Atlantica Online Review

Atlantica Online is a unique MMORPG in many ways. First of all, Atlantica Online is a turn-based RPG much like Final Fantasy or any other RPG like Final Fantasy. You do choose one character for yourself but each class is based on the weapon and not on the particular spells or abilities you want. In fact, you could probably play through the whole game without using spells if you leveled up enough and had strong enough weapons. In any case, you choose from 9 different classes which are Sword, Spear, Staff, Gun, Bow, Cannon, Instrument, Axe, and Power Saw. To choose the Power Saw you must have a different character at or above level 100 and the maximum level you can have is 130. The characters are very customizable with lots of different hairstyles and five different faces.

Each weapon has different ways that you can attack. For example, the spear can attack the first row and one enemy behind that first enemy, and the cannon attacks in a cross pattern in any of the rows but cannot attack flying units, and so on. What is also unique about Atlantica Online is that the character that you choose is not the only one that you control and is not so overpowered that it can handle anything by yourself. That is why they made the mercenary system where you can fill out your party with mercenaries. These mercenaries involve many of the same weapons that your main character can have and they all complement each other and have their own levels.

So far I have only talked about the solo part of Atlantic Online but it is still called an MMO because if you so choose you can be very much involved with the Atlantica Online community. There are apprenticeships that give rewards to the apprentice and the master for the master helping the apprentice. It is a player driven economy so most of the items that you can buy are from other players. Also, there is a large crafting system that I haven’t even begun to explore yet that opens up a completely new realm to explore within this game. Now, as with most MMORPGs there are guilds and PvP options as well. I have not explored these yet but much like the crafting system, these are massive and needs months of playing time to even understand it partially.

The beginning of the game brings you to a dream world where you meet the three goddesses of Atlantica. These three take you through the tutorial of the basic gameplay. However, this tutorial only BARELY scratches the surface. The quests are easy to complete because they have an auto-walk feature although this is very good that they do because otherwise I would have been floundering around not really sure what to do for the first 10 levels and by that time I would have just been fed up with the game and quit. The beginning quests finish off teaching you about the basic gameplay but the rest of the quests start to teach you the more advanced feature of the game including enchanting, crafting, and dungeons.

Overall: 7

I do enjoy this game and have spent a good amount of time just sitting and playing the game. There is a sharp learning curve that is made easier by the quest line that is followed at the beginning of the game. Compared to Atlantica Online, World of Warcraft is child’s play as far as the complexity of the different parts of the game. This could be a turn-off for some people because they just want to play a simple game that is fun and easy to get into. However, this game is very rewarding because in the end you know that if you make it through then you have done something that not everyone can do.

Gameplay:  7

The game plays quite well in my opinion. The auto-walk feature lets you get to your quest destination with relative ease and gets you straight into the action. Once you get into battle, you have to know exactly what you want to do within a short amount of time because when it is your team’s turn to attack, you only get 20-30 seconds for your entire team to attack. This has never been an issue for me, though, because it doesn’t take long to figure out who you can and cannot attack and who is best to attack. The difficulty comes from outside of battle and in fact, may actually deter many people from playing. The most difficult part of the game is the menus. The menus are very difficult to navigate and the search feature doesn’t really search that well, if at all. I haven’t figured out how to navigate the menus very well but I know that once I do I will have a much better time playing the game.

Storyline: 7

The storyline in MMORPGs aren’t necessarily the biggest deal since you are the story. However, the main background is that you are a descendant of Atlantis. Atlantis was destroyed by their own doing because they lost control of the power that was derived from Oriharukon. This substance was very powerful and did not all get destroyed along with Atlantis. Now your job as a descendant of Atlantis is to find these remnants of Oriharukon that is destroying the known world and mutating the creatures. Eventually, you will find the lost city of Atlantis and the secrets therein. At least, that’s what the lore on the website says. This is told within the game through the quests and not many people read the quests. Also, the text within the quest logs are not that easy to read so it is easiest to skip through dialogue and just continue playing. Therefore, I think that the story itself isn’t bad but they need to do a better job of actually telling you why you are doing what you are doing whether by doing better quest logs or possibly adding cut-scenes.

Graphics: 6

The graphics aren’t that impressive. There aren’t that many options to change the graphics either. The battle mechanics and art is detailed but seems a little muddy. Also, in the battle the default option is to zoom in on the character as they attack almost every time. This doesn’t stop the clock so there are times that you have to rush the attacks just to get them in. They do have a lot of different monsters and monster types, though which is a plus.

One thing in their favor is that overall, the game’s download is around only 1 gb of space. However, with all of the patches it comes to be a little under 13 gb. The download is so small because the initial download is considered a “lite” version of the game in that it has just enough files to let you play it as soon as possible. The rest of the files are then downloaded in the background as you are playing.

Replayability: 8

This has a pretty good replayability factor because of the various classes that can be played, including the power saw which can only be played on accounts that have a level 100 character on them. One downside is that there only 3 characters that can be made per server. Fortunately there are enough servers that you could have all nine classes if you so choose. Also, after the Prologue is complete, you can choose between 4 different places that all lead to the Forest of Spirits. Each place has the same quest lines but they all have different scenery along the way.

As I said before, I plan on playing this game some more and I plan on trying to get to level 100 so that I can try out that power saw. The game is not the best in the world but it is completely free. There is a store for the game but it is separate from the game and is not necessary at all to be able to play the game and play it well. I would recommend this to anyone who has liked Final Fantasy but doesn’t want to pay for an online game. Even if you just like turn-based battles this would be a good game for you.