[Game website] Known as Glory Destiny Online in Asia, Spirit Tales is 1 of the early titles from new publisher Koram Game. Is this yet another anime type of grinder from the Taiwanese developer, X-Legend, creators of Eden Eternal and Grand Fantasia?
Both unfortunately and fortunately, as there are still the usual elements of grinding and quest grinding. But looking past these, Spirit Tales’ graphics and design made me feel… soothed, perhaps due to the really cute characters and colorful landscapes.
Leveling is not really hard, with quests giving generous amount of experience points and mobs not amazingly hard to slay. While some folks will loathe the bright colors, I would say this goes for the recent Mario games as well. I think there are enough dark, apocalyptic games out in the MMO market.
With the media account provided, I managed to get to level 30 within 3 days, playing only after my office hours. This is with the aid of a couple of cash shop items of course. Seeing that Closed Beta 1′s level cap is at 40, players should have no problem hitting the 30s within a week or so.
Players should take note that while traveling, stay on a lookout for the boss monsters roaming. The mini-bosses usually will be moving around, while the much rarer and harder world bosses stay stagnant at a spot. Below is an example of a world boss (Morphing Lizard), which I wouldn’t dare touch without a group.
Slaying both types of bosses will add to your achievement records, with certain ones giving players new titles with different stat boosts, ranging from healing bonus, magic cast speed bonus and more. It is therefore important to check out which type of boss you are looking at before engaging it solo, like Rambo. No point dying when it could be avoided!
Instanced dungeons begin near level 20, and going into the first one without a level 20 group is almost equivalent to suicide. The mobs does more damage, have more health points and the mini-bosses are incredibly hard to kill.
Even if I soloed the first dungeon at level 30, tons of pots were needed along with a weapon which was bumped up to +6. Pretty straightforward, but then again, the overall game design didn’t make me feel a chore running through them.
Crafting is similarly easy as well, as new items will open up once a certain level is reached, while gathering the rare material is the real chore starting at level 30 weapons… The good thing is, different classes will need different materials, hence trading will make this process much faster.
Controls can be both easy to use while frustrating for some. Skills are now activated by clicking on the corresponding macro numbers, followed by a right mouse click to activate them. There are already a couple of games out there using this control scheme, but long-time MMO players who are used to the traditional WoW layout (select monster, click skill number to activate) will have to adjust to it.
Another thing, there is no jumping in the game, with spacebar activating the transformation which will boost damage, defense etc among other stats.
The pet system is simple, but effectively designed. Players can capture certain mobs as pets and equip them with pet items. 2 can be activated at any time, with 1 merged with the players for bonus stats, which differs from pet to pet. The merged pet will gain experience and level up normally as the attacking one during combat.
Fancy visiting a NPC to complete or to start a quest but finding the location empty? It means mobs have taken over the town or area! At specific locations across the maps, there will be this Totem Pole in which a group of mobs on certain times attack. This group can be easily spotted as they will walk from somewhere in the map to the Totem Poles.
If a pole is destroyed (message will be sent out to players in same map), the important NPCs will disappear until the pole is destroyed again to its original state. And you will need to slay the group of mobs of course, which is rather easy and reward players with items via mail.
I did not have the chance to go through the PvP systems, but there will be large-scale guild battles and PvP arenas in Spirit Tales. Yes, those cute things will be out for opposing players’ throats.
And the gallery of costumes is simply head-turning to say the least. Having looked at the Taiwanese server recently again, I must say players will certainly be tempted to spend some cash to doll up their characters.
This is not all, as the mount system coming at level 40 will give players more headaches which to choose! Hopefully this Blue Dragon from the Taiwanese server will be made available soon…
