Playing Asda Story is like sitting down with a bowl of chicken noodle soup it's not usually filling, but it's comforting and gets the job done. I don't overtly hate the game or absolutely adore it either, rather my appreciation for the game lingers somewhere between those two extremes. It's not the best of the free-to-play games, but I've certainly experienced worse. The one thing that could set the game apart from the competition is the soul mate system.
Players start by crafting their character, which lets you choose from an assortment of hairstyles and initial clothing options. You then pick your profession, which can either be a warrior, archer, or mage. After all of that is decided upon you're done and then thrust into the game. From the start, the thing I was most disappointed with was the lack of professions; you get the most common and basic three. The professions do splinter off into separate skill trees, but it's not enough to make me feel special. For instance, if you chose to go with the mage profession, you can further tailor your character by engaging in skill trees that lean more to the destructive magic, healing magic, buff/debuffs, or either mix and match to a degree.
For the most part, the gameplay mechanics of Asda Story should be very familiar to anyone who has ever played a MMORPG. You'll talk to NPCs to get quests, which mostly boil down to "killing x amount of creatures" and delivering items from one place to the next. You've got a quest tracker, monsters dropping loot, items you can sell to merchants, a hot bar that you can fill with actions, etc. The game is simply too similar to other games out there on the market. Much like with most all free-to-play games, Asda Story gets pretty grind heavy once you've reached the level 15 mark. There's a bunch of quests to do and enemies to kill, but you'll still be forced to camp areas and fight until a new level is reached.
Despite the game playing like most games out there, Asda Story does feature a few new additions or tweaks. First up, each character comes with a special guardian, which activates once you've performed enough special attacks. After you've done the required amount, a guardian will hover over your head and help in combat as long as you keep using abilities to keep their meter filled up enough. As a warrior, I had a guardian that looked like a lion in a knight's armor he used his big sword to do extra melee damage with me. Another neat idea is the dig system, which allows you to take a shovel, get digging, and seeing if you can manage to find anything. Besides digging for items, you can also receive crafting supplies and experience too. While it might feel like a bother most of the time, I ended up purchasing an automatic shovel, which is scheduled to work until I either stop it or my bag is full. The automatic shovel is an item mall exclusive, but I found it a nice way to gain items and a little experience while I was away doing something else for a short time; it's certainly better than having your character simply stand around in the game and do nothing.
The most interesting addition to the game is the soul mate system, which allows you to partner up with someone for a special cause; think the marriage system of other games, though this one freely open to any type of relationship. The system works by having two people decide on being each other's soul mate. Once you have a soul mate tied to your character, the two of you benefit off each other by working together as much as you can. When you're in close proximity, for instance, you can do increased damage, have special resurrection and healing skills, and when you're far apart, you can instantly warp to where your soul mate is in the game. If you and your soul mate find yourselves playing at two different times, however, you're still going to be benefiting off each other, as you can still help gain them experience just for playing the game by yourself. While I found it hard to jump into the game and find some random stranger to become soul mates with, I could easily see this being a great feature for friends wanting to play the game together, or a way for you and a significant other to play the game and help each other too.
The game's crafting system broken into two phases isn't too engaging or difficult, but I found it somewhat fun to dabble in. First up, you can dissemble weapons and armor you don't need, which can help you gather materials you need for actually creating items. After you've got the required items to make the goods, you simply click a button and the game does the rest instant weapon (armor and items too). Furthermore, as you make more items, you'll level up your crafting ability, and thus be able to make different items. You can even use things like upgrade scrolls to improve an existing item and socket in Sowels, which are special items that can improve things like attack power, defensive power, dexterity, stamina, and energy.
Also, like most free-to-play MMOs, the item mall plays a big factor in Asda Story. While you can certainly play the game completely free of charge, the game "almost" makes it so you have to buy something. Exclusive pets you can't get any other way. Auto digging shovels. Weapons and armor that's better than a lot of things you find as drops. The best mall items I found were the mounts, which I'd highly recommend buying if you're going to spend any significant amount of time in the game. Since the game's world is so big and it often takes a lot of aimless running between places, having a way to improve your speed is certainly a worthwhile thing. The game has a handful of mounts with various costs and rental length times.
Graphically, Asda Story does look quite nice, as the character models are cute and the enemies are often imaginative and animated nicely; the whole world pops when it comes to the color palette of the game. The only downside I had with the graphics is the fact that they're not jaw dropping amazing (rather just quaint) and the environments are a bit too sparse. The sound effects and background music are decent, but nothing that's really substantial either way.
Asda Story is a fun game and could really be a blast if you've got a friend to join you and team with as your soul mate. For someone like me who is more into solo play, Asda Story didn't have me foaming at the mouth until I could jump into the game again to play, nor did it have enough to keep me around for long. It's got a lot of levels to earn, but the grinding nature of it left a lot to be desired. It won't satisfy all the gamers out there, but it does enough right to at least warrant a checking out.
The most interesting addition to the game is the soul mate system, which allows you to partner up with someone for a special cause; think the marriage system of other games, though this one freely open to any type of relationship. The system works by having two people decide on being each other's soul mate. Once you have a soul mate tied to your character, the two of you benefit off each other by working together as much as you can. When you're in close proximity, for instance, you can do increased damage, have special resurrection and healing skills, and when you're far apart, you can instantly warp to where your soul mate is in the game. If you and your soul mate find yourselves playing at two different times, however, you're still going to be benefiting off each other, as you can still help gain them experience just for playing the game by yourself. While I found it hard to jump into the game and find some random stranger to become soul mates with, I could easily see this being a great feature for friends wanting to play the game together, or a way for you and a significant other to play the game and help each other too.
The game's crafting system broken into two phases isn't too engaging or difficult, but I found it somewhat fun to dabble in. First up, you can dissemble weapons and armor you don't need, which can help you gather materials you need for actually creating items. After you've got the required items to make the goods, you simply click a button and the game does the rest instant weapon (armor and items too). Furthermore, as you make more items, you'll level up your crafting ability, and thus be able to make different items. You can even use things like upgrade scrolls to improve an existing item and socket in Sowels, which are special items that can improve things like attack power, defensive power, dexterity, stamina, and energy.
Graphically, Asda Story does look quite nice, as the character models are cute and the enemies are often imaginative and animated nicely; the whole world pops when it comes to the color palette of the game. The only downside I had with the graphics is the fact that they're not jaw dropping amazing (rather just quaint) and the environments are a bit too sparse. The sound effects and background music are decent, but nothing that's really substantial either way.
Asda Story is a fun game and could really be a blast if you've got a friend to join you and team with as your soul mate. For someone like me who is more into solo play, Asda Story didn't have me foaming at the mouth until I could jump into the game again to play, nor did it have enough to keep me around for long. It's got a lot of levels to earn, but the grinding nature of it left a lot to be desired. It won't satisfy all the gamers out there, but it does enough right to at least warrant a checking out.
Comments
Post a Comment