Developed by Taiwanese studio X-Legend Entertainment, I have covered Laplace since it was first announced a few months back. You may recognize X-Legend as the makers of online games such as Eden Eternal, Aura Kingdom, and more recently, Dragomon Hunter. As the Taiwan server has blocked foreign IP access, I had to play the Hong Kong server, which comes with Cantonese voiceover!
Having played X-Legend games since the days of Holy Beast Online, everything looks familiar to the company’s style in Laplace. There are guardian pets, characters’ looks are purely based on costumes, classes being able to hold different weapons and skills (though there are always tough requirements), cute mounts, auction house, and more. The mana system is back, hence no more skills spamming!
Gameplay-wise, controls and combat are much smoother than the previous 2 games, which were atrocious. As usual, there is a mix of open world and dungeon PVE. Without partying or spending any cash, I was able to hit the 2nd class advancement within 2 days of casual play, which worries me as I remember having to party for dungeons much earlier in Aura Fantasy. Perhaps a tad too solo friendly?
Stats are manually added, which most online games have abandoned. It is good for X-Legend to keep this dying tradition for Laplace. I only stopped for now as upon hitting level 43, the only quest I was given was to hit level 45. I remember seeing this in Aura Kingdom, which slightly irked me. Overall, Laplace feels really similar to Aura Kingdom, and Aeria Games should consider publishing this game.
