Ether Saga Beta Preview

Published on: 16th February, 2009

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Perfect World Entertainment
Genre: MMORPG
MSRP: free to play

Ether Saga Online is the English version of KDXY, the popular anime themed 3d mmorpg released by Perfect World Beijing

Niche is good. Niche is very good. It has been my experience that the best games are the ones that do one or two things extremely well, while the worst try to be everything for everyone. Well Ether Saga definitely scratches an itch and fills a not-so-apparent void in online gaming, especially for English speaking audiences. This cute and cuddly MMORPG should appeal to the light hearted anime loving audiences of the world with ease, and on top of that, its really good. No really, its really good. Probably the benefit of completely refining a game that already worked well (Perfect World: International) but more than anything the result of good solid direction in game development.

Ether Saga is the english version of KDXY, a free to play persistent world online role playing game (MMORPG) from the people that created Perfect World International and also the upcoming Celestial Destroyer. Players create custom characters from 3 races and six classes before setting out to complete missions, kill monsters (a term I use loosely) and progress the Ether Saga storyline. I use the words monsters loosely because as cute as Ether Saga is, it brings out the kitten burning maniac in us all. I mean really, countless masochistic missions sent me to slaughter fluffy bunny rabbits and other harmless toons that seemed to be minding their own business before I came along and butchered their entire families. I don’t know, maybe I am too idealistic, but if my curse in life is common sense, maybe I shouldn’t be playing Ether Saga, anyway.

Now, when someone usually asks if you want the good news or bad news first, most people opt for the bad news first in hopes that the good news will cheer you up. I wont do that here. First, the good news is that Ether Saga is beautiful. Once again, my theory is proven that games are pretty when they have great design and art direction, and not just a bunch of flashy technology like triple specular diffuse layers and super reflective bump maps. Game artist really took the time to design great art, shapes and colors. This achieves something you rarely see in a game nowadays…immersion. The graphics are so nice, you really feel dropped into a world of fantasy adventure and it is much appreciated from someone who plays way to many crappy games. Now, ready the pitchforks because my next statement will have me declared as a witch and burned at the stake. This kind of attention to the concepts of art and design far exceed the dull gray poop filled monitors of games like Gears of War and Grand Theft Auto 4. It pains me to say it but the truth hurts.

As far as playing Ether Saga, the game has 3 character races including the Renzu(humans), Shenzu(demogods) and Yaoh(Beasts). Now, short of appearance and a slight skew in story the 3 races are basically the same. The character customization is extremely shallow, the most distinguishable thing being a scar you can add to your face. Might I suggest that the Shenzu demigods be the only characters with silver hair, or beasts having a wide assortment of long ears and tails. The character customization completely misses the point of customization…and as a rule of thumb…5 choices of hair or faces in a game filled with thousands of players just does not add up. The player classes available in Ether Saga, any of which are accessible to all 3 races, include the Dragoon(physical tank), Shaman(elemental tank), Rogue(melee attack), Ranger (ranged attack), Conjurer(offensive magic) and Mystic(defensive cleric). As deep and profound as that sounds, it has more gameplay loopholes than digital cheese. I am quite sure the game will be balanced later, but for now….just choose a Dragoon or Rogue and you will be fine.

The major issue I have is with the elemental damage dealer, ie, the Conjurer. Typically, players choose a magical user for their ability to deal large amounts of damage via elemental magic attacks at the cost of low defense. Ether Saga seems to have lost their way on the subject as a low level Conjurer is about as useless as the games character selection. I unloaded everything I had on several enemies to find that a Rogue of the same level drops enemies like a bad habit and sucks up damage like Sponge Bob. If it were not for using my pet to tank and absorb the enemy attack, the Conjurer is utterly useless. Which brings me to the pet system. Everyone can have pets, obviously a ploy to please the kids rather than to balance the game. I mean seriously, I would not try to balance a game that had already fallen over either.

This is especially dull due to the fact that any race can choose any class. Now as great as that sounds in the theory of more player choice, it does no justice to the concept of multiple races and value of useful resources provided by other races. Technically, Tanks and Clerics belong in different races for good reason. All gloom and doom aside, I have to mention the wonderful innovations Ether Saga has made. Perfect World attempted an autopath system where you click a point on a map to go thier. My grandmother writes more innovation features than that. However, Ether Saga has implemented a wonderful pathfinding system and probably the most impressive I have seen. Click a point on the map and the character follows the natural paths and walkways of the game as much as possible before reaching the destination. Better yet, finding quest givers, needed items and harmless creatures(i mean monsters) that you need to kill is as easy as opening your quest log and clicking the name of the thing you want to find before your character whisks off to his destination. As impressive as it is, the negative being is that maybe its too good. How can something be too good? Well, again, something has to be said for fun being the result of a balance between a walk in the park and insane difficulty. The path find system makes the game so easy, short of the character fighting monsters themselves(which cant be that much more difficult to create then the path finding) the game basically plays itself. As much as I liked it, it plays strangely against the backdrop the micromanagement and grinding that is the modern MMORPG.

I do have to mention the strange issue growing from the back of my mind. As good as Ether Saga is, I am worried about the target audience. Young kids are going to jump all over Ether Saga but I wonder if that is a good thing. I enjoy MMORPG’s as much as the next guy, and I agree that World of Warcraft probably has its fair share overweight anti socialites, but I wonder should MMORPG game developers be targeting younger audiences. You see, as great as Ether Saga is, I cant really recommend it to the 20+ year old hardcore gamer. Ether Saga is best in the hands of younger children and people who can name more than 2 Pokemon. Incidentally I can only name “Pikachu” and “Squirtle” making me an unlikely candidate to reach lvl 50 in Ether Saga. So if those people, as few as they may be, and Children are being targeted I have to intervene with the later. I dont want my 8 year old grinding levels in an MMORPG. I want my eight year playing shorter games and spending lots of time outside getting exercise, plenty of sunshine and meeting friends that actually laugh out loud, and you can actually hear it. Seriously parents, this is not good behavior for small children, I feel a responsibility as a reviewer to make that clear.

But, all that aside, Ether Saga is still a wonderful game with decent gameplay, graphics and features. Regardless of its complete disregrard of balanced gameplay, Ether Saga will no doubt attract a few dedicated grinders and maybe even pull in a few passive non MMORPG online gamers hooked by its cuteness. Hopefully, the Beta suggest more attention to character balancing and this may be as good a game as it looks, but I doubt it as KDXY has already been released.

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