I played this game since the release of grand archer and wind sneeker.
Where to start, the game can claim it's different than most game that are around today, which is true, not many do the gameplay that elsword does.
Now where this game falls apart on you........some may tell you that leveling up is easy in this game, that's not true, it's only easy if you are below level 30 or so, after that you will have to repeat the same dungeons over and over and over and over and over until you run out of stamina, and which you find yourself having to not even level up ONCE and then you will have to repeat the process again the next day.
EXP boosting does exist, but there is a catch, you either grind for a few days to get certain items to get exp boosting items, which will take a while, or you can just buy it with real money, which for the people with no means of getting real money or using them for an online game, that is really unfair. Why you would need to boost exp to level up only once and which still takes a long time to do is beyond me.
You won't fully enjoy the game unless you're within the level range of 50-70, which again, why would I need to be that high of a level to enjoy a game to its fullest. I'm not just talking about certain things being blocked off to you if you do not reach level requirement by the way.
Even so though, I'm not sure your attention span will even want to go that high of a level if you're not into grind fest, which this game is a HUGE grind fest. Example, early in the game, it will only take you around 2-4 hours to get from level 1 to level 15 easily, at first you're like, "This isn't too hard if the game is like this all the time." which you would be right......if the game worked like that in the first place...but when comes the time of around let's say....level 36, it will take you a day to jump to level 37.
Now, let's talk about classes, the system is a complete mess, I won't lie to you. After you fight a couple of matches with people in your skill range ( as in how well they fight etc etc) you wll notice that some characters are WAY better in pvp than others. What do I mean by that, well....if you took an average skilled elsword and throw them against an average skilled add, more than likely without fail, the add is going to win. Why? well because all skills activate instantaneously, elsword is melee based even if he took the magic path, his range does not exceed that of an add's, the add player will only have to keep his distance and hit the elsword at least once to get even closer to him and then throw in some long comboes which will probably do a significant amount of damage, rinse and repeat. The same can be said about the mage, all she would have to do to beat a swsordsman, is run away with her teleport skill which has a low cooldown of about like 5-10 seconds, cast a spell (which is also instantaneous) run away, stand still to recover MP at which they recover MP way faster than any swordsman will recover, rinse and repeat.
This doesn't only apply to PvP, those same characters that are generally better in pvp, are sometimes generally better in dungeons. WHY?! This baffles me on why this game only focuses on making the strong characters stronger, and the weaker ones even weaker, I just don't get it.
Instead of making the main character, Elsword, which this game is named after him, stand a chance against these over-powered characters, they make an entirely different character, his older sister, the swordsman that can stand a chance against them. Any new character this game will add, you'd win any bet that that the new character will be even more over-powered than the last character. This game's balance of equal powers, doesn't exist, it's been throw out and left somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
What's even worse for any elsword player is not what lies with the character himself, it's the community. Elsword has a skill which can make him unflinchable for only a few seconds so he can get past all these spells or long range attacks that are being thrown at him so he can stand a chance against them. Sounds cool right? Well, too bad, according to the community that skill makes you a noob and you will not be liked by anyone if you use it, and therefore discouraged to use it to give any elsword player an advantage over the newer characters and classes.
I only list the character, elsword's, problems because he has it the worst, the second swordsman, Raven, may also have problems with these new classes and characters but not as bad as any elsword player.
--------------------------This isn't the end of this game's problems, there is more..........-------------------------------------
The community of people here isn't very pleasant.......
You either have ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who usually are the competitive type who aren't nice to you if you use a tactic that they don't like, or the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who are just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ because of no reason, people who are generally good people, or people who goes both ways. Some people you find you may say they are ok people, being ok people does not mean they are generally good people, just for the record. I will not hate on the beggars which I will talk about why later.
Lag isn't something to write about because any MMO that has the same feel of fast pace fighting will face this problem. The lag will depend on how powerful your computer is and also your internet connection, so at that point it's not the game's fault so don't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ me.
Another major point to bring out is that this game is WAY, WAY too benefitting on the Pay-To-Win area. You don't gain a small advantage if you buy a costume and enhance it, you will gain a HUGE advantage. Well what do I mean by that? Well....if you fight a person, and you both do not have a costume before, you both are in the same skill area, same characters and exact same class, and you fight and it's a close match and you win. Well, the same person comes back the next day, has a costume and has enhanced it with speed or power and challenges you again, more than likely, you're going to lose more almost all of the matches against that person, and more than likely it will not even be a close match, because of your lack of a costume.
The only only way to obtain a costume is if you pay real money to get one, or by people selling costumes, which is ANOTHER major issue to this game.....
You see, the reason why I don't mind beggars is because I know there is a good reason for it....the economy is a complete and utter trainwreck, there is just no going around it. Hyper inflation has hit this game real hard and continues to do so. Want one of the current costumes that is only obtain through ice burners and generally looks cool? well you're going to have to pay 600 million ED (in game currency) for a single piece of that costume......WHY?!?! ED isn't easy to get either for people who don't use real money for this game, you eitehr have to do weeks worth of grinding for around a 200 mil, and then hear that the item you wanted has inflated to an even higher price, so you're screwed. Simple cosmetic items are far more EXPENSIVE than the actual gear that matters.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The only reason why I would reccomend you to play this game as it is right now, is if:
A) You have friends you can play with and you know you're not going to hate eventually
B) You only live for the grinding in games
C) Have money to waste onto this game
D) Dont mind the fact some other characters are generally better than the one you are going to pick
E) Will never touch the ranking PvP mode
F) Have patience with a game
G) Don't get angry at games
These are the only reasons why I would recommend this to you.
Oh, and it's not, " Only one of these apply to me, I think I'm going to like this." no you need to have the qualities of at least 3 of those options to enjoy this.

I played this game since the release of grand archer and wind sneeker. Where to start, the game can claim it's different than most game that are around today, which is true, not many do the gameplay that elsword does. Now where this game falls apart on you........some may tell you that leveling up is easy in this game, that's not true, it's only easy if you are below level 30 or so, after that you will have to repeat the same dungeons over and over and over and over and over until you run out of stamina, and which you find yourself having to not even level up ONCE and then you will have to repeat the process again the next day. EXP boosting does exist, but there is a catch, you either grind for a few days to get certain items to get exp boosting items, which will take a while, or you can just buy it with real money, which for the people with no means of getting real money or using them for an online game, that is really unfair. Why you would need to boost exp to level up only once and which still takes a long time to do is beyond me. You won't fully enjoy the game unless you're within the level range of 50-70, which again, why would I need to be that high of a level to enjoy a game to its fullest. I'm not just talking about certain things being blocked off to you if you do not reach level requirement by the way. Even so though, I'm not sure your attention span will even want to go that high of a level if you're not into grind fest, which this game is a HUGE grind fest. Example, early in the game, it will only take you around 2-4 hours to get from level 1 to level 15 easily, at first you're like, "This isn't too hard if the game is like this all the time." which you would be right......if the game worked like that in the first place...but when comes the time of around let's say....level 36, it will take you a day to jump to level 37. Now, let's talk about classes, the system is a complete mess, I won't lie to you. After you fight a couple of matches with people in your skill range ( as in how well they fight etc etc) you wll notice that some characters are WAY better in pvp than others. What do I mean by that, well....if you took an average skilled elsword and throw them against an average skilled add, more than likely without fail, the add is going to win. Why? well because all skills activate instantaneously, elsword is melee based even if he took the magic path, his range does not exceed that of an add's, the add player will only have to keep his distance and hit the elsword at least once to get even closer to him and then throw in some long comboes which will probably do a significant amount of damage, rinse and repeat. The same can be said about the mage, all she would have to do to beat a swsordsman, is run away with her teleport skill which has a low cooldown of about like 5-10 seconds, cast a spell (which is also instantaneous) run away, stand still to recover MP at which they recover MP way faster than any swordsman will recover, rinse and repeat. This doesn't only apply to PvP, those same characters that are generally better in pvp, are sometimes generally better in dungeons. WHY?! This baffles me on why this game only focuses on making the strong characters stronger, and the weaker ones even weaker, I just don't get it. Instead of making the main character, Elsword, which this game is named after him, stand a chance against these over-powered characters, they make an entirely different character, his older sister, the swordsman that can stand a chance against them. Any new character this game will add, you'd win any bet that that the new character will be even more over-powered than the last character. This game's balance of equal powers, doesn't exist, it's been throw out and left somewhere in the middle of nowhere. What's even worse for any elsword player is not what lies with the character himself, it's the community. Elsword has a skill which can make him unflinchable for only a few seconds so he can get past all these spells or long range attacks that are being thrown at him so he can stand a chance against them. Sounds cool right? Well, too bad, according to the community that skill makes you a noob and you will not be liked by anyone if you use it, and therefore discouraged to use it to give any elsword player an advantage over the newer characters and classes. I only list the character, elsword's, problems because he has it the worst, the second swordsman, Raven, may also have problems with these new classes and characters but not as bad as any elsword player. --------------------------This isn't the end of this game's problems, there is more..........------------------------------------- The community of people here isn't very pleasant....... You either have assholes who usually are the competitive type who aren't nice to you if you use a tactic that they don't like, or the assholes who are just assholes because of no reason, people who are generally good people, or people who goes both ways. Some people you find you may say they are ok people, being ok people does not mean they are generally good people, just for the record. I will not hate on the beggars which I will talk about why later. Lag isn't something to write about because any MMO that has the same feel of fast pace fighting will face this problem. The lag will depend on how powerful your computer is and also your internet connection, so at that point it's not the game's fault so don't bullshit me. Another major point to bring out is that this game is WAY, WAY too benefitting on the Pay-To-Win area. You don't gain a small advantage if you buy a costume and enhance it, you will gain a HUGE advantage. Well what do I mean by that? Well....if you fight a person, and you both do not have a costume before, you both are in the same skill area, same characters and exact same class, and you fight and it's a close match and you win. Well, the same person comes back the next day, has a costume and has enhanced it with speed or power and challenges you again, more than likely, you're going to lose more almost all of the matches against that person, and more than likely it will not even be a close match, because of your lack of a costume. The only only way to obtain a costume is if you pay real money to get one, or by people selling costumes, which is ANOTHER major issue to this game..... You see, the reason why I don't mind beggars is because I know there is a good reason for it....the economy is a complete and utter trainwreck, there is just no going around it. Hyper inflation has hit this game real hard and continues to do so. Want one of the current costumes that is only obtain through ice burners and generally looks cool? well you're going to have to pay 600 million ED (in game currency) for a single piece of that costume......WHY?!?! ED isn't easy to get either for people who don't use real money for this game, you eitehr have to do weeks worth of grinding for around a 200 mil, and then hear that the item you wanted has inflated to an even higher price, so you're screwed. Simple cosmetic items are far more EXPENSIVE than the actual gear that matters. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The only reason why I would reccomend you to play this game as it is right now, is if: A) You have friends you can play with and you know you're not going to hate eventually B) You only live for the grinding in games C) Have money to waste onto this game D) Dont mind the fact some other characters are generally better than the one you are going to pick E) Will never touch the ranking PvP mode F) Have patience with a game G) Don't get angry at games These are the only reasons why I would recommend this to you. Oh, and it's not, " Only one of these apply to me, I think I'm going to like this." no you need to have the qualities of at least 3 of those options to enjoy this.