The two big games of this genre that were released at around the same time were Champions of Norrath and Dark Alliance. Needless to say the sequels for each also came out around the same time. While Return to Arms allowed players to load their characters from the original, provided new races for gameplay, new worlds to explore, and new abilities to master, Dark Alliance 2 didn't do any of these as well, if at all (I was so excited to upload my old character before I realized - you couldn't!). The only saving grace to this game (after you spend hours re-leveling up) is its upgrading system for weapons and armour. Unlike Champions where "you use it, you lose it" on rare materia, this game allows to break apart weapons and armour and reuse the jewels and gems you painstakingly spent all your gold putting in. Also, another gripe, the multiplayer for this game lacks the ever enjoyable competition for gold and experience that Return to Arms has. Money is pooled, so you better make sure the people you're playing with are cool with you dropping 25k on a new broadsword and the experience is evenly split between all active players (if you die you don't get experience). This takes away from allowing people to level up quick by taking all the kills or giving the tank an edge over the long-range elf for picking up gold. I still played it because I really enjoy this type of game, but if you were to only play one - I definitely recommend Return to Arms.
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