Popularised throughout south-east Asia, Ys online is a new 3-D MMORPG being published by Key-to-play which sees players cast into an un-real world filled with danger, intrigue, powerful magic and dark, forbidden secrets... Or at least that’s what the publishers and those with an economic interest in the game would like to think, or more importantly, to have the gaming community think. Let me break it down for you.

Register for an account, log-in and go through all that normal stuff I’m sure you are all painfully familiar with, then be greeted by something else that’s painfully familiar... yes, the character creation screen. Anyway, select your race. Here, there are three choices for you; Eresians, which are essentially human and said to be skilled in areas such as physical combat, magic and alchemy; Afrocans, which, if you look at them, are just bigger humans (and obviously your prime melee class for those of you who like to tank their characters); and Eresians or annoying little pixie-looking magic people with big brown eyes, as I like to call them. You would have seen familiar character shades in Dream of Mirror etc. Each race is bound to their set classes and there is freedom to change. Essentially, Eresians are your clerics, knights, rouges, warriors and wizards; Afrocans are guardians, nighthawks (WTF), myrmidons (a what now?), wiccas, and witchdoctors; and Ersians are archers, conjurors, protectors and shamans. I don’t think I’ll even comment on the stupid names used in some of these classes. Nevertheless, pick what you want from the get go, because you can’t change your mind later.

This game utilises a card-system with the cards being required in just about every aspect of the game from crafting, combat spells and even quests. You pick up cards from NPCs (this is how you get quests) or you can loot them from dead monsters or trade with other players (if you can really be bothered). Essentially, you collect the cards and use them in various ways. The combat cards were probably the only thing about this entire game that I liked as they give you the ability to craft decent combos, rather than having to just sit there whilst your character goes on auto-combat mode. Oh, yeah, forgot to mention, grinding is a big, if not the most important, facet of this game (and the only thing that won’t bore you half to death). Forgot, there are also summoning cards for those of you who are obsessed with collecting mounts... but don’t get too excited; from what I saw, they’re all pretty basic looking.   

If you like to form parties, it’s probably a good idea for you to do so as this is the only way you can actually get inside the instant dungeons. These things have missions, or what you would call missions, such as survival, escape guard, assassination and rescue. Essentially, you just go in and finish your objectives to get what some reward.

I do have two positive things to say about this game; one, the graphics were actually half-decent and the monsters were not too stupid looking like they have been in recent games and two, the audio is actually pretty cool as it has echo-effects in caves and things like that.

The game is pretty much like everything you have, or will, play before or in the near-future. You point, you click, you move. You point, you click, you fight a monster. You point, you click, you talk to an NPC... you get the idea. Like most MMORPGs, this game requires no thought, no insight and absolutely no skill. It looks and sounds good, but that’s about as far as its going to keep. It’s shallow and repetitive. I’m not even giving it a score. Perhaps someday, hopefully soon, game developers might look into this and go “hey, do you think it’s time to make the next generation of games a little more involved?” Because, you know, that would be freaking wonderful.

Michael – out.