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Friday, June 15, 2007
Granado Espada
This game entered the Singapore gaming industry with a bang. Television and newspaper advertisements were frequently seen. The advertisements weren't on low budget either. It was shown on peak television hours of around 7-10 pm, and the newspaper advertisements took up a few pages. There was hype all about it. Schools were talking about using them for education, gamers were talking about it being the next big thing. A few hundred thousand players starting playing it within a week.
What's all that about?
A revolutionary game from the so-called "legendary" Hakkyu Kim (I have no idea why people call him legendary), this Korean game entered the English gaming world showing off many awards, including Best Graphics and Game of the Month at the 2006 Korea Game Awards.
So, you've heard or read the phrase "experience the bond of trinity" many times. This game is unlike other MMORPGs out there, in the sense that this game allows you to play up to three characters at a time. This new system, called Multi-Character Control (MCC), makes life a lot easier, and also makes the game a lot more interesting.
Say your elementalist is up in the front line, taking a bad beating. You call your elementalist back, bringing your fighter to take the beating and fend off the attackers. After that, you get your scout to heal your elementalist. After that, your elementalist can cast a devastating spell to end the battle. All this, can be done by one player.
There are five different types of heroes you can choose. The fighter, musketeer, wizard, scout and the elementalist.
The fighter is your usual warrior who goes to the front line to fight, and also to take some damage for your party. Highly versatile, he can wield swords, sabres, great swords, rapiers, polearms, javelins, and pistols.
The musketeer is the killer in the game. Wielding powerful guns (usually rifles), his damage is fatal. High damage to single targets, not good at mass killing. Not recommended for him to go to the front line.
The wizard is the one who buffs others. Casting spells to strengthen or protect others, he makes a good support character.
The scout is the healer. This guy keeps your party alive. Although he can wield daggers and set up traps, the damage is weak and not many use this hero as a fighter.
The elementalist is the mass killer. Possessing lethal area of effect (AoE) spells, he can easily wipe out groups of enemies. Unfortunately, he is easily killed and walks slower as he takes on higher level spells
Back to the game. You start off with a family. Your heroes will travel around the world with a common family name. I chose Latin names for all my heroes because Latin is nice. My family name, Veneficus, means magical.
Leveling up is generally easy. With three characters, you can take on monsters two to three levels higher than you. The characters also have a good AI system in them. Press a button, and they will start fighting monsters around them automatically. Press another button, and they will pick up all the loot from the monsters around them. This makes the grinding in between levels rather bearable.
Granado Espada won the Best Graphics award. I believe that they deserve it. The world is beautifully made, and so are the characters. Often you'll hear people saying about how hot the girls in Granado Espada are. Two of the hot girls have joined my family. =) You'll rarely see any graphical glitches or bugs. Find a black patch of nothingness in the middle of nowhere and you'll be considered lucky. Even the light sources are taken into account. Light near the source will be brighter, and further away, things start to become a little darker.
The music is wonderful too. Whenever the music starts playing or changes, the title of the song and its composer will be shown in a little corner at the bottom. One issue I have with the music is that 95% of the songs in dungeons are all techno music. Repetitive *boom boom boom* starts playing all day long.
The gameplay interface is also good. Everything is well-placed and thought of. Nothing in the interface looks really out of place or really empty. Handling the skills of three characters might sound hard, but it isn't. Q to U are the skills for your first character, A to J for your second and Z to M for your third. One issue I have is that when whispering to other players, another chat box will appear. This chat box cannot be unselected, so when pressing out commands, things like "qqqqhhhzzzz" start appearing in the chat box.
Quests aren't too bad. Though I usually complain about how the quest givers just send us on an errand, making us a delivery man, the rewards for delivering something is actually good. Hunting quests aren't a bore too. The quests are perfectly suited to your level, so you won't receive a quest which is too easy or too hard for you. I also like how you get thrown into a specific scene just for a quest. What do I mean? You start a quest, and you'll be teleported into another scene, free of other players. That place is just for you. Then you'll have to go on the route and accomplish your mission. If you play Guild Wars, it is something like that, but on a much smaller scale. There are also quests where you have to fight NPCs. I find this really fun as it is pretty challenging and it feels like a PvP. The only problem is that this are the only quests which are given too early.
The following features are for the higher leveled, and the game is still currently in pre-open beta so it is not implemented yet. Therefore I can't say much about it.
There are raids, where a huge party will go on a hunt. There'll usually be a mega boss to kill and the loot will be great. There is also a war. A war between the republicans and royalists. Factions (guild/clan) can also go on a colony war, where they will fight for areas in the world of Granado Espada. Yes, a faction can own a place in the game. Just two days ago the first colony war was held.
This game is soon going to be pay to play. At the looks of it, they might change what they did in possibly a years time.
Have I said how nice the sound of the rifle is? Gosh I can practically hear it for hours. *Bang!* *Click* *Bang!* *Click*.
Granado Espada Trailer (1:49)
Granado Espada Features (3:40)
Graphics: 8.6
Sound: 8.7
Gameplay: 8.5
Lasting appeal: 8.3
Overall: 8.3
posted @ 9:41 pm
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