MMORPG: Scarlet Legacy (FTP)

[Winnow]

Tried out a freebie MMORPG called Scarlet Legacy that's in beta. Anyone can play, just go here:

http://scarletlegacy.gamescampus.com/teaser

Closed beta but can get into it just by requesting beta key.

Warning: It uses the Pando Media Boost to download the game. Now that I know about this. All you do is download and install the game and then uninstall the Pando Media Boost app from your control panel.

So, what sets this apart from other MMOs? Nothing really, but it's been fun to play so far!

The game doesn't take itself too seriously. for example, there are lots of ways you can travel around. One of them is called "Canibalis". You summon two Canibals and are tied to a post that they carry you around on:





Now that's a different way to travel! Another early method of fast travel is the Matchstick. Your ass catches on fire and you hop around but move fast. There's also traditional methods of travel like the horse:



Each additional mount you collect increases all of your mounts travel speed.



Early in the game you are taught how to use double jump to climb. I climbed that mountain behind me but at the top the quest guy told me I can just use an Eagle to get around.



Another cool thing in the game is pets. You can collect them as well...there's 542 of them. That's a lot of pets to collect. But there's more to the pets. Each pet has a "God Gift" which enhances or buffs something or another. On top of that, they have 5 slots you can enhance each pet with. Each pet levels up when you use them. Fido up there is level 7 as he's my first pet. The bird I have summoned in the screenshot is level zero but has better God Gift enhancements. It's base hps are higher than the Wolf's at level 7 but the Wolf does more damage while the bird has better buffs. Seems like pets are fun to play around with and useful. Beyond what I've already mentioned, you also have 45 skills separated into three areas that you can add up to 30 talent points to each to enhance ALL of your pets. See image below:



I've put two points into increasing my HPs when I have a pet out. That's from the 15 in the Assistant branch. There's also Interfere and Attack. (translations in the game are horrible. I'll get to that part later)



Graphics are well above average for a free game. Make sure you put the settings to High.



The UI isn't the greatest. That, combined with laughable text translations from Chinese are some of the weaker points. There's actually an interesting story so far to the game but it's kinda lost in translation. There's a lot of voice acting but it's all in Chinese so that doesn't help most of us here.

Seems like everything is enchantable. Unlike Aion, there's no bullshit fails. If you have some sort of enchantment that works with your piece of armor or weapon, you can socket it without worrying that it will fail.

I'm not sure what the weapon Aura is exactly but I think it has to do with the weapon's damage range, etc. Above, my weapon is green and it's damage falls within the Green aura so I'm guessing it's like most MMOs with the colored weapon types.

You can equip four weapons in slots and hit X to swap them. Two main weapons, hidden weapons (darts or shurikens for my Assassin) and ranged (Bow and Arrow for me) I don't have them equipped above. Some of your skills require triggers from certain weapon effects so swapping them in combat looks like it's going to be useful.



Maps are nice in the game. Also, there's a lot of auto-routing in the game so you can click on a quest and your character starts running there, and back when it's done. I know people don't dig running all over the place so this is nice. There are some issues with getting stuck in world or just stuck using the auto-routing. I haven't been perma stuck but there's a command to get unstuck easy enough. This is in beta after all.



Now...just know up front. The punctuation, text wrapping...everything and anything you can think of that has to do with grammar is horrible in this game. It does have a nice help system though. Just be aware it looks like the translation is straight out of google translate. That said. It may read like crap but the tutorial and help guide do a good job. Also, every time you level up, it lets you know what new things are available to you, what areas best suit your level, what food sand drinks help your level most, what new options have opened up to you along with if you have new skills available. Overall, a nice system barring grammar from hell.



There are some big statues in the first big city you run into.

Also, they didn't put much thought into Western names for NPCs. I saw two guards walking around the City named Honey and Bobby. hehe



Animations for the characters are well done. Humans and animals look natural as they walk and run. Another creepy statue.



I like how they do the story parts. No cut scenes, just character pop-ups with a few animations to them. Everything, in the background continues live and you can move around while they are in story mode if you want.



Speaking of the story, this princess is trapped in a mirror. You can sometimes talk to her through it. With yet even more collectable stuff, you can dress her up in outfits to change her mood and add bonuses to your character (I think, not quite sure yet)



The NPCs are pretty detailed in the game and have a nice look to them. They have some decent idle animations as well as some free flowing items on them. That female's bag for example, flops around when she moves.

I'm wearing a "fashion item" This game allows you to wear fashion items on top of your utility armor. It's a nice bonus as your armor/look changes as you acquire new stuff (this isn't Age of Conan which had the same armor through level 40) but if you want, there are fashion slots purely for looks.



As for combat, the special effects are plentiful but tastefully done. I think that newbie over there is impressed with my Arctic Slash! I obliterated something.

The names of what skill your using might seem annoying but it's not, or at least doesn't bother me! There are some nice animations associated with the skill attacks. Martial arts style spinning/flying attacks, etc.



NEVER turn your back on an Assassin with a two handed weapon! (what's up with two handed weapons for Assassins?)

Wind Sweep up your ASS sir!



A 10 Kill Chain netted me an increase in Aura for my weapon. Looks like kill streaks can help your weapon stats.

NEXT! Weeeee



Rawr!



Well, I didn't even get into the martial arts stances. You earn various "stances" and when you activate a stance, that particular stance increases through levels.

There are also the usual skill trees for each of the classes. It looks like levels go up to at least 100.

Of the classes, the bard looks the most interesting. The bards look super gay playing their string instruments but look to have a lot of diversity in their skills.

The game has a lot of auto assist abilities. You can set up auto assist to pump yourself with Hit Point Potions, Mana or Skill Point potions pending falling below certain percentages.

You can set up auto assist to buff yourself with a series of skills.

You can set up auto assist for combat series of attacks.

Of course, there's a full crafting system.

You can cast while jumping/moving.

Classes:

I chose an Assassin and supposedly they're the worst class.

Mystics (bards) are the best, followed by Monks. The other class is the Warrior.

I'm only level 10 but have has zero difficulty killing anything so far. That said, Mystics seem interesting, and Monks look cool. I'll probably try them out soon.

Here's the descriptions for the Mystic and Monk:





I recommend giving Scarlet Legacy a shot.

There are some things you need to deal with:

-looks like they are still working on translating the game. The text doesn't wrap, grammar errors everywhere.

-movement.

you can click to move. hold down both mouse buttons to move. use WASD or Arrow keys to move. It's not as smooth as it could be and right/left strafe instead of turn your character.

So far, no controller support. I haven't looked into it yet but I hope I can use my Saitek with it.

The game is fun. I suggest playing through at least level 10 to see what you think. Give it a chance as it takes awhile to see some of the options and figure things out. It's in early beta/english conversion. I believe they can work out the UI/text issues.

The game doesn't take itself too seriously. The transportation modes demonstrate that. Tons of things to collect that seem worthwhile. The 500+ pets with leveling and tons of customization to them, crap for the chick in the mirror, enchantments, mounts, skills, crafts, martial arts stances, etc. Emotes are above average.

While the UI needs some work. The graphics and animations are very nice. Maps and questing is well done. Story is sort of followable but needs more translation work. I'll have to see if the game increases in difficulty. I'm sure it does as I'm only level 10 with at least a 100 level cap.

Don't let the Pando thing scare you. Just be sure to uninstall it after the game itself is installed and it's completely harmless.

Here is a very crappy quality video of PvP in Scarlet Legacym which I've done none of so far:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvsfLFPa59c

Poor Mystic gets her ass beat by a Warrior I think. She needs to use more Flute on him! (Freeze/Slow/Debuffs)

No idea if they are similar level etc. Graphics are very nice. This person made crappy recording.

[Winnow]

I'm liking this game more and more as I play.

I decided to go with a Mystic (bard).



You get some fashion Samurai type armor you can try out early in the game so I put that on for the early levels. Most of the armor (even non fashion) looks good.



Mystics have three primary weapons: Flute, Lute and Zither. Above, I'm using the Zither which is associated with fire attacks. Each Instrument/Weapon specializes in something.

Zither is for high damage fire. Is has single, AOE, knockback, as well as attack buff skills.

Flute seems to be for crowd control. It has Freeze, Slow AOE typs skills as well as your Healing and Defensive buffs

Lute is lightening based. I just got it. So far AOE and Damage skills.

Your three weapons are always equipped (that goes for the other classes as well). As you cast various skills/spells, your character automatically changes to the correct weapon. It's great to see they didn't make it a pain to switch so you can concentrate on enchanting and enhancing your various weapons to perform well for their functions.



Mostly completed my second set of armor so I switched to the default/non fashion look. Looking more bardly!



The world looks to be pretty big and, unlike the Global game, varies in appearance per zone. The image above this is just as I'm entering the second area for levels 14-20. I love the music in this game. So far, each area and city has had it's own unique looping music. I still always turn music lower than the default but this game I left it at least loud enough to hear and enjoy. The battle music is also good. The 14-20 area, Wilderness Field, has such peaceful music. You're mostly killing traditional animals and learning your about crafting in this level so it's appropriate.

Celestial Tomb has it's own Zone! (check fire pots for loots!)

It looks like this game has been planned out. The size and number of zones is impressive. There's also a fuckton of quests. They're all your traditional "kill x of these, gather y of those" type but it keeps you doing various things as opposed to farming the same thing over and over in the same spot.



This is wilderness Field zone. I've worked my way around a little over 1/2 of it and am level 18. For a free to play game, you don't have the feeling that you need to buy something.(which you can't anyway in beta) So far, the game has been generous with providing potions, teleport type stuff, pets, crafting stuff, etc. There is a "convenience" system which will be the pay part. If you want your warehouse available to you anywhere instead of at cities for example or if you want access to your emails or want to reset your kill points for your pets, etc. Nothing that you must have. In fact, the regen/healing/mana pots are all available in-game at merchants and the prices seem reasonable...meaning you can use the in-game currency you make to buy them.





Another cool thing in the game is the crafting. When you hunt, mine or gather, you can do it anywhere. You don't need to go find a tree to chop down, you can just start using the proper tool and you start the process. Another time waster eliminated! Above, I'm using the hunting skill. Wherever I am, I just click on the hunting bow and start looking for birds to shoot down.

There is a slight annoyance with this though. You can mine right in small towns so you see someone using a pickaxe on a stone right in the middle of the town which seems kind of silly. They should make it so you at least need to exit the city/town limits. You can't gather resources in major cities though so it's not that bad.



Every once in awhile, a notice will pop up asking if you want to play a mini game. You can ignore it or play the game. You are rewarded with XP and some treasure token type things you can turn in later for loot depending on how well you do. The Xp was pretty good in this whack a mole game. There's some strategy beyond whacking away. You need to avoid hitting the princess, some things require double clicks, you have some bombs you can use to destroy touch mobs, have a 60 second, double point button, a button that hides the princess for 30 seconds, etc. It's corny and you can skip it altogether. The XP is better than if you ignore it though. About 16K EX I received and would have managed about 5K during the same time completing a quest.



This is what you look like in-game if playing a mini game.





The bard is a fun class for sure. Above is a knock back sequence. I've managed to tear though just about everything. I've died once or twice when I just lost control using AOE and attacked too many mobs. For the most part though, I can take down the mini bosses with ease. This game hasn't had mobs AOE agro yet if you pull a single mob. Just recently in the level 16+ range, mobs have started agroing on their own. So the times where you can just walk up to the boss in the middle of other mobs without them attacking is coming to and end for me I think!



The three weapon system for all the classes seems cool. It allows you to customize your weapons for their purpose yet not have to button smash switching weapons. The other interesting thing about weapons, is even the lower level weapons you're awarded have various "God Gifts" associated with them so each instrument (and Pet) is different...not just all 500+ pets but same type animals have different bonuses on top of their normal starting stats....so some animals are better than others due to grades (1-4), starting stats but on top of that, you might land a nice God Gift stat...and then you have the 45 skills in three trees to further enhance your pets..as well as leveling up individual pets...and also there are five skill slots for pets.

Pretty cool game. It's a traditional MMORPG. Nothing ground breaking but if you can manage to ignore the translations and UI that needs prettying up, if you're in the mood for that type of game with good skills sets, high level of customization in armor/enchantments/pets/looks, with some other oddball stuff thrown in with he princess in the mirror, mini games, etc, this game is worth a look.

Also, you earn quest teleport scrolls as rewards which allow you to port either to the quest location or back to the quest giver. I have 45 of those scrolls so far and while you're not going to use them all the time, it's nice to port back/to somewhere if it's a long distance if you don't feel like running back on your horse, tied up by cannibals, with your ass on fire, etc. The game is constantly giving you things like eggs to hatch pets, bonus gifts you can "crack" open for doing things like every time you kill 100 mobs, etc. There's a lot going on while at the same time you are not rushed. My quest list is overflowing my screen most of the time and the game has nice help like hovering over a mob tells you if it's part of one of your quest, how many of it you've killed and how many more you need to kill for the quest, etc. If they can iron out some of the pathing issues and fancy up the UI a tad, it would be on par with pay to play or buy MMORPGS. As it is, I prefer if over anything out there right now until SWTOR or GW2 are released.

The UI, while ugly, is customizable. You can drag/resize crap etc.



Upper right give you access to most things. Those little icons next to the quest allow you to teleport back if you want to use a quest scroll to do so. I find them useful once I've completed multiple quests in the same area to use one port to get back sometimes. The open window you see is an example of a bonus buff for a kill streak. Again, yes, the quests are generic!



upper left is also traditional with your pet (with level) and mount icons below. Pets or Mounts don't take long to spawn and you continue running through zone changes to your destination (unlike old school EQ when you stopped at each zone!)