Adam Wolf

IGN

What's better than killing things? Killing them with friends.

Heading into
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
's closed online beta test, we found a bunch of features similar to what's available in the single player. The trial missions, for instance, were accessible around the starting town of Clyez City. Unlike in solo play, an avatar needs to be created before you can head out to fight monsters. Human, Newman, Beast, and robotic CAST types are available to choose from. Humans tend to be more balanced toward all the classes. Newmans lean toward the TECHNIC abilities, which resemble magical attacks. CASTs' strength lies in ranged armaments, and the Beasts are better at close combat and utilizing weapon-based skills.

After selecting a race and gender, a number of different faces, eyebrows, ears, hairstyles, eyes, and colors can be slapped on the avatar. There's also a body proportion option that lets you make a fat character, or an incredibly small one. However, since those sizes differ from the socially accepted ideal of lean and muscular, we're going to consider them useless options. It's then up to you what kind of pants, jacket, shoes, and voice type you want on your character. Once he or she is named, you're dropped into your private room area.


To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


From inside your room you'll be conducting a significant amount of business. Mostly this is done through a partner machine that floats near your window. From what we could access, the p machine (as it's called in-game) can be used to synthesize, store items, and redecorate a room's furniture. All of these functions require you to actually have items to begin with, so right when you start out the robot won't be as useful. Decorations for your pad can be purchased at special stores, located in town areas like Clyez City. For synthesizing items, you need item boards which can be found while fighting. Selecting the appropriate option at the p machine lets you insert something called a board, comparable to a recipie. The catch is, you need the required reagents for creation to be possible.

Once all required items are collected, only a specific amount of items can be produced until the board becomes unusable. For instance, a Dimate board (consumable health item) can only yield 20 items before the board is disposed of. A success rate is also listed, so there's a chance a synth attempt could fail. While our Dimate board has a 100 percent chance of success, our Twin Handgun board only has 82 percent. The rate of success of an item's creation can be affected by your p machine's statistics.

Feeding the machine items from your inventory give it statistical boosts in Striking, Ranged, TECHNIC, and Armor categories. Each item the machine is fed will boost different parameters by different amounts. This process is further complicated by your p machine's personal tastes. It prefers certain types of items, which you can discover through item donation experimentation. The p machine will let you know when you're handing over item types it doesn't like, and some even cause it's statistics to decrease. As it's fed, the machine will evolve and change shape. Eventually it'll take on a humanoid form, at which point it can be brought out into the field of battle with your character. For those who crave even further customization, the machine can be named and then renamed, if you want.


To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


Aside from the p machine, there's a common storage bin in your room that can house items accessible to any of the characters you create on your account. There's also a vision phone through which players can head off to other players' rooms, see who's visited their own, and search for player created shops. In order to visit another player's room, you'll need to have their card. You can search for rooms too, but having the card is the easiest, most direct way. Donating and accespting cards can be done through a few menu clicks as long as you're physically standing next to another player in the game world. It's easiest to do this with party members, since you'll all be in close proximity during battle. Lobby areas are best when out of battle, since they'll consist of players wandering around in search of parties for the next challenge.

Hopping out of your tiny personal quarters brings you to the galaxy map, where four worlds are visible. We could only access two: the GUARDIANS Colony and the neighboring planet of Parum. The game will assign you a class after a character is created. We'd picked Beast race and started out as a melee focused Hunter. Erik Brudvig of IGN Xbox picked the Human and started out as a Force class, who focus on TECHNIC attacks. If you're not happy with the class you've started with, it can be switched (for a fee) at a certain desk at any time. Class levels for Hunter, Ranger, and Force classes are retained even if switched away from, though only the active class can gain experience and level up by getting mission points.

We couldn't seem to access any of the Guardian missions, but we could do some rather quick sorties that weren't attached to any kind of narrative. Hopping through a gate called the Linear Line in Clyez City led us to the first mission. Before heading in, a number of options could be customized. Up to six players could participate in the fighting, but they didn't need to hop in all at the same time. Instead, latecomers could jump in while the mission was already underway. Rare items, objects of unprecedented greed in online games, could be collected from downed foes in a free-for-all method, or according to pre-set distribution regulations. Non-rare item looting rules could be set as well. Each mission has prerequisites for entry, like party members having to be at certain levels.


To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


Once actually inside a stage, players will move through different areas separated by doors. The general goal of each area is to destroy each enemy using melee hits, ranged attacks, and TECHNIC blasts. Afterwards dropped items can be collected, and occasionally a key will materialize to open the way forward. Each stage is divided up into a number of blocks. Should a party member get killed in action, they'll be sent to a lobby area just outside of the mission. They can then simply re-enter the mission area and rejoin the fighting.

You'll be graded on your mission performance after it's over, and assigned mission points and meseta as rewards. While experience gained by killing monsters will boost your avatar's personal level and statistics, the mission points will boost the class level, allowing more powerful special abilities to be used. The special abilities, called photon arts, change depending on what kind of weapon they're assigned to. Melee photon arts are called skills, ranged photon arts are bullets, and staff and magical item specials are called TECHNICs. Each class can use photon arts up to a certain level. Hunters, with their melee concentration, can use skills up to level 20, but bullets up to only level 10, and can't use TECHNICs at all. Rangers use bullets up to 20 and skills up to 10, with no ability to use TECHNICs. Finally Force characters can use level 1 skills, level 10 bullets, and up to level 20 TECHNICs.


To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


Experience allocation during battle varies depending on how much damage you deal. The more punishment you dole out, the more experience you rake in. So anyone hoping to coast through a fight by hanging back should know they're getting the least amount of benefit. In addition to your character and class levels, photon arts can be boosted as well with frequent use.

Other features include the ability to send mail back and forth between players, advertise for your own items on sale, and blacklist players you don't like. For more, keep checking back, as our adventures through the Guhral System continue.