Recent reviews by Aetheus

Been following these guys since Browser days, a great small team thats been working on this amazing game for a long time.

Before you head in though, a heads up, it ISNT what it used to be if you've ever played the old bapbap playtests / browsers. It is no longer a BR but more of a arena battler / party mode with fun unique augments ontop of really interesting character abilities already.

The current type of game that bapbap has turned into is great, it is fun, quick, party style, but still has big skill ceiling, its not bogged down by heavy battle royale features like it used to be. (That genre is dying out anyways)

Give this great game a try, and developers their well earned respect.

Bias aside from following them for so long and seeing how they care a lot about the community, this wont be my main game by any means but it is certainly an amazing one to hop in and have some fun here and there.

My current review of SWORD OF CONVALLARIA

PROS

Objective:
- Actually amazing voice acting
- Really well told / good character story(s)
- Fun FF-Tactics Style tile turn based combat (Requires you to use your brain, auto battler does no justice)
Good amount of character variety / class variety / synergies
- Has a mode that is completely seperate and unaffected by the Pay for power aspect / Gacha power creep

Subjective:
- Really nice style of graphics (Personal preference)
- Beautiful attack animations / Very satisfying ability usage

CONS

Objective:
- Gacha style (Whole gacha system is basically 1 to 1 with Genshin Impact)

Subjective:
- Heavy Pay for power / convenience for 90% of the game minus spiral of destiny (I dont say p2w because content isnt strictly gated behind paying)

Personal thoughts

I really highly enjoy it so far, being a fan of FF Tactics, this immediately grabbed my attention, upon diving in, and sifting through all the Gacha elements, lies a very well put together game with beautiful features and story. I found myself starting to actually listen to all the character voice dialogues that is based on the memory and dimensional travel, with the amazing voice acting, it was so easy to get into (I use Chinese voice due to it being a native language so I can just understand it, but I toggled both to see how good it is in comparison, and non of it was a disappointment)

10/10 would recommend if you can get past the Gacha aspects of the game

Gotten literally everything there is to basically get in this game, every explorer ability, all the secrets unlocked, beat every Ancient keeper, beat all the familiars after you reach keeper master lol, 5 / 6 starred all the bosses / hidden bosses after unlocking them at the Sanctuary, and I enjoyed every single second of it.

Amazing game its a mix between
Pokemon
Castlevania Symphony of the night
Final Fantasy

But with so much more depth in terms of builds, synergies, team composition, and item builds to affect said synergies. Exploration was excellent and fun and the explorer abilities added to that was top notch.

DO mark stuff on your map because you WILL be going back to previously explored places (Some places you wont be able to go to until you acquire something new etc)

Don't be discouraged when you can't beat something (It will happen) then use that brain of yours to figure out the best way to overcome that challenge because I promise you, itll be fullfilling when you do.

I will breakdown this review into what I think about the game itself & then AGS via PROs and CONs

THE GAME

PROs

Isometric view that you will get used to if you ever played games like PoE or Diablo before, but with elements of really flashy and addictive combat style, Bunch of different classes and variations to try. You will get hooked on trying out new characters and figure out what you like the most. (This is preferred either way as the game revolves around Alts to make your resources based on Dailies that are not roster wide)

Game has A LOT to do, you will almost never run out of stuff to do even after you've finished your dailies or weeklies, some may not be fun to some people (Collecting mokoko seeds) But majority of which are enjoyable as well as progress through making your character / roster stronger (Adventure tome, skill point potions)

Visually beautiful game all over, skill animations, maps, cutscenes, EVERYTHING.

Progression feels really rewarding, Strengthening your character feels extremely rewarding but hard to get sometimes.
Raids completion feels very rewarding as well when completed.

No Shortage of challenging content when you reach CURRENT end game, as KR evolves so will NA

CONs

It is a Korean MMO, so expect some punishing aspects, Most people complain about Honing Rates and reaching Artisan energy. (HOWEVER, they've obviously never played games like Maple Story where upgrading equipment has chances to completely destroy the equipment)

This game doesnt have as much multiplayer aspects as you might expect asides from Raids / Dungeon Match making and Guild activities (Very minimal) The social aspects for this game is very limited to Area chat and short communications on harder raids

SmileGate & AGS

PROs

None

CONs

There is honestly nothing that great to say about AGS, their support is abysmal, Copy paste responses all day, Though they have a large script to choose from. Their support team lacks knowledge, it seems they outsource their support team. When you bring up specific issues or make a ticket, expert to roll the dice, You might 1/10 chance get someone that actually knows whats up. Most than not though you will get someone who have absolutely no idea how to assist you and come up with excuses.

They seem to be improving on communication to the playerbase though for whats coming out after receiving some negative feedback about their lack of updates. Fingers crossed this keeps going on a upward trend.


SUMMARY / TLDR

Overall, the review is for the GAME itself, so I will recommend Lost Ark, It is an amazing game, Just note that you should expect to spend a lot of time to progress as it IS a korean MMO, but it certainly is rewarding, dont get discourage at failing your hones. Even Johnny Sins The renaissance man himself encourages you to not give up your hones hahaha.

Just know that try your best not to feel self entitled to receive this and that, appreciate and cherish the events and rewards they decide to give us. Don't expect to be god tier without putting in the work.