By the gaming gods! Is it true? Have five days already passed since I last posted? Apparently, yes. Whew! Time flies so fast when you’re having fun. Unfortunately, my five-day hiatus had not been even remotely fun.

Yes, you guessed it. The flu—at least I think it’s the flu—hit me right after New Year’s Eve, right in the middle of writing a Top Ten Asian MMORPGs of 2008 post. Don’t worry, I’ll finish the story … soon.

Right now, I’m just starting to recover. Of course, as a fanatic of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, there’s only one way for me to get back to tip-top shape—that’s by playing my favorite games.

At the moment, I’m playing two MMORPGs more than I’m supposed to (meaning game time is eating up some of my spending-quality-time-with-the-family time and my need-to-post-something-on-MMOtaku time). These two MMORPGs are Perfect World (yeah, it’s still great despite the rise and fall of great Philippine Tiger server clans Guardians and Legacy) and Granado Espada.

What? You mean to say, Joel, that you’ve taken a liking to Granado Espada? Yes … and no. I’m giving the game a chance to redeem itself in my eyes (notice that I said “my eyes,” meaning “in my humble opinion,” etc.). Perhaps PJ Punla of Granado Espada: Dispatches from the New World fame is right. Yes, playing on a new server and reaching new heights with the family and characters I’ve made are great.

My Granado Espada highlights, at least for the moment, include defeating Grace Bernelli in a match (although I did lose about nine times before I figured out how to beat her), taking her character card and creating her in my family barracks, and beating the crap out of Claude Baudez and Andre Janzur. Yes, Granado Espada veterans, I’m a noob when it comes to these events, but I’m happy to be experiencing what you’ve experienced in the past year.

As for Perfect World, I’ve encountered virtual life-changing events, too. First, my character Calumet’s current clan, Intensity, managed to take over Biting-Cold Land from Heroes clan in a great territorial battle. A week later, we also successfully blocked the bid of new clan Hyperion for the right to attack our territory. Why block the attack? Well, it’s like this: Hyperion is composed mostly of characters Level 90 to 101, while Intensity is made up of characters with levels between 75 and 99, with more than 50 percent of the members falling within the 75 to 88 bracket. See the discrepancy? So here’s a word of advice to Hyperion from me: Go find some other clan to screw if you value your integrity. Bullies!

Well, that’s it for now. It’s time to get the juices flowing again.

Screenshot taken by Joel from the online game Perfect World, developed by Beijing-based Perfect World Co. Ltd. and operated in the Philippines by Level Up! Games.

Post from: MMOtaku

Truth is, Yuyan Online won’t be released in Taiwan anytime soon. Here’s the lowdown from China-based online games portal 17173:

Chinese game developer Storm Entertainment has announced a cooperation agreement with International Games System, a developer of arcade hardware and software, and operator of online games. Under the agreement, Storm will license its first MMORPG, Yuyan Online, to IGS for operation in Taiwan. The game is set to launch in Taiwan in April 2009.

Wait a minute! What’s Yuyan Online anyway?

Yuyan Online, a 2.5D MMORPG that Storm Entertainment developed in-house, is an adventure and fantasy game with traditional Chinese settings. The background music of Yuyan was made by famous game music studio XiaoXu.

Let me just shut up and ask you to watch this teaser video of the game:

I don’t know about you, but to me the game looks like a Diablo II clone.

Post from: MMOtaku

I assume you’ve taken a brief glance at the screenshot above before reading the first word of this paragraph. If you haven’t, you might want to do so now before proceeding any further.

Funny, eh? Well, if it’s not funny, then you probably think it’s ridiculous. Rest assured that not all Perfect World NPCs (or non-player characters, for the benefit of those who don’t know the lingo) “talk” like that. This way of “speaking” is the domain of the Foreigner NPC … yes, the one found on a boat off the coast of Langour Village.

Here’s the rest of his dialogue:

After much thought, I wish the guys up at Level Up! Games, the Philippine operator of the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game from China, put more effort in translating the text. I mean, they could have done a better job at making the Foreigner, well, sound more foreign instead of just replacing his I’s with E’s.

Ah, well, I guess this Perfect World is destined to stay imperfect.

Post from: MMOtaku

Treasure boxes spawn randomly in all fields in the world of Rohan: Blood Feud. These treasure boxes come in different types of metal, the more common of which are copper, iron, silver, and gold.

Unfortunately, the keys to open these treasure boxes are rare drops of monsters that inhabit every field. And rare they truly are. In my weeks of playing Rohan: Blood Feud, I’ve only managed to loot a total of three keys, all copper, since my Human Knight is still considered a lowbie and is only able to level in fields near towns.

But that’s not the point of why I say Rohan: Blood Feud treasure boxes are worse than the Gump’s box of chocolates. It’s more because treasure boxes are supposed to contain, well, treasure. All I’ve found with my three copper keys are pots, pots, and more pots! They’re considered treasure? The hell.

According to an online Rohan: Blood Feud resource I’ve scoured, treasure boxes are supposed to either give items, spawn monsters, or hurt your bumbling character with a trap. I’ve never encountered box-spawned monsters or the traps, but I’m sure they’re better than getting one bottle of potion.

Check out my screenshots:

No instant gratification here.

Screenshots taken by Joel from the online game Rohan: Blood Feud, developed by Korea-based YNK and published in North America by YNK Interactive.

Post from: MMOtaku