I am not really sure why ChangYou acquired this game for the global market, but I guess I have different views from their board. Touted as the first anime-styled turn-based MMO to be developed using the Unreal 3 Engine, Peach Garden (directly translated) is kind of a rarity in the current market. The last client-based and turn-based MMO I remember to garner some credits was Atlantica Online, which was released quite some years ago.
I did try Peach Garden during its early days (link), and I wasn’t really impressed with the combat. While one of the features is “Active Time Battle” which supposedly cuts down the timer in traditional turn-based games. i still find combat too slow for my liking given the slew of action titles being released in recent months. The game is developed in China by Playcool over a period of 45 months and reportedly cost USD 30 million to develop, an amount the gamers are questioning.
With that said, the game offers gorgeous visuals and quite an impressive class tree system which you can see below. I remembered the original tree branches down even more, perhaps they decided to keep some advanced classes back for now. Being a turn-based game, you can expect to recruit various other characters and tame creatures to battle on your side. I really feel it is a waste, since the turn-based genre ain’t doing too well even in China, where 2 popular ones (including Atlantica China) recently announced their closures.
What about the West? Well, I think ChangYou did their research, so let’s see. ChangYou is having quite a quiet 2012 so far with a web-based card game, Sword Girls, as its only flagship title. Personally, I am waiting for their other Unreal Engine 3 title, DaVinci Online (link).
