We recently checked out Sword Saga from R2 Games, another browser-based free to play fantasy-themed MMORPG from the publishers that sends us off on another adventure of swords and magic. Very much on the same theme as many of the other MMORPGs of this type that R2 Games have published
A run with the same three classes set up, giving us the choice between Warrior, Magician and Shooter. There are no customisation options, but players can choose between a male and female character feature class.
Once our character was chosen, as the game was loading up we were given a written narrative introduction of the story/lore of the game, the least we presume that’s what it was as each paragraph was on the screen for about three seconds before it disappeared and so we’ve no idea what it said all story was about. It was pretty ridiculous.
Once finally in the game we did notice some particularly long loading times resulting in some pixelated backgrounds and missing character artwork that took a while to load up, whilst this could have easily been at our end we don’t typically have a problem with long loading times and we sure this is there a problem for the Asian community with their insane Internet speeds. When they did load up, as expected, the graphics did look pretty impressive and the Work is always extremely top-quality; one thing the developers of these games rarely skimp on is the environmental and character artwork. However, even though artwork is impressive, the use the same backgrounds in different areas, which it definitely doesn’t leave a great impression.
The combat, features and general mechanics are all a staple of R2 Games and in all honesty of the game could quite easily been one of their other titles and I wouldn’t have known many different, it’s the same speed grind through levels, automated pathing and combat, same Mercenary features, Battle Ranking, constant icon popups with free giveaways; all in all there is nothing new.
The one major downfall of the game, though the one that provided the most entertainment, was the dialogue. R2 Games are responsible for converting these Asian games to market them for a European audience, impart the translation to English and aside from the actual dialogue between NPC’s being absolutely laughable and cheesy beyond comparison it was really badly done and reading the quest text was sometimes a chore trying to work out what they meant. We can only presume that the lack of attention is an important, no doubt the majority of people speed click through the quest dialogue subsists trying to burn through levels and unlock later game features where we can only presume the real gameplay happens.
The progression between NPC’s and locations wasn’t too bad, picking up some companions early and at the heart of it there is obviously a semi-decent story running between the bad typos and failing humour; or more of it would have probably made sense had we been able to speed read the intro paragraphs.
The reality is that the games don't offer that much different to other titles published by R2 Games, and if all that really changes from game to game is the story and the narrative then they have failed spectacularly given that the major problem with the game is the translation into English and the horrible script between characters. All in all not as great a first impression as some of the other MMORPGs out that, even those from R2 Games, but as publishers it’s hard to punish them score wise simply because this game came after the others.
Its an alright game, like the music to it, but could be different then using a rip off from the zelda games, when you go to the second area that is a city, the music sounds like its from a link to the past.
I think you hit a buyllese there fellas!