in the first place

[Radaney]

This game still P2W? Cba to read 12 pages of comments.

[kaminaris]

They're remedying the gender lock, slowly, instead of just offering male/female models they decided to do mirrored classes for some reason

Because its probably easier to copy as you can keep base code separate. Its just a speculation but ive seen some projects like that. Where to add multiple options would be harder than to just copy and paste, because foundation wasn't made to handle that.

[Fencers]

This really has strong Black Desert vibes.

Edit: This game is rough. Lacks so much polish. Tons of bad design decisions. Not NA region ready. Some of the menus are still not fully translated. Tons of exploitive currency and collection mechanics too- which all seem to have their own currency and upgrades to upgrades. All these years of build-up for a generic game that could be on mobile.

[KrayZ33]

I'm still looking for a good site where I can see all the "skins/Transmogs" or whatever they are called in this game.

I'm currently leaning towards Deathblade because the background lady on the official page of that class looks pretty cool. Some kind of chain/plate armor mix alongside a fancy hoodie.

The male characters in this game are too chunky for me. Especially when they don't wear a helmet.

[Fencers]

I also dislike that customization options are locked by class and gender. Like I can only pick the Mage or Gunner-approved hairstyles, my makeup is determined by class? That's dumb.

The art direction is a disaster too. Total nonsense. People turning into machine gun turrets to fight bandits with bow & arrow. Peasants tilling the fields and yucking it up in taverns- while bullet trains and gunswords are everywhere.

[Matsumotto]

It's a spectable ARPG with incredibly boring story and characters, gender locking classes, uninteresting character customization (can't change anything about the body).
The combat isn't what you'd expect from a Diablo-like game, it's more of a staged fight. Dunno how to explain it better.

[kaminaris]

It's a spectable ARPG with incredibly boring story and characters, gender locking classes, uninteresting character customization (can't change anything about the body).
The combat isn't what you'd expect from a Diablo-like game, it's more of a staged fight. Dunno how to explain it better.

Because its not arpg but mmorpg, so you shouldn't expect diablo but wow with isometric camera.

[Biomega]

I like everything about the game CONCEPTUALLY - action combat + MMO-style content? Sign me up. Fantasy + Steampunk + Neonpunk elements? Yes please. This is exactly the kind of AARPG/MMORPG hybrid I predicted years ago would be the next evolutionary step.

HOWEVER...

They really didn't execute it super well IMO. The aesthetics are too over the top and not flexible enough, combat is too much focused on spectacle, and of course progression is infested with massive amounts of grinding and P2W.

It feels like they took a big step forward, and then staggered backwards a bit. Static models without body customization, gender-locked characters, extremely unified aesthetics... That's what I'd expect from a 2010 game, not from a 2020 game. Cosmetics are what I'd call Monster Hunter chic, and again I would have expected more from a contemporary game. The story is pretty banal, a generic and somewhat uninspired mess despite the visually impressive backdrops and varied environments. Combat mechanics have a meaty feel, but suffer from ability bloat and lack of clear differentiation, making a lot of classes feel overly spammy.

Probably good for the market as a whole that a game like this exists, because it hopefully serves as inspiration for other people's future projects. But I doubt I'll be playing it myself.

[hattahat]

So CBT is out there now.
Yes, LA's story is really bland and boring, and actually it is plagiarism of a certain Japanese manga.
It's a shame the main raids are not in cbt because they are what made LA regain popularity in KR after LA season1 totally failed.
However, that may be subtle trick to hide some p2w elements.

[ippollite]

Im not averse to a 'weeb' aesthetic. Check the avatar So that's all fine. Over the top, hyper color is fine as well. Cute things make me happy.

That out the way...

I'm genuinely confused by the game and its mmo aspects. Ive been watching preach play through it and it gives me poe vibes. He keeps saying how good the combat is, but its just massive whirlwind, some finisher, then repeat to the next wave of arpg fodder. Like, my brain cant fathom it as anything more than gauntlet back in the ancient days. The rpg heavy lifting seems to be done by spec/gear diversity (and it does look pretty huge to my wow brain - i never played poe so completely unused to this kind of bounty of choice). As for mmo... it all looks pretty much instance based.

So, completely unsure what i was looking at i decided to look around.
First up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V3r8B92uNU

Obviously he's more a high end sweatier gamer than i'll ever be. And he didnt entirely sell it to me as a casual player. But there were some genuinely fascinating parts that im super curious about. The random island stuff looks really fun. And the plethora of quest/mini scenario styles looks like a super fun good time (he drew on a phasmaphobia style quest that really helped get away from the 'collect 10 bear arses' (as the great man once said). He mentioned as well the customisation in housing which really piqued my interest. Lots of silly over the top things to collect and enjoy. So things are looking a bit more interesting and im starting to see the mmo lurking a little beneath the surface now. Oh, and some of those visuals with the world twisting in and around itself (i forget where it was) just looks awesome.

Then i watched this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKm6XnULaHU
And the mechanics in the encounter genuinely seem super fun. Like, i was almost begrudgingly angry at how fun they looked.

I dunno, im starting to see the appeal of it. Watching preach, the msq seems terribly dull and fusty, but when you see later on in the game and how it just goes nuts, it really does look like a lot of fun. I think i might be tempted to at least give it a playthrough.

[hattahat]

I'm genuinely confused by the game and its mmo aspects.

As Korean gamer i'll tell you as far as i know. LA is highly raid oriented game. Other contents are literally abandoned now.
Nevertheless, the raids are actually fun and that's why LA is popular in KR on top of earning money through monetization.
In terms of difficulty, LA's raids are not as hard as wow mythic or ffxiv ultimate endbosses. However the difficulty curve is somewhat designed wrong. So it's like LA normal raid is much harder than other game's normal difficulty, but the bosses don't change much in hard difficulty. Current high-end raid requires much money to people who don't play all day and night, but previous raids don't need spending much money. So many Korean players just play previous raids and save money.

[ippollite]

As Korean gamer i'll tell you as far as i know. LA is highly raid oriented game. Other contents are literally abandoned now.
Nevertheless, the raids are actually fun and that's why LA is popular in KR on top of earning money through monetization.
In terms of difficulty, LA's raids are not as hard as wow mythic or ffxiv ultimate endbosses. However the difficulty curve is somewhat designed wrong. So it's like LA normal raid is much harder than other game's normal difficulty, but the bosses don't change much in hard difficulty. Current high-end raid requires much money to people who don't play all day and night, but previous raids don't need spending much money. So many Korean players just play previous raids and save money.

Can i ask a question? If you enjoy collecting things, building a house, decorating it, doing adventures, and just enjoying the world-atmosphere, is there around 200 hours plus of content to enjoy?

How long, if you really just enjoyed world exploring and collecting things (outside of raids), would a more 'single-player-focused' player have before it felt like they were repeating stale and boring content? 50 hours? 100? 200? 500?

[hattahat]

Can i ask a question? If you enjoy collecting things, building a house, decorating it, doing adventures, and just enjoying the world-atmosphere, is there around 200 hours plus of content to enjoy?

How long, if you really just enjoyed world exploring and collecting things (outside of raids), would a more 'single-player-focused' player have before it felt like they were repeating stale and boring content? 50 hours? 100? 200? 500?

Well what you mentioned is far from Korean mindset, i've never heard anyone enjoying those "casual" contents in LA. But anyway if you like adventures, there are lots of islands in LA, some of which actually have cool concepts. But collecting will cost a lot of money coz many cosmetic items are cash items here. On the other hand some collectible items are based on total RNG, no one can know how long it will take to collect those things.
So i think it will take at least a few weeks for you to enjoy "adventures" in LA but it may feel grindy.

[Video Games]

I played for like 2 hours last night and i did have an alright time but my general leeriness about non japanese asian games started to set in pretty quick. There's too much going on with too many skills and info panels and it all feels like a mess. I don't really care about gender locks because d2 had it and frankly most single player games do so it makes no difference to me. I don't care about representation or any of that nonsense. It just feels like most games coming out of korea and china are made just to make money and not for the player to have fun.

The only game I felt really bucked the trend was genshin impact because while it is a gatcha, it feels fun and very simple to play. Imo they should just get rid of all the currencies, except in game gold, and just make it a 60 dollar buy to play or something. I'll still probably play it because I like the idea of a grindy arpg, I just hope it becomes more palatable to the west.

[Wrecktangle]

There is almost nothing I can not do in heels. It's just a perception you are unstable in heels by folks that don't wear heels.

I have ran across on icy concrete in heels full sprint.

Damn and I thought me being able to do a double backflip on a trampoline whilst wearing rollerblades was impressive. You got me beat. Full sprint in heels is hard enough, on icy concrete sounds like a death sentence!

I'm playing a Paladin also (I always do if I can), and I am annoyed I'm locked into being a male. I really didn't like the controls much, but going to try it with a PS4 controller today to see how it goes.