Onigiri is a highly unique Anime MMORPG with a fast action combat system.
I wouldn’t say this is one of the best MMORPG games of 2021, far from it, actually. But it is easily one of the best free MMORPG of its kind – and that is specifically pertaining to the hub-MMO genre.

Yes, Onigiri is a hub-MMORPG. But it’s very different to your typical hub-MMOs like Vindictus or PSO2. While there are various different quest hubs scattered around the world, there are large, open areas separating them providing ample opportunities for you to explore new areas, fight monsters outside of instanced dungeons, and meet other players all participating in the same content as you. That is one of the areas that Onigiri really stands out – by providing players your typical hub experience, while improving on the world overall.

The action combat is fast, it feels impactful and honestly, there’s a ton of crowd control abilities present within the game. So many in fact, that half the time either I was being knocked back, or the enemy was. Which admittedly does make it a little easier to avoid getting overwhelmed if you’re in a group. You can chain abilities in succession and continue to lock a boss in place.

Combat was made fairly unique by providing you a variety of different weapons you could equip. There were various different weapon types, and a surplus of weapons for each sub-category, each with their own unique abilities specifically associated with that weapon. You could equip 4 weapons at once, and each one provided not only a distinct combat style, but also skills you likely wouldn’t find on a different weapon. Such as lightning slashes for dual swords, or flaming jabs with your spear.

The character models look fantastic in the game, if a little.. gratuitous at times. But it’s to be expected. It is an Anime MMO after all. However the scenery and armor definitely felt like the textures didn’t fit with the rest of the game. Which was a shame to see.

Overall, this is an Anime MMORPG that you should definitely consider playing if you haven’t already. It’s a fairly unique hub-MMO that you don’t typically see around the genre, and considering it just shut down on PC – all that we have left is the console iteration. So it might be time to boot up your console and jump on in!

4Story is a classic MMORPG dating all the way back to 2008 (with a global release in 2014.) This is a title I’d never given the time of day, mainly because the game would just never load on my PC. I got repeated crash after crash. After troubleshooting the game extensively, I finally got it to work, though, and spent several hours playing through a desolate, lonely world.

Well.. “playing” is a strong word.

As soon as I entered 4Story I realized that while the game started you off at level 1, you had an extensive selection of abilities at your disposal. More abilities than you would probably find at max level in some MMOs. This made learning my class much more complicated than it would have otherwise been if I had been given these abilities slowly over time, providing me ample opportunity to not only test, but learn how each ability interacted with one another, and the enemies I was engaged with. Of which there were an almost insurmountable number of. Running anywhere in the game left you almost permanently engaged with the monsters between where you were and where you were going, with me at times being overrun by the time I made it to the quest objective, and struggling to survive. Combat itself wasn’t bad. It was fairly slow tab-target. The abilities looked pretty good given when this game was released, but I was turned off by the fact that while I had a large number of skills, all I needed to do was click “F” on my keyboard, and it would automatically use whatever ability was next in my rotation, meaning I didn’t need to pay attention to anything that was going on in combat.

The world itself looked decent. There were plenty of unique zones from what I could tell – none of which I visited, because I was restricted to the zone I was in all the way up until level 20 where I stopped. Graphically, yes, the game looks dated, but not in a way where you feel the game is unappealing to look at. Rather, it reminded me a lot of World of Warcraft’s Burning Crusade expansion. Which is generally touted as the best expansion of the MMOs entire life.

Unfortunately, while the game looked okay and played well enough to not be bored.. that was exactly what I was. Every quest was “kill x monster,” with the number of monsters required slowly increasing the higher level I got. By the time I was level 20, I was at a point where I needed to kill upwards of 40 enemies, multiple times, before being able to leave the hub I was in. Which is atrocious. The leveling experience almost brought me to tears in terms of boredom. I doubt it would’ve been nearly as bad had I been capable of actually playing the game, but since auto-combat was a thing, I had no reason to actively learn my class or my abilities.

At the end of the day, 4Story isn’t a bad game. Yes, there are aspects of it that I don’t enjoy. But just because I didn’t necessarily enjoy parts of the game, doesn’t mean other people won’t, by that same logic, appreciate them. The same way I enjoy the PvP in World of Warcraft.

If you enjoy long grinds, lots of PvP at late-game, and don’t mind the auto-mechanics present, then you’ll definitely find something in 4Story. Otherwise, you’ll want to avoid it as the grind is quite arduous.

It’s been a while since I dipped my toes into Revelation Online. 2 years, I believe? Since the last video I did was back during the middle of 2019. And the experience I had this time ’round was drastically different to the experience I had back then. Which is to be expected.
Years have passed. A lot has happened, both in terms of development, and with regards to the players that once actively populated the game – players that have more or less moved on to greener pastures.

So upon first loading into Revelation Online, I realized that we have a new introductory experience to the game. This new zone is stunning – but an issue I quickly ran into was that there were invisible walls in place that prevent you from really moving anywhere other than forward.
This provides a very linear introduction – one that replaced the much more open newbie zone that was once present.
While this was quite off-putting, I pushed through regardless. Then you’re thrown directly into the main game, without much in the way of direction or side content. You quickly learn that there is a “main scenario” questline that you follow, leading you from area to area.
But you outlevel it quite rapidly, being required to grind – quite repetitiously I might add, daily quests in an attempt to break through the unusual level gating that is noticeably prevalent throughout the course of the game.
Every 5 levels, I’d be met with a message that told me “You need to be 5 levels higher to continue. Go do dailies until you level up and come back!” Those dailies, in specific, were tied to group content part of the time, and could not be taken in a group smaller than 3 people.
Considering I never saw another player… yes, leveling turned out to be an absolutely atrocious experience that I would not be interested in doing ever again.

Graphically, the game holds up pretty well. Aesthetically, the world still looks bright, vibrant and beautiful. Characters.. less so. The game is definitely beginning to show its age, much faster than other titles in the genre, and that is especially true for the combat.
I’ve honestly played Mobile MMOs with better combat than Revelation Online had, and considering Swords of Legends Online does what Revelation Online did, but to a degree of success, I can’t see anyone ever stepping foot into Revelation Online again after SOLO launches later this year.
It’s a shame that the world feels so empty, so void of life. This was a game that I genuinely felt would be worth dedicating time to when it launched. Boy was I wrong!

Years later, the game is–or, has been on its last legs for a while now, and shows no signs of improvement. Either with regards to the terrible leveling experience or content that would attract players back to the game.
This is a sad state for any MMO to be in, but it’s definitely deserved.