Do you like MMO lites with no fee, plenty of questing and loot gathering all while making friends and slaying monsters?
1.) The story mode. This is easy to explain.
2.) The online mode. This is... sorta easy to explain after listening to the story mode's game mechanics.
The story revolves around a youth named Leonard (who from the chronology of the game is approximately 19 years old, go figure), and your character the Avatar (who you name, and is not from Pandora). Lemme tell you this right now. Your avatar character is a mute, and you aren't the main character of the story (but let me tell you another thing, your avatar can be customized in a um... whats a really big number but is reasonable... billion perhaps ways. From hair type, hair color, skin color, lip color, body dimensions of all types, voice, sex, you name it, there is customization galore, also different armors, accessories like capes and glasses. There are no helmets though not yet). Leonard is. The story starts with a simple delivery to the next town over, but then when you return home to view the Princess' coronation ceremony, all hell breaks loose when the Magi attack (bad people). Shortly afterwards Leonard gains the power of the White Knight, a giant... um white knight who has the power of the badass and what not. Sadly the fight with the mini boss to get these powers was nothing more than 3 slashes and chug a potion (which is suffice it to say, one of the biggest problems with the main story, it's just so damn easy for the most part, with the exception of a few of the end game bosses as long as you arent entirely overlevelled).
The story takes them around the world in search of the kidnapped princess and who the Magi are and what the knights are about. It's generally your standard JRPG fare, but there are some interesting character interactions and some characters are slightly more developed than others, so it's a mixed bag. Although there are a few surprising twists to the game. One I sorta figured out, one I had no clue was coming.
Graphically the game is somewhere between Final Fantasy XII and Lost Odyssey I would say. Not quite realistic, but not quite outlandish anime influenced either. The character models are nice and the weapons and armor are all modeled and unique. The backdrops and settings while appearing to have details, are generally vague and repetitive settings. This is odd in contrast to a few points in the game's graphical design.
1.) The water effects look REALLY good... I dont know why.
2.) Greede is on top of a giant monster and is the most aesthetically diverse town in game.
3.) Pretty much every character in game, including random NPCs have unique clothing/footwear/accessories. With the exception of castle guard type characters in uniforms, this is true the whole game.
The music is pretty forgettable, although some of the voicework is quite good. Particularly Yulie and Caesar. In fact those two are actually even funny. Eldore is just an old fart, and with the random musings shared by the group around towns and in the field, they comment on the past battles and various sights and attractions which adds some life to the world, but Eldore just says some really random stuff sometimes.
But enough on the story, not great, not terrible, I'd give single player a 7.0.
The mechanics of combat are simply this. You have 8 skill trees to select from. Ranging from sword, longsword, axe, bow, staff, spear, divine (white), elemental (black) magic. You get 4 skill points per level (and 40 more per rebirth, more on that later), so basically you can max about two skill trees your first play through.
Each skill tree is different. Spears make the best tank due to their high vitality and spirit as well as their provoke and defensive buffs. Longsword and Axe users simply dish out pain and sometimes have bonus skills like magic or defense break. There are 3 types of damage dealt, Slash, Strike and Pierce, all of which certain enemies are weak or strong to. Wanna smash up a golem? Have an axe, or an axe user in your party, they are good at striking. Fighting a big bug? Piercing works well. Fighting a dragon? Slash his tail. Elemental attacks work in the same way, earth wind fire water. It's the same deal as most other RPGs. I won't belabor the point anymore.
When you define your skill sets, you then can put up to 21 into your 3 rows of skill slots. Sadly this is one of the biggest flaws, considering if you at the end game have a whole list of melee attacks and a bunch of healing spells/etc you cannot fit them all into your slots. 21 is a pretty big number but unless you're VERY specialized this often runs short about 3 to 4 slots I feel and sometimes you need to switch them on the fly in the middle of combat. Too bad it was more like Final Fantasy XI where you can simply select the skills from the list just like in any old Final Fantasy game, and not have to have a hot bar which is limiting. So be it though...
A couple more things about combat. Depending on your class and moves used, your stats directly dictate how well you do damage. Sword users generally need Agility, some strength and some dexterity. But oddly enough, spear users damage actually thrives on vitality. So it's not just intuitive str = damage.
Second, you can intiate combo attacks based on your action chips you accumulate in battle. This is achieved 3 ways. Attacking and dealing damage, being attacked or using a Charge Drink. Combos develop with your mastery of a class, as well as they are customizable to your tastes/needs. You want to make a super combo that eats up all your 15 AC in one shot? Then go for it, you want to make a slightly more efficient fire based combo to hurt an Ice giant? Make one. There are a LOT of permutations, and if you get sufficient number of an attack element (be it strike, slash or fire, water, etc) you get a combo complete damage bonus. Quite rewarding to hear that SMACK or SLASH sound at the end of a combo for an extra 15% damage or so.
Third, the speed of your attacks are dictated by 3 things. Haste or slow, this should be intuitive to RPG players. Your weapon/armor weight. The more armor you have, the bigger your weapon/and or shield, the slower your action gauge fills up. A lightly clothed thief type with a bow or shortsword will attack almost 2 or 3 times as fast as a heavily armored knight with a shield. Also, regular type attacks take less time between attacks as compared to some mega slash attack or something.
There are Area of Effect attacks that players and enemies can use, so take advantage of knowledge of the distances your spells reach and enemies danger areas.
Another handy effect is you press R1 to block. This prevents some damage and keeps you from getting knocked down (most bosses which are massive Giants or Dragons) will probably knock you down to the ground which prevents you from attacking for about 5 seconds or so. Sort of an artificial difficulty if you ask me, but whats fair in this game is you can knock enemies down and off balance and interrupt their castings and such with a well placed combo or targeting their appendages (yes, there are up to like 8 or 9 different targets on many bosses which have different strengths and weaknesses and accessibility). Also immediately after blocking your action gauge fills up very quickly again, allowing for a subsequent retaliation strike or heal before the next attack comes. A game where the defend option is actually worth pursuing is one that is most welcome in my book.
Basically, this covers most of the combat aspects.
Generally the game is broken down into quests in the online section which range from a 30 minute to an hour and a half time limit. They have various objectives, which include killing bosses, doing fetch missions, protecting NPCs in a difficult fight, etc. It's no different than most other MMOs.
For completing the quests main objective, sub quest goals, killing enemies and getting fast times you earn Guild Points which increases your ranking which opens up more quests which get harder and harder which give you access to better weapons, better drops to make better stuff. So it's like diablo in that regards, except you MAKE your own items in a rather robust weapon and armor creation scheme. Basically, take two kinds of items in X quantity, give them to this toad dude, and bam you got your base item. Bring that item to the blacksmith lady, and if you have the right gems and upgrade parts, you can upgrade the defense and resistance. If you reach a status of +5 you will gain an additional stat bonus which gets VERY sizable after Guild Rank 10. Get to +10 and the bonus gets even larger. So getting a sweet piece of armor takes some grinding, but the whole game is a grind like any other MMO.
The challenges get slightly harder each guild rank, mostly due to the increasing difficulty of getting certain items, and your max level stops at 50 while enemies at Guild Rank 10 or higher can reach up to level 90 in comparison.
Some bosses are pushovers, some are downright challenging even to experienced parties. Try fighting the Wind Dragon in Memorial Servant with a team of level 40s who just got Guild Rank 7. That is how it is supposed to be, and THAT IS TOUGH. Coming back at level 50 and Guild Rank 9 or 10, not so tough. But at the appropriate timing, there is a significant amount of challenges.
Another very nice thing is that Level 5 releases one permanent bonus quest a week and has a list of cycling quests that expand upon the original main quests. They often allow for enemies that are more rare and harder to get the materials you need from them to be more accessible. In this regard, Level 5 is supportive of the communities needs.
Finally, the aspect of Georamas is that you can build your own town with recruited residents from the Single Player game. They include Chefs, Mages, Warriors, Miners, Lumberjacks and Farmers. By building a town, you can have your own base of operations for friends to join, and if you are savvy enough and a high enough Georama rank, you can have enough harvesting spots that allow you to gather various minerals and lumber and cloth products to upgrade and build more gear. Every successful quest gives you the opportunity to harvest in your town (or whoever's town you are in). This is how you get enough materials throughout the game to be able to build end game stuff without a lot of fuss.
Understanding party dynamics, what boss is weak to what, what you have to kill to make item X will come with time. If you are a loot seeker type person who likes the grind and has a good time making friends, this is the game for you, especially since online is free, you can use mics or keyboards and all of the support you could want from free expansion quests.
Besides the single player story being a little weak, and the hot key bars being a little small, other annoyances include Geonet being somewhat unstable from time to time, item drop rates being MUCH lower than they theoretically should be and occasional glitches that disrupt gameplay. Also, the targeting system is a bit sketchy in large crowds, why Geonet doesn't allow for PSN friending and vice versa, the game itself is a solid MMO lite, with many customizable features and has a pretty decent community, provided you bother to actually go out and invite people to your friends list. It's like the real world, make friends, keep in contact and you will be good.
Good :
+ Customization is incredibly deep, from avatar creation to the amount of armor and accessory types that are visibly modeled on screen.
+ Combat is actually interesting and makes sense. Elemental and combat type weakness add variety to the sense of strategy. Targeting results in different outcomes, whether more damage now or knocking the enemy down later.
+ Decent amount of challenge in later quests, and in the time released quests, there is a significant amount of challenge.
+ Pretty good voice acting believe it or not.
+ Some unique points.
+ It's strangely addicting...
+ Sometimes satisfying reward system...
Bad :
- ... sometimes terribly unbalanced and random reward system.
- Not enough of those unique points and twists to make the single player story an epic.
- Targeting sucks sometimes.
- Small Hotkey bar.
- VERY Grind filled. Guild Rank should be Grind Rank.
- It's often times too addicting.