A solid idea, gone horribly wrong.
"14-year-old boy named Kite is invited by his schoolmate Orca to play the online game The World. While playing the game, both Kite and his friend are attacked by an unknown monster. As a result, Orca becomes comatose in the real world. Despite his friend's condition, Kite continues to play, believing he’ll find a way to revive Orca. While playing The World, Kite accepts the Twilight from Aura, a mysterious girl in white. Kite is transformed into an Outlaw player within the game, wielding the very same power responsible for Orca’s condition. " Amazon.com product description
Sounds great, but...well, read on...
Story: 8
Great idea and story. Not fully developed, though. Fusing reality and gamining in a game is a great idea.
Gameplay: 4
Oh, my...This game gives a great impression at the start. You begin on your desktop, where you can receive e-mail, check news etc. You then login to The World, the MMORPG you spend most of your time in. ENTER bad graphics. Environments are bare, and character models are acceptable, nothing more.
You are then taught the ropes by your friend Orca. ENTER bad fighting system. You have one attack button, and the rest of your moves are accessed by a menu that you remotely pull up. This means that fighting a creature usually disintegrates into slash, slash, run, slash, slash, run...
Combine this with the fact that this is a DUNGEON ORIENTATED GAME!
You spend the whole time going from dungeon to dungeon. Each dungeon consists of about five chambers. All you do is defeat the enemies inside each chamber to advance. The difficulty level is horribly disjointed. When not in a dungeon, enemies are easily killed, especially if you're travelling with a party, which you usually are. Dungeon enemies, however, are impossibly difficult. Strategy can't be employed, because of the combat system.
Weapons are well done(relatively). They level up or can be traded in one of the online towns.
Graphics: 7
Already mentioned above. Bad for this day and age.
Sound: 6
Voice-overs are fine, but other sounds all feel like they come from a nineties arcade game.
Value: 5
So frustratingly difficult you may give up after playing the fourth dreary dungeon for the umpteenth time. And it's at full-price!
Tilt: 5
The core idea is solid and innovative, but it's so bad you end up hating what that idea becomes.
Conclusion in a Paragraph:
A game so full of bugs that you feel sick afterwards. If you want an RPG, pick up an FF. DO NOT pick up this game.
Bin it.