After three days of hardcore testing Dragon Nest Online I have quite a bit to say about the game. Dragon Nest Online maybe a new type of game but it feels like you have been there and done that if you have played games similar to it. My closed beta experience did however, leave me very satisfied compared to my previous other CBT games that I have tested in the previous months. No pictures just videos in this review!
Soloing as a Warrior!
Controls
The controls are as good as they get in my opinion. W A S D to move around, TAB key to switch between battle mode stance, 1-0 for your hotkey bar, left click mouse for primary attack, right click for secondary, and spacebar to jump. Takes like a minute to get used to the controls, then you should be all set. You can tap any of the directional keys twice to dash/teleport to that direction, which can be very useful in large scale battles. When you aren't in battle mode stance your character runs faster so most people usually stow their weapon away if they are running great distances. If you have a lot of mana to spare you can just spam dash to your desired location which is a little bit faster than running with your weapon sheathed.
Party Play Warrior and Archers
Graphics
Eyedentity Games did a really good job with the camera perspective blurring ingame. If you zoom in to close to your character it will have a blurry non focus effect. The same effect is also applied to objects and areas that are very close or far away. On top of that they also added real time weather and days so your dungeon experience won't always be the same old boring day ingame. There are times when it would rain through out rooms and a dungeon. Then there are times when the maps and dungeons are looking very bright and beautiful due to the extreme heat of the in-game Sun causing everything in the area to have a bloom effect. Sometimes the game would look really dull due to bad weather but they are working on this hopefully. For a game in CBT1 phase Dragon Nest Online is looking very promising graphics wise.
Beautiful Town!
Leveling
Leveling is pretty easy in this game in fact you don't even need to understand Korean at all lol! All the quests and story line missions are guided by quest arrows. These arrows tell you exactly where you need to be and who you need to talk. Quests and Missions give a decent amount of exp but if you really want good exp, you should just grind Hard, Master, and Abyss dungeons for fast leveling. Partying in Dragon Nest Online is the most efficient way to level. If you solo grind dungeons, missions, and quests you would be wasting a lot of time. Party play also gives a experience boost so not only you will tackle down those story line missions faster but you will get better exp rates!
Sorcerer Gameplay Part 01
Sorcerer Gameplay Part 02
Gameplay
There are a lot of dungeon modes in Dragon Nest Online these modes consists of Easy, Normal, Hard, Master, and Abyss mode. I think most of the modes are pretty self explanatory except Abyss. Master mode is just "very hard" in disguise. To advance to higher ranks of each dungeon you have to beat the current setting below it. So if you beat Master mode, you unlock Abyss mode. Abyss Mode is just insane if you are looking to use "100" of your continues then this is the best mode to play. Let me tell you now though, you will surely not survive in this dungeon mode without dying at least a couple times. Bosses in game are pretty easy though some may have you surprised when they do one special move and just instant kills you. After you complete each stage you your character is a given a rank from F to being failure to SSS the highest score earned. There aren't any party penalties so even if you pick up a total noob in your party or if you are noobing it up you can't drag your teams score down. Unless you are just pure fail, then your party will surely leave you. Specially if you guys are playing in Abyss dungeons which is pretty serious business in Dragon Nest Online.
Master Mode Dungeon Part 01
Master Mode Dungeon Part 02
System
A hardcore gamers worst enemy would be the FTG system. The FTG makes it so your character can grind a certain amount of dungeons in game. Once your FTG bar hits 0 then you're just screwed, time to just sit in town and chat all day or roll another new character. Every time you enter a dungeon or room you consume about 2-8 FTG's. You have a start out with 100 stamina and 100 continues a day. These may change in the future since having 100 continues is a bit over kill and 100 stamina is not that much. A good way to earn money for the hosting company once the game goes live. Replenish those continues and stamina with cash shop potions if they ever decide to nerf change any of it in the near future.
Boss Fight
Sound
I did not notice anything out of the ordinary while playing Dragon Nest online. All the main characters voices fit very well for each class. All the characters in town have their own opening voice intro when you talk to them. Cut scenes and story line quests are voiced. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary sound quality wise when I played so they shouldn't need to work on this too much.
Archer Gameplay
Characters
There are only four playable characters in-game with very little character customization. You can change your characters main outfit and hair color in CBT1. Each customization options has around five different styles you can pick from. Characters gender are restricted to their classes and will probably stay that way so don't bother asking! The four playable characters are Warrior, Archer, Sorcerer, and Cleric. A total of two males and two females. Unfortunately I did not record any Cleric gameplay videos for I did not have the time.
More Dungeons
Conclusion
I felt that Dragon Nest was more of a mix of previous games I have played like Tartaros Online, Dungeon and Dragons Online, Phantasy Star Universe, and more. If you haven't played any of those two games then the game would probably feel "new" to you but to me it just felt like any other game I have tested. Dragon Nest Online has a lot of potential and looks to be a very promising game when it comes out. For the time being all we can do is wait for CBT2 and or Open Beta. The game looks like it is close to finish but don't take my word for it most likely it will go to CBT2-3. They restricted CBT1 in-game content so I couldn't progress far, even if I wanted too testers were limited with the amount of stamina and testing hours that we were provided with. In the end Dragon Nest Online is a very fun game but I still fail to see some end game in it. Let's hope they have something big in plan for it in the upcoming betas and near future.
See more videos @ my youtube Steparu
Game Score: 8.5
Developer: Eye Dentity Games
Game Publisher: Nexon Korea
Game Site: http://dragonnest.nexon.com/
- Steparu's Best of 2009 MOARPG
- E32010: Nexon Vindictus
- Land of Chaos Online CG
- SteparuTV Weekly Volume 008
- Steparu KR NX Giveaway!
- Dragon Nest HD Trailers
- Steparu's Best of 2009 Round Up
- Dragon Nest Open Beta [JP]
- SteparuTV Weekly Volume 007
- Dragon Nest OBT Review
- Dragon Nest Site Opens
- Dragon Nest Stress Test
- Dragon Nest Open Beta
- Dragon Nest Closed Beta
- Dragon Nest Final Test
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chrrox
said:
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... here is the client download link for anyone who wants it. http://dragonnest.nefficient.c...nNest.exe I like your review of the game. |
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steparu
said:
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... FTG is Stamina system like seen in previous games Atlantica Online / Tartaros Online if your Stamina falls down to 0 you can no longer do dungeons! |
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Oscar
said:
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... Steparu, I would like to ask about signing up and playing Dragon Nest. How exactly can I get to play? |
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Dragonica Wiki
said:
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... Excellent review...beautiful looking game. Any idea on what the system requirements are for this game? |
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criz
said:
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... dude help me sign up man i reallllyyy wanna try it out. im stuck registering where u need the name and korean social seecurity number but i put it it and wont work lol sign me up man i wanna play it so bad |
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Miss
said:
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... If you want to sign up now, it would be pretty much impossible even though you passed the name and KSSN part, so the korean nexon accounts that were made earlier are very lucky to still play all the games they want D: As for the release date, I heard rumors that it would come out like October or Novemberish, but I know it's within this year as far as I know. Well I know for sure I can't play this game on my old computer =/ but I can't wait til this game is out >.< -You have a really nice review btw  This is better than trying to translate the website with google. |
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NiHengHui
said:
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... Hey are the classes gender locked like can guys become archers and mages and females can become warriors and clerics? |
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Fallenx
said:
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... nice review steparu i really like the looks of this game and i wanna try it out =x |
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PsychoBurner
said:
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... Steparu-san, do you think you could get into the next beta and make a cleric vid? I havent been able to find much on the class. ploxxxxx |
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killacody
said:
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... hey i was just wondering, you said how u can only enter a certain amount of dungons a day, does that mean after that you cant train? Also can you only train in dungons or is there outisde maps too with monsters. |
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moscos
said:
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... cool man, good thing that I still have my 5 years old nexon account, I'm only waiting for the grand open beta to be announce, seems i have to prepare again my old ZERA and SP1 accounts... (^_^) oh lucky me... its been a year since I monitores this game on nexon pages... im gonna play this game soon... |
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thanks
said:
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... thanks for the reveiw, very informative, I just wish they would give the release date for the next beta or real game  |
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sasdfsaa
said:
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... ronaldooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo; D   |
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