Every person I’ve ever talked to that has played Dragon Nest for any length of time has told me that it was one of the best MMOs they’d ever played.

Today, we’re taking a look at Dragon Nest. This was arguably one of the most popular Anime MMOs of its time, providing players with some of the fastest most fluid combat, PvP and honestly.. some highly unusual animations.

I last played Dragon Nest in the middle of 2021. That was the first time in 5 years I’d logged into the game, and it had changed substantially in that period.
It’s been about 7, 8 months since then, and after logging in for the first time, not only was I presented with the most welcoming return
*show clip of returning*
But I was also gifted with even more powerful items. For reference, when I came back last year, I was given a powerful accesory that gave me tens of thousands of attack power, allowing me to 1-shot every monster, every boss up until level 70?
I stopped playing at level 87, and at the time, was 2, maybe 3-shotting bosses.
After coming back this time, I was given multiple additional pieces of gear that gave me hundreds of thousands attack power, and allowed for me to 1-shot bosses in the dungeon after the dungeon I was in. So I didn’t even need to run them.
I felt like Saitama. Just.. not bald.. and with booba.

This allowed me to catch up pretty rapidly, though. I proceeded to hit level 95 with absolutely no issue whatsoever, and due to that, no challenge.
This left me to do one of a few different things: Continue with the story, which took me to new areas, had me run dungeons I’d never run before, as I made progress towards hitting endgame.
Or I could pursue missions via the Mission Board. I could do my Awakening quests. Improve my class, unlock new skills.
But I was level 95 after what, less than 20 hours of playing the game? With a rudimentary level of understanding of my character, the systems present within the game, or, heck, the game itself.

Disregarding how overpowered I was upon my return, and how confused I was at this juncture, Dragon Nest is a great looking Anime MMO.
Aesthetically, it has a pretty unique style. Character models are more.. flat. Shaded. With less visible detail than in games like Aura Kingdom or SoulWorker.
But different games have different graphical styles, so it makes complete sense. The game-world is gorgeous. You’ll see enormous towns and cities, you’ll have epic fights with dragons, demons..

Speaking of combat, many players argue Dragon Nest has the best combat in the Anime scene. And I guess, let me preface this by stating that it doesn’t. That might be a contentious opinion – but we’re all welcome to our own, right?
I think games like SoulWorker and PSO2 New Genesis both have better combat in terms of an Anime MMO, but they also feel like completely different types of games.
Dragon Nest employs much more of a traditional action combat system. You bind your abilities to a variety of different keys, and have a fairly large hotbar, something that the 2 aforementioned games lack. SoulWorker is about binding a few abilities, and comboing them with other abilities.
PSO2 New Genesis has a very small pool of skills to pull from per weapon, but provides you the option of equipping multiple.
Combat in Dragon Nest feels pretty good – not over the top, with tons of special effects cluttering your screen but a little more tame.

Dragon Nest is a hub-MMO, meaning that combat always takes place within instances. The game itself isn’t entirely based around instances, however: Every town, every city, every zone is disconnected from one another via loading screens. But, with the exception of dungeons, the world allows for players to group up, to connect with and engage one another.
You’ll find players scattered around a variety of different areas. With the exception of the dungeons themselves, this looks and feels like any other MMO.
The bulk of the content though – dungeons, raids, PvP, are all instanced. Meaning that once you enter, you won’t be able to encounter other players. Grouping up, therefore, requires you formulate a group in anticipation of entering.
I think I moved through 6, 7 different towns in approximately 20 hours of playing, and each one not only looked incredibly unique, but were also very, very large. I couldn’t imagine this on an open-world scale like WoW.
The world itself, while very appealing aesthetically, and filled with NPCs and players.. still felt a little empty. I dunno if I’m the only one that feels that way or not.
There’s something satisfying seeing people out in an open-world partaking of the same content you are that just isn’t present in hub-MMOs.

This game, while it can feel a little empty at times, is absolutely filled with story. If you’ve been watching my videos, you’d know I dislike MMOs that don’t have a narrative. If there’s no story to follow, how are you supposed to become enthralled in the world you find yourself in?
How are you supposed to become attached to the different characters you meet? NPCs just become “generic old dude #1, generic booba lady #7, etc. etc.”
Look at Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft. XIV has players actively playing BECAUSE of the story. And WoW has players constantly complaining how bad its story IS. This is evidence to how important a story is in an MMO.
Most popular MMOs have a strong narrative: XIV, WoW, ESO, Guild Wars 2, Lost Ark. I feel though a lack of a story is a detriment to a game. And especially an MMO, where you’re required to continue playing for months, years at a time.
It’s part of the reason many people come back to these games when new content drop. And Dragon Nest.. well, admittedly, this game has a ridiculous amount of text. Much of it is exposition, and I feel like the vast majority of it likely could have been easily summarized in 1/10th of the time.
It’s actually so drawn out, that I spend much of the game holding spacebar to skip the 33 successive windows telling me I need to go kill a goblin before returning to another 20 windows telling me thank you.

As this is a hub-MMO, the amount of content is relatively limited comparatively to games that offer open-world features. There aren’t world-bosses. There’s no open-world PvP.
There are dungeons – which is the bulk of the game. There are also raids to run for players who want more difficult content to play. And more than that, the dungeons themselves have several different difficulties.
Each difficulty increase is quite substantial, and is the difference between 1-shotting dungeon bosses and actually needing to dodge an attack here and there while leveling.
There is PvP, but regardless of when I queued for it, I couldn’t seem to ever participate. Active players give me the impression that players participate at certain hours – hours that I don’t stream, unfortunately.
And.. well, realistically that’s all I’ve ever done. Beyond that, I don’t think there’s really much more to it. Is there? If there are other types of content, please do let me know in the comments below!

At the end of the day, Dragon Nest is a very fun MMO.
This game looks great – granted, its character creator leaves a lot to be desired, and its selection of classes can feel a little.. excessive, given multiple of them have the same character models, weapon types and general playstyle.
The combat is great, but not nearly as good as many players make it out to be. Which goes to show that nostalgia plays a large part on how people perceive games, both new and old.
It’s a hub-MMO, so content-wise, it’s very limited. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to do. I did find the gear they provided me to hit endgame as quickly as I did to be game-breaking. It made what is a fun, engaging game into something you pay 0 attention to.. because why would you?

Combat – 6/10 Honestly, for an Anime MMO this game has some pretty damn good action combat.
Graphics – 5/10 Graphically, the character models felt very flat, but everything else was vibrant and popping.
Narrative – 3/10 The narrative.. was excessive, and there was far too much exposition to enjoy.
World – 5/10 The world is pretty large. There are a plethora of different towns, cities and zones to explore.
Content – 5/10 If you factor in the sheer number of instances, then there’s an exorbitant number of things to do.. but disregarding dungeons and raids, there isn’t too much variety.
Overall – 24/50

Admittedly, Dragon Nest has a lot of things going for it. But at the same time, it has just as many things, maybe even more going against it, including a very low playerbase and accusations of extensive pay to win.
Have I seen it? Somewhat. Is it going to affect me if I play? Not at all. Unless I PvP. But I’ve learned better than to PvP in free MMOs. Not only is it unbalanced, but it’s just as unfair.

I know this might be a topic of contention, but, Final Fantasy XIV, as of June 18th, 2021, is indisputably the best MMORPG right now.
And I’m well aware there are going to be multiple of you that sit there at this very moment, jaw agape, in complete disbelief that I’d say something like that. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise. I’ve stated this in previous years, and after having played Shadowbringers, it’s more evident than ever how high quality a title this is.
But at the same time, as no game is infallible, Final Fantasy XIV does have areas that need improvement. Aspects of the game that are missing.

Today, I want to take a little bit of your time and discuss what makes Final Fantasy XIV the best MMORPG to me. Not you. You might have an unadulterated, deep seething loathing for the game, and that’s your right.
But this is a game that has taken thousands of hours from me, and I don’t regret any of it.

Now Final Fantasy XIV is a pay-to-play MMORPG which is something holding a lot of you back from trying it, but, were you aware that they offer an expanded free trial that allows you to play through the entirety of the base game AND the award-winning Heavensward expansion all the way up to level 60 absolutely FREE?

Okay, now that we’ve gotten that little meme out of the way, where do I even begin? I’m quite the ardent JRPG fan. I’ve loved JRPGs of all my life. Breath of Fire IV, Dragon Quest 8, Suikoiden I and II, Final Fantasy VIII and IX, Star Ocean Till the End of Time, Tales of Symphonia and Phantasia, Xenosaga, Legend of Dragoon, Golden Sun. You name a JRPG and I’ve played it.
It’s only natural I’d find myself drawn to Final Fantasy XIV. I’ve been playing since 2.3? 2.4? A patch or two before Heavensward came out. I’ve had an active subscription for the last 5 years of my life, and have played during the first and last 3 months of every expansion.
Like a lot of players, when I first began playing I was confused by the combat. Naturally. I’d come from World of Warcraft – yes, I’m a WoW refugee. I’ve been playing WoW since 2008 and like Final Fantasy XIV, have had an active sub there for longer than I’d like to admit.
WoW’s tab-target combat is one of the best in the genre. Like or hate the game, you cannot deny that not only are the animations for characters and abilities top tier, but everything feels so smooth, so fluid, and the global cooldowns on abilities feel like they’re available much more frequently than in Final Fantasy XIV.
And early on, you really feel the impact of the longer global cooldowns. It isn’t until you get access to quite a few of your abilities, some of which are off the GCD, that you begin to realize that early-game was not at all indicative of late or end-game.
By the time you’re at end-game, which is where the vast majority of MMOs take place, the flow of battle feels entirely different.

While the combat was definitely slower than I would’ve liked, I was completely captivated by the story as soon as I stepped foot in the game. Story was part of the reason I enjoyed JRPGs as much as I did. Becoming enthralled in a world not your own – an escape so contrastingly different from the boring reality we live in was just so enticing to me.
Coming into this world for the very first time, seeing the enormous city of Ul’dah, seeing hundreds of players running around, Mi’qote dancing in the streets. I fell in love. I didn’t even need to see the other starter cities of Limsa Lominsa or Gridania to know this was going to be a gorgeous game filled with endless wonder.

So I created my character: Initially, I wasn’t sure what class I wanted to go with. I love playing Mages in games, but didn’t want to end up with DPS queues while leveling so was tempted to run with whatever the tank options were. After perusing my options, I ended up going Thaumaturge, which ends up becoming Black Mage at level 30.
Oh, right. For those of you that really have no knowledge pertaining to the Final Fantasy XIV, let me elaborate on how classes work in this game.
I know I’m saying “class” repeatedly, but Final Fantasy XIV actually refers to advanced classes as “Jobs,” which your base class advances into at level 30. I know it’s a little confusing, trust me, it gets easier.
The game utilizes the holy trinity: Tank, which consists of Marauder and Gladiator, Healer which consists of Conjurer and Arcanist, and DPS which consists of Pugilist, Lancer, Rogue, Archer, Thaumaturge and Arcanist.
Each base class, as discussed a moment ago, can advance into more powerful versions of their class with the Gladiator progressing into the Paladin, the Marauder into the Warrior, the Pugilist into the Monk, the Lancer into the Dragoon, the Rogue into the Ninja, the Archer into the Bard, the Thaumaturge – my class, into the Black Mage, the Arcanist into either the Summoner or Scholar, and the Conjurer into the White Mage.
Then we have expansion jobs like the Dark Knight and Gunbreaker as tanks, Astrologian as healer, Machinist, Samurai, Red Mage, Dancer, and Blue Mage as DPS, and finally, the two upcoming classes, the Sage and Reaper coming when Endwalker releases in November.
One aspect I believe Final Fantasy XIV really excels in is its freedom to play what you want, as you’re given the capability of swapping jobs whenever you feel the need. You can level every single job on a single character, meaning there is absolutely no need for alts within the game to enjoy something different.

That isn’t where this ends though, far from it. You’re also given the opportunity of leveling every crafting and gathering profession on a single character. Crafters are referred to as “Disciples of the Hand,” consisting of the Alchemist, Armorer, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Culinarian, Goldsmith, Leatherworker, and Weaver.
Likewise, gathering, referred to as “Disciples of the Land” consist of Botany, Fishing and Mining. Suffice it to say, there’s plenty to waste your life away pursuing, should you feel so inclined.

Now, backtracking a little: I ended up choosing to go the Black Mage route. I love playing with magic, and wanted to channel my inner Vivi. I mean honestly, who wouldn’t want to channel a little Vivi?
And so I began my journey that would go on to span months, years. A journey I’m still actively enjoying to this day. And while I initially started this game alone, I now have a companion in my travels across Eorzea and beyond – my wife, Mrs Stix. Who, actually is a much better player than I am at the game.
She has completed every single Savage raid as it was relevant, and is making her way through Ultimate content.
Our journey through the game was filled with quite a few emotions. I’ve never seen Mrs Stix cry in a video game up until she played Final Fantasy XIV.
While your introduction to the game definitely begins very slowly – as all JRPGs seem to, it continues to get progressively better the longer you stick with it and the more invested in the characters you become.
I know you’ve all heard tales how much of a “chore” the game can be to make it through, and honestly, I don’t entirely disagree with that sentiment.
There are various parts in the story that you just wish you could skip. They’re too slow. Too filled with menial tasks that really only serve to pad out the time it takes to level. And considering how long of a game this is, are 100% unnecessary.
Thankfully Square took note of this and removed a large chunk of these quests, further trimming some of the questlines down to a much more tolerable level.
But at the end of the day, if you’re a fan of JRPGs like I am, you’re no stranger to downtime. Parts of the game where you’re just not really doing much. While there were a few times, especially after clearing the base 2.0 game, with the patches necessary before Heavensward, that I felt I wasn’t really enjoying myself as much anymore, I stuck with it.
I’m not going to quit a game because I was a little bored for a period of time. And luckily Mrs Stix and I did, because we were greeted with one of the most engaging stories I’ve seen in an MMO since Wrath of the Lich King. Only exceeded by their most recent Shadowbringers expansion.
Now if you’re not a fan of narratives in your MMOs and would prefer to just explore a large sandbox world with the freedom to progress how you want, this definitely isn’t for you. Maybe something like Black Desert would better suit those needs.
Final Fantasy XIV plays like a single-player game that you can group up with and play with friends – or strangers, when or if you need to. A game that you can wander through enjoying the sheer beauty that the game offers.

But just because it has a large emphasis on the narrative, doesn’t mean it doesn’t also have a large, varied selection of content to consume outside of that.
Yes, the story is what captivates your attention. But it’s what you do in the game between the story that really keeps you there.
Leveling is pretty traditional. You take quests, you run from area to area fighting monsters, queue into dungeons, go about obtaining materials.
You fill up your Hunting Log by hunting monsters out in the field, you participate in F.A.T.E’s – which are large, open events that spawn randomly all over the map in every single zone. Okay, so not entirely traditional, but for the most part it feels familiar.
Then as the story progresses, you unlock the ability to run Trials, which put you up against Primals like Ifrit, Shiva, Leviathan, Ramuh, Bahamut. All names you no doubt recognize. These Trials are 8-player fights that require coordination, teamwork, an understanding of mechanics. You know, things a lot of us lack.
After your leveling journey is complete, you’re greeted with the endgame: Now there are two types of MMO player. The PvE player, and the PvP player. PvP players spend hours grinding through battlegrounds, arenas, and open-world PvP every day.
PvE players are the opposite. PvE players run dungeons, raids, and the most competitive type of content the game has to offer its playerbase, typically avoiding PvP as they have no interest in it.
Now I know I’m going to get some flack for saying this, but it’s generally considered common knowledge that the PvP in Final Fantasy XIV is… lacking. From someone who came from open-world PvP MMOs like WoW and Aion, I was severely disappointed by what was present within Final Fantasy XIV.
But you know what? All of the PvE content more than made up for the lack of e-peen measuring competitions I used to have. And honestly, if I felt the innate need to relive my days PvPing… I could just go back and play the games I enjoyed actually PvPing in.
Which is what I tell people all the time, yet is something a lot of people just can’t wrap their heads around.
Endgame for PvE players, though, consist of fashion and.. Well, fashion. That is 100% the true endgame for Final Fantasy XIV.
You also have things like Ultimate raids, Savage raids, Extreme Trials, 24-man Alliance Raids, The Bozjan Southern Front which allows for up to 72-players to explore and participate in simultaneously, Beast Tribe Quests and for fans of crafting, the Ishgardian Restoration.
If all that made sense to you, then congratulations, you’re a much more dedicated player than I am. If not, then you definitely have your work cut out for you as these are just what constitute the “main aspects” of endgame. That’s disregarding anything you choose to do by choice.
Mount farming, leveling all your jobs, obtaining every achievement. There is just so much to do at endgame that you’ll never feel bored. Or if you do, it’s because like me, you choose to only play casually. Yes, I’m a casual. But streaming 3 days a week and doing 7 videos for this channel – I don’t have the time to play MMOs competitively anymore.

I know content creators that don’t dedicate themselves to a specific MMO don’t often have the experience to talk about games they play with depth and precision of someone that devotes their very being to a game, but Final Fantasy XIV is one of 4, maybe 5 games I’ve played quite extensively for years at a time.
Eorzea and Azeroth are my homes away from home. They’re two worlds that I genuinely feel comfortable in. I know everything about them. I know everything about the two games that take place within them.
I’ve become so enthralled with the stories being told that every new expansion brings me back for months at a time, and I do nothing but waste away over several days breaking only for small potty-trips and the occasional cheeseburger if I can bring myself to stand given I’ve been sitting so long I can’t recall if my lower body is still attached.
This is a game that I can talk about almost endlessly. I’ve had so many amazing experiences within Final Fantasy XIV that I just haven’t had anywhere else.
Mrs Stix has met so many great people through the game, and every time we do a dedicated video like this it ends up bringing new people into the game that go on to tell us how much of an amazing experience they’re having.
Without Final Fantasy XIV, I don’t think this channel would have ever taken off. Without Final Fantasy XIV I don’t believe I’d even have a Youtube channel. This game has given me thousands of hours worth of enjoyment. It has given me something to actively play with my wife – to enjoy outside of movies and hiking.
And with Endwalker right around the corner, with the game coming towards the end of November if everything goes according to plan, I guarantee you we’ll end up lost within the world once more.

Final Fantasy XIV is an amazing MMORPG. It’s absolutely gorgeous – sure, it might not necessarily hold up graphically when compared to newer games developed with modern tech, but there’s no denying that this is a stunning MMO.
The combat becomes much more difficult at endgame, requiring active micromanagement of every aspect of your job: damage mitigation, instant casts, regens, heals, aggro. Yes, there are tab-target combat systems that are better, but trust me when I tell you this feels more than sufficient.
The world is expansive. Every expansion adds in a surplus of new zones that are more exquisite than the last.
The narrative spans so many years worth of content, with it finally ending in Endwalker, and beginning a new storyline for the first time in a decade.
There’s just so much content to consume that you’re never at a loss of where you should go or what you should be doing with your time.
I know some people will argue that there are plenty of MMOs out there that offer these very same things. And you know what? I’m not saying they don’t. Guild Wars 2, The Elder Scrolls Online, World of Warcraft. They’re all very high quality titles within the genre.
But to me? Personally? Final Fantasy XIV is better. It just does everything right. It offers me – as an individual – everything I want out of an MMO, and because of that, I can say with 100% certainty that this is the best MMORPG in 2021. And with Endwalker coming, it will likely be the best MMORPG in 2022 as well.

I never really found myself drawn to Dungeons & Dragons as a kid. Yet at the same time, I’m a fan of the Neverwinter universe. I played both Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2 on PC back when they were relevant RPGs. So when it was revealed years ago that they were making a Neverwinter MMORPG, I was ecstatic. I love MMOs and I love RPGs – especially the world of Neverwinter so I couldn’t contain my excitement. However, having played games like World of Warcraft, RIFT, Aion.. I felt myself without much in the way of time to really invest into the game, letting my excitement fall victim to the joy I got out of playing the aforementioned titles. Until March 2021, that is, when I decided to finally jump into the world of Neverwinter all over again.

To begin the game you’re greeted with a fairly basic, but not overly limiting character creator.
You’re given the option of selecting your race from quite a few different options: Human, Half-Orc, Wood Elf, Sun Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Half-Elf, Tiefling, Drow, Dragonborn, Metallic Ancestry Dragonborn, Aasimar, Gith, Moon Elf and Menzoberranzan Renegade.
Each race has their own distinct, unique racial abilities that have a direct effect on your character, with certain races being more beneficial for certain classes.
Speaking of Classes, we have the choice between Cleric, Barbarian, Warlock, Rogue, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger and Wizard. Being the pyromaniac I am, I opted for Wizard because.. naturally.

Upon reaching level 30, you’re given the option of expanding on your class further by selecting from 2 more advanced classes. As a Wizard I had the option of both Thamaturge and Arcanist. While I couldn’t figure out which of the two were the better pick, I did like the elemental affinity that Thaumaturge had, so opted for that. And it didn’t disappoint!

Now upon first logging in to your character you’ll come to quickly realize that the combat is an interesting hybrid between both tab-target and action. You require a target for single-target abilities, but don’t require a target for AoEs. Additionally, while you technically require a target, you can cycle through targets by merely changing the target your reticle is on. No tab-cycling required. This makes it very easy to change targets on the fly, but at the same time you run into the issue of enemies moving in front of one another, preventing you from chaining abilities onto a single target.

While the combat was a lot of fun and very engaging, it’s worth noting that the difficulty of the game rapidly increases by the level. Every new area I went to, every new instance I ran had me struggling to survive, and with the lack of gear from quests, I found myself often being entirely overwhelmed by groups of enemies. Which, admittedly, made the game much more challenging than I had ever anticipated it being and often required I utilize my classes kit – teleporting – to my advantage. Slowing enemies with my ice AoEs while teleporting back and behind pillars to attempt to line of sight the monsters that would chase me relentlessly.

Bosses were even more difficult encounters, as not only would you have to deal with the boss directly, but you’d also be hit by repeated waves of enemies, often leaving you with the option of whittling down the groups of enemies before turning your attention to the boss, or singling out the boss and trying to kite the enemies until you’ve downed it before changing your focus. Often I’d target the boss first as it would continue to summon additional waves of enemies over time, which would – in essence – become a never ending battle.

Outside of instances, however, you’re met with a pretty darn good looking world. The world itself is semi-instanced, semi-segregated. There are loading screens that separate the zones from one another, with each zone having a recommend level range to enter but there aren’t really any restrictions that I encountered. Now I use the term “semi-instanced” purely due to the loading screens, whereas you’ll encounter plenty of players out in the world participating in content just like you are. The segregated world in no way limits your ability to see or play with other players. I actually found myself more often than not attacking the same enemies as other players since we had the same quests to do as one another.

Each zone has its own identity: There are NPCs, quests, enemies and entire unique aesthetics specific to every region, making them easily distinguishable from one another.

The leveling was a little on the slower end of things, unfortunately. To speed this up I went ahead and purchased premium currency so I could attempt to purchase better gear, a stronger companion and an XP boost, but since I got locked and placed on a “probationary period,” it was $20 wasted. So kudos to you, Perfect World Entertainment. You got me to waste $20 for nothing in return.

Ultimately, Neverwinter is a very good looking game that plays even better than it looks. This is an MMORPG I never expected to lose myself in as much as I did and I couldn’t have wanted a more entertaining way to waste through the last week and a half. There are a lot of things Neverwinter does right, and while there are some things it doesn’t (bizarre animations, pay-to-win in the cash shop, slow leveling,) they’re definitely outweighed by the sheer amount of entertainment you can garner from the game. This is definitely one of the more fun games out there if you’re willing to overlook a few issues.

I’m no stranger to Guild Wars 2. I streamed it what, 3 years ago? 4 years ago back when I started this channel. But I hadn’t touched it since. Until the last month, that is, when Mrs Stix and I decided y’know what? It’s time we jump into it and see how it’s holding up in 2020, going into 2021.
So we began streaming it on Twitch every weekend and we’ve been having an absolute blast so far.
We haven’t had this much fun leveling in an MMO since Final Fantasy XIV, and we’d like to share our experiences with you guys… so let’s do this.

We’ve made it to level 30 so far in Guild Wars 2, and are about to begin running dungeons. Granted, presently we have yet to unlock quite a few features. Gliding, mounts and a lot of end-game features escape us en route to the expansion content, but we’re making steady progress every week towards our goal.
Guild Wars 2 is an incredibly fun journey, providing many opportunities for players to not only work together with one another in scaled content, but also to foster a sense of camaraderie.
The game world utilizes segregated zones, featuring miles and miles of content to explore in each zone – filled with various types of quests, encounters, boss fights, dungeons and jumping puzzles, which are the bane of our existence.
Yes, we really, really suck at jumping puzzles, and have to have a Mesmer follow us around at all times. Lest we never finish one. Or, Mrs Stix does. I’m not terrible, but she is. Although don’t let her know I said that as.. well I’ll be sleeping on the guest bed tonight.
We’re still getting used to the game, coming from years in World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV. It’s a very different beast and we both look forward to spending additional time exploring, leveling and making progress through the world of Tyria.
Hopefully you guys will continue to support us in our journey forward as we continue to not only stream, but do follow-up videos on Guild Wars 2. We’d love to have you!

So we played Blade & Soul.. And you know what? It’s still a lot of fun. It’s always been a lot of fun, there’s no denying that. Today, I want to talk about what I found enjoyable about the game and whether Blade & Soul is worth starting or coming back to in 2020.
So, welcome back to the third episode of “Is this MMORPG Worth Starting?” Do note: This is not a review. These are just my thoughts on the game.

Now Mrs Stix and I streamed Blade & Soul for a month over on Twitch. We stream every MMO we do videos on over there – so I urge you to come by and visit us if you’re interested in being a part of our journey through various games.
Over the course of our month streaming we got to play with a lot of you guys and that was a lot of fun. The multiplayer aspect of MMOs are what draw a lot of us to the genre after all.
Dungeons, raids, PvP, world bosses, guilds. A sense of community is important in games like this and leveling with a group is a very rewarding experience, regardless of the game.

The leveling experience itself in Blade & Soul is hit and miss. The games leveling experience has been truncated quite significantly over the years, with players only being required to follow along with the main story to level.
Side quests, grinding monsters, dungeons – there’s no purpose to any of them other than to progress to the next area. Heck, when I used to play actively, dungeons used to offer you weapons that were actually better than what you had when you entered them, so there was a purpose behind farming them.
These days, with the – and I’m gonna go ahead and say “streamlined” leveling experience, you’re given the best weapon for your level so you can push towards endgame as fast as Humanly possible.
Now don’t get me wrong, the story itself is, while a little “Shounen,” I guess is the term I’ll use, pretty easy to follow and interesting enough to warrant not skipping. However much of the story is solo – instances that are required to be completed solo. Areas where you’re cut off from groups and other players all together.
This makes it much more difficult to level with other players – where there used to be a purpose to running with other players, with how easy the game has become and how little content is done within a group, I feel like the game is more of a solo experience up until late-game.

But that’s just the leveling experience. Leveling is only one facet of what makes a game. Combat is another, and the action combat in Blade & Soul has always been top-tier.
There has been an ongoing argument between fans of Black Desert and Blade & Soul over which has the better form of action combat. In my opinion? Both have their pros and cons, but they’re different games targeting completely different audiences.
Blade & Soul’s combat is a mixture between two different styles of combat: Reactive and skill-based. You have access to a basic ability bound to your left-mouse button and blocks, parries or counters to your right click depending on your class of choice.
Then you have additional abilities bound to keys on your hotbar, damaging abilities, crowd control abilities, heck, several classes actually possess the ability to heal themselves or those around them if they spec into it. Blade & Soul has a highly interactive combat system that isn’t really replicated very often in other MMOs.

Now there are a few major issues with Blade & Soul that I’ve not only come across, but also hear about by every player and content creator I’ve discussed Blade & Soul with.
Endgame is built specifically for whales – people that spend an exorbitant amount of money on the game, and is heavily RNG.
And the population has been at a steady rate of decline for the last several years, not spiking up at any point.
Where games like ESO, Final Fantasy XIV and WoW have large spikes of players when they release new content – literally multiplying their populations by several times, and even BDO has large spikes whenever they release new regions, new classes or the like, Blade & Soul pushes out new content and.. yeah.
The playerbase in Blade & Soul, while not dead by any means is not growing. It hasn’t grown in years and will continue to decline steadily until it ultimately ends up like other titles such as Rift or TERA.

But you know what? Just because the playerbase is very low in terms of active players and the game is targeted towards high-rollers, doesn’t mean you can’t have fun in the game as long as your goal isn’t to be competitive.
The game is absolutely gorgeous, has a fascinating storyline, full voice acting, sick combat and a lot of positive features that make your first time running through the game quite the experience!
So for new players, this is an MMO that is totally worth playing. For everyone else? I doubt it’s worth ever coming back to.

I know there’s more I could’ve talked about. Dungeons. Raids. PvP. But again, this isn’t a full review, these were just my thoughts on the game, what I enjoyed and what new players will see when coming into the game.

I’ve made you guys wait long enough by this point to talk about our experience in Phantasy Star Online 2.
Regardless of whether or not you feel the same way, both Mrs Stix and I had an absolute blast playing PSO2 over the course of the first month of the PC launch.
During that time I made quite a few videos talking about how the game was going and how it was ultimately being handled, but now I want to talk about the game itself and why both Mrs Stix and I enjoyed it as much as we did, but at the same time, why we’re no longer playing it currently.

Alright, so I’ve always been a fan of PSO2. Seriously, I have videos done on the game dating all the way back to 2017 – yeah, 3 years ago. This was long before the game was ever announced to have an official Western release planned.
Yet even though I was a fan, having played other titles in the franchise, I never stuck with it.
This is partly due to me being busy with the channel, and partly because the game was more difficult than most, and with the fan-translations being all there was to go off of, I found myself confused at times, and with limited time to learn it.. I opted to just pass on the game all together.
Fast Forward to a couple months ago, PSO2 officially launched on PC, having rolled out onto Xbox’s earlier this year, of course, and I found myself being sucked back in. This time things made more sense – albeit not a whole lot more, as PSO2 is a very complex game to learn.

At its core, PSO2 is a hub-based action MMO. You can see tons of players on-screen while in the space-hub, and you can group up with and participate in missions, varying quite substantially in size.
Yes you did hear that correctly, there’s no open world to explore, and I know some people were disappointed to find that out after downloading and logging in for the first time.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to explore. There is a large variety of different, unique environments to play through each with their own aesthetic look and feel.

Thankfully, regardless of whether you’re a fan of hub-based instanced MMOs or not, one thing everyone can appreciate is a good combat system, and PSO2 does not disappoint.
You wouldn’t think this game was almost a decade old when playing it as mechanically, the game feels fantastic. Sure, graphically it definitely shows its age especially in the earlier zones, but as you continue to make progress and unlock additional zones that changes pretty rapidly.
Honestly I look forward to when Episode 5 launches as that’s roughly where I started and was my personal favorite point of the story.
The action combat system interestingly provides players the option to equip 3 different weapon types, and bind several skills to each weapon. This allows you to make use of various different roles that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
As an example, I had a katana and a bow equipped, meaning that while bosses or monsters were engaged in close-quarters combat or placing close-range AoEs on the ground around them, I could keep my distance and make use of my bow.
But otherwise I could be in close-range slashing with my katana. I bet you can understand how important this system is now, right?

Now as of July 2020, we’re currently playing through content in Episode 3. When I started, we were at the end of Episode 4 or the beginning of Episode 5, I can’t recall specifically.
I know that as we’re still quite a ways behind Japan in terms of content, we’re very limited in what we’re currently capable of doing. The PSO2 team are aware of this and actually made a blog post on their website a couple weeks ago addressing content concerns.
Episode 4 is going to be coming next month in August, Episode 5 will be coming the following month in September, and finally fully catching up with Japan with Episode 6 towards an undisclosed point at end of the year.
So you can bet while the content available to consume is definitely limited, we’re going to not only have plenty of new areas to explore, but a steady flow of new content to sift through and complete over the course of the year.

Mrs Stix and I got to play through quite a bit of the game, well, by quite a bit I mean we got to play through the entire thing up to level 50 something with all of you – with our community.
We ran so many different instances, we completed so many missions, we got to not only meet hundreds of you in-game, but we got to invite a ton of you to our uh.. our.. guild? I forget what the feature’s called in PSO2 but it’s essentially a guild.
We even had our own home where we’d group up, chat amongst ourselves, and drink adorable little drinks with those tiny umbrella things.
There were concerts that we went to, we played catch with a giant ball at one point in the shopping district.. honestly, the game was an absolute blast to play through.

But Mrs Stix and I both chose to initially install the game via the Microsoft Store initially, as the Tweaker didn’t offer a functional means to play at the time.
We played for 2 weeks straight until they rolled out their “maintenance fix” that was supposed to fix some of the issues players were having, and there were quite a lot of issues preventing players access, trust me.
And at that moment, Mrs Stix’s game got nuked. She couldn’t play it again. She tried for several days, she uninstalled everything, tried installing via the Tweaker, managed to get in-game for a couple days, and then it broke again.
This left us feeling frustrated, much like a large percentage of players and instead of trying to continue to fix it every time it broke, we decided it was a better choice to go ahead and delay playing.
It was announced after all that the game was coming to “additional platforms” on PC in the near future, so we had hope the game would launch on to Steam and allow us to bypass the terrible Microsoft Store experience, and hopefully the Tweaker as well.
Plus, we’d have access to Episode 4, 5 and perhaps even 6 by then so there’d be even more to do!

At the end of the day, Phantasy Star Online is a great looking game for its time that could have had a fantastic launch if it were handled correctly.
But it wasn’t, and instead, a lot of players ended up passing on it, inhibiting the growth and success that was possible.
Yet even so, there are quite a few players still actively playing, and there will be a large influx of new players once we have additional means with which to access it.

Mrs Stix and I have always been avid fans of TERA. I’m a Founder for the game, having played it way back when it was pay-to-play. To date, I still firmly believe TERA has some of the best action combat in the MMO scene, even if the classes I enjoy have changed substantially over the years.
Yet even in 2020, I continue to see the TERA subreddit spammed with posts asking if the game is worth playing. In videos I do I get asked what my thoughts of the game are currently – as of June 2020. So here I am, attempting to address everything at once.
Over the course of May 2020 Mrs Stix and I live streamed TERA on Twitch with all of you guys. We made it to level 68 before finally calling it quits, and these are my thoughts on the way there.

TERA is an open-world action MMORPG released in North America and Europe in 2012. The game began as a subscription-based MMO, requiring you pay a monthly fee, but after seeing poor subscription numbers, the game decided to change to a free-to-play business model the following year.
Since then, the game has continued to add new classes, new areas, new features all the while overhauling various aspects of the game including the leveling experience, which is what I’m going to address first.

To begin with, you’re met with a very dated “tutorial.” This introduction to the game shows you how to loot items, how to move your character, how to click your left-mouse button to attack.. all things that are mostly irrelevant in this day and age.
But we can look past that. The newbie zone has never really been very good, even back when it took twice as long to complete.
Shortly after leaving the tutorial zone, you’re able to begin running dungeons. And this is where the bulk of the game takes place on the course to what, max level I think?
You do a few introductory quests to hit the level requirement to enter dungeons, and then you farm them via Vanguard Requests, gaining several level-ups per dungeon all the way to.. level 65?
Then you take a few quests, learn of some of the new features that are now available to you, obtain really powerful new gear and then you continue grinding the Macellarius Catacombs dungeon until level 68, where you finally unlock a little more variety.
That’s it – that’s the entirety of the leveling experience in TERA. Sure, you can do quests out in the open-world if you really want to, but when it’s such an inferior way of leveling.. why would you, other than to experience the story?

Speaking of dungeons, though, I did a video on TERA and my experience in the game back in September 2019. Back then, you could group up with 4 other people I believe, with full-sized dungeon parties consisting of 5 players.
Now I get the population in TERA has declined quite substantially over the last 9 months, but upon queuing we learned that we couldn’t take 3 of our viewers with us, as dungeon party sizes were reduced down to 3 players only.
This – I couldn’t believe this was a thing. Placing a limit that small on a game built around a “massively multiplayer” aspect was such a foreign concept to me.
I feel like a better alternative would have been to set dungeons to scale per person, as opposed to reducing how many people could participate simultaneously. Kind of like how Blue Protocol is handling their dungeons.
When I played, dungeon queues didn’t take long at all. And I played on the North American servers, servers that are much more barren than their European counterparts.
Even entering with 3 players provided little to no effort, though. Rarely were we even required to make use of Mrs Stix’s healing as a Priest, yet dungeons are often a way with which you go about preparing for the more difficult encounters found at endgame.
That isn’t to say that all dungeons are easy though, just the dungeons on the way to level 68. I never attempted any of the dungeons after level 68, and with the new level 70 dungeon coming – or has it already came? Either way, I’m sure they scale to a much greater difficulty.

Leveling, either through dungeons or via the quests would suck if the combat sucked though, right? I know I mentioned earlier that I still firmly believe TERA has some of the best action combat in an MMO, and that is 100% my honest thought.
I’ve played every action MMO there is. I played Blade & Soul to endgame, having a Hongmoon 23 Zen Archer, have played hundreds of hours of Black Desert Online, have played hub-MMOs like PSO2, Soul Worker, Kritika and Vindictus quite extensively.
Yet at the end of the day, the combat in TERA has always been the type of combat I enjoy. I like the free-aiming aspect of the classes, and while, sure, other games do it, and some of them do it very well, TERA’s is just.. different in a way I can’t truly express through words.
Now I’ve only ever played 3 classes in TERA: Warrior, Gunner and Sorcerer. I played Warrior to endgame back when the game went free-to-play, and have played Gunner to endgame several times over the last few years. Yes, I’m of the opinion that the Gunner is an incredibly fun class, and I love my tiny little pocket healer.
Although I would like to note with the substantial increase in HP due the gear you obtain at level 65, my little heal-bot really doesn’t do much anymore, at least not at level 68 from what I could tell which is probably the most disappointing thing I encountered in-game.
I relied on him. He was my rock. He kept me alive. He got me through so many hard times. He and I had experienced everything the world had to offer and overcame ever trial, every tribulation thrown our way.
The one thing I never got to do though, at least in the last couple years, was PvP. I can’t say with any kind of certainty how Gunner fairs in PvP, as every time we’d try to queue nothing would ever pop.
I think the only time I ever participated in PvP was back within the first year or two of it going free-to-play. Back when PvP servers were still a thing, and players would camp you in Lumbertown. You guys remember those days? Yeah, those were awesome.

Back in 2019 I elaborated on my experience with other players, with the multiplayer aspect of TERA. I discussed how I had been kicked on more than one occasion because I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know the mechanics for each encounter – I wasn’t paying enough attention, I dunno.
It was my first time doing specific dungeons so I was taking things slowly so I could grasp what was going on and what I was required to do in the party – what my role was and how I could accurately and safely utilize my abilities while learning what I needed to do in the future.
But they wanted to zerg as fast as they could, and I get that mentality, I do. You’ve probably run the content so many times that it grates on your nerves. You just want to power through it as fast as you can.
However if it’s someone’s first time.. you’re ruining it for them, expecting them to research, in detail, what you need to do in advance. This isn’t how most players tackle new games, or new content. And that resulted in multiple kicks from dungeon groups.
Since they reduced the player party size from 5 down to 3, and we queued exclusively with our viewers, we never came across that issue, but I’m sure it’s still a very prevalent part of the game, especially when grouping with 2 complete strangers.

TERA has always been an incredible MMO. Truly. While it has continued to get consistently worse over the years, I still find myself coming back to it time and time again. And every time, I find a little more of what I loved about the game has been taken away from me.
So much of what made the game an amazing experience to play through has been pruned from the game. Gone are the days you’d see players out in the world questing. Gone are the players you used to be able to challenge out in the open world.
Gone is the need to do side-quests. Or, well, gone is the need to actually quest for the most part all together. There’s a noticeable pattern here, right? A lot of content is gone.
That’s not talking about the alterations to zones, or the dungeon nerfs that made dungeons – at least on the way to level 68, mind-numbingly easy and require absolutely no skill. Or attention, even.

TERA is probably in the worst shape it’s ever been in. I still love the game with a burning passion, which is why it was one of the first MMOs we chose to stream. This MMO helped shape my experience in the genre.
Without it, I wouldn’t appreciate action combat nearly as much as I currently do, nor would I compare so many games to it, or recommend it nearly as often as I do. Yet at the same time, I no longer think the game is really worth your time.
Sure, it still has its charms – it likely always will, but.. it’s such a drastic departure from what it once was and I don’t think it’ll ever achieve any sense of relevance again. But I’ll still continue to play it.
I’ll continue to come back to it in hopes that something changes for the better.

I know some of you guys have seen the title and are already prepared to ardently defend your favorite game.
This isn’t an attempt to diminish other games, but rather to talk about why I find Final Fantasy XIV to be as good as it is.
Every person has their own preferences, their own likes and dislikes – and as such it’s impossible to cater to every player.
However I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIV on and off since the beginning of 2015.
I typically play for the first 4-6 months of an expansion so I can experience all of the content as it’s fresh and current, then come back periodically throughout the expansion, settling back in towards the last 3-4 months so I can complete everything that came out over the course of my absence.
This allows for me to gear myself ready for the next expansion. So while I’m in no way claiming to be an expert at the game, I’ve played more of Final Fantasy XIV than any other MMO aside from World of Warcraft.

I grew up with JRPGs: Legend of Dragoon, Breath of Fire, Final Fantasy, the Tales of series, Star Ocean, Suikoden. You name a JRPG and I bet you I played it.
One of the things I enjoy about the JRPG genre is the story-telling. Yeah, at times the plot can drag along and can be a little generic. However, I’m a sucker for story, and that’s one of the things that Final Fantasy XIV really does right.
If you’re the type of person that skips through the vast majority of the quest text, then there are probably better games out there for you. Because this is, at its core, a Final Fantasy game.
Sure, the base game has a slew problems with regards to its pace – something that Square Enix have taken note of and are aiming to fix with coming patches.
But after making it through and upon reaching expansion content you begin to see why people speak so highly of the game. The story really comes together in Shadowbringers – the most recent expansion – with many players claiming it has one of the best stories told in recent Final Fantasy history.
And honestly, Shadowbringers’ story, before the additional patch content was incredible. I’ve never been as captivated as I was during my journey through it.
Shadowbringers was actually the very first time I’d played an expansion during its launch. Mrs Stix actually took several days off so we could play through the launch of the game together and neither of us have regrets.

Story is merely one aspect of what makes a compelling MMO, though.
To a lot of players, combat is an integral part of what makes a game worth playing or not, and I agree.
Final Fantasy XIV is a tab-target MMO. The games I’ve played through the most, Tales of Pirates, Perfect World, World of Warcraft, and even Final Fantasy XIV are all tab-target MMOs.
I feel like I’m in the vocal minority, but general majority when I say that combat definitely takes a little getting used to.
If you’re beginning the game for the first time, you might feel as though the combat is slow, you have a lack of skills, and the global cooldowns eat away at your patience.
However, as you make progress through the game and your hotbars fill up with a plethora of skills, both on and off the global cooldown you begin to come to the realization that combat is much more intuitive than you may have originally thought.
I agree that Square handle this a little poorly during the leveling experience, though. Making lower level gameplay as slow as it is can deter people from playing early on, just like the fetch and retrieve quests as part of the main scenario.

Speaking of the leveling experience, there are quite a few methods with which you can utilize to hit end-game.
Whether you enjoy the main scenario or not, you’re required to continue with it to make progress through the game.
However, there are so many other methods of obtaining XP for your current job: FATEs which are open-world events that spawn, quests, your job’s hunting log, Palace of the Dead, dungeons, raids, job quests, guildhests, daily roulette, guildleves, the challenge log..
Seriously. Leveling should never be difficult, nor should you ever feel as though it’s a repetitious grind because, honestly, there’s just so many options to pass the time.
Since Mrs Stix and I always go tank/healer, the fastest method for us is to just stick with the main scenario quests while leveling through our daily roulette since it’s instant for us.

All of the aforementioned activities are PvE-oriented, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t PvP available for players interested. It just isn’t a very focal part of the game as – and I don’t mean to offend anyone by stating this – but Final Fantasy XIV fans just aren’t that into it.
What they are interested in are the raids: Savage-tier 8-player raids, 24-player Alliance raids, Ultimate-tier 8-player raids, and even Extreme-tier 8-player trials.
I’ll admit, I’m definitely not a hardcore raider. Mrs Stix does the most difficult content in the game and I see the mental toll it takes on her and the sheer time investment to push that kind of competitive content.
In the few hours I have each day to play MMOs – or games in general – I like to tackle it more casually. Back before I started this channel I did Mythic raiding in WoW, but that took up so much of my free time there’s no way I could ever see myself getting back into it.
I know, I know. Laugh all you want. But at least I can admit that I’m a filthy casual!

Oh! I can’t believe I’ve neglected to talk about classes and races this entire time. The class-system is one of the best parts of the game, after all.
There are 9 base classes total: Arcanist, Archer, Conjurer, Gladiator, Lancer, Marauder, Pugilist, Rogue, and Thaumaturge.
You play one of these classes until reaching level 10 I believe and obtain the ability to change to another class at your leisure, or continue to level 30 where you gain access to your advanced job.
There are 18 jobs total as of March 2020. Astrologian, Bard, Black Mage, Blue Mage, Dancer, Dark Knight, Dragoon, Gunbreaker, Machinist, Monk, Ninja, Paladin, Red Mage, Samurai, Scholar, Summoner, Warrior, and White Mage.
Other than the quite large selection of classes to choose between, which are actually labeled as Disciples of War or Magic, there are Disciples of the Hand – which, you guessed it, are the crafting professions. If you didn’t guess it correctly, no problem. I don’t judge you for not paying too much attention at this point.
Unlike most MMOs, Final Fantasy XIV requires you level these crafting professions up like you would a main class: It’s a slow, but very satisfying journey leveling your crafters.
These consist of the Alchemist, Armorer, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Culinarian, Goldsmith, Leatherworker and Weaver.
Honestly I’ve never been much of a crafter myself, traditionally purchasing everything I need from other players, but I both understand the importance of and appreciate players that take the time to level them.
Since you’re capable of changing your job at any time, this means there is absolutely no need for alt-characters. You can level everything on one single character – and can switch jobs on the fly.
This makes it easy to adapt to the task you’re undertaking, and as an altaholic, prevents me from having 10 Human characters all identical in appearance but a different class like in WoW.
Then we have our selection of races: The Hyur, Elezen, Miqo-te, Roegadyn, Au Ra, Viera, Hrothgar and finally, our potato overlords, the Lalafell which, if after the main scenario doesn’t convince you that they’re a bunch of scheming evil masterminds.. you’re likely a Lalafell.

I know it’s important to have things to do outside of traditional PvE and PvP activities, though.
Thankfully while yes, crafting professions are definitely a thing, as is gathering, Final Fantasy XIV has a giant amusement park in the form of the Gold Saucer.
There are a plethora of different mini-games you can play, you can raise and race your Chocobo, participate in the Triple Triad, which is probably the only card game I’ve ever taken the time to learn.
But if that isn’t of interest to you there’s also a housing system in-game. Player housing is very extensive, and is one of the most sought-after features available.
This is due to there being a limit on housing lots, meaning regardless of how much Gil you have, you might not be lucky enough to acquire a lot to actually build the mansion of your dreams on.
And if, for some reason neither of these are of interest to you.. then there’s always Glamour: The end-game of Final Fantasy XIV.
Much like in Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy XIV has so many gear-sets you can unlock via dungeons, raids, quests and a ton more through events and the Mog Station.
This provides players an outlet to express themselves in their characters. Well, I guess player housing also provides players the ability to express themselves. But that’s besides the point.
You can ask anyone: Glamour is the most important thing in the game. People are pushing for the highest item level gear? Pffft. Half the playerbase is still actively trying to get that set of boots that released a month ago.
Plus, let’s be real: Looking good in an MMO gives you a DPS bonus anyway. This is a secret that not many people are privy to though, so make sure you don’t tell anyone.

Final Fantasy XIV is a pay-to-play MMORPG. This means that to play the game, you’re required to purchase the game and then pay a monthly subscription fee to continue to play.
I know a lot of players, especially right now with all that’s going on in the world can’t afford to purchase the game, let alone the subscription fee. And considering they release new expansions every 18 months or so?
To me, it’s totally worth it. You’re paying for a game that is constantly updated with content that you can easily digest at your own pace.
You can stay subscribed for a month, participate in all of the current content for an expansion, come back a year later, subscribe for a month or two, finish all of the content available to you, then come back for the next expansion.
All in all, you might spend less than $100 every 2 years, total to play months worth of a game of this caliber.
I know Yoshi-P has talked about the game adopting a free-to-play business model in the future – or rather, he’s discussed the likelihood of it happening.
And honestly, I don’t think the game should ever adopt a business model other than what it has right now. It promises a certain level of quality that would definitely decline otherwise.

Final Fantasy XIV is an incredible MMO. The further you get through it, the more this becomes evident.
It has an absolutely gripping, fantastic story that I’ve not seen done to the level it has been done here in any MMO.
While the leveling experience, with regards to combat can definitely be slow and an arduous process to get through at times, it gets so much better if you stick with it.
Graphically, the game, and especially the zones are amazing to move through. The expansion content looks absolutely stunning.
The soundtrack, like most Final Fantasy games – and especially during Trials and Raids is.. out of this world. Like, go to Youtube and search for any Trial’s background music. You won’t regret it.
This is probably one of, if not the highest quality MMO I’ve ever played. I’ve had an active subscription to the game almost since the day I began without letting it cancel. That’s how much I support it.
Again, this doesn’t mean other games aren’t amazing in their own right. This is merely my subjective opinion of the game.

Hopefully, during all of the free time you have off right now this helps you decide whether or not you should play the game.

I know you’ve been waiting on this one for a couple days now. Maybe more if you’ve been waiting since the public test servers were live.
I have a history with ArcheAge – this channel was built partly with ArcheAge as a foundation, so I’m not entirely new to the game. However, unlike some people I never reached endgame.
It was heavily pay-to-win, there were whales dominating every aspect of the game and the population was nearly non-existent. But Unchained aims to be different, and I plan on giving it the chance to be.

I will preface this by stating that this isn’t a full game review of the MMO as a whole as Mrs Stix and I only made it to level 31 before I decided to do a video on it.
Not because I don’t plan on getting further, but because I wanted to give my initial impressions of the game.
I fully expect to hit endgame before doing a follow-up video in the next couple months, while also looking at where the game is at that point.

So, I didn’t go for any of the more expensive packs, I got the basic version of the game. As long as I can play it I’m happy.

Upon logging into the game at approximately 10 in the morning I realized that there were no queues for the most recently added server.
That was refreshing, considering one of the most common issues people have is their inability to actually get in-game and play it.
Of which, honestly, I can relate. I had queues of upwards of 4,000 – waited in them for a couple hours while I worked and gave up because I just couldn’t get in.
I didn’t have any issues with disconnects like some people claim but the queue times were atrocious. However, this is to be expected. It is a fresh, new launch after all and these kinds of issues are bound to happen.
My only concern was that Gamigo didn’t do anything to prepare for the influx of players. They could have very easily have rolled out more servers at launch and if they were dead, moved on to merge them in time.

After making it in-game, I realized that the whole “your character meshes aren’t loading so you’re completely black” issue I had years ago is still present.
I had to wait several minutes for the character to load – and I want it to be known that you need to wait several minutes per race, they don’t all load in at once.
While irritating, it wasn’t really too big a deal. I knew what I wanted to play as but I can see it being a larger issue for new players.

Quick FYI: There are two opposing factions in ArcheAge. The Nuian Alliance, comprised of the Nuian, Elves and Dwarves, and the Haranyan Alliance, comprised of the Harani, Firran and Warborn.

I went Elf because that was the race they overhauled according to their trailer.
The Elf looks beautiful – at least the female does. I didn’t check the male, but that’s because I didn’t wanna wait on the meshes to load for him.
There’s a lot of customization options for your character – you’re capable of really creating something unique – at least with regards to their face.
Unfortunately, from what I could tell there are no body customization options. Unless I missed something? Which I don’t think I did.

I eventually made it in-game and as noted, played through until level 31. I didn’t enjoy my first playthrough of ArcheAge years ago because it felt so dead. There was nobody playing, which defeats the purpose of an MMORPG.
However Unchained has – as I’m sure you’re well aware if you’ve tried logging in – a ton of players. I couldn’t run longer than 30 seconds without seeing groups of people out participating in quests.
ArcheAge Unchained feels incredibly alive. It’s a completely different experience this time ’round and is much more enjoyable than I thought it’d be.
I spent the entire weekend leveling – not in the most ideal way, granted, but I did it like an MMO should be done.
See, what I learned is that to level to 30 the fastest, you should skip every yellow quest you see – meaning you should stick to doing the main scenario quests only.
This will level you quite rapidly, getting you to 30 in probably 2 to 3 hours, maybe less.
But if you’re not in any rush, then it might take you several times as long, but you’ll be able to go around, potentially group up with other players and murder the local wildlife like a good MMO protagonist.

I know one of the most common questions is “Is ArcheAge Unchained pay-to-win?” Trust me, I hate pay-to-win as much as the next guy.
Unlike ArcheAge, though, Unchained’s cash shop is not pay to win.
I feel like I don’t really need to delve into it any further than that because every other person has already – but suffice it to say, at this point in time, the game is not pay to win.
Are Gamigo doing a good job with the launch? Definitely not. But is the game ruined by pay-to-win? Absolutely not.
Let me elaborate on the former statement just a little.

I mentioned Gamigo weren’t doing a very good job with the launch. Yes, the queue times are atrocious – but can easily be chalked up to being due to a lack of servers. Not difficult to fix.
Bugs, glitches and other issues are being reported – which again, can easily be remedied with small hotfixes. However, upon loading up the ArcheAge subreddit earlier today.. whew, let me tell you.
There are a plethora of posts, totaling hundreds of upvotes with hundreds of comments complaining about a recent exploit in-game.
I’m not going to go into detail to avoid more people participating in it but suffice it to say, the damage to each server’s economy is.. not going to be easy to recover from.
While Gamigo have brought the topic up and mentioned that they plan on dealing with the abusers, neither Trion nor Gamigo have ever had the ability to do anything to the game without XL Games getting involved.
They don’t possess the ability to fix any issues as they – and I kid you not – aren’t really allowed to edit or add anything that XL Games don’t themselves add.
This has left more and more people engaging in exploits, the market plummeting, and people running around in better gear than they should be with a lot more money than should be possible this early on.

Otherwise, I’d say the game is looking to be pretty good.
While there isn’t a whole lot that was modified, and there isn’t much different in the way of content, ArcheAge, or, rather ArcheAge Unchained holds up very well.
The game is still beautiful, the combat is still really, really freakin’ good for a tab-target MMO and the community.. well the community was incredibly toxic. But so is WoW’s, and that still has millions of active players.
I’m sure you’re capable of finding a nice guild with plenty of nice guildmates if that’s what you’re after.

I can highly recommend ArcheAge Unchained for players that either have yet to play the MMO and are looking for something new, or old players that disliked the old pay-to-win version.
I cannot say with any certainty that the game will remain free of pay-to-win or that Gamigo won’t suddenly go back on their word in the future, but right now, the $20 is definitely worth the experience.
Do note that this game is aimed at players that are interested in a lot of PvP. Because it’s packed with it and if you’re against constant war with the other faction.. this likely isn’t for you.

MrsStix and I both enjoy TERA. Or, okay, let me rephrase that. MrsStix and I both enjoyed TERA. Past tense.
I played TERA back when you had to pay to play it – I was one of the OG Founder’s. I got that awesome title and everything once it converted to free to play.
So it’s safe to say I’m a very, very large fan of the game.
To date, TERA still has some of the best true action combat I’ve ever played through and although it’s become more evidently dated over time, I still can’t help but enjoy it whenever I go back to it.
MrsStix actually played this as her main MMO for the entirety of 2016 – before her and I got together.
So we were both curious how TERA held up in 2019 – were we both wearing nostalgia goggles or is the game still a good MMORPG to play in 2019?

Let’s talk about that.

These are my thoughts and impressions on the way to.. level 64? level 65?

TERA is one of the few true action combat MMORPGs currently available.
It was released in North America back in 2012 as a pay to play MMORPG but shortly after released as a freemium title, offering premium benefits while going completely free to play.
In 2013, after going free to play, TERA had a total 1.4 million registered players. By 2017, TERA had over 26 million registered players worldwide, with almost 7 million of those being from North America alone.
After launching onto both the Xbox One and PS4, they accumulated over 2 million additional console players.
Clearly the game was a very large success, both on PC and console.

There are several race and class options available in-game. Some classes are race and gender locked which to date has frustrated countless players but South Korea loves limiting our freedom in games.
We have the Human, Castanic, Aman – the race, not specifically.. y’know, like, a random dude, High Elf, Popori, Elin and finally the Baraka.
The classes are pretty much what you’d expect out of any fantasy MMO: Archer, Berserker, Brawler, Gunner, Lancer, Mystic, Ninja, Priest, Reaper, Slayer, Sorcerer, Valkyrie, and the Warrior.
I’ve never been all too fond of gender locking and find the whole situation with limiting exactly what we can play based off of what gender we’re willing to play as a little silly.
But as it’s South Korea, and they gender lock in every MMO they push out, it’s likely something we’re never going to get past.

Once getting in-game, you’re given a lengthy tutorial of the game where they teach you how to move your character, hold left click and reveal the secret arts of meditation.
At least that’s what I tell people when they ask why I fell asleep.
I get wanting to guide people through game mechanics, but both the original tutorial island and even the new, overhauled zone is completely unnecessary and redundant.
If you’ve played an MMO, you know how to move. You know how to attack. You know how to click skills and you know how to talk to NPCs.
Gating the game behind this tutorial is enough to not only bore but also frustrate both new players and players looking to make alts.

After the tutorial – which takes around 30 minutes on average, you’re around level 10 and sent to the main city of Velika.
There you continue with the story – and only the story, because TERA has kinda truncated the leveling experience, meaning that you’re capable of continuing while only pursuing the main story, leaving side quests meaningless.
At level 20 you enter your first dungeon – one of several you’ll do on your way to max level.
The dungeons are soloable, especially as a Gunner where I flip around like some kind of Twitch streamer that drank 2 litres of Red Bull before the fight.
But parties are still nevertheless the route to take as they make for a much faster experience, and allow for you to farm the dungeon for quick XP.
This is ideal for leveling I reckon – we grinded dungeons with the same people on occasion since they didn’t wanna leave the party, and got some great levels.

By the time we had hit around level 65, we came to the realization that they’d patched in a level cap increase to level 70.
We were excited as we were under the impression that that meant lots of new content on the way to level 70 but we were mistaken.
Instead, what we had was an increase in level.. without any real content. Some quests, a new world boss system, and.. that was it. There were no real ways of obtaining level 70 that weren’t an arduous grind.
And at the time there was no actual purpose to hitting level 70 other than just.. being level 70.

It was at this point we decided that we were going to stop. There were several reasons behind this choice.
First, we had tried queueing for dungeons around the level 64-65 range. Upon entering, I, personally, was greeted with toxicity on more than one occasion.
I was kicked because my gear wasn’t up to their standards. I was kicked because I didn’t know mechanics for the dungeon I was doing – for the very first time, mind you.
Things like that. Then we expected PvP to at the very least be possible.. but PvP was dead. We tried queueing at all times of the day but could never get a queue to pop.
This lead us to believe that PvP is pretty much dead, and looking at both the forums and Reddit.. that’s a commonly reoccuring thought.

TERA was once a damn good game, but there has been so much content pruned over the last couple years. We’ve lost hundreds of quests, had entire zones altered, dungeons nerfed into the ground.
So much has changed to make this game more casual friendly that it killed what made the game enjoyable.
That and over time the game is becoming more and more pay to win, which wasn’t really very prevalent when I played years ago but is definitely evident now.
The dungeons used to be a lot of fun – granted, they were never really as difficult as other games in the genre but that didn’t mean they didn’t require effort and coordination.
Now, you get people running in sans a healer just YOLOing stuff because the difficulty is no longer there.

The world, the combat, the story – okay, well the story was never really as intricately weaved within the world like something like Guild Wars 2 or Final Fantasy XIV, but the story has become a convoluted mess.
The world that is still currently beautiful and was once filled with players and content is now desolate – you don’t see anyone anywhere outside the cities.
My wife and I played for a month or two – spending several hours per week, at varying times of the day and we never encountered anyone. It was a ghost-town outside the safe zones.
The removal of sidequests has left questing so.. linear as there is no longer a sense of exploration.
You don’t need to venture out in search of quests to continue leveling. You continue the main story and never look back.
The only thing I believe could make leveling worse is if it were auto-pathing me to every objective, but really, when I have auto-run keybound and just sit on my phone because I don’t need to pay attention.. is there any difference?
Thankfully the combat is still highly enjoyable.. at least as Gunner. Otherwise I don’t know what I would’ve done with myself, let alone the game.

I just cannot fathom how a game that was as well received as TERA was and has survived as long as TERA has is in the situation it’s currently in.
One thing I do know is that the game is on its last legs. If nothing is done, the game will soon join the MMO graveyard.

So is TERA worth playing in 2019?
There are a lot of good aspects of the game but they are vastly outnumbered by the negative.
I’ve been a supporter of TERA since it was pay to play. I’ve included it in various “top ten” videos, always talking highly about its combat and graphics.
I’ve done absolutely everything I possibly could to continue to drive people to play the game. I’ve done dedicated videos on it, I’ve done livestreams of it.. but in its current form, I cannot endorse it.
I don’t believe right now it is worth investing any time into as a new player, nor do I believe it’s worth returning to as an old player.
My wife who has played the game for twice as long as I have and participated in end-game dungeons and raiding has a similar sentiment.
The game isn’t ruined in its entirety, but the developers don’t seem to understand what we want out of the game and continue digging a hole for the game.
There are a lot of improvements that need to be made before TERA is capable of being seen as a competent MMO in this day and age but I highly doubt that’ll ever happen.
All we can do is reminisce on what was once an amazing, highly addicting, entertaining MMORPG.