as a returning player new rise and the blaanid questline ruined the game, was such a unique MMO and now it has no sense of accomplishment theres zero challenge in the game anymore and theres no reason to party with people in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ MMO, just go play a single player game that doesnt have all the nice outfits locked behind gacha

Great game! great community and fun dungeons!

been playing this since before steam had it - if you compulsively pay for gacha because gacha exist and cute outfits, do not play this. Not that the gacha issue is bad or everything immediately magically outclassed by some gacha junk, but like I do hear my share of horror stories of people blowing thousands on gacha across tons of games where the only point to gacha is "outfit drop" and it's like. dude come on you can buy from the auction house I mean what's wrong with you? If it's a time thing I get it, not everyone can like harvest purple rabbit parts or whatever then like sure okay neat but like, dude you sit at home drinking monster and posting on insta about your vape juice you really don't gotta laze that way istg

That said, the game's been through a lot! It used to be more of a point-and-click Diablo-but-with-timers sort of feel, almost like real-time tactical-MMORPG, anticipating and countering enemies, learning patterns, those patterns subverted in other dungeons and enemy groups - it had it's own thing. Honestly think that in and of itself is some cool jank worth visiting in other games since, well, it's kinda still there, but that design? kinda overwritten since nobody has potato internet no more (it was done like that because 2004 KR web cafe internet ping ofc), rip

It had a middle period where it was *faster* but not like action-MMO-y, back in the 2010s, but like it floundered, the content from that period sort of ranged from "uhh.... okay?" to "dude I don't wanna go on stage anymore THIS IS BORING BRO STOP WAVING THAT FEATHER QUILL IN MY FACE AUFGH"

And that brings us to now: it's been a little under a decade since big QoL updates started and revisions to the game have been pushing it steadily into a more modern-adjacent action-MMO style, it's all cooldowns and no more charge timers, the skills are diverse and hard-hitting and most dungeons are soloable in their 'normal' forms, and the more heavy stuff is very party-play-needed, and idk, there's a good balance striking.

Everyone else, video reviews, they can all cover how gameplay goes or what the game looks like, but I'm telling you as a player since the NA release in 2008? Game's like a huge redwood tree, got rings for ages, you can see the "we tryin' hard" years, you can see the crappier lazy years, and you can see the hella ambitious ones as you go through the content. It's cool to see as someone who really likes picking apart games and their histories. The newer content has try-hards who minmax, people who run for the sake of rare whatever, like dude my stuff is like, cobbled together out of what looks cool, what works, I think I've only ever upgraded opportunistically or out of whimsy than out of desperation to move forward. lol

Like it's just that sort of game, it's chill and lets you have room to try all sorts without feeling locked to a class or forcing you to remove all your gear like FF14 does when switching classes/skillsets, you can largely just play as you see fit

last little bit: if you're new, remember you can jump right into the game's initial storyline after meeting Blaanid for the first time - bottom-right of the screen, little 'book' icon, hit it, Generation 1, Begin Chapter. Just saying, in case you don't want to go through 3 hours of an amnesiac trying to tell you what a 'bag' is or how to drink potions while spamming you with level boosts. Really I think it needs to be stated better that one ought to take her in doses between doing other, less hand-holding misadventures lol