GE, I Found A HEART

I don’t really know how to categorize this article into.  It’s not a review nor a depth review.  I just want to write this, because when I’m playing Granado Espada, this is what I felt.  There are so many good review out there that you can read.  This is just about my feelings toward the game.

Granado Espada or Sword of The New World, is far from perfect.  It doesn’t have stat allocation so that the character can be differentiate to each other in terms of character type, it doesn’t have a unique distinctive battle system, they don’t prevent any RMT company spamming around, some of premium items are out of balance (lucifer wings for example, which make people refuse to enter the pvp and faction wars) and I’m really having difficulties when dealing with equipment because there is no way you can assign a hotkey for equipment change.  So yeah, they are far from perfect.  But when I play this game, one thing that I found is that the team behind this game really put their heart to make this game different and alive!

Why would I said that?

The graphic of Granado Espada, while it wouldn’t be the best graphic of today OL game, but I can see that the team behind this game, is paying really high effort of bringing the best one of its day (2006) to the game.  No game ever match the details of background of this game so far.  It might not be remembered again as the winner of 2006 Korean game best graphic awards in the year to come, but I will still remember how they put their heart in paying attention to details.  Look at these costumes and backgrounds!

I know that today’s game character design are more sophisticated than GE, but considering they did it in 2006 and how well they think about the detail of character appearances, I really amazed on how they did it.  Not to mention the vast variation of character equipment!  For each different equipment, they put another high detail of character appearance!

The gameplay of GE, is still a point and click system based (although you can activate certain action of your characters with just a simple space bar and some other buttons).  However, as you’ve already know, this is a multi characters control game, where you can control up to 3 characters at once.  Now, this can be an advantage and also a disadvantage, and I’m not going to talk about it, but coming up with this idea, has already give me a clue about how they really think hard to make a differentiation!

Still about game features, this is the first game where you can recruit an NPC to fight along your side.  However, since every NPC has different stance, this feature has consequences where the team has to think about the way each NPC fight.  But they have done their job.  Another one that I found different is the mission interchange system.  This feature allow you to enter a mission based room where you have to defend and attack the “flag”.  Another good job to make the game different.

Another thing is music.  I never met any MMORPG where I really enjoy the music as much as in GE.  They really composed them with their heart.  Some of the music even make me stay in the game grinding, just to hear it.  While other game make music as a complimentary element, GE has won my heart with their music.  Some of the music even has vocal in it!  This is so far is the first MMORPG that I played, that the team is willing to pay a singer for their music.  What I can say to them is, “Guys, I really appreciate how you put your heart to provide us a complete environment of game.”

Recently, I have to raise my hat to the team once more when they really think on how they can differentiate their self in the fierce competition of nowadays online game.  I’ve found some events that never been implemented in other games, especially the real life events.  For example is the premium buffs at certain internet café!  Yes it has advantage and also disadvantage, which I won’t cover it too, but this is another example of how they put their heart in making the game alive.  They also appreciate on how their player write about the game in their blog.  And still some more.

What has kept me playing this game is the random item drop system.  But what make me really appreciate the game is because I found the team’s heart when playing this game.  The reason why I have to say this is because I have met some games where I have the feeling that the game is incomplete or not ready to be launched even for closed beta.  I have dissapointed in some games because the have raise a high hope while in the end I just found that the game is lack of heart and effort.  Hopefully, more and more developer team really pay attention to this.  I know that making a game is not easy.  I am not saying that all other game is lack of effort and heart.  All the Blizzard products is also showing the same sign of high effort and a full heart to develop (or even more if I take a look at their cinematic scenes).  But if all game developers raise their standard to the way of this game has been made, I’m pretty sure that a contender of WoW will come.