Welcome to another installment of "Korean MMORPG: If It Ain’t Broke, Keep
Making Copies In the Hopes That It’ll Result In Another Hit, or At Least Enough
Money to Feed Our Children and/or Keep the Server Running", which is not
‘indie’, technically, but, eh.
Lunia! Not actually "Entirely New
genre!"— more like Gauntlet in addition to some kind of instanced mission
system.
This game has the most punishing tutorial I have ever sat through.
The classes are limited to only 3 types, with no customization available, so
you’re required to get used to the three different models after a while. It’s a bit soothing,
like a preview of some kind of dystopic future. It might appeal to some people
– the interface is heavily reminiscent of World of Warcraft and everything – but I would suggest skipping the download
else is more or less directly taken from other MMORPGs, including the complete
lack of attention to localization
until it’s more fleshed out.
On a similar note, Pristontale is
also free to play now, though the vague memories I have of it have completely
been fuzzed over by now. It’s probably fairly safe to say Pristontale is similar, if
not identical to, games such as ROSE Online, RYL, etc, etc, etc. More polished than Lunia, but the thought of sitting through another heavy download to test that claim
makes me throw up a little in my mouth. Reports have been somewhat
positive. (Screenshot from mmoflash.seesaa.net.)
It’s rather funny how all these companies try to imitate the success (the terrble,
terrible success) of Maple Story. You can almost hear them thinking "3D
is one more than 2D. Ha! Maple Story! More like…soon to be overwhelmed with
my success story! Should I implement Cash Shop now or later? Where’s my coffee?
I need to celebrate."