Sammy's Game Journal: Week 1

Continuing on as I explored 'Forsaken World' further. There's five races you can choose from; the typical Human, Elf, Dwarf fantasy options are available, as well as Stonemen (who are only male and only tank class), and Vampires (who are very Castlevania-esque but have more options at least). As I like to play pretty things and I hate tanking, I haven't looked at the Stonemen yet, but they seem to do their job well.

There are two things I noticed right away that are quite different from other MMO's, for better or for worse (or for little consequence!). The first is the inclusion of astrological signs. In character creation you select a birthdate for your character (and consequently a sign). There is a gauge at the top of the screen that shows which celestial sign is currently in swing. Each sign is lucky for anyone who was 'born' under it, as well as two other signs. It seems to cycle every hour or so. You can also pray every hour, and the gods may or may not answer you with material goods or buffs. It seems to work better when you're under a lucky sign. A neat little addition, though overall not really that important to the game as a whole.

The second thing is that there is a dual-monetary system. There is a separate money system for interacting with NPCs; buying training or goods from merchants costs 'soul coins'. These coins are bound to you and can't be traded. Then there are normal coins that can be used to trade with other players and buy things off of the auction house and such. I'm not sure why there needs to be two separate systems, or if it's particularly useful. If I've been low on soul coins I've bought low-priced items off of the auction house with normal coins and then merely sold them to vendors for soul coins to buy my skills and such.

Dungeons (instanced locations where you can take a party for extra good gear and experience) are like pulling teeth in this game once you get past the first low-level noob dungeon. You can sign up and let the game put you with random people, and occasionally it will do so without bothering to assign an actual proper tank or healer, leaving you to struggle through and use your wits, though it somewhat defeats the purpose of having fun if even teamwork and clever play still leaves you feeling frustrated and unrewarded.

One of the first apparent ripoffs I noticed in game seemed to resemble the World of Warcraft kobold. I've seen many representations of kobolds, ranging from anywhere between vaguely dog-looking to mostly dragon-looking. Usually dragon or lizard-like seems to be the more 'canon' representation. I thought WoW's version was fairly unique. Now, Forsaken World doesn't call these kobolds, they're 'Ratkin', but they do still look suspiciously familiar...

You no take candle!!