Pyros Plays: Dragon Nest

[PyrosNine]

Pyros Plays: Dragon Nest



A nest of Dragon!

An action MMO, that seems to be along the lines of Vindictus and PS0, and maybe a bit of Guild Wars but I've never played it. It's from the deplorable Nexon, who enforce dumb website logons to play their games so I can't use Steam for it, but have had the luck to have the aforementioned Vindictus game that keeps me playing.

I had heard about this game from a certain Life in Aggro comic and decided to give it a try, especially because the trailer on the main site offered a real good look at the in game acrobatics.

I must admit, I've had some good surprises from this game, especially compared to say, every other Nexon game other than Vindictus, and even a few paid MMO's I've played.

So, a few basic details:

The game is a free action rpg: There is no lock-on, nor is there a degree of hit-scan, making a full on brawl just like Vindictus. The player's skills and abilities on the battlefield are numerous, allowing for quick movement and numerous combinations of special attacks.

Also like Vindictus, the player does not create their own character, but rather plays a version of an existing character, with much more of a choice. The characters are even given their own bios!

Characters have their own Bio's, a bit like Vindictus:
(note character drawings are misleading compared to actual game models...I.E. not nearly as smexy)

Warrior:



At heart, the Warrior is an optimist. He believes in keeping his weapons sharp and his wits sharper. Fond of crude jokes, he sometimes comes across as an uncultured brute, but in battle, he's clever and precise, relying on both raw strength and quick combos to gain the upper hand. Such an attitude is surprising considering his upbringing. His mother was killed by monsters, and his drill sergeant of a father walked out on him—but that hasn't dampened his spirit. He's now on a quest to uncover the truth of his birth and lineage, but he's going to find much more than he bargained for.

Primary Attributes

Strong physical attacks
The ability to dash around to avoid foes
Fast and furious weapon combos

Weapons
Primary: Greatsword, Axe, Hammer
Secondary: Gauntlet


Princess Zelda...err Archer


The Archer is as willowy and flexible as the bow she wields. Like all the elves of Arendel, she's a lover of nature, for in that land, elves who find their destiny ascend to a second life as a tree. She's left her beloved home to embark on the journey to find her Telezia, her destiny. Should she succeed, she will return in honor, to one day join her ancestors by becoming a tree. To fail in her quest, means oblivion, being reduced to nothing more than a pile of dust.

Primary Attributes

Very strong long-range attacks
Archers are very quick and can move while using their basic attacks
While not armored very well, they have many evasive skills to avoid being hit

Weapons
Primary: Shortbow, Longbow, Crossbow
Secondary: Quiver

Cleric

"Mankind ill needs a savior such as you!"

The goddess decrees that evil must be exterminated, and this the Cleric does without question. He does whatever is necessary to further the cause of righteousness. Through his every act of holy violence, he sheds the hypocrisy of his past and family—his untrue father, his cruel stepmother, and his heritage as the bastard son of a line of impoverished noblemen—for the Cleric believes that good can only be born out of bloodshed.

Primary Attributes

Strong defenses
The ability to heal and buff friends
Can distract multiple foes or pull away a large one, allowing party members to focus on clearing out dungeons

Weapons
Primary: Mace, Flail, Wand
Secondary: Shield

Sorceress aka Jinx in a few years.

Nobody is smarter, sexier, or witchier than the Sorceress—her own words. She'll perform any spell, fight any monster, and retrieve any lost item, all for the right price. Once, she had the potential to be the greatest of her kind, but she rejected that destiny and decided her time was better spent gambling, but destiny is not so easily thwarted...

Primary Attributes

Medium ranged magical attacks
Can freeze, poison and burn foes, making the Sorceress great at controlling crowds of monsters
Protect your friends by knocking creatures out of the way

Weapons

Primary: Staff
Secondary: Grimoire, Orb, Puppet

So, even the support classes are capable of delivering a beating, and more than capable of going Solo, which is a nice touch, which makes it all the more fun to pick your poison for some dungeon running.

The game's plot starts off simple, and mostly because the game is much more plot heavy than most, but I'll get to that later.

The basic gist is that there are two goddesses, Althea (we like her!) and Vestinel. Althea made the world, and all the nice happy creatures. Vestinel is a bit of a bitch. Vestinel tricked Althea into drinking the mother of all roofies, and now Althea is forced into a deep slumber as Vestinel goes cackling all the way into the underworld.

With Althea asleep, the only way to wake her up is to make an antidote from the original poison, which Vestinel took with her. And with Althea out cold, the only way to communicate with the goddess is through her dreams. Also, she kinda kept out all the demons and monsters of darkness, so being asleep doesn't help the populace out much.

That's pretty much all we get. It's the land of Lagendia (because Legendia was taken) and somewhere, there is hopefully a nest that contains a Dragon. Otherwise they might as well have named it Fantasy Asskicking: The MMO.

With that in mind, we roll into the opening cutscene. This game has cutscenes, and they're more than just introducing the new boss, or just introducing the game proper (and that giant fluffy spider from Vindictus.)

Sadly, it didn't let me record the opening vid because recording controls don't work until you are in gameplay, so I just have a few pictures I took with 3DS.

Two girls are running through the forest, alone. There are goblins, green beady eyed creatures with crude weapons, chasing them down.

Of course, one of them trips on an invisible root or some other excuse, and the goblins surround them.

One of them pleads for the goddess to save them, and low and behold, our hero comes running.

Before he can get there, however, a much bigger creature than the Goblins grabs the larger of the two girls, named Rose. He hauls her off and leaves the remaining girl, Lily, to the mercy of the Goblins.

Of course, then I show up and kick their ass. There's not too much gameplay here, and I don't think it was possible to lose, so there wasn't much lost in recording it. It just explained that I can attack by left clicking, and kick by right clicking, and pick stuff up in the heat of battle by hitting f. Vindictus's control scheme, hoorays!



Village? What village?



Oh, the one down the bloody hill and not hearing your screams of terror to come and rescue you from a few wimpy goblins. 'Kay.

Might as well do some explorin'. On video no less, thanks to a recent trend of including a "record video of gameplay" function within the game itself. One that doesn't crash my computer, like Vindictus!

The opening village has a great deal of charm, without needed the puppies and kitties. Instead, it has poochums. Whatever the f'k they are. You'll know them when you see them. The characters all have voices when you chat them up, and though they vary in quality (we'll get to the main offender in a bit) the actual written dialogue for them is pretty good. Surprisingly so.

The main character is a bit of a snark (at least the Warrior character is, I'll have to see about the others later) and each NPC has his or her quirks. The feud between blacksmith Dorin and the love crazed Delilah was something that popped up even in unrelated quests, and the voice snippets really captured the flavor of the character instead of just a stock "hello, friend!" like in WoW.

What really took the cake for me was the simple act of going to the Warrior Class trainer to finish up the rest of the tutorial and getting...this.












This threw me for quite the loop, I tell you! what's next? I help an old woman retrieve her pet cat, and my character monologues about how much he misses his mom? ...That would be pretty neat.

This has already taken a step out of the norm in a surprising way for me, as my character has a backstory, and it's not just flavor text.

But even a great plot can't help lackluster gameplay, so some questing is in order.

The first quest

Combat's solid, with a real feeling of weight behind each swing. A solid hit sends enemies flying, and likewise a good beating from a strong enemy will send me sprawling.

The opening area has a nice feel to it, very Tree of mana-ish, and there's a nice bit of whimsy to the monsters and the combat that is at odds with the over the top brutality of Vindictus. I can beat up enemies and put them into a daze with stars spinning around their head, and once they're on the ground I can get a free critical hit by right clicking to hip drop them while they're down.

My only two specials can be chained with my normal attacks, one being a wide reaching swipe that's pretty damaging and prevents me from being stunned from enemy attacks during it's duration, and the other is a kind of sword uppercut that sends any really close enemy flying. Including bosses.

Enemies have two bars as you can see from the video, one's a stamina bar, and the other is health. Stamina is depleted from repeated attacks, especially special skills, and once emptied the enemy is stunned. It refills quickly though, especially if they're knocked to the ground.

I myself have a few bars too, and my health and magic are ridiculous for the beginning of the game, especially considering the damage I take and my magic usage. I have died only once thus far, and it took some seriously careless playing to do so, and I have yet to run out of MP.

OH, and Timothy is mister fail. Gah. Timothy!

After Dorin and Delilah, my bar for VA work was pretty good...and then Timothy came along. His voice sounds almost like he's only pretending to be a nervous weakling, and it's the least convincing stutter I've ever heard. It's an incredibly intelligible mumble. It's like someone was only half-assing an attempt to be lame!

Complementing the failure that is Timothy, I came upon a weird bug where I would suddenly enter an endless sword swinging for a bit, if I hit any button including the WASD. It's only minor problem in the first quest video, but later I find myself flailing uselessly in an empty field for half a minute. Not sure if it's me, or maybe the fault of a controller I have plugged in, but it's annoying.