I’ve bought two new MMOs recently. I found myself with a little free time and needed something to occupy myself outside of writing book three. First was Crowfall and second was Swords of Legend Online and that’s the one I’m going to waffle on about today.
If you’ve played any MMO you’ll know there tends to be a divide between Western and Eastern made ones. Both can have something of a grind attached, but over the years the western ones had been removing this and going for a more theme park, quest hub approach. Turn up at the right NPC and collect thirty quests to make toast, feed chickens, and kill rats until you level beyond the zone and do the same in the next zone – sometimes with a good story attached (SWTOR). No more standing at Salisbury Bridge taking out Skeletons or in the Barrows with a smite cleric (later on a Necro – DAoC).
Eastern MMOs tended to revel in the grind, at least in my opinion, and certainly held your hand a lot less than their western counterparts. And because of that they held their own charm and usually a very steep learning curve. Complications and multiple systems with a window for everything would overwhelm many an MMO-Veteran; me included. I did love Age of Wulin for quite some time, but others just left me confused and lost.
So, with that in mind, why am I talking about Swords of Legends?
First off, the graphics are stunning. This game puts a bit of strain on my laptop (RTX2060) and my eyes. There is just so much going on on the screen. All manner of effects and vegetation, buildings, mountains and valleys, water and enemy mobs. I had to turn it down a little just so I could see what was going on. If you enter a dungeon as a team, the effects go off like a whole New Year’s Eve Firework display, if it all happened in just one second. It is beautiful, a trifle overwhelming, and leaves confused to what you actually accomplished – though the damage numbers give a least a clue you’re doing something.
Having said that, the landscapes are gorgeous. The villages, quest hubs, are suitably Chinese in appearance – no shock, as it is a Chinese MMO. Also, the main city is almost a pleasure to leap and jump around!
Let’s talk about that for a moment; movement. Yes, you can walk, but with a double tap of W you can sprint, hit the SPACE bar and you’ll jump. You can leap three times (once you’ve completed a quest) and fly through the air for ages. In the villages and towns, I can spend an age leaping from rooftop to rooftop, emulating scenes out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (or rather a lot of Kung Fu (wire fu) movies), leaping gracefully from ground to rooftop, through trees, over walls.
More than that, there are mounts to collect… though, despite all the tigers, dragons, cats, deer and others, I’ve stuck with my flying sword! With this I can soar high above the world (avoiding mobs that will just slow me down) and gaze at the landscape.
I chose a Spellsword as my class… a ranged swordsman. Yes, I know that sounds unrealistic but we’re talking about a game here and this class throws all manner of swords and magic to destroy their enemies. The game defines it as a DPS class, as opposed to a Tank or Healer. Each class also has an alternative way to play, and a Spellsword can also play as a melee DPS. All the skills, spells, and abilities which you possess you can combine to deliver more damage, and xp for successfully activating them. You do find yourself sticking to some skills and rotations, forgetting that you can actually do more than you realise, but it works and combat, even ranged, has a good feel to it.
The music is evocative and for once I haven’t turned it down or off – in every other MMO it is one of the first things to go. Sound effects are similarly meaty, though there are chimes and alarms for things I still don’t quite understand!
You level (37 of them) through the lands and hubs to Student 1 which is where the xp stops (for now, there is an expansion I believe). Now, I’ll be honest here – I gave up paying any attention to the whole voice over, subtitled explanations of the quests, the storyline if you will. It chucks so many names at you, so quickly and you rarely hear of them again. I’ve probably missed stuff that would have wowed me, but the ingame movies and quest stories are sooooo long.
Even having reached this top level, I’ve really just done the very long tutorial and am now ready to play… though I am not sure exactly what to do as tutorials continue on and more areas open up! There are still a million windows and skills, records, things to collect that I’ve only really scratched the surface of this game.
For instance, you can work through character Biographies – learning more about the world or even taking their part in memories (quests) and completing them rewards you with currency. Oh, and what a load of currencies there are. There are all sorts of factions, NPC groups with which you can spend these currencies to get ready for PvE Dungeons or PvP. I’ve not delved into PvP yet, and I might need to join a guild to do that properly.
I get the feeling there is more to discover, and I haven’t even mentioned; pets, crafting, housing, astral points, socketing, refining, collecting, treasure hunting, and other stuff I just haven’t looked into at all.
I’ll come back to the sound and quests for a moment. They have taken huge leaps to localisation and everything is written in a mostly clear manner – I still get lost and confused, and they’ve done the same with the voice overs… most of them. Occasionally it dips back into Chinese but I’d actually prefer that with subtitles. Now, some of the voices just don’t work at all. They’ve tried to encompass a whole range of accents from the UK; mostly – I didn’t hear any French or German, or even a strong American. What I did hear was Birmingham, West Country, Welsh, Manchester, Newcastle and any number of accents which just jar with the ethereal, Asian feel of the game. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good regional accent – give me enough to drink and my West Country accent comes flying back so strong I’m almost unintelligible – but in this game it is just a “no” from me.
It is a buy once play forever game and I’m enjoying it – even the dungeons don’t take the WoW four hour raids (at least, not yet), so dipping in and out is easy enough. I’ll keep playing and seeing where it leads – it is definitely different to WoW, DAoC, EQII, and Crowfall.
The journey so far has been fun and now I need to leap across a few more buildings chasing Donnie Yen, Michelle Yeoh, or Jet Li!
Julia Kitvaria Sarene