www.theriansaga.com
Now this was a surprising gem of a browser MMO. Developed by a french studio and currently going through an English open Beta it has startled me.
The game allows you to sign in with facebook, but doesn't appear to use any of the auto-post features that some FB synced games do.
Upon logging in you are tasked with designing a character (limited options) choosing from 6 origin location (defines some initial skills) and from 6 professions (further defines your initial trade and early quests). From what I can tell those choices do not limit you entirely, however following other trades can work out to be fairly expensive certainly for a new player.
Once done you are then sited onto a Tutorial island that gives you a rough idea of how to play the game, i was initially impressed by the unecessary but nice looking feature of a drawn map that turns into a full colour map as it zooms done from above to show the island you are on, this facet isn't just an intro feature, it continues later which you'll notice as you zoom in an out. The visuals of the game is all top-down on a fairly colouful map, your character is presented as a little icon with a face in it, however the inventroy screen show your character "paper-doll" style, so you will see different items change your appearance, but only on this screen.
What makes this game fairly unique amongst browser games is that many of the locations and even NPC hubs are not made visible from the start, some have to found by exploring, some are given through quests and other need to be bought (however the game presents these as quests, so be careful on that one otherwise you end up spending precious in-game money!)
Crafting is a very strong aspect of this game as it is very deep, for instance my first character is a tailor, with that character I can harvest/purchase flax, hemp, cotton etc spin it, then weave it into linen and finally sew it into a finished object, each of those three counts as a separate skill (in fact growing/harvesting flax and other plants is also another skill, but not part of my default skillset), and the final item (in this case a coif) can have multiple designs and stats depending on my skill level and the items I use to make it, meaning that early designs will still have use late game due to having higher level materials. However somethign to be aware of is that the game is all abour recipes, if you don't buy the requisite recipe, you cannot craft anything (this caught me out) so even to spin flax into thread you need to buy the "flax" recipe. Presumably this is a the same across all skill-sets.
Items and equipment bestow buffs to various skills, I have a pair of shoes that increase my skill in "Plains" which means I'll move slightly faster when going across that terrain.
Combat is turn-based....and difficult, the tutorial island gives you a cave to explore with some mis-leadingly easy mobs to fight in it, you'll walk all-over them (even using my non-combat tailor), however the first dungeon you find on the mainland will wipe the floor with you as soon as you enter it, so even if going for a warrior build, make sure you prepare with appropriate armour and weapons.
The game is intended to be played in small bursts, to "fit" around other games you may want to play, I set my character to harvest and then spin some flax (20 of), this would take over 3 hours at my current skill level, the game also has "energy", however it fits in well enough, to recover this enegry you can either use player-crafted potions, or sleep, which can be done anywhere, to recover 100% of energy by sleeping in the wild it takes me about an hour, however even this can be buffed or improved according to what equipment you have or if you sleep at an Inn.
The mainland is huge and through the games exploration mechanic there is clearly lots to find and do, but it will take you a long time to do it.
I cannot recommend this game enough to any RPG fan out there. You may also notice I haven't given a referral link either, the only benefit of the referral system is that I earn in-game shop coins IF people I refer spend RL money on the game, which I don't plan to do and I don't expect anyone else to (one of the devs claimed on a reddit the in-game shop does not support Pay2Win methods). It does not auto-friend invitees :(
I currently have 1 character "Telaia" on the Vodokan (might be Vodekan) server, but I plan to make at least another as it does support multi-alts. A nice feature however of the friend list thoguh is that you can see where your friends are on the map and what they are currently doing, it helps bring life to otherwise static screen (populated with towns, towers and sign-posts and other indicators as they are revealed)
A guild system has recently been implemented on the english servers, not sure how it benefits player right now though, presumably you will be able ot team up with other players to explore those difficult dungeons together or even joint-skill when crafting (which seems possible and is another unique feature to my knowledge)
Now this was a surprising gem of a browser MMO. Developed by a french studio and currently going through an English open Beta it has startled me.
The game allows you to sign in with facebook, but doesn't appear to use any of the auto-post features that some FB synced games do.
Upon logging in you are tasked with designing a character (limited options) choosing from 6 origin location (defines some initial skills) and from 6 professions (further defines your initial trade and early quests). From what I can tell those choices do not limit you entirely, however following other trades can work out to be fairly expensive certainly for a new player.
Once done you are then sited onto a Tutorial island that gives you a rough idea of how to play the game, i was initially impressed by the unecessary but nice looking feature of a drawn map that turns into a full colour map as it zooms done from above to show the island you are on, this facet isn't just an intro feature, it continues later which you'll notice as you zoom in an out. The visuals of the game is all top-down on a fairly colouful map, your character is presented as a little icon with a face in it, however the inventroy screen show your character "paper-doll" style, so you will see different items change your appearance, but only on this screen.
What makes this game fairly unique amongst browser games is that many of the locations and even NPC hubs are not made visible from the start, some have to found by exploring, some are given through quests and other need to be bought (however the game presents these as quests, so be careful on that one otherwise you end up spending precious in-game money!)
Crafting is a very strong aspect of this game as it is very deep, for instance my first character is a tailor, with that character I can harvest/purchase flax, hemp, cotton etc spin it, then weave it into linen and finally sew it into a finished object, each of those three counts as a separate skill (in fact growing/harvesting flax and other plants is also another skill, but not part of my default skillset), and the final item (in this case a coif) can have multiple designs and stats depending on my skill level and the items I use to make it, meaning that early designs will still have use late game due to having higher level materials. However somethign to be aware of is that the game is all abour recipes, if you don't buy the requisite recipe, you cannot craft anything (this caught me out) so even to spin flax into thread you need to buy the "flax" recipe. Presumably this is a the same across all skill-sets.
Items and equipment bestow buffs to various skills, I have a pair of shoes that increase my skill in "Plains" which means I'll move slightly faster when going across that terrain.
Combat is turn-based....and difficult, the tutorial island gives you a cave to explore with some mis-leadingly easy mobs to fight in it, you'll walk all-over them (even using my non-combat tailor), however the first dungeon you find on the mainland will wipe the floor with you as soon as you enter it, so even if going for a warrior build, make sure you prepare with appropriate armour and weapons.
The game is intended to be played in small bursts, to "fit" around other games you may want to play, I set my character to harvest and then spin some flax (20 of), this would take over 3 hours at my current skill level, the game also has "energy", however it fits in well enough, to recover this enegry you can either use player-crafted potions, or sleep, which can be done anywhere, to recover 100% of energy by sleeping in the wild it takes me about an hour, however even this can be buffed or improved according to what equipment you have or if you sleep at an Inn.
The mainland is huge and through the games exploration mechanic there is clearly lots to find and do, but it will take you a long time to do it.
I cannot recommend this game enough to any RPG fan out there. You may also notice I haven't given a referral link either, the only benefit of the referral system is that I earn in-game shop coins IF people I refer spend RL money on the game, which I don't plan to do and I don't expect anyone else to (one of the devs claimed on a reddit the in-game shop does not support Pay2Win methods). It does not auto-friend invitees :(
I currently have 1 character "Telaia" on the Vodokan (might be Vodekan) server, but I plan to make at least another as it does support multi-alts. A nice feature however of the friend list thoguh is that you can see where your friends are on the map and what they are currently doing, it helps bring life to otherwise static screen (populated with towns, towers and sign-posts and other indicators as they are revealed)
A guild system has recently been implemented on the english servers, not sure how it benefits player right now though, presumably you will be able ot team up with other players to explore those difficult dungeons together or even joint-skill when crafting (which seems possible and is another unique feature to my knowledge)