Priston Tale

If there's one genre of gaming I hate, it's MMORPGs. Why? Because I have other things to do than sit on the computer 24/7 and click repeatedly to level up a virtual me to enlarge my virtual p**** in front of other people. Honestly! I would rather break stones with a sledgehammer in a prison chain line than sit there endlessly leveling up a stupid mage.

Priston Tale is a little bit different for me. First off, Priston tale is one hell of a lot funner to play than any other MMORPG. The reason? It feels like an RPG. The game itself is tailored to many many players, of course, but the game also works around you, meaning that while you get that "Expansive" feel you get with games like Everquest, the game is designed where you theoretically could play the whole thing without a touch of human interaction. And I like that, because most of the people playing Priston are either foreign or speak horribly bad english, both of which I do not like in my partymates.

The game gives you the ability to play FREE (Hoo daddy, FREE!) for 39 levels. This is okay, because the way this game's experience table goes, level 39 is somewhere around a few months of gameplay. Unfortunate as that is, it also allows for some great adventuring without worrying about getting your time in to make it worth it (My number one issue when it comes to paying monthly for online games). In fact, this is probably the best MMORPG offer you get: play for free for basically 2 to 3 months and see how you like it. Better than that Everquest deal I tried out where it DIDN'T EVEN WORK and I spent 5 hours trying to figure out why before I realized the e-mail was recent, but the offer wasn't. Fags.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Priston Tale plays quite a bit like the .hack games would play if you put them on a PC. Click where you want to go, click what you want to attack, click, click, click until you die. While this gave me a quick wrist strain even with the auto-attack on, I did think this was rather intuitive, being a lot easier to control than other MMORPGs. The arrow keys move the camera, numbers 1 2 and 3 act as item hotkeys, W switches to two different weapons presets... you get the idea. Essentially, you will most of the time keep your hands on either V (The inventory hotkey), 1,2, and 3, or Shift (The Auto-attack button). Really not that hard.



The battles are very repetitive, which is a factor that drags down ANY online game. Sure, there is a myraid assortment of enemies, but when you spend about an hour in an area, you begin to tire of them quickly. And, of course, clicking and right-clicking to attack or special really is not a very fun way to battle in the long run, so you end up being very bored. In fact, I popped out my iPod at one point and listened to a Japanese Language lesson while playing. Sadly enough, it somewhat resembled being entertaining.

As for equipment and levelling up, it's a blessing and a curse. There is a TON of equipment for the many different classes, meaning you have your variety, but finding that "Mr Right" in terms of equipment is a very painful task. I've found myself changing equipment in battle for testing- that kind of retarded testing gets very frustrating to some, but my insane amount of stat-loving somewhat benifits from it.

The only problem as I've seen (I'm nowhere close to level 60, so I only speak from what I see) is that the higher you get, the harder it is to attain equipment. Even I, a level 14 Knight, have problems getting better equipment than the stuff I had 8 levels ago. Of course this is an MMORPG and designed to make you work a lot, but the slow procedure of levelling up almost demands something entertaining to break up the mindless clicking-to-kill.

The game features a very intuitive mixing/alchemy system somewhat similar to a lot of console RPGs in that you can mix weapons and crystals or mix crystals together to get resuts. Granted it's been done before, but I will say it does break up the monotony in terms of equipment- but still, lower levels like myself have very little money, time, or equipment to be mixing some of the equipment it demands, and I'm always paranoid mixing my powerful sword will make it too high of a level for me to use and I'll end up hitting things with my fists.



The music and graphics in the game are sublime from a console gamer standpoint. They feel very much like the graphics presented in .hack games (Except for that annoying pathway-ness the .hack games are known for), with great textures, but somewhat lacking in the actual 3D department. Of course, like any MMORPG, you're left looking like s*** as a newbie, and part of your whole goal is to not be a high level, but just to look it. Sad, isnt it? The music, of course, is great to listen to, but gets tiring quickly, which is a great use of my volume control on my speakers: It just goes down when I get sick of it, on goes the music with Winamp.

There really isnt much else to say about the game. The playerbase is pretty good, it sure is fun to see a bunch of people in the middle of the square going "SELLING _____". Actually, as a note, you can actually open up your own "Store" as your character, so tons of people in towns will be standing out with messages above their heads like "SELLING HIGH LVL EQUIPMENT" and if you click on them, it's a mini-store. Great concept, because so many times have people been scammed online, I think this is a step toward the better. Also, just for those of you who are wondering about admins, I didn't see a single one- you knew they were there, but they weren't throwing their weight around like on other MMORPGs you play. Great handling, Priston Development!

Now to give it it's closing, I suppose. Priston Tale is a great game deserving of attention from any MMORPG lover. It has all the right things at all the right places, is really quite easy to play, is tailor-made to any player (The game calls itself a "Game for all ages"), and is sometimes funny to read, being as it's still full of Engrish. If you're looking for a 39 level diversion (Or if you have money after these 39 levels), this is definately a game to go download. Go for it!

4 star(s) out of 5

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