The truth about SOLO

[TrueWarlord真の武]

There is too much misinformation about Swords of Legends Online being spread all around, so I took some time to elaborate some facts about the game, and also discuss some subjective topics.

CASH SHOP:

This game, based on what we saw so far, only sells cosmetics items / visual items in the cash shop.
There is not a single item in the cash shop that gives any kind of power stat or combat advantages.
There is aso no XP boosts, no item drop chance boosts, there is no boosts at all.
There is not even any kind of inventory slot upgrade in the cash shop (weird to be honest).

So, based on what we've seen so far, it is 100% fair to say that this game is NOT P2W. Also, it has been like this (no P2W) for almost 5 years that the game is live on China.

GRAPHICS:

First things first, there are two very different kind of ways to approach a discussion about graphics.

One is an absolutely subjective approach, and it goes toward the idea of a graphic "style" a game may have. Some people prefer cartoonish graphics for instance, but that says nothing about the actual graphic quality of a game, not in a technical way at least.

What I'm talking about here is more of a technical discussion, it is about textures, shaders and the overall quality of the rendering.

SOLO has very nice graphics compared to any MMORPG current in the market. BDO probably is the only one that actually can be considered "superior", but even BDO has its flaws in his many "flickering" issues, for instance. There is no reason to compare SOLO to anything but MMORPGs, since it is way easier to render single player games.

Here a 2 year old video showcasing some of the game graphics for those curious to see, the video also talks about the game in a general way:
https://youtu.be/H9woSaNKJxs

GEAR AND PROGRESSION:

In Swords of Legends Online the PvP and the PvE gear are separated in a way that the PvE gear is "almost" useless for PvP and the PvP gear is "almost" useless for PvE. It means that, as a PvE player you're not forced into any kind of PvP to get the Best In Slot gear of your class, and vice versa.

It is worth to mention that all gear upgrades in SOLO have a 100% upgrade chance, so as soon as you get the required materials you can proceed with the gear upgrade, no RNG is on place nor any kind of fail stack is required. PvP materials drop in PvP activities. PvE materials drop in PvE activities.

PERFORMANCE / OPTIMIZATION:

SOLO does have performance issues for many players. There is no way to deny the optimization issues and that is probably why the UE4 engine upgrade is such a frequent request.

But, how playable SOLO actually is? For most people, it is absolutely playable with frames dropping for 40ish FPS in heavy populated areas, running absolutely fine in dungeons, raids and PvP (for some players it is REQUIRED to disable "other players effects" to keep frames over 60 , but not everyone has this problem).

It is important to bear in mind that even big hits like WoW and FFXIV struggles when too many players are on the same area. Does anyone here remembers how Asmongold literally shut down his Classic WoW server when he invited around 200 players to attack Orgrimmar? Anyone who participated in MMORPGs launches knows what happens when there are too many people in the same maps.

I will put an extra line on this subject. Swords of Legends Online engine does have some problems with new GPUs, and some people with new hardware have reported FPS issues where people with older hardware had none.

Pv"X"?

In SOLO PvX is referring to all activities and mini games that are not included in the PvP or PvE cycle. We can simply call those as "mini-games". The game literally has a system for "leisure" activities with rewards and even a leaderboard.

There are lots of mini-games available since the very beginning, on the launch day, things like a complex housing system, lifeskills, treasure hunts, a card game, and more.

STORY (Not a single spoiler here, don't worry):

Now that is a very subjective topic and there is no other way to discuss this subject without acknowledging that it is about tastes.

In my experience, at first the story was a bit "weird". I'm really not used to the "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" chinese fantasy style, I found it to be a bit "silly" to be honest. But I must say that around level 20+ everything started to look more "serious" and my interest started to grow.

While the story is not as big as what we have in Final Fantasy XIV for instance, neither has FFXIV depth regards NPCs (and that is to put SOLO against what is considered the best MMORPG story in the current market), I do believe the story in SOLO has its charm, and it was worth the journey for sure.

ENDGAME / DIFFICULTY:

While the leveling in Swords of Legends Online is somehow "easy", the endgame dungeons and raids are quite a challenge.

During the beta phase 1 and 2 we had the opportunity to run Dungeons up to the "Hard" difficulty (the "Extreme" difficulty was locked) and it was on par with what I was expecting. Hard dungeons already requires communication, knowing your class and performing well, some bosses do have DPS checks, the mechanics are cool and a challenge. And it was not even the hardest difficulty, since "Extreme" was locked.

So it is safe to say that the endgame is hard enough to be a challenge, DEVs do know how to make cool mechanics and we can expect even harder content being added in the future.

POPULARITY:

Swords of Legends Online is very popular in China. The game was very well received, and even nowadays SOLO is still somehow popular in douyu (twitch like chinese streaming platform).Digging in some bilibili videos there are some discussions implying that SOLO is the most successful chinese MMORPG, it is clear that it is as popular as Moonlight Blade, for instance.

Want to help to keep people well informed about Swords of Legends Online?

Please, consider avoid replying to threads with missinformation (so the missinformation is not bumped to the top of this forum).

Is something here wrong? Do you feel like something is missing?

Feel free to correct any information you believe to be wrong, if you prove your point I will edit the post to reflect the reality.

[Shiroyasha94]

thanks for this review man,i allmost exited of this game and still waiting to play it,looking much videos on berserker and other classes,and if i see right in the endgame thers literally no way to jsut put your head on the keyboard rolling to do good dmg or winning in pvp,requires good skill rotations and knowledge about his class.allmost im tired of this p2w f2p games,i was usnure cause gameforge,but after i read a bit over the developer in china they allready say they never want p2w in there game,gameforge cant do such stuff cause there got fired faster as they can look if gf will bring p2w.i like the style,costumes and weapon skins looking great.

[FoxAnima]

Originally posted by Shiroyasha94:

thanks for this review man,i allmost exited of this game and still waiting to play it,looking much videos on berserker and other classes,and if i see right in the endgame thers literally no way to jsut put your head on the keyboard rolling to do good dmg or winning in pvp,requires good skill rotations and knowledge about his class.allmost im tired of this p2w f2p games,i was usnure cause gameforge,but after i read a bit over the developer in china they allready say they never want p2w in there game,gameforge cant do such stuff cause there got fired faster as they can look if gf will bring p2w.i like the style,costumes and weapon skins looking great.

Yeah in 3v3 pvp as healer i have to understand how other classes work, how to recognise burst opening , when to time a dmg reduction buff etc.
Its very enjoyable :) Definitely not a face rolling :p
Also as you said ,CN will not allow p2w. And gameforge cant add anything to the game even if they would want to. The stuff that is added to game is being send through CN devs

Thx OP for spending time on pointing it all. Its hard to fight the forum trolls whole time lol.
This post will help

[GBTN_Zindorah89]

Sounds good, but we are currently forced to do PvP no?

It seems developers forgot to remove 70+ Gear from PvP while PvE only allows to get 60 Gear. So right now it seems super busted and you only have to play PvP to get your Max. Gear?

[Kagy]

Originally posted by GBTN_Zindorah89:

Sounds good, but we are currently forced to do PvP no?

It seems developers forgot to remove 70+ Gear from PvP while PvE only allows to get 60 Gear. So right now it seems super busted and you only have to play PvP to get your Max. Gear?

PvP and PvE gear are completely separate. PvP gear in PvE is useless and vice versa.

There is a PK mechanic in open world. However, it's very punishing for the person who PKs so it's not worth doing in most cases. I wouldn't worry about that at all.

[Lydhe]

You forgot to mention that the gears can be improved and that there is no RNG or "fail stack" like on BDO which is rather reassuring.

[FoxAnima]

PvP gear in pve is worthless

[𝒥𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒶 ⚧🌈]

good summary! i send u a few awards

this thread should get stickied!

You could mention the thousands of fun activitys and endgame content solo has to offer. WoW and Most MMORPGS can go home when it comes to endgame content and possibilities. Only Final Fantasy can be on a same level cause of its Casino / Minigame world.

° Housing (have an own island)

° Treasure hunt (riddles/searching)

° Lifeskill(fishing/fungames/bomberman/snake) - Card game

° Underworld/Bounthunt

° Roleplay/Costume collection/Archivement collection

[Gummiel]

Well honeslty a big reason for a lot of the misinformation is honestly becasue they capped the demo before anything interesting happened, not even far enough in to even se a single thread of actual group based combat or anything, and pretty much all mobs were 2-3 hit kills. And when you put then the incomplete english voices on top of that way too short capping of the demo, that demo end up for many to give an impression of a sloppily made game

[TDCD]

Chinese OB started late 2017.
Moonlight Blade and Justice online have a bit better graphics.
A lot of people in China play on older rigs and have issues also.

[Ectelion]

If everything is cosmetic why there are differents gems in the cash shop?

[ThisIsChad]

Originally posted by WittmannTiger205:

If everything is cosmetic why there are differents gems in the cash shop?

the other currencies also give cosmetics, but the other currencies are earned in game.

[Fortie]

Originally posted by WittmannTiger205:

If everything is cosmetic why there are differents gems in the cash shop?

The first one are buyable points (for real money)
The second one are points what you get for purchase for your "buyable" gems (For example, if you spend 4000 Crimson coins - buyable one, you will get 4000 - the second one)
The third one are ingame points - you will get them for daily check and few daily/weekly quests

[TrueWarlord真の武]

Originally posted by Lydhe:

You forgot to mention that the gears can be improved and that there is no RNG or "fail stack" like on BDO which is rather reassuring.

Ty for the suggestion. I put some info regards gear and progression.

Originally posted by WaifuJanna:

good summary! i send u a few awards :cocochan:

this thread should get stickied!

You could mention the thousands of fun activitys and endgame content solo has to offer. WoW and Most MMORPGS can go home when it comes to endgame content and possibilities. Only Final Fantasy can be on a same level cause of its Casino / Minigame world.

° Housing (have an own island)

° Treasure hunt (riddles/searching)

° Lifeskill(fishing/fungames/bomberman/snake) - Card game

° Underworld/Bounthunt

° Roleplay/Costume collection/Archivement collection

Hey thank you very much!

I can't go in depth regards this topic since the thread is already too big, but I added a "PvX" section mentioning these things exist.

Originally posted by Guest02:

Chinese OB started late 2017.
Moonlight Blade and Justice online have a bit better graphics.
A lot of people in China play on older rigs and have issues also.

1 - You mean I should have said that the game is almost 5 years old and not 3?
2 - Sounds like a very subjective opinion. Do you have any technical data to support your claim?
3 - How many is "a lot"? Anyway, I was very neutral and sincere regards SOLO optimization issues, and yes, there are people with "problems", but the absolute majority of players consider the game absolutely playable, and that is why it is one of the most successful chinese MMORPG to date.

No "unplayable game" would be as successful as SOLO is, especially as a "subscription" game (pay per game time) as it is on China...

[TDCD]

1 yes
2 played them all, MB for 9 months, while characters have same quality, world have better textures in MB and Justice, it was like that even before they got RTX upgrade
3 not many people were in more crowded areas at same time using skills, lets wait till GvG update come

[TrueWarlord真の武]

Originally posted by Guest02:

1 yes
2 played them all, MB for 9 months, while characters have same quality, world have better textures in MB and Justice, it was like that even before they got RTX upgrade
3 not many people were in more crowded areas at same time using skills, lets wait till GvG update come

1 is fixed, thanks for the heads up. 3 is an assumption, we shall see.

About your second point, I believe you're wrong. There is not a perceive difference in terms of texture, pixels and rendering at max settings. To be fair taking some weather effects out, it looks like SOLO has a better LOD at max settings while rendering distant terrain.

But if you want to insist that Moonlight Blade has clearly better graphics to the point that it would be something to put in a downside for SOLO when talking about pros and cons, I ask that you provide some video footage proving your point.

I must add that saying that SOLO has a very good graphic is not some crazy personal perception of mine. Nearly all big content creators making reviews perceive the game as such.