The dances were the only good thing in the entire game. I used to be like Josh i had a bad opinion of dancing and all that. But then i discovered Babymetal and they showed me that it can be awesome :) It's just usually that the music sucks. Dancing is fun if it's to METAL. Tell me this isn't awesome. ua-cam.com/video/Ro-_cbfdrYE/v-deo.html&ab_channel=BABYMETAL
@@Dragon-Believer If you don't know why he considers it a bad thing in an MMO that literally has nothing else going for it, then i dont know what to tell you.
Played it for a trial week a couple years ago and the dances are the only thing memorable/good about it. The biggest memorable/bad was the invisible walls everywhere. Don’t put me on rails. Agreed on it being pretty bad. There is some fun to be had finding good astelle combinations for different situations, but it doesn’t make it a good mmo at all.
As a game dev i honestely dont understand how people do that Some invisible walls are ok to stop exploits and skipping But to put walls everywhere? Just make some fence or something like that to stop the player
If you want to make a game that seems open but actually confines players to a strict linear path, just look at HL2. Sure, not all the level design elements will work for every game, but it’s a masterclass in how to make a linear game look open
The only excuse I can see is that they don’t have the power to load much more, so they put invisible walls to stop people from going and seeing how little detail is out there
i lost it at the whole "good boob window" and "evil boob window" were having their square off I lost it with gaia in attack position to attack their lifepoints directly, it was so accurate and painful
Very late response, but it's funnier when you consider that modern Gaia is partly about doing huge pierce damage via the Spiral Spear Strike spell card. So breaking the shield to attack her life points is game-accurate
"Good Boob-window" and "Evil Boob-window". Thank you for adding that to my vocabulary. There are several character I will now exclusively be referring to as such.
I feel sorry for the art teams in these generic cash shop mmos. Sometimes they seem way overly qualified for what the game actually is. That whole golem set piece battle was actually cool, and the cutscenes are surprisingly well animated too. So much wasted talent in a game no one will play.
Korean's are well known for their animation skills. A lot of cartoons were sent to Korea to be animated. They definitely have the skills, too bad they are being used to push "questionable" content.
Same, honestly. A lot of small games have really interesting worlds that I'd love to stop and explore in details, but either the game is miserable at making you want to stop and watch, or it does have neat stuff but you have nobody to chat about it with, or it's style over substance, so you can sit down and admire all the little details, but there's no real meaning behind them.
Yeah... I once worked in a IT firm and one of the on the side projects was managing some internet slots. The girl I knew was a great designer and her job was to draw the goddamn animations for that slot machine. I saw her albums, she drew great fantasy creatures, realistic portraits just great art. But that was the job she got, she was not happy with it :(
Dumb, this isn't remotely close to some of the other offenders out there. Some of you kids are only capable of repeating the shit your favorite UA-camrs say and that's it lol
"And then 'Evil boob Lady' summons Gaia the Fierce Knight in attack position" Ok, but seriously, this review's writing is top-notch, my dude. If only the devs took a leaf from your book, lol
reminds me of a scene in the Anime version of "yu-gi-oh GX" where Dark Magician girl summoned Dark Magician Girl... ua-cam.com/video/XyWrSSQ64qI/v-deo.html
@@ericb3157 Aw yes. The monster card spirit concept. Something that after GX was (To my knowledge) Only ever touched upon again in 5Ds. GX even had Jaden duel the card spirit of Jinzo at one point (Who was trying to become real by taking souls. Yeah. That was a real thing that happened)
"So now good boob window, casts a magical barrier arround herself because this fight is actually though for her, then evil boob window summons gaya the fierce knight in attack position and breaks the shield, to attack good boob window's HP directly" -Josh 2021 ABSOLUTELY BRILLANT, PERFECT I'M DYING OF LAUGHTER
@@GatorRay And several of Gaia's cards have the pierce effect. He might have even been one of the first cards with the effect. Also, OP - It's spelled Gaia, the Fierce Knight... Not gaya.
After binging Josh's content. He has now replaced my inner voice when playing my favourite MMOs. I am in josh hell and everything around me is mmo hell.
@@wolfrainexxx I watched a "lustful" otter swing his giant throbbing Bunobuno at creepy lolicon-mannequin-hookers from hell. Only Shota can save my soul now.
If you see a dance in a game 9 times out of 10 its mocap with is most likey what they used here Its still not easy but its a whole lot better then animating yourself
@@valletas That looks too clean for mo-cap to me. You'd probably spend as much time cleaning up the mo-cap data as you would animating it from scratch.
@@ComedicRick It probably is mo cap. It's a cross promotion with whatever K-pop girl band the hashtags, dance, and music is from. And I imagine the developers don't wanna spend too much time creating it when they can just bring in one of the girl dancers do mo cap it in a fay.
@@NoName-ji9mb As someone working in the industry, Mo Cap takes a ton of clean up work by skilled animators to look good. Especially to apply the data to a non-human body like the Anime girls in the game. It could be mocap, but I think it's probably hand animated.
@@ComedicRick Yeah, I'd agree with you considering how "stiff" the dance moves are. It also wouldn't take that much effort to hand animate it. People glamourise Mo-cap more than they should.
3 роки тому+2491
I'm surprised you didn't mention the fact that the running animation and cutscenes are designed to give you a slight upskirt look 😂
*Somewhere, someplace in a police station* Police officer #1: *Watching this video “He is on the list?” Police officer #2: “Nah…he’s on the list list” *jerks thumb at a giant clipboard with Josh’s face on it*
What’s awful is that I recognized about three of those voice actors and they are very respectable professionals who’ve done great work on some of my favourite video games in the past. It really goes to show how bad material and bad direction can’t be saved even by solid actors. I feel bad for these guys, honestly.
Oh, that's really interesting, do you mind sharing who they were and what they were in? Sorry to be a pest but I'm really curious if I've heard of them!
I mean, I've seen really really good RPG Maker games. Done by single people. And that truly is not something where the graphics can blend over the gameplay. Sometimes less is more and focusing on quality where it matters can turn things around. And there are many games that might look meh but actually are really good once you look past the visuals.
Honestly, that initial opening cinematic was great, I loved it. But that voiceover absolutely ruined any feeling it could've had. Still, great video. Whoever they hired to do the animations and cutscenes and stuff, deserves to work for a better company and on better games.
@@OverseerXIII It certainly counts as a trauma, but probably not as the same kind of ongoing abuse that'd lead to developing such a degree of apologetic personality.
@@ashrasmun1 Kinda concerning that that is what you immediatly jump to but considering this is the internet and what's been going on recently I can't say I don't understand why you would jump to that
It's weird how common that is in Anime though. Just popes everywhere. Usually as the bad guy but sometimes not. In Shield Hero the pope was practically the final boss. Not going to lie, it was epic, but still, the pope!
Minor thing, but I very much think the idea of pve having companions to help is a decent way to balance tank, healer, and melee vs ranged dps in solo pve. However a game does need to account for that ability in monster design.
During the section where the Boss "Lustful Bunobuno" is mentioned, you mention that you hope they don't know what the word lustful means....was I the only one who noticed his weapon and thought "ummm...i think they have a pretty good idea what it means"...I'm not pleased with myself for realizing that. lol
@@zero_196 Everytime I listen to these videos on my second monitor, and that part comes up, I can't help but glance over...and then silently hate myself again.
Truly is unfortunate that alot of the work that artists put into eastern mmo's gets overshadowed by the way the developers / publishers deals with the technical end and business model.
I always feel bad when games have some parts that are wonderful but are overshadowed by bad design choices. For me a big one was the Knights of the Old Republic MMO. I so wanted to get through the wonderful stories but the mindless, disconnected quests, boring grind and oversized world design drove me away.
@@brushdogart Has a lot of fun with SWTOR originally. Some of the planet questioned were good, and the imperial agent storyline is the best questline in any MMO I've seen to date.
The fact that you can't jump from a ledge isn't because of invisible walls. They probably used a navigation mesh that basically layout areas that are walkable but remove areas that are too steep. This technique is used for RTS games or point and click movement in general(like MOBAs and ARPG) but its also used for - guess what - autopath, because it stores a ledge of every coordinate that is walkable and can be used for the AI find out a path to the destination. So basically they created the game with the intention of having autopath, and the player is also limited to the navigation mesh because of it but you can code so that the player has a action combat movement inside a nav mesh.
@@AParticularlyConcernedCitizen No, I think what he meant was that each mesh is somewhat unique and provides coordinates that basically become a ‘cheat-code’ for programming the AutoPathing-AI. Did I get that right? That’s what I took from his elaboration (‘a ledge of every coordinate’, and ‘built the game for autopath’)-cos if that’s how it is, the invisible walls suddenly become way way WAY more egregious! IE saves them having to even put effort into the vilest function of these games. It’s kinda funny & ironic to wanna cut corners on a feature that stops the player from ever cutting any in game corners, heuheuheu.
I THOUGHT that sounded like him! I'm not seeing this game listed on any of his acting credits, but then again this doesn't seem like the kind of game you'd highlight on your resume lol
The doll character has some pretty decent animations, like her head moving like a mechanical clock in dialogue events. Judging from the broken AI and the generic animations of NPCs, all the budget went to the doll.
The voice: "A kidnapping in a peaceful village like this? It has to be the work of someone OUTSIDE the village!" The text: "Some vile person is kidnapping children, then selling them to the demons. Unforgivable!"
Voice is from the herbalist villager, text is from the doll girl, You can even see a big picture of her next to the text box how 300 people didn't see that xD
you know I have lost count of the times I have played as a support healer/mage in games and wished I had some kind of companion to take the hits for me while I dealt damage or kept them alive while they killed the enemy. overall the idea in astellia wasn't bad itself just not done very well.
Shame it was turned into gacha, too. But honestly, WoW did it pretty well, by allowing healing/support classes to move to a more damage-oriented build. Compared to that, I remember trying to do any kind of solo content as a priestess in Tera Online and it was miserable, especially since that game had point-blank charges where the boss/monster could just run into you and damage you, stunlocking you.
Reminds me how in ffxiv a quest requires to to carry bodies, and the flavor text tells you this is NOT the time to question the logic of stuffing a whole body in your backpack
Can you imagine how much work went into a game with these kinds of graphics, and then they hit a player peak of a 100 players after a month. That must hurt.
Steam/This version is a cheap thing pushed into the west to try and make a quik extra buck. The main audience is in Korea/China where such games are popular.
Finally someone's brave enough to be vocal about the shiity ass korean mmorpg. As a korean myself, I really really like your commentary on this video. you actually sound like an expert in typical Korean mmorpg, which it surprised me and totally agree with your thought. We need more independent creators like you to expose the dying breed of k-mmorpg.
@@r3zaful Wow, that thing, and many said is good perosnaly, i like the gameplay the shooting look and feel dinamic but that is it, everihting else feel weird, and confusing, not to mention the characters are intresting and that is it and there are o so many mobile games that are better than that
MMORPGs as a whole have become outstandingly stale-western MMOs for all copying World of Warcraft, eastern MMOs being all style with no substance, and indie MMOs trying to be overly convoluted on the basis of "do whatever you want!" And I don't like any of them!
I am so upset! The game looks SO pretty! The forests, the meadows, the art team did such a great job! But HOLY CRAP is it ruined by almost anything else!!
While Pisces' voice and lines are absolutely grading, I think it is good voice acting. Yes, it sounds terrible, but I feel it is exactly fitting for the character they aimed for. The talent of the voice actor is however overshadowed by their decision to voice such a character in the first place.
@@kyotheman69 Well I'd say most countries have lots of trash games, but in my opinion there are quite a lot of good Korean MMORPGs. My favourite ones are Tera and Aion
That opening cutscene was gorgeous and the lore honestly was getting me pretty invested. Too bad the rest of the game did little to realize my hopes :(
Iam 100% sure there is at least 1 case of that happening in this series already. Probably more but only remember josh talking about one of those situations once.
inb4 I get one without knowing the character at all so when someone informs me about their immortality I can claim I didn't know and then watch their reaction
@Deseon le fay✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* That's hilarious. I didnt know any of it came from wattpatt. I knew there were light novels published independent or in magazines, and then sometimes they got a manga, and then maybe an animation. I think Sword Art Online started that way, didn't it?
It’s a real shame because these games always look so nice, like i love the aesthetics and generally enjoy the classes and gameplay. But then you advance to mid game to end game and need to grind and have to deal with P2W stuff. My favourite P2W being items that increase your chance to succeed in equipment enhancement.
@@maallos334mi8 I think you misunderstand the object of the word "shame" in this context. Nor do I have any particular evidence or care if they are bought assets.
I unironically came up with that concept 10 years ago. But even I would never dare to call the land "maglev", despite everyone levitating there and it being essentially Cybertron ^^
It sounds so weirdly Russian. Which is especially odd considering the aesthetics and fantasy naming conventions here are all either vaguely Victorian I guess or as he said bog standard post-millennium pop fantasy.
If you're reviewing bad Korean MMOs I would love to see you review Elsword. It looks like a game that would be outside of your comfort zone when it comes to MMOs which would make it pretty interesting to see.
elsword was good years ago,and the story is good not bad,but holy hell,it become grindy as hell. i play it from time to time only to see if add boy can save his mother.
Not gonna lie, I wasn’t reading the subtitles during the intro cinematic and I was actually super impressed with it lol. Thought the art style looked great, and the voice acting fit pretty well.
Yeah the game might be shit but he’s definitely being too harsh and picky, especially because he really doesn’t need to be, considering it actually DOES SUCK. For example when he mentioned giving you an important quest despite your character looking a certain way, that sounded very dumb and biased.. especially because it happens in every game, even the good ones
@@eerie733 "despite your character looking a certain way, that sounded very dumb and biased." do you send children on missions to save kidnapped children?
Agreed. Game genuinely sucks and he makes great points throughout. But there are definitely a few moments where you can tell he's leaning too heavily into the "worst mmo ever" title. I think it's just a symptom of making a lot of these videos and keeping things lively for his audience. There are other moments throughout his videos where he does a really good job of stepping back and explicitly speaking to biases or laying out rationale. So it's a bit jarring when he goes more along the bombastic route. Still love his stuff at the end of the day though!
@@notnice8 they literally send pandas in world of warcraft to save the world, what even is your argument? the way your character looks in MMOs shouldnt define what type of quest or task you get assigned. I could look like a complete degenerate with +99 maxed out facial sliders and it wouldn't ( and shouldnt ) matter
Kinda goes against the whole spirit of the series. If there are good MMO's they'd be in a different category than his worst MMO's series which showcases alright to mediocre to down right terrible.
Ok so that intro cinematic scene was beautifully done despite the subtitles. It was smooth, I enjoyed the art style and the effects looked really dang cool
I've been watching your series for awhile... and after watching 5 or so episodes (in random order), i've reach the point where I honestly feel bad for YOU. Some of these games are torture. I wouldn't even last the first 5 min of most of these games. I really enjoy your videos, they make me laugh, but wow... how do you subject yourself to these abominations ?
I can't believe I instantly recognized Pisce's VA as Xanthe Huynh Weird thing is though she's a very professional top of the line VA, I'm surprised she's in this game given the quality of the other performances
It seems to have a mix of pretty well known LA and Canadian VAs...I've noticed that the director for these Korean MMOs can make even the best VA sound bad
I was thinking the same thing! Altima from CS3 and Marianne from FE:3H. You also can't forget platelet from Cells AT work. "Big sister red blood cell!" 🤣
I recognized her too. Laura Post is in this as well as one of the voices of the female/male voiced mixed villain I'm pretty sure. They have some great VAs here but no amount of VA talent can salvage terrible direction and dialogue :(
@@lpfan4491 Uhhh... Germany has its own national police agency... And they are WAAAAAY more obsessed with content censorship than the Americans are. Germany literally has the most draconian censorship laws of any country in the West...
I like the idea and general aesthetic of the doll character. The concept is cool, I like the gear. It has potential. I'm not even bothered by her being child-like. I just wish she wasn't so suggestively dressed. If your character doesn't look like they're an adult, don't dress them like one. If you want to dress a character suggestively, it needs to be visually clear they are an adult. Easy as that.
One minor critique I'd like to offer; more of a suggestion for your consideration. More than once in this video, you lament the presence of superfluous sounds: when mousing over NPCs, when opening and closing menus, etc. Now, I know those aren't useful sounds to you, and they may even be annoying, and they absolutely should be optional; a toggle in settings, perhaps. But for low vision and blind gamers, like myself, accessibility sounds like those can make or break a game for us. My sighted spouse helps me navigate MMO games, but she tries to let me do everything I can on my own, so I depend on sounds like these to navigate, interact, and even have the chance to play. (Not this game, 'cause it sounds like suck, but other games like Blade and Soul.) So, when remarking on these sounds, please remember that such critiques can convince developers that accessibility options aren't just not needed, but not wanted either, which I'm absolutely sure is not your intent. Just the freedom to make such sounds optional would, I think, resolve that specific issue. I know most gamers will reply to this that "video games aren't made for blind people, so stop ruining them for the rest of us," as that is their general reply to any hint of accessibility. But you are a thoughtful person, and I hope you will see that making such sounds optional rather than removing them could solve this issue hopefully to everyone's satisfaction. Just something to keep in mind going forward. Great video, as always.
This question might sound rather insensitive, but I can't help my curiosity, so sorry in advance - If you can barely see (or can't see if you're blind) what's happening in the game, how can you have fun? Especially considering most games are largely visual.
@@ZX3000GT1 I don't find the question offensive, just confusing. I have fun by... having fun and playing the game. The same way you do. I can't enjoy the visuals, but is looking at visuals the only part of a game that is any fun? That seems better suited to viewing art or film or something of the like. Surely you enjoy more than just staring at the visuals. For instance, there's all the sounds to enjoy too. But even beyond that, there's the stories, characters, activities, events, combat, gameplay, etc. Graphics aren't everything, nor are visuals altogether; they're just one piece of a whole puzzle. It's like listening to a song in a language you don't speak; just because you can't understand the words doesn't mean there aren't aspects of the song you can still enjoy. Here's a more concrete example: last night, my spouse and I played Sleeping Dogs together. I handled all the combat as per usual, but also I controlled the stereo in our vehicle of choice when my wife handled the driving parts, so that way the in-game music also suited our activities. I helped my hard-of-hearing wife track enemies for her to target and me to attack by listening to the sounds of their voices. When we weren't fighting or driving, we did other activities that I was able to enjoy by listening to them while still contributing to the gameplay. Or for another example: I play fighting games without any assistance, purely by sound. How do I have fun there? By winning, the same way as anyone else. In fact, I'd wager I have even more fun winning, because beating sighted opponents as a blind player is pretty rewarding. So yeah, I have fun the same way you do, I just don't visually enjoy the scenery along the way. I hope that all makes sense. Visuals are part of the medium, but having fun in a game is more than just staring at visuals.
@@SightlessSenshi I suppose it depends upon the game. I can't see games like Sekiro, Bayonetta, or DMC, as well as genres like racing (Gran Turismo for example) or rhythm (like Guitar Hero or Beatmania), in which you have to see the game to play, playable by low vision/blind people. Knowing attack patterns, or knowing where the walls are while driving, or knowing patterns you have to press in a rhythm game for example. I suppose it's only problematic when there's nothing but gameplay.
@@ZX3000GT1 It's not really problematic at all. We can enjoy gameplay just like you can, just maybe not in the same way, but that doesn't make it impossible or problematic.
@@SightlessSenshi Hmm... Just checked your channel actually, seems that you're playing a lot of games (and better at fighting games than I do hahaha). I would genuinely love to see you taking a crack at an Action game, a game like Assetto Corsa (or GT7 if you have PS) or a rhythm game like DJMax or Project Diva. Would be cool.
Yeah if I wanted to watch a catgirl dance I'd go to Ul'dah or Costa del Sol in Eorzea of Final Fantasy 14. Or create a Miqo'te myself and use a dance emote. I'd get a great story and game in the process.
Holy crap, this game's brief history is insane! It was made buy to play as Astellia in 2018. Game flopped and publisher bounced it back to the dev and walked away. Dev launches it into Astellia Royale in March 2021. Josh plays it May 2021. Game shuts down in October 2021. Hold on to your butts because it gets crazier. Game relaunches in December 2022 as Astel of Atta as an NFT game. The cards become NFTs and the players are allowed to mint crypto as long as they have the NFTs. Two months later in February 2023 the game completely shuts down. Honestly, Josh is now an Internet historian.
I dunno man, something about the visual design, the way some cutscenes look, the ui elements, the font choices, it feels a lot like someone went "what if gild wars 2 but with lolis"
@@AngryWindmill It's a tough call. On one hand the game looks great for what it is suppose to be and the bossing is good. The problems come with it being mostly single player these days with little incentive to team up unless you are looking for a boss carry and the traditional Korean level grinds (Leveling past 200, Gearing, Arcane/Authentic Symbols) we are talking about a year's worth of dailies give or take events speeding things up a little.
i played Maplestory a LONG time ago...didn't like it for several reasons. one of which was the absurdly blatant cheating. it MIGHT be better now, but i doubt it.
Ah Maplestory. Played it back when it was only 4 starting classes. It was amazing back then needing half a sever to take down a boss. I cannot speak on today's maple but I know it's far from what it was.
I got to play on an oldschool Maplestory server for nostalgic purposes & learned that I vastly prefer how it is now over how it was then, as I enjoy the story quests. For anyone wanting to try it out themselves, there were two private servers running oldschool last I checked. It's definitely the kind of MMO you play for one week every year & listen to the soundtrack on its own.
"Do you care about the story?" As surprising as it sounds, I actually did. I have a very soft spot for the plot and world in these... really wacky JRPG. I love how they start as "go pick mushrooms for tonight's soup", and end as "kill the evil god to prevent the annihilation of time". I liked Tera Online's plot when I played it, even how the humans in that setting were nomads who forsake their god and only settled down when Velik (or Velika? Memory's fuzzy) allowed them to.
Josh: "Shiva's Gothic Cousin" Me: yeah, pretty accurate *Knight on horseback appears Me: oh, Odin's here too Josh: "Gaia the Fierce Knight" You sir, just win the internet
Imma be real, if I had ever tried this game, I'd probably keep going for Rota way longer than I should. I love mechanical doll characters, victorian outfits and small characters with oversized weapons. If only she was in a good game
ye i agree , it's an instant turn off for me, like i genuinely see no logical reason behind it other than lore, but even then that's a very weak reason.
I can easily understand Genderlocking. When it's done right, clases are genderlocked for immersive reasons, you wouldn't have access to a Valkyrie class on a male, you wouldn't play a female monk. There are quite a few games where the class is deeply related to the lore of the world and in these cases I will defend the game with teeth and nails. I really like genderlocking as an immersion mechanism. But yeah, when it has 0 reasons to happen it can be annoying to deal with.
@@bloody4558 I'd argue that even in those cases, it's better to sacrifice the "lore" in favour of giving the player freedom in their choice of gender. Don't forget these are fantasy games, and they're not meant to be historically accurate (Valkyries for example are fictional beings anyway). It's far more important that the player can create a character that they "identify" with.
Your videos have reached a really high quality standard, it has improved a lot lately. Kudos to you man. Thanks for another piece of great entertainment.
''totally not Shiva." heh, yeah, it does look a tad like shiva. *proceeds to Diamond Dust everyone* ripped off, right down to the arched back and raised hands, jfc.
started reading the comments to see how many will notice the similarity with FF14. Haven't watched more than 2min of the video yet, I wondered will he notice it too
@@greeninja5991 In Runescape 3 (not sure if old school as well), the trolls are named after the first thing they eat (or try to eat). You get a baby troll pet that you can feed to change its name to that item, and there are NPC trolls named things like Dad, Burntmeat, and The Map.
to be honest, I liked the idea of you "summoning" a creature to fight for you, while you fight indirect, I feel like this is a mechanic that if well made it could be a cool MMO about catching and raising monsters/creatures while you can also have a character that do thing, so, if you are a mage, you can have a tank monster, if you are an tank, you can have a healing monsters, etc or just make it 100% monster tamer, I dunno, but it sounds an interesting idea that can be super customizable
To allow more than just "monster tamer" build, there could be a mechanic where you take the "soul" of that monster, so you could add it to yourself in a WoW-like Druid gameplay, add to effigies/totems for a shaman gameplay, to corpses in a necromancer gameplay, to dolls in a puppetmaster gameplay, or to weapons in a more "enchanted spellsword" gameplay.
that seems to be a bit of a trend with korean mmos. Pros: It look pretty. Negatives: Everything else. They dont want players, they want mindless machines that empty there wallets. Dont think, just spend.
It is a cultural thing. Most westeners don't accpet this kind of gamplay - but for an asian who play mostly on his phone or in an internet cafe, things like introducing characters, explaining what skills do and animation to summon the horse is a waste of time and respectively - money. They want things go fast, they want lolis dancing and screaming like children with stupid overreactions, they want fast traveling and autopath not loosing time in descoreing the world, they want PvP and wallets flexing... Asians MMOs are on the market for more than 20 years and there are still people who are amazed by it... Why? Ofc every other asian/korean MMO will have P2W mechanics, ofc there will be lolis, ofc there will be flashy animations and illogical characters and stories. Asians and especially koreans play MMOs to win it not to enjoy a story or a character.
You underestimate just how many terrible "MMO"s exist. Also, spending 8 hours in every terrible MMO ever made seems like one of those punishments reserved for really bad souls in the afterlife. I guess Josh wants a head start.
I turned down the volume immediately when heard that dialogue, and see around the room afraid someone noticed it until I realized that I am watching it on my phone with a headset.
The sheet of instructions on how crafting works actually seems like a good idea. Having instructions with in depth details in game instead of having to resort to the game's wiki or forums would be handy.
I understand the point at 10:40 about starting small and building up to the dramatic scene, rather than starting that way, but I do feel that both gw2 and Neverwinter actually were able to pull off having climatic tutorials that started you out right in the midst of an action packed encounter.
What this channel has taught me: Eastern MMOs: "Don't you dare take a single step out of the path! Also, this game plays itself" Western MMOs: "Here, there is no path. Do whatever you want! Content? Yes, there is some. Somewhere. Find your own!"
The problem is that both are taken to the extreme There is a balance about that type os stuff for example doom is very linear but the stages have multiple paths with secrets and acces to other areas and other weapons I know its a different genre but a good game should try to balance these things
Final Fantasy XIV takes that middle ground, it is largely story driven, locking some content behind story progression, but gives the player a lot of things to do outside of the main story so players can take their time and basically do what they want. It even has systems that incentivises doing older, lower level content so newer players can easily run the new game content without insufferably long queues.
@@crystalgoddess4085 I started just around two weeks ago, and it's been a blast. I do think the game could give a bit of support to the healers out there, because I (as a Scholar) either get to twiddle my thumbs acting as a pseudo-DPS in earlier dungeons, or a simple heal-spammer trying to keep the tank alive as healing (no matter the case) is surprisingly weak.
@@thatguyorange902 Kind of a dumb question, but are you using Selene/Eos' healing skills too? Scholar is more of a support healer than a true healer, your fairy will be doing the bulk of the healing, where you'd be trying to keep shields up with Adloquium.
Josh, I feel sorry for you having to play this drivel, but I feel even sorrier for the poor person who had to voice Pisces. I can't believe they didn't vomit long before the vomit scene.
To be fair i rarely saw any MMOs with such detailed dances
especially with a song, probably for each dance.
The dances were the only good thing in the entire game. I used to be like Josh i had a bad opinion of dancing and all that. But then i discovered Babymetal and they showed me that it can be awesome :) It's just usually that the music sucks. Dancing is fun if it's to METAL. Tell me this isn't awesome. ua-cam.com/video/Ro-_cbfdrYE/v-deo.html&ab_channel=BABYMETAL
@@Dragon-Believer If you don't know why he considers it a bad thing in an MMO that literally has nothing else going for it, then i dont know what to tell you.
Those dances IMHO wouldn't be out of place in Fortnite.
Played it for a trial week a couple years ago and the dances are the only thing memorable/good about it. The biggest memorable/bad was the invisible walls everywhere. Don’t put me on rails. Agreed on it being pretty bad. There is some fun to be had finding good astelle combinations for different situations, but it doesn’t make it a good mmo at all.
Seemingly open levels with invisible walls everywhere is one of the most infuriating game design choices.
Its irritating just looking at it.
And those games dare to call themselves "open world"
As a game dev i honestely dont understand how people do that
Some invisible walls are ok to stop exploits and skipping
But to put walls everywhere?
Just make some fence or something like that to stop the player
If you want to make a game that seems open but actually confines players to a strict linear path, just look at HL2. Sure, not all the level design elements will work for every game, but it’s a masterclass in how to make a linear game look open
FF14
The only excuse I can see is that they don’t have the power to load much more, so they put invisible walls to stop people from going and seeing how little detail is out there
i lost it at the whole "good boob window" and "evil boob window" were having their square off I lost it with gaia in attack position to attack their lifepoints directly, it was so accurate and painful
Watching these again and I cackle too much at those even the 2nd time through.
Honestly i thought he was gonna say
(Josh) "2 hours of..."
(ME) "...Tits..."
(Josh) "...Cutscenes"
Very late response, but it's funnier when you consider that modern Gaia is partly about doing huge pierce damage via the Spiral Spear Strike spell card.
So breaking the shield to attack her life points is game-accurate
Honestly, probably my favorite bit from any of his videos.
"Good Boob-window" and "Evil Boob-window". Thank you for adding that to my vocabulary. There are several character I will now exclusively be referring to as such.
Same. Now we need something similar to the awfull mania game devs have with high heels.
Wow Pices sounds like you're an abusive guardian. Not cute and shy, but traumatized and scared that her own shadow might offend her abuser.
literally!! I felt really bad when listening to it :(
There is something fishy about it.
I got that vibe as well.
Kept waiting for her to say "please don't hit me."
Honestly the VA's voice sounds really cute. Shame the script makes her so easy to hate.
I feel sorry for the art teams in these generic cash shop mmos. Sometimes they seem way overly qualified for what the game actually is. That whole golem set piece battle was actually cool, and the cutscenes are surprisingly well animated too. So much wasted talent in a game no one will play.
Korean's are well known for their animation skills. A lot of cartoons were sent to Korea to be animated. They definitely have the skills, too bad they are being used to push "questionable" content.
Same, honestly. A lot of small games have really interesting worlds that I'd love to stop and explore in details, but either the game is miserable at making you want to stop and watch, or it does have neat stuff but you have nobody to chat about it with, or it's style over substance, so you can sit down and admire all the little details, but there's no real meaning behind them.
Yeah... I once worked in a IT firm and one of the on the side projects was managing some internet slots. The girl I knew was a great designer and her job was to draw the goddamn animations for that slot machine. I saw her albums, she drew great fantasy creatures, realistic portraits just great art. But that was the job she got, she was not happy with it :(
WELCOME TO ASTELLIA GENTLEMEN! I WILL NOT LIE, YOUR CHANCE OF BEING ON A WATCH LIST ARE HIGH.
I AM SUPREME
I am the supreme Patriarch.
SOME OF YOU MAY EVEN TURN AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS AS FILTHY WEEABOOS
Dumb, this isn't remotely close to some of the other offenders out there.
Some of you kids are only capable of repeating the shit your favorite UA-camrs say and that's it lol
@Shawty Playin my cringe what?
"And then 'Evil boob Lady' summons Gaia the Fierce Knight in attack position"
Ok, but seriously, this review's writing is top-notch, my dude. If only the devs took a leaf from your book, lol
"The finest voice acting Craig's list can supply" had me laughing.
Na more like activate trap card and switch atk to def then the attack of gaia the fierce knight.
reminds me of a scene in the Anime version of "yu-gi-oh GX" where Dark Magician girl summoned Dark Magician Girl...
ua-cam.com/video/XyWrSSQ64qI/v-deo.html
@@ericb3157 Aw yes. The monster card spirit concept. Something that after GX was (To my knowledge) Only ever touched upon again in 5Ds. GX even had Jaden duel the card spirit of Jinzo at one point (Who was trying to become real by taking souls. Yeah. That was a real thing that happened)
"So now good boob window, casts a magical barrier arround herself because this fight is actually though for her, then evil boob window summons gaya the fierce knight in attack position and breaks the shield, to attack good boob window's HP directly"
-Josh 2021
ABSOLUTELY BRILLANT, PERFECT I'M DYING OF LAUGHTER
Funny thing is. In Yugioh there's a term for when attacking a monster in Defense mode inflicts damage. It's called piercing damage.
Must...resist...urge...to...make...sex joke!
@@StarboyXL9 HA!
@@GatorRay And several of Gaia's cards have the pierce effect. He might have even been one of the first cards with the effect.
Also, OP - It's spelled Gaia, the Fierce Knight... Not gaya.
Men really have the audacity to say women sexualise themselves when they constantly create media like this...
After binging Josh's content. He has now replaced my inner voice when playing my favourite MMOs.
I am in josh hell and everything around me is mmo hell.
Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Teerths inner monologue, today we'll be critiquing some games in a british accent.
@@JoshStrifeHayes let. Me. Sleep.... XD
Kinda, now i cant think of mmos without Josh british accent breaking into my intern monologue.
mamamu
To be fair, it does make things a bit more interesting.
"I forced to play as a little girl"
tell it to the judge, pal
Hah! What do you think this is? Final Fantasy 14? Get behind the bars!
@@sik3xploit There's no "behind the bars" in FFXIV.
The lalafells will break your kneecaps then kill you in the back alley.
Yer goin' to the klink now, pally.
@@sik3xploit those potatoes lalafellas literally have the gut of zodiark and eat other races for breakfast
made the 999 go to 1K
satisfying
Watching this Worst MMO Ever series chronologically, and this episode's final rating "Try not to vomit/10" is my absolute favorite so far
Not ganna lie I thought it was going to gust be dancing for 30 minute's
"even just recording this footage I feel like I'm on some kind of list"
he says, as he removes his characters clothes and rotates here 180 degrees
lmao yup
Yeah, but at least the court records would say, "Forced to play a Clockwork Doll," instead of "Chose to play a half-naked Shota Warrior."
This man dont do things half way, if he is going to jail, he is going to jail full hog
@@wolfrainexxx I watched a "lustful" otter swing his giant throbbing Bunobuno at creepy lolicon-mannequin-hookers from hell. Only Shota can save my soul now.
I was going to comment that as well
"A battle of cleavage begins"
That one line just ended me
All jokes aside, whoever animated that dance animation at the start is insanely talented, and wasting his skills working on Astellia.
If you see a dance in a game 9 times out of 10 its mocap with is most likey what they used here
Its still not easy but its a whole lot better then animating yourself
@@valletas That looks too clean for mo-cap to me. You'd probably spend as much time cleaning up the mo-cap data as you would animating it from scratch.
@@ComedicRick It probably is mo cap. It's a cross promotion with whatever K-pop girl band the hashtags, dance, and music is from. And I imagine the developers don't wanna spend too much time creating it when they can just bring in one of the girl dancers do mo cap it in a fay.
@@NoName-ji9mb As someone working in the industry, Mo Cap takes a ton of clean up work by skilled animators to look good. Especially to apply the data to a non-human body like the Anime girls in the game. It could be mocap, but I think it's probably hand animated.
@@ComedicRick Yeah, I'd agree with you considering how "stiff" the dance moves are. It also wouldn't take that much effort to hand animate it. People glamourise Mo-cap more than they should.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the fact that the running animation and cutscenes are designed to give you a slight upskirt look 😂
List, some, kind ..he knows lol he's certainly pedantic enough
I could see him so hard trying not to go full upskirt during the dance. But they're so close to showing too much, too dangerous.
dude, you can see the entire ass during the running animation, wtf? there's two entire cheeks being shown. wtf, game.
@@erickschusterdeoliveira2662 who ever designed that I want to punch them in the face
*Somewhere, someplace in a police station*
Police officer #1: *Watching this video “He is on the list?”
Police officer #2: “Nah…he’s on the list list” *jerks thumb at a giant clipboard with Josh’s face on it*
What’s awful is that I recognized about three of those voice actors and they are very respectable professionals who’ve done great work on some of my favourite video games in the past. It really goes to show how bad material and bad direction can’t be saved even by solid actors. I feel bad for these guys, honestly.
Oh, that's really interesting, do you mind sharing who they were and what they were in? Sorry to be a pest but I'm really curious if I've heard of them!
@@KirbyUber I second this
I swear I thought I could hear Rock’s voice actor from Black Lagoon…But apparently I hear a LA VA in there too? This is an odd cast.
@@KirbyUber Pisces's VA is actually a HUGE VA for other esteemed games and dubs, example she's also Haru's VA from Persona 5
@@cronchee fucking knew it
ngl tho, that opening cinematic is absolutely amazing in the visuals, the whole style and aesthetic they did that in looks super cool
I liked the style as well. Right up to the moment that the subtitles were not synchronised.
Its one of the better looking unreal engine 3 mmos out there
yeah i got this feeling thats where a lot the budget went
My first thought was: "Okay, so why aren't we playing *that*?"
@@seb24789 because its cgi
Smaller devs need to understand that amazing visuals aren't enough when there's no substance
I mean, I've seen really really good RPG Maker games. Done by single people. And that truly is not something where the graphics can blend over the gameplay.
Sometimes less is more and focusing on quality where it matters can turn things around. And there are many games that might look meh but actually are really good once you look past the visuals.
@@HappyBeezerStudios Like Project Zomboid.
Props to the animators though, Rota trying to hula hoop with that giant cog and failing is mad cute.
It's rare to see a game with such an obvious divide as to what got effort and what didn't
Honestly, that initial opening cinematic was great, I loved it. But that voiceover absolutely ruined any feeling it could've had. Still, great video. Whoever they hired to do the animations and cutscenes and stuff, deserves to work for a better company and on better games.
Ok, I have no real knowledge in the field, but Pisces sounds like how I would imagine a long-term abuse victim would.
was my first thought as well, very concerning
Does being cooked alive count as abuse?
@@OverseerXIII It certainly counts as a trauma, but probably not as the same kind of ongoing abuse that'd lead to developing such a degree of apologetic personality.
I would describe it as a cutesy woman who simply acts like a victim, because she knows how easy it is to manipulate others with that kind of approach.
@@ashrasmun1 Kinda concerning that that is what you immediatly jump to but considering this is the internet and what's been going on recently I can't say I don't understand why you would jump to that
That: "Oh good the pope is here", caught me so off guard LMAO
Well, it makes sense that the pope would be there. Its a world full of small children
Good ol Francis
Thank god he was not the lustful one
same here, lol
It's weird how common that is in Anime though. Just popes everywhere. Usually as the bad guy but sometimes not. In Shield Hero the pope was practically the final boss. Not going to lie, it was epic, but still, the pope!
Minor thing, but I very much think the idea of pve having companions to help is a decent way to balance tank, healer, and melee vs ranged dps in solo pve. However a game does need to account for that ability in monster design.
Or they could just not make characters overspecialized for no acceptable reason.
@@GeorgeMonet I don't see people complaining about chocobos in ff14
@@GeorgeMonet Yeah, because WoW, FF14, GW2 don't have strict class systems and they're all failures.
GW2 is admittedly flexible but roles still exist.
Strife starts attacking the crystal
The guardians: my break is in 1 min, I'm not doing it.
They are just 1 week from retirement they don't want to die for a mineral.
As demons, their workplace is literally hell
The power of unions, baby!
that helper carrying a large Gear around is really silly.
BUT it was funny when her Idle animation involved her trying to use it as a Hula Hoop!
helper? i think you're the helper on the story, that npc is doing all the job, you can just sit there and watch her killing things
Sad idle animations are what get dev attention
Don't lie...
You would too
During the section where the Boss "Lustful Bunobuno" is mentioned, you mention that you hope they don't know what the word lustful means....was I the only one who noticed his weapon and thought "ummm...i think they have a pretty good idea what it means"...I'm not pleased with myself for realizing that. lol
oh god... you bastard.... now I can't unsee it.
@@zero_196 Everytime I listen to these videos on my second monitor, and that part comes up, I can't help but glance over...and then silently hate myself again.
Truly is unfortunate that alot of the work that artists put into eastern mmo's gets overshadowed by the way the developers / publishers deals with the technical end and business model.
That first cutscene he showed is wonderful. Besides the subtitle issue.
I always feel bad when games have some parts that are wonderful but are overshadowed by bad design choices. For me a big one was the Knights of the Old Republic MMO. I so wanted to get through the wonderful stories but the mindless, disconnected quests, boring grind and oversized world design drove me away.
To be honest..if this here would have been a single player game without the cash-shop shenanigans I would pay 20 Bucks.
@@brushdogart Has a lot of fun with SWTOR originally. Some of the planet questioned were good, and the imperial agent storyline is the best questline in any MMO I've seen to date.
Games are a product after all.
The fact that you can't jump from a ledge isn't because of invisible walls. They probably used a navigation mesh that basically layout areas that are walkable but remove areas that are too steep. This technique is used for RTS games or point and click movement in general(like MOBAs and ARPG) but its also used for - guess what - autopath, because it stores a ledge of every coordinate that is walkable and can be used for the AI find out a path to the destination. So basically they created the game with the intention of having autopath, and the player is also limited to the navigation mesh because of it but you can code so that the player has a action combat movement inside a nav mesh.
Nice observation!
@Know Things If you're interested, you can look up "Unity NavMesh" on UA-cam.
A poor choice from the devs, sadly.
So they just coded it into the navmesh because they were too lazy to create proper walling and block off areas.
@@AParticularlyConcernedCitizen No, I think what he meant was that each mesh is somewhat unique and provides coordinates that basically become a ‘cheat-code’ for programming the AutoPathing-AI. Did I get that right? That’s what I took from his elaboration (‘a ledge of every coordinate’, and ‘built the game for autopath’)-cos if that’s how it is, the invisible walls suddenly become way way WAY more egregious!
IE saves them having to even put effort into the vilest function of these games. It’s kinda funny & ironic to wanna cut corners on a feature that stops the player from ever cutting any in game corners, heuheuheu.
23:10 "The greatest craigslist voice acting money can supply" he said, right before Brad Swaile, voice actor of Light Yagami, pulls up.
Well. He DID also voice Kicker Jones in Transformers Energon. So. Take that as you will.
I thought I recognised the voice ahah
Its all in the direction and effort I guess
I THOUGHT that sounded like him! I'm not seeing this game listed on any of his acting credits, but then again this doesn't seem like the kind of game you'd highlight on your resume lol
I forgot that he did... I wish you didn't remind me.@@GatorRay
"I'm a support character in my own adventure." LOL
Well, then again he picked a support character (mage) so it's kind of 'I ordered porridge and got porridge, this is an outrage' kind of situation
I'm an NPC in my own life, so I can relate.
That is how I play Skyrim. Let whatever companion is coming along go in while I plonk from the distance with my bow.
@@HappyBeezerStudios That line he said still hurt though XD I wouldn't want that if you're expecting to be the main character
TBH that’s how I felt playing Pokemon Sun during the second half of the game
"Put this horse in the pocket. Not a horse whistle, not a summon ability, just the Hol Horse"
I tried my damn best to not think it
Hol Horse, Pol Pot’s long lost brother
I thought the same lol
Ben would have been proud
Yare yare daze
the stylized opening cutscene is so gorgeous, i can't get over how little josh highlighted that
15:05: "Then evil boob window summons Gaia the Fierce Knight in attack position", now that's an iconic line that just rolls off the tongue XD
Reminds me of that "With no monsters left on the field I summon Dark Magician" Duel Links ad.
The doll character has some pretty decent animations, like her head moving like a mechanical clock in dialogue events. Judging from the broken AI and the generic animations of NPCs, all the budget went to the doll.
that sentence can be taken so many ways.
fear before the march
15:58 that's some cute idle animation for Rota though. Also Rota is a car wheel brand, it it kinda fits a girl with a giant gear.
18:16
Why did they give the otter's crouching stance an absolute dumptruck though.
You gotta appeal to the furries somehow.
Yeah. I swear it looks like he's about to poop.
The voice: "A kidnapping in a peaceful village like this? It has to be the work of someone OUTSIDE the village!"
The text: "Some vile person is kidnapping children, then selling them to the demons. Unforgivable!"
Voice is from the herbalist villager, text is from the doll girl, You can even see a big picture of her next to the text box how 300 people didn't see that xD
@@Tyanus2 As long as something's funny, it doesn't matter if it's true or not lol
you know I have lost count of the times I have played as a support healer/mage in games and wished I had some kind of companion to take the hits for me while I dealt damage or kept them alive while they killed the enemy. overall the idea in astellia wasn't bad itself just not done very well.
Shame it was turned into gacha, too. But honestly, WoW did it pretty well, by allowing healing/support classes to move to a more damage-oriented build.
Compared to that, I remember trying to do any kind of solo content as a priestess in Tera Online and it was miserable, especially since that game had point-blank charges where the boss/monster could just run into you and damage you, stunlocking you.
why is it always the games with the cool looking cinematics/storylines that turn out like this..
"not a horse whistle, not a summon-ability...just the whole horse"
and totally 'not-shiva'.
Entire Equine!
Yes, this is a Jojo reference.
Reminds me how in ffxiv a quest requires to to carry bodies, and the flavor text tells you this is NOT the time to question the logic of stuffing a whole body in your backpack
Horsepocket. ITS NOT HARD, ROWAN. WHAT PART OF THIS DONT YOU GET
@@user-lc5bu9bm7v I see, you're a person of culture that you know this reference
Can you imagine how much work went into a game with these kinds of graphics, and then they hit a player peak of a 100 players after a month. That must hurt.
Imagine that this borderline pedophilic fever dream went through some sort of QA
Steam/This version is a cheap thing pushed into the west to try and make a quik extra buck. The main audience is in Korea/China where such games are popular.
Its common in these sorts of game..good graphic and customisation to make up for lack of gameplay and stories
Finally someone's brave enough to be vocal about the shiity ass korean mmorpg. As a korean myself, I really really like your commentary on this video. you actually sound like an expert in typical Korean mmorpg, which it surprised me and totally agree with your thought. We need more independent creators like you to expose the dying breed of k-mmorpg.
he's basically just saying what the whole world except korea thinks about k-mmos
@@jackback70 when blue archive won korean gaming award that should have show how the state Korean mmorpg atm.
@@r3zaful Wow, that thing, and many said is good perosnaly, i like the gameplay the shooting look and feel dinamic but that is it, everihting else feel weird, and confusing, not to mention the characters are intresting and that is it and there are o so many mobile games that are better than that
If it is dying then there is no need to expose it. Time will kill it off.
MMORPGs as a whole have become outstandingly stale-western MMOs for all copying World of Warcraft, eastern MMOs being all style with no substance, and indie MMOs trying to be overly convoluted on the basis of "do whatever you want!"
And I don't like any of them!
I am so upset! The game looks SO pretty! The forests, the meadows, the art team did such a great job! But HOLY CRAP is it ruined by almost anything else!!
I hope there are support groups for the good craftsmanship pros who end up devoting talent to terrible games & other CGI
Don't forget the ten year old tits. This game is a pedo/ groomer sim.
While Pisces' voice and lines are absolutely grading, I think it is good voice acting. Yes, it sounds terrible, but I feel it is exactly fitting for the character they aimed for.
The talent of the voice actor is however overshadowed by their decision to voice such a character in the first place.
Yup I agree, don't shoot the actor, gut the fucking chump who decided to write the character that way
Apparently, that's Haru from persona 5. Really talented actress
@@ryokiritani4187 wait really? they do sound rly similar
A paycheck's a paycheck my guy
Idk it sounds like trash
And people are surprised English dub in games or anime gets hate.
don't be a killjoy Josh, you know WE ALL want the I have no cat dance in EVERY mmo
Personally, I'd rather have "That's my horse!"
@@GdotWdot Give it up for Rolf, Ed-boy!
To be honest i would love to see a gigantic male warrior in full heavy armor do that dance. It would be the most cringy and hilarious thing ever.
Facts
@@goldengolem4670 That’s STUPID!
I’m down.
Astellia is a Korean MMORPG ... "I'm gonna stop you right there"
*exeunt omnes
or you should of said "enough said"
because most korean mmo's are this bad or presented this way, makes me sick
@@kyotheman69 Well I'd say most countries have lots of trash games, but in my opinion there are quite a lot of good Korean MMORPGs. My favourite ones are Tera and Aion
That opening cutscene was gorgeous and the lore honestly was getting me pretty invested. Too bad the rest of the game did little to realize my hopes :(
imagine being an mmo game dev and u see ur game in Josh's worst mmo ever playlist....
Iam 100% sure there is at least 1 case of that happening in this series already. Probably more but only remember josh talking about one of those situations once.
I would consider myself honoured and I'd use it as a map on how to make it better.
I might even try one day. Amateur only of course.
time to listen and take notes, and watch his 7 sins series, every mmo can learn from that.
Well, to be fair, there have been some MMOs Josh genuinely did like so it's not a guarantee he'll spend 30 minutes ratting on the game.
@@mikoto7693 If you're on this list, that means you don't give a shit about your game to begin with.
I would posit that this game is aimed at people who have body pillows of one of those 'Actually 1000-year old' loli characters that keep cropping up.
inb4 I get one without knowing the character at all so when someone informs me about their immortality I can claim I didn't know and then watch their reaction
@@sanfransiscon I remember someone made a Rick & Morty meme but with ancient Fire Emblem characters that look young.
Too many weebs on games now
@Deseon le fay✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* That's hilarious. I didnt know any of it came from wattpatt. I knew there were light novels published independent or in magazines, and then sometimes they got a manga, and then maybe an animation. I think Sword Art Online started that way, didn't it?
It’s a real shame because these games always look so nice, like i love the aesthetics and generally enjoy the classes and gameplay. But then you advance to mid game to end game and need to grind and have to deal with P2W stuff. My favourite P2W being items that increase your chance to succeed in equipment enhancement.
You can buy quality assets and use them in games. That should help you feel less shame
@@maallos334mi8 I think you misunderstand the object of the word "shame" in this context. Nor do I have any particular evidence or care if they are bought assets.
when you say "grind" are you referring to the children doing "sexy" dances ?
"In the blighted land of Maglev"
Ah yes, the blighted land of... magnetic levitation?
This is the ancient world that the Wipeout racing games come from.
I unironically came up with that concept 10 years ago.
But even I would never dare to call the land "maglev", despite everyone levitating there and it being essentially Cybertron ^^
It sounds so weirdly Russian. Which is especially odd considering the aesthetics and fantasy naming conventions here are all either vaguely Victorian I guess or as he said bog standard post-millennium pop fantasy.
If you're reviewing bad Korean MMOs I would love to see you review Elsword. It looks like a game that would be outside of your comfort zone when it comes to MMOs which would make it pretty interesting to see.
elsword was good years ago,and the story is good not bad,but holy hell,it become grindy as hell. i play it from time to time only to see if add boy can save his mother.
Ahhh, Elsword
KoG's favourite child
You got your wish lol
@@andermedievil hate to break it to you but it's always sucked
I played it as a kid. Got turned off by the extremely pay to play aspect of it. I guess it only got worse huh? Sad
the companion joining in on the dance emote is a nice touch at least
Not gonna lie, I wasn’t reading the subtitles during the intro cinematic and I was actually super impressed with it lol. Thought the art style looked great, and the voice acting fit pretty well.
Yeah the game might be shit but he’s definitely being too harsh and picky, especially because he really doesn’t need to be, considering it actually DOES SUCK. For example when he mentioned giving you an important quest despite your character looking a certain way, that sounded very dumb and biased.. especially because it happens in every game, even the good ones
@@eerie733 "despite your character looking a certain way, that sounded very dumb and biased." do you send children on missions to save kidnapped children?
Agreed. Game genuinely sucks and he makes great points throughout. But there are definitely a few moments where you can tell he's leaning too heavily into the "worst mmo ever" title. I think it's just a symptom of making a lot of these videos and keeping things lively for his audience. There are other moments throughout his videos where he does a really good job of stepping back and explicitly speaking to biases or laying out rationale. So it's a bit jarring when he goes more along the bombastic route. Still love his stuff at the end of the day though!
@@notnice8 they literally send pandas in world of warcraft to save the world, what even is your argument? the way your character looks in MMOs shouldnt define what type of quest or task you get assigned. I could look like a complete degenerate with +99 maxed out facial sliders and it wouldn't ( and shouldnt ) matter
@@HermeneuticallySealed Agreed, you put my thoughts into words
“A magical battle of cleavage begins” 😂
The vomit bit at the end made my skin crawl.
I have never played nor have any interest in a MMORPG in my whole life yet I keep coming back to your channel.
same, they're all super copy/paste and generic.
also no good sci-fi MMOs even though that's the better setting imo.
Sounds about right
@@vizthex the moment a good sci-fi MMORPG comes out I’ll instantly become a fan of the genre
Kinda goes against the whole spirit of the series. If there are good MMO's they'd be in a different category than his worst MMO's series which showcases alright to mediocre to down right terrible.
Anyone else noticed a huge amount of shared walking/running animations and hairstyles in Korean MMO's?
Korea isn't a large nation, so you can bet plenty of these are under the same company.
Ok so that intro cinematic scene was beautifully done despite the subtitles. It was smooth, I enjoyed the art style and the effects looked really dang cool
all of the game's budget went to hiring Kpop studios and idols to do the idle dances and copyright for the songs.
[Shiva's Gothic Cousin] needs to be an earnable title!
I've been watching your series for awhile... and after watching 5 or so episodes (in random order), i've reach the point where I honestly feel bad for YOU. Some of these games are torture. I wouldn't even last the first 5 min of most of these games. I really enjoy your videos, they make me laugh, but wow... how do you subject yourself to these abominations ?
That’s me yesterday & today! I just found this series & really enjoying binging “grinding?” it. I learn a lot from his critiques.
I can't believe I instantly recognized Pisce's VA as Xanthe Huynh
Weird thing is though she's a very professional top of the line VA, I'm surprised she's in this game given the quality of the other performances
It seems to have a mix of pretty well known LA and Canadian VAs...I've noticed that the director for these Korean MMOs can make even the best VA sound bad
These MMOs pay well as since they operate on pay to win they're drowning in cash. Even great voice actors take shitty jobs to put food on the table
I was thinking the same thing! Altima from CS3 and Marianne from FE:3H. You also can't forget platelet from Cells AT work. "Big sister red blood cell!" 🤣
I recognized her too. Laura Post is in this as well as one of the voices of the female/male voiced mixed villain I'm pretty sure.
They have some great VAs here but no amount of VA talent can salvage terrible direction and dialogue :(
Thank you for confirming this, I thought I was going crazy. Her voice is very distinct.
I'm amazed that you managed to keep the game open for so long without getting arrested.
Modern Anime in a nutshell
Meanwhile me in germany:"MUAHAHAHAHA! No FBI over here!"
@@lpfan4491 Uhhh... Germany has its own national police agency... And they are WAAAAAY more obsessed with content censorship than the Americans are. Germany literally has the most draconian censorship laws of any country in the West...
@@Cooe. My joke is related to the joke of the FBI cracking down on people who look at lolicontent of any kind.
@@skeleyold5991 modern anime don't really do the "1000 year old loli" thing nowadays
I like the idea and general aesthetic of the doll character. The concept is cool, I like the gear. It has potential. I'm not even bothered by her being child-like. I just wish she wasn't so suggestively dressed. If your character doesn't look like they're an adult, don't dress them like one. If you want to dress a character suggestively, it needs to be visually clear they are an adult. Easy as that.
One minor critique I'd like to offer; more of a suggestion for your consideration. More than once in this video, you lament the presence of superfluous sounds: when mousing over NPCs, when opening and closing menus, etc. Now, I know those aren't useful sounds to you, and they may even be annoying, and they absolutely should be optional; a toggle in settings, perhaps. But for low vision and blind gamers, like myself, accessibility sounds like those can make or break a game for us. My sighted spouse helps me navigate MMO games, but she tries to let me do everything I can on my own, so I depend on sounds like these to navigate, interact, and even have the chance to play. (Not this game, 'cause it sounds like suck, but other games like Blade and Soul.) So, when remarking on these sounds, please remember that such critiques can convince developers that accessibility options aren't just not needed, but not wanted either, which I'm absolutely sure is not your intent. Just the freedom to make such sounds optional would, I think, resolve that specific issue. I know most gamers will reply to this that "video games aren't made for blind people, so stop ruining them for the rest of us," as that is their general reply to any hint of accessibility. But you are a thoughtful person, and I hope you will see that making such sounds optional rather than removing them could solve this issue hopefully to everyone's satisfaction. Just something to keep in mind going forward. Great video, as always.
This question might sound rather insensitive, but I can't help my curiosity, so sorry in advance - If you can barely see (or can't see if you're blind) what's happening in the game, how can you have fun? Especially considering most games are largely visual.
@@ZX3000GT1 I don't find the question offensive, just confusing. I have fun by... having fun and playing the game. The same way you do. I can't enjoy the visuals, but is looking at visuals the only part of a game that is any fun? That seems better suited to viewing art or film or something of the like. Surely you enjoy more than just staring at the visuals. For instance, there's all the sounds to enjoy too. But even beyond that, there's the stories, characters, activities, events, combat, gameplay, etc. Graphics aren't everything, nor are visuals altogether; they're just one piece of a whole puzzle. It's like listening to a song in a language you don't speak; just because you can't understand the words doesn't mean there aren't aspects of the song you can still enjoy. Here's a more concrete example: last night, my spouse and I played Sleeping Dogs together. I handled all the combat as per usual, but also I controlled the stereo in our vehicle of choice when my wife handled the driving parts, so that way the in-game music also suited our activities. I helped my hard-of-hearing wife track enemies for her to target and me to attack by listening to the sounds of their voices. When we weren't fighting or driving, we did other activities that I was able to enjoy by listening to them while still contributing to the gameplay. Or for another example: I play fighting games without any assistance, purely by sound. How do I have fun there? By winning, the same way as anyone else. In fact, I'd wager I have even more fun winning, because beating sighted opponents as a blind player is pretty rewarding. So yeah, I have fun the same way you do, I just don't visually enjoy the scenery along the way. I hope that all makes sense. Visuals are part of the medium, but having fun in a game is more than just staring at visuals.
@@SightlessSenshi I suppose it depends upon the game. I can't see games like Sekiro, Bayonetta, or DMC, as well as genres like racing (Gran Turismo for example) or rhythm (like Guitar Hero or Beatmania), in which you have to see the game to play, playable by low vision/blind people. Knowing attack patterns, or knowing where the walls are while driving, or knowing patterns you have to press in a rhythm game for example.
I suppose it's only problematic when there's nothing but gameplay.
@@ZX3000GT1 It's not really problematic at all. We can enjoy gameplay just like you can, just maybe not in the same way, but that doesn't make it impossible or problematic.
@@SightlessSenshi Hmm...
Just checked your channel actually, seems that you're playing a lot of games (and better at fighting games than I do hahaha). I would genuinely love to see you taking a crack at an Action game, a game like Assetto Corsa (or GT7 if you have PS) or a rhythm game like DJMax or Project Diva. Would be cool.
Ngl I would make my ESO character do a korean cat dance if I could
korean do good with cute stuff like that but the actual games they make are just meh
Yeah if I wanted to watch a catgirl dance I'd go to Ul'dah or Costa del Sol in Eorzea of Final Fantasy 14. Or create a Miqo'te myself and use a dance emote. I'd get a great story and game in the process.
Any dance a khajit does is a cat dance
@@pixadavid This one agree :)
The male /danceredguard is pretty much the same. It also makes me wonder why it is a male dance, as the female dance is less strippery iirc.
Holy crap, this game's brief history is insane! It was made buy to play as Astellia in 2018. Game flopped and publisher bounced it back to the dev and walked away. Dev launches it into Astellia Royale in March 2021. Josh plays it May 2021. Game shuts down in October 2021. Hold on to your butts because it gets crazier.
Game relaunches in December 2022 as Astel of Atta as an NFT game. The cards become NFTs and the players are allowed to mint crypto as long as they have the NFTs. Two months later in February 2023 the game completely shuts down. Honestly, Josh is now an Internet historian.
I dunno man, something about the visual design, the way some cutscenes look, the ui elements, the font choices, it feels a lot like someone went "what if gild wars 2 but with lolis"
Exactly what I thought.
how about FF14, literally same start of the story of your character (just 0 depth)
every asian mmo covered is one step closer to a video on maplestory
I think that it will come, but it definitely won't be a worst mmo ever video
@@AngryWindmill It's a tough call. On one hand the game looks great for what it is suppose to be and the bossing is good. The problems come with it being mostly single player these days with little incentive to team up unless you are looking for a boss carry and the traditional Korean level grinds (Leveling past 200, Gearing, Arcane/Authentic Symbols) we are talking about a year's worth of dailies give or take events speeding things up a little.
i played Maplestory a LONG time ago...didn't like it for several reasons.
one of which was the absurdly blatant cheating.
it MIGHT be better now, but i doubt it.
Ah Maplestory. Played it back when it was only 4 starting classes. It was amazing back then needing half a sever to take down a boss. I cannot speak on today's maple but I know it's far from what it was.
I got to play on an oldschool Maplestory server for nostalgic purposes & learned that I vastly prefer how it is now over how it was then, as I enjoy the story quests.
For anyone wanting to try it out themselves, there were two private servers running oldschool last I checked.
It's definitely the kind of MMO you play for one week every year & listen to the soundtrack on its own.
"Do you care about the story?"
As surprising as it sounds, I actually did. I have a very soft spot for the plot and world in these... really wacky JRPG. I love how they start as "go pick mushrooms for tonight's soup", and end as "kill the evil god to prevent the annihilation of time". I liked Tera Online's plot when I played it, even how the humans in that setting were nomads who forsake their god and only settled down when Velik (or Velika? Memory's fuzzy) allowed them to.
Josh: "Shiva's Gothic Cousin"
Me: yeah, pretty accurate
*Knight on horseback appears
Me: oh, Odin's here too
Josh: "Gaia the Fierce Knight"
You sir, just win the internet
Final fantasy summons are awesome
My guilty pleasure is awful MMOs but I'm so glad I can sit back and watch someone else lose their brain cells as they play them
Imma be real, if I had ever tried this game, I'd probably keep going for Rota way longer than I should. I love mechanical doll characters, victorian outfits and small characters with oversized weapons.
If only she was in a good game
fr bro...
"I hate genderlocking classes" I feel you on that one man, i have no idea why companies do it. It's almost enough to make me drop the game, in itself.
ye i agree , it's an instant turn off for me, like i genuinely see no logical reason behind it other than lore, but even then that's a very weak reason.
Less work for them cuz they’re too lazy to design different versions of each armor piece for male and female characters
I can't tolerate gender locked hair styles & hats in western games. Gender locking the whole class is a higher level of fuckery.
I can easily understand Genderlocking. When it's done right, clases are genderlocked for immersive reasons, you wouldn't have access to a Valkyrie class on a male, you wouldn't play a female monk. There are quite a few games where the class is deeply related to the lore of the world and in these cases I will defend the game with teeth and nails. I really like genderlocking as an immersion mechanism. But yeah, when it has 0 reasons to happen it can be annoying to deal with.
@@bloody4558 I'd argue that even in those cases, it's better to sacrifice the "lore" in favour of giving the player freedom in their choice of gender. Don't forget these are fantasy games, and they're not meant to be historically accurate (Valkyries for example are fictional beings anyway). It's far more important that the player can create a character that they "identify" with.
"Try not to vomit / 10 " - Two waifus, one cup
The fact that the most well done thing in this game are the dance animations and choreography really tells a lot...
Not going to lie, more mmos need dances like those. There's only so much Saturday night fever can do.
Fr, those dances clean as hell lol
@@lordvectra7821 Legit, and if it comes with the songs too... Let's go.
Your videos have reached a really high quality standard, it has improved a lot lately. Kudos to you man.
Thanks for another piece of great entertainment.
2:08 its good to see you have the all important "Robert Downey Jr" folder that we all have on our PCs
''totally not Shiva."
heh, yeah, it does look a tad like shiva.
*proceeds to Diamond Dust everyone*
ripped off, right down to the arched back and raised hands, jfc.
started reading the comments to see how many will notice the similarity with FF14. Haven't watched more than 2min of the video yet, I wondered will he notice it too
I'm still waiting for the "MMO" part of this game.....
The whole vomitting and gagging part had me worried I also might now be on some kind of list now
29:08 As another game taught us, trolls are named after the first thing they eat.
Which game?
@@greeninja5991 In Runescape 3 (not sure if old school as well), the trolls are named after the first thing they eat (or try to eat). You get a baby troll pet that you can feed to change its name to that item, and there are NPC trolls named things like Dad, Burntmeat, and The Map.
@@rockwallbee thanks for the answer
@@rockwallbee Oldschool player, yes it is the same with gems like "yellow snow" or "Mom" . We even have the quest chain involving My arm.
The words "Korean MMORPG" is already enough for me to know where this video is going.
Sucks too cuz I'm a sucker for art styles like this.. and just Asian aesthetic
title should of said "Korean MMORPG's in a nutshell" seriously so many are like this
@@furbymaster4239 You might like the Stormblood dlc of FF14. Or the ninja and samurai classes.
@@furbymaster4239 if you like anime art style and a actually good MMO, you should try FFXIV
@@C7y323 no
to be honest, I liked the idea of you "summoning" a creature to fight for you, while you fight indirect, I feel like this is a mechanic that if well made it could be a cool MMO about catching and raising monsters/creatures
while you can also have a character that do thing, so, if you are a mage, you can have a tank monster, if you are an tank, you can have a healing monsters, etc
or just make it 100% monster tamer, I dunno, but it sounds an interesting idea that can be super customizable
To allow more than just "monster tamer" build, there could be a mechanic where you take the "soul" of that monster, so you could add it to yourself in a WoW-like Druid gameplay, add to effigies/totems for a shaman gameplay, to corpses in a necromancer gameplay, to dolls in a puppetmaster gameplay, or to weapons in a more "enchanted spellsword" gameplay.
that seems to be a bit of a trend with korean mmos.
Pros: It look pretty.
Negatives: Everything else.
They dont want players, they want mindless machines that empty there wallets. Dont think, just spend.
It is a cultural thing. Most westeners don't accpet this kind of gamplay - but for an asian who play mostly on his phone or in an internet cafe, things like introducing characters, explaining what skills do and animation to summon the horse is a waste of time and respectively - money. They want things go fast, they want lolis dancing and screaming like children with stupid overreactions, they want fast traveling and autopath not loosing time in descoreing the world, they want PvP and wallets flexing... Asians MMOs are on the market for more than 20 years and there are still people who are amazed by it... Why? Ofc every other asian/korean MMO will have P2W mechanics, ofc there will be lolis, ofc there will be flashy animations and illogical characters and stories. Asians and especially koreans play MMOs to win it not to enjoy a story or a character.
@@vasiljambazov FFXIV only has the lalafell and too flashy animations. Most of the rest of it is good now. And *story* is the reason you play FFXIV.
lovin the series, just hope once you run out of mmos you gonna cover other genres (say, rpgs or multiplayer titles).
I would love to :)
That would be awesome. I love this series as well
You underestimate just how many terrible "MMO"s exist.
Also, spending 8 hours in every terrible MMO ever made seems like one of those punishments reserved for really bad souls in the afterlife. I guess Josh wants a head start.
@@redvenge709 I mean, this game alone probably bought him a few more months in Purgatory.
I turned down the volume immediately when heard that dialogue, and see around the room afraid someone noticed it until I realized that I am watching it on my phone with a headset.
try to not to vomit out of 10, that's one for the books.
The sheet of instructions on how crafting works actually seems like a good idea. Having instructions with in depth details in game instead of having to resort to the game's wiki or forums would be handy.
I understand the point at 10:40 about starting small and building up to the dramatic scene, rather than starting that way, but I do feel that both gw2 and Neverwinter actually were able to pull off having climatic tutorials that started you out right in the midst of an action packed encounter.
Ah, Korea! The country that makes MMOs the way Finland makes metal bands.
That's why you go for Norwegian Black metal instead.
I'd go crazy from just that many steam notifications
Seeing Josh just slowly lose his freaking mind while reviewing this MMO is gold. XD
What this channel has taught me:
Eastern MMOs: "Don't you dare take a single step out of the path! Also, this game plays itself"
Western MMOs: "Here, there is no path. Do whatever you want! Content? Yes, there is some. Somewhere. Find your own!"
The problem is that both are taken to the extreme
There is a balance about that type os stuff for example doom is very linear but the stages have multiple paths with secrets and acces to other areas and other weapons
I know its a different genre but a good game should try to balance these things
Final Fantasy XIV takes that middle ground, it is largely story driven, locking some content behind story progression, but gives the player a lot of things to do outside of the main story so players can take their time and basically do what they want. It even has systems that incentivises doing older, lower level content so newer players can easily run the new game content without insufferably long queues.
@@crystalgoddess4085 yeah, FFXIV is my favorite mmorpg
@@crystalgoddess4085
I started just around two weeks ago, and it's been a blast. I do think the game could give a bit of support to the healers out there, because I (as a Scholar) either get to twiddle my thumbs acting as a pseudo-DPS in earlier dungeons, or a simple heal-spammer trying to keep the tank alive as healing (no matter the case) is surprisingly weak.
@@thatguyorange902 Kind of a dumb question, but are you using Selene/Eos' healing skills too? Scholar is more of a support healer than a true healer, your fairy will be doing the bulk of the healing, where you'd be trying to keep shields up with Adloquium.
Josh, I feel sorry for you having to play this drivel, but I feel even sorrier for the poor person who had to voice Pisces. I can't believe they didn't vomit long before the vomit scene.
Intro was pretty awesome lol. Also love your videos thank you!
That vomiting part...ugghh. I can understand how that is the final dealbreaker.