Sony Online Entertainment has a new free MMORPG called Free Realms that just went live from Beta today. I've been checking it out. As expected, it's kind of focused more on a kid demographic, but it's still fun. It's kind of a mix between Runescape and Neopets... so far it looks like you can't talk to anyone that you haven't added as a friend, which is the main drawback I see so far, about as annoying as Nintendo's friend codes. Graphics are quite good, it's got a cool dreamy glow to it. And the music is awesome.
It seems really casual and laid back; it's the Endless Ocean of RPGs. You have the option to never fight if you don't want to. Basically you start off by making your character, usual character design... a good amount of options to start with, but not expansive or anything. Just changing your hair, eyes, face, clothes, etc. Oh, and human or faerie.
Then you get planted into a tutorial world where you have to help a guy chase off some "robgoblins" to get used to the basic WADS+Mouse controls. After that, you learn a few basic skills like fighting and cooking. There are others in the game, like ninja, mail delivery, pet trainer, go-kart racer, demolition derby, card duellist, etc. Each of them has their own little minigame associated with it (like when you are cooking something, it goes into a little Cooking Mama style thing where you have to chop and mix all the foods,) different outfits for each, and skills to level up. Once you're done with that, you get transported to what I assume is the "real world", where there are other players running around and more quests to do. That's where I'm at so far.
Being a cheapass with a lot of time on my hands, I'm going to be checking it out for at least a few hours over the next couple of days. If anyone wants to go exploring with me, do the tutorial and we can find a place to meet up and add each other (Edit: Friend menu is currently "COMING SOON".) It's not going to replace WoW or anything, but it's free and probably guaranteed to get at least a million players, even if they are an average age of 14.
It seems really casual and laid back; it's the Endless Ocean of RPGs. You have the option to never fight if you don't want to. Basically you start off by making your character, usual character design... a good amount of options to start with, but not expansive or anything. Just changing your hair, eyes, face, clothes, etc. Oh, and human or faerie.
Then you get planted into a tutorial world where you have to help a guy chase off some "robgoblins" to get used to the basic WADS+Mouse controls. After that, you learn a few basic skills like fighting and cooking. There are others in the game, like ninja, mail delivery, pet trainer, go-kart racer, demolition derby, card duellist, etc. Each of them has their own little minigame associated with it (like when you are cooking something, it goes into a little Cooking Mama style thing where you have to chop and mix all the foods,) different outfits for each, and skills to level up. Once you're done with that, you get transported to what I assume is the "real world", where there are other players running around and more quests to do. That's where I'm at so far.
Being a cheapass with a lot of time on my hands, I'm going to be checking it out for at least a few hours over the next couple of days. If anyone wants to go exploring with me, do the tutorial and we can find a place to meet up and add each other (Edit: Friend menu is currently "COMING SOON".) It's not going to replace WoW or anything, but it's free and probably guaranteed to get at least a million players, even if they are an average age of 14.
Recently Spotted:
robio (25s)
So many quests. I always have like 5 or 6 quests on the go at once. You can't complete one without getting another along the way. There is an NPC pretty much every 20 feet that wants help with something... okay, maybe that is an exaggeration but you get the idea. Maybe it's only the start of the game that's like that.
Enemies start super easy but now they are getting to the point that it is a bit of a challenge, but no need to grind for experience so far. And like I said, all fights are optional so you can just walk past them anyway. There is a "duel" option with other players, but everyone I've walked up to so far has declined me.
And yay, my name got approved. So now I'm "Yarcofin" instead of "Duncan Platinummumbles"
Not that I think anyone is following this at all, but anyway here is a day's worth of progress:
Here are a few of my noteworthy rankings so far:
Really I spent about 4 hours actually playing and about an hour trying to challenge random people to duels, etc. After spending basically the whole afternoon on it, it still isn't boring, so I guess it's a pretty solid game.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I used to play and like Runescape so I amy take a look at this. It reminds me of ROSE online, and if it's browser based looks pretty good!
Edit:
Which server are you usually on btw?
It's kind of browser-based, kind of not. You have to log in through the website, but then it launches a full-screen applet. The initial download is about 3MB, then you go online and while you are making your character it installs another 50 MB. The rest of the game it is downloading and streaming while you play and go to new areas. I assume it's downloading the map and all the textures to my hard drive. I can't find the folder, but I think it runs too smooth with too good of graphics to be just saving to a temporary folder. The downloading is pretty seamless. Aside from a load screen when you teleport or go into battle, the longest I've waited was about 10 - 20 seconds while it downloaded the Trading Card Game. Speaking of teleporting, it's free in FreeRealms which is pretty sweet so you don't have to walk for minutes at a time between cities. After you've been to a town you unlock a teleport stone, so you just press M to open the map and click on it.
I play on whatever server it suggests to me, lowest population one at the time.
Chat and friends list are working now.
And I just unlocked the Ninja job. FTW
The only thing I'm disappointed about is that I was accepted into the Beta program about 3 days before the game launched, and all the beta testers got sweet army helmets... but since I didn't make a character, I don't get one.
Today the game is lagging slightly. Really it's only noticable that my run animation isn't completely smooth like it was before.
Also I found some guy and added him as a friend, and we partnered for quests... which makes them like half as hard. Didn't think the game had that option, GG Sony. And the thing is, you don't split either... both players get 100% of the EXP, coins, even items. Not just two people either, it looks like you can have whole parties of people do quests together. I dunno what the limit is yet, and I'll probably never be playing with enough people to find out.
VGPress Clan anyone? Although the time differences will make that idea pretty brutal.
What MMORPG would be complete without a GIANT FUCKING SPIDER?
Well, it murdered Opera, and then my internet was slowed.
So maybe in a few days I'll try again.