After asking around to this site about this game and don’t find any clue about them, I decide to give a try to this game.  Cuz I thought, hey it’s just a 490MB file to download.  Won’t hurt much to try it anyway.  Btw, MOF is a F2P item mall based subscription game. 

Before I begin, some people are thinking that I hate 2D MMORPG because of my review about Ghost Online.  I have to say they are wrong.  I love 2D MMORPG.  I am a gamer even since Atari was come out as the only console game out there.  I even install some old RPG of SNES in my PDA.  So contrary to what some people think when they read about my review of Ghost Online, I love playing 2D MMORPG.  And so far, Master of Fantasy (MOF) has fullfil my hope that this genre can still produce a good title.

You can read about the background and some glimpse of the games in my previous article that asking around about this game.  And if you think that the characters seems to be similar with Pangya, a casual golf online game, you are right.  Because the character designer of both games is still the same team.

The graphic of MOF is cute and somehow I have a feeling that Maple Story 2 will have a serious contender because of this game.  As you might already know that Maple Story 2 won’t adapt their previous side scrolling mode graphic, but will use the same 2D semi side scrolling landscape like this game.

You will use the usual arrow panel of your keyboard to move your character, and ctrl button to hit your nearest target.  It is easier in here to avoid kill stealing compare to side scrolling 2D MMORPG like Ghost Online and Maple Story.  So I would prefer this kind of 2D MMORPG compare to the previous title that I’ve mentioned.

The substance of having a unique character is fullfiled by “allocate your own stat point” feature.  The higher your aspect of stat, the more point needed to raise it.  It just like RO type allocating system.  And I really enjoy how the stat impact your battle system, because some games nowaday, didn’t really show the differences between 1 advantage point in stat.

You start as an academy student and gain level through hunting like any other MMORPG.  Quest is like any other game: kill some monsters, or get these items from monsters, or deliver this item to certain people.  So nothing really special about the quest.  You can gain your 1^st job at level 20, and your 2^nd at level 40.  Again, nothing really special about it.  Here’s a brief information about the job tree.

So what makes this game different compare to others?

As all of you might already know, the background of this game is based on academy system.  So you start as a fresh new student, and you hunt the monster for certain “good” purpose so that someday you can become a hero.  And when you gain level and change your job, you can learn a new ability.  Seems like the usual pattern of other MMORPG rite?  BUT they mix it with academy environment.

There are 2 kind of skill.

The first is job skill.  And when you want to learn the skill, after you meet the requirement, you will need to collect some points to buy the skill.  How can you gain your point?  This is where you have to ‘attend’ your ‘class’, in the form of a mini games.  And although it is not affecting much on getting the skill, cuz even when you fail the test you still get points and you can repeat them until the point is enough, the mini games are funny.

Here’s the mini games for Fighter skill.

Archer skill.

Mage skill.

Cleric skill.

Although this mini games are separated according to the job, doesn’t mean that a warrior doesn’t need to attend the bow class!  Some of the skills require certain point from other class too!  That’s why you have to know all other classes and attend them.  Well you will spent most of your time attending fighter class if you choose the path of the warrior.  Anyway, if you really like to play mini games like game house type, you will love these mini games.  Moreover, after the mini games, you have points to spent on skills.

The second type of skill is what they called major skills.  You can choose from skill of manufacturing, or specialist in certain type of monsters battle, or alchemist, or party buff, or even transform to certain beast.  I catch several screen shot where I found people who take the transformation skill.

The werewolf in the left screenshot is a player with beast transformation, and the dragon in the right screenshot is another example.  While I prefer to have a self aid skill and sword manufacturing. 

So the range of skill to choose is vary (yes, there are some skills that I haven’t mentioned).  But these set of skill really make the game offer a great variation to the character building.  This is the point (little variation of character building) where most of 2D side scrolling MMORPG lack and make us bored very quickly. 

These major skills are basically the same as the job skill where you need some points to “buy” these skills.  But how you attain the points is slightly different from the job skills, where you have to attend the mini game classes.  In here, you will need to take exam by answering a sets of questions about NPCs and monsters.  And before you can answer it, you WILL need to face the monsters several times (read: many times), so that you can open their picture in your student book.  If you haven’t “learn” about these monsters, when you got the questions regarding them, you can’t answer it.  So grinding monsters, will basically add their information to your book.  Another function when you do the grinding, is that the game assume you have learn about them well, so they will add some buffs when you meet them again next time.  It can be some percentage of additional damage, defence, critical, etc.

The game also offers a wide range of weapon selection.  Even for one job, there will be many weapons classes to choose.  And as I always said in all of my previous articles, having variations and unique character building, is a plus point for an online game.  They’re also reflected in the characters appearances.

I’m also satisfied with the ingame skill effect.  When you reach your 1^st job, certain skill that you have mastered, will have an additional effect (like Final Fantasy limit break type).  And there are so many skill to explore and make me excited to keep roaming in this game.

MOF is not a game without cons.  Specifically in my country, the translations is so bad that certain quest was mentioned in different facts.  Also the publisher of the game somehow decide to dub the NPCs voice and they sound just like a character for 5 years old cartoon movies.  But the most dissapointing part is the chatting dialogue system.  It doesn’t offer a good system like DOMO does.  Not to mention about the messenger systems.  Another important thing (which also the cons of other 2D side scrolling MMORPGs) is this kind of game will eventually lead you to keyboard button bashing.  Because one hit to your ctrl button means one hit to your enemy (presumably your hit is not a “miss” one).  Hitting the button for a long time won’t help, believe me.  A repeated hit will result in a better way.  And in the panic situation, especially when the game is having a lag situation, a button bashing will almost be the case.  I really hope that someday this genre will find a way where people just need to hit single button to attack, but still need to control the direction, and the player will focus on having the skill at the right time.

But anyway, MOF still can fullfil my hope.  There are still much areas to explore, skill to try, challenging mission (sometimes a time based quest) to test, and many more.  But the basics of what the other 2D side scrolling MMORPGs lack is gradually being covered.  So far, this game is worth to play.