Oh dear, dear  MMO site bloggers, blog readers, blog writers... I was torn once again to see the lack of a review of a game that so desperately needs to be known.  But, my dissapointment aside, I find it important to create a preview of my own- as someone who got into the closed beta that is.

       WARNING. WARNING. DUE TO THE CLASS SYSTEM THIS WILL BE THE LONGEST PREVIEW OF ANYTHING ANYONE HAS EVER DONE.

      REPEAT: WARNING. WARNING. DUE TO THE CLASS SYSTEM THIS WILL BE THE LONGEST REVIEW OF ANYTHING ANYONE HAS EVER DONE. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

Emil Chronicle is planned for Open Beta Release september 30th! So find some friends, clear up your schedual, and get ready to get your grind on!

     Emil chronicle online is a humble anime styled mmo which offers everything you expect from an anime styled mmo. Released quite a few years ago in Japanese and later in taiwanese and korean. This mmo was made by the same people who brought us ragnarok online-- the best anime mmo- period- anyone who thinks other wise is pathetic. Emil Chronicle is praised as ragnarok online 1.5, somehow it gives the same raganrok online feeling.  Learn weather its safe or not to get your hopes up in my preview below. Ill list everything in the order I encounter it.

             PRESENTATION:

    The graphics in emil chronicle online were made to make you feel like your playing an anime. They are bright, detailed, and I enjoy looking at them. The world is fairly big and has a few cool or interesting maps. Some of the maps in Emil Chronicle Online are just made of happy, candy, and rainbows. Though I wasnt able to see it, a cool idea in emil chronicle was the theater. You can go into an in game theater to watch movies like developer interviews and future content. The Music in Emil Chronicle is decent. Some songs I love, some songs are just bareable. Everything considered, if they want to make you feel like your in an anime, I'd say they succeded. I had one problem though. In some areas you can rotate the camera fully (like enough to see the sky) and in some places you've only got birds eye view. Below: Some outfits and maps are just made out of happy.

                                                                       

              CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION:

    One of the most important and mis understood parts of an mmo. If you dont love your character wont it be less interesting? The character customization in Emil Chronicle is everything you expect from an anime styled mmo. Hair style, a few hair colors, Eyes, a few eye colors. Theres around 20 faces for males and females and enough hair styles to chose from. You can also choose a race now, the races get stat bonuses. Dominions, the demon race, gets a raise in magic and strength. Emils, the human race, get raises in vitality and strength. Finally, Titanians, the angelic race, gets raises in magic and intelegence. Demons get to chose between shades of red and blue for hair. Angels get to choose between  shades of hazel and brown. Humans get to choose between shades of brown. I couldn't find or make a picture of character customization, sorry. So Heres girl in bikinis instead!

                              

             STARTING OUT:

     Ok. Emil Chronicle Online has, easily, the most borring tutorial it has ever been my displeasure to suffer though. You start off in a tiny farm-ish town with awful music and npcs. This was extremely texty. I havn't read this much for a tutorial since.... well since Ragnarok Online's. After the tutorial your set off into the glamorous world of grinding. Emil Chronicle Online is alot like Ragnarok online. You start out as a Novice and go on to choose a job.

             CLASSES:

     Youve got a nice chunk of classes to choose from. That is, rather than the usual 4 in emil chronicle the classes are diversified. Instead you can choose from 12. 4 of each type of generic class. When changing to 3rd job you can keep 5 of the skills from your second job. Youll loose all the rest, you can choose the skills you want to keep.

        The Physical Type: Using swords, bows, knives, spears, this type of job focuses on normal old fashioned physcial pain.

    This is your basic melee class. They are balanced between attack agility and defense. Using- ofcourse- swords and a variaty of other close range weapons. The Swordman user can mess with thier stats and skills to become an attacker or a tank, which depends on the person. Swordsmen can go on to be closer to a tank as a Blade Master or a moving ball of dead as a bounty hunter.

 

 

 

    The fencer is the tanker class. While some of thier skills deal extra damage most of thier skills block and counter attack and some skills stun, slow down, or push back enemies. The fencers main weapons are swords and rapiers. The fencer can go on the become a knight and after that a darkstalker. Naturally, the knights skills all focus on protecting a party, while the darkstalkers skills all focus on protecting yourself (stealing hp, cursing enemies, Self revival, that kind of thing)

    The scout is what you would expect. Hiding, ambushing, assassinating. They can use daggers for close range or throwning knives for long range.  Theyre the fastest class and have skills to help dodge. The scout can go on to become an Assassin, focusing on knives, quick damage, and poisons. After that the Assassin can choose to become a Commando which can leave bombs and deals damage over a wide area with some attacks.

 

Lastly, the Archer is the long range class, though able to use daggers as well. The Archers in Emil Chronicle are able to use skills with elements attached.  Archers go on to become strikers, gaining more elemental mastery and doing damage, and later if they want to, gunners, which have skills to attack in a wider area.

 

 

 

C-can I just cut it short and just do the warrior classes...? No...? This one will take a while...

The MIND BREAKER type: The magic classes. All thier skills are based on int.

    Wizards are a new type of mage that uses something ECO calls "new magic". The damage from "new magic" property attacks is niether elemental nor spiritual. It is just pure condensed pain formed into shapes then tossed at enemies, so no matter what they are fighting they do consistent damage. Wizards go on to become Sorcerers- the debuffer type. Or a sage to deal damage over a huge area.

 

 

    Shamans focus on elemental magic. Thier elemental skills use fire, earth, wind(which includes lightning) and water.  The Shamans skills mostly focus on dealing elemental damage. A shaman can go on to become an Elementist to further thier elemental damage skills and later an enchanter, whos skills focus on slowing down and debuffing enemies as well as changing the elemental status of areas or specific monsters. 

 

 

The Vates is the healer class. Ofcourse, they are the only class that can heal other chhttp://my.mmosite.com/blog/mrapathetic/membercp/writearticlearacters. While they get heal early on most of thier skills involve taking away specific status effects. They don't get an actual buff for a little longer unfortunately, but the healing is enough to make them wanted for parties by everyone.  They can go on to become a Druid, whom debuffs enemies and deals damage to undead but still has a few good buffs. After that they can become a bard who loses undead damage skills but gets all the buffs of a druid and more.

    

     Warlocks are the only class that use dark magic. Most of thier spells involve debuffing an enemy through freezing, poisons, the usual. They are also the only magic class that can use knives effectively. Because of thier strange Intelegence+ Attack bonus stats, the demon race (Dominions) are considered best to play this class. Any race can though. The Warlock goes on to become a cabalist who focus on dealing more dark damage. After that they can becomea Necromancer, the only class that can summon.

 

MONEY MAKER types: The backpacker type classes run the economy with thier ability to make weapons sell items cheap and the like.

    The Miner Class actually isn't bad at fighting solo. They use hammers and thier skills can make them decent at close range attacks- but not as good as a warrior type class. The Miners go on to become blacksmiths who are the best at making and upgrading weapons. A blacksmith can become an engineer. But Engineer for most mmo players translates into MECH USER. Yes the engineers can build and ride thier own mechs. All of the engineers skills have to do with creating and using thier robots.

 

  

         The Farmer class is able to cook, make clothing, and create a garden. They are also able to make bows. The Farmer class moves on to become a summoner type class.  An Alchemist are able to summon plants to heal, poison, or attack. After Alchemist is an even better summoner class, the Marionettist. The Marionettist uses pets and elemental type summons to attack for them.

 

  

       The Ranger class specializes in increasing the drop rate of items and opening treasure chest and boxes. They do have some skills that can be helpful for soloing, specifically traps and a debuff decreasing attack. But mostly skills involve treasure hunting. Rangers go on to become explorers which get a few pet based attacks and upgrades to traps. Then they can become a Trasure Hunter which gets whip based skills and a nice chunk of very good debuffs.

 

   

     Finally, the Merchant class is able to buy for less and sell for more. They can open up a shop even while moving or fighting. Lastly, they get plenty of nice tricks and debuffs for helping with a fight. A merchant can go on to become a Trader, increasing bag (thier weapon) , and befriending NPCs for various advantages. A Trader can then go on to become a Gambler, who gets great but luck based all or nothing skills.

 

Phew, that was alot of info wasn't it?

Naturally, I chose Vates, the healer class, as my job. After that the game threw a few special features at me.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

POSSESSION SYSTEM:

    This is actually a pretty fun feature. Basically, you can get inside one of a few parts of a armor or body. Depending on where you are in the player you may get hit more or less. When inside of a player your skills and buffs apply to the player your possessing, not you or anyone else. Its essentially giving the possessed players all the skills of thier posessors.Theres a chance of taking damage instead of the player your possessing.  Going into a neclace you'll barely ever get damaged at all, this is a place for Vates. Going into a shield or weapon youll get damaged alot. This is a system lazy Vates should get used to fast. It was much harder being a healer when outside of the body than inside.

MARRIONETTE SYSTEM:

    This Marrionette System is basically a transformation system. You can choose between getting one of several marrionettes at first for free. After that they are much harder to get. When a player transforms into a marrionette they get all the traits and skills of that marrionette regardless of race or job. You can only transform into a marrionette for a short ammount of time. To the right is the  Salamander, by far the coolest marrionette. The rest are hilariously rediculous, or otherwise extremely uncool.

 

 

My Emil Chronicle experience didn't last long enough for me to give a complete review. But I got a grasp on the special features and how the game plays. Emil Chroniclle is alot like ragnarok online. The kind of game where every now and again youll end up sitting down to heal hp/sp and just talk with your party members. Eventually Im sure there will be lots of online drama as there was in RO too. Emil Chronicle online after takes a while to get fun Im afraid. After grinding for a little bit into your first job youll find an experience alot like ragnarok online. Meeting friends to party with, making up perma-parties with people you know will log on, and having fun grinding. If you don't like grinding then this isn't your game.

 

If you like the grindy and friendly as much as I do, check out emil chronicle online at eco.runup.com.sg/

 

While you wait for the Open Beta  to start, Please enjoy this video of the many players and places of emil chronicle online!