Character creation in Scions of Fate is very limited, especially to non-paying users. When creating a character you can choose the following: Name, Class, Voice (which is never used), and hair color (out of just a few pre-determined options).
What's really odd is that there are two extra boxes in the creation screen, Hair Style and Face, neither of which you are allowed to edit. Oh, and for some reason, the choices are referred to as Alpha, Gamma, Beta, and other weird names.
Another thing I found odd, but didn't notice until later, you can only create a character of the gender your account is set as. That's right, if your account information shows you as male, you can only make male characters! This is by far one of the oddest things I’ve seen in an MMORPG so far.
Back on topic, you can't edit your hairstyle, or facial features without the aid of Ncash (Special points obtained through using real money), and even with those your choices are quite limited. J
Story
The story in Scions of revolves around an ancient struggle for power, involving many different "Houses" that were trying to understand the mysteries of the universe. As these houses began to grow in power and prosper, two houses in particular became very powerful. These two houses, the Chaos and the Order, fought many battles against each other, and while the Order almost won, the Chaos pushed them back in the end, resulting in a stalemate.
The story ends here, and the player's journey begins by joining the Chaos or the Order, and fighting for control of the world.
The story itself isn't really progressed throughout the game, as most of the quests (see below) don't add to the storyline besides a select few, most being the "Class Advancement" type. I did notice an occasional quest that involved the past, but nothing significant that explains the story line. Oh, and the story isn't explained in the game, you have to look it up.
Gameplay
Leveling in the game is how I would imagine it should be, it supports large groups of people in the beginning, and slowly nudges you to work with smaller groups, or even just yourself. You should try to join parties while leveling, as working with groups will defiantly advance you in the beginning, and give you a social etiquette lesson at the same time!
Making money is hard to do in the beginning, but can be found more easily as you progress. Simple things such as fighting monsters can yield rewards such as rare weapons, boxes, and other goodies. All of which can be sold. However, you won't survive on drops alone, you will need to purchase Ncash (see below) to survive the higher levels.
Game Features
Scions of Fate has several features that can be explored and enjoyed, or not so much enjoyed as tolerated.
Couple System - This is a new system to Scions of Fate, and allows a male and a female character to become a couple, by being online at the same time and helping one another, you will receive bonuses. As this system does not allow same-sex pairs, there has been some slight controversy over this feature.
Crafting System - This system was a part of the game I didn't understand. Basically, you can choose one of three crafting types: Weapons, Armor, and Explosives. Weapon and Armor crafting is pretty self explanatory, but the Explosive crafting doesn't create actual explosives, it creates pills that cause a massive boost in power for a short time. Does anyone see a resemblance to drug, or is it just me?
Back on topic, creating ANYTHING, even level ten weapons, will result in a waste of money and time. Materials needed to build the weapons cost more than the weapons themselves, and it's harder to find that materials than the weapon.
Master/Apprentice System - This allows a level 55+ character to become a master of a lower level character, allowing bonuses to each character. The student is allowed to use (slightly damage reduced) versions of high leveled skills that the master has obtained. The master gains stats and experience when the student levels up.
Alchemy - Almost a mirror of the Crafting system, this deals with plants.
You can only do alchemy and collect alchemy in an area called the Southern Forest. Guess what inhabits the southern forest! That's right, tons of level 100+ mobs that will attack you on sight! I died about six times before collecting enough plants to create a certain potion. What did that potion do, you might ask? Recovers 2,000 HP, best quest EVER!
Quite frankly, SoF falls right on its butt on the matter of support. I've sent in a report or two in the time I played this game, so I waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally, after THREE weeks of waiting I received a reply for my ticket. The answer seemed, well downright half-assed, they didn't seem to care about my problem. I had sent in a near page long report on a bug I was experiencing, and how it was completely stopping the progress of one of my characters (it took so long to get a response I had to start a new one). When I read the response, it basically stated that this bug is known, and will be fixed via server maintenance as soon as possible. Why do I doubt that?
As you may have inferred from what I just said, bugs and issues with the game are rarely addressed, let alone fixed. This causes massive problems, as some of these bugs can completely halt your ability to play the game.
Will I need my wallet?
While SoF can be enjoyed by a gamer who only plays occasionally, players who plan to (successfully) reach level sixty or above, you should plan to get your wallet out. Ncash (currency obtained by paying real money) is extremely helpful when it comes to playing at a lower level, and is a near necessity when you reach level 75 or higher. Ncash can be used to buy things such as costumes, power up items, upgrading items, and can be sold to other players for a reasonable price.
Quests
Nothing really to point out here, the quests in Scions of Fate are almost all the common fetch and receive quests. You kill monsters, you get items from them, and you gain EXP, weapons, armor, and various goodies.
Graphics
The graphics are where SOF shines! It's not that the graphics are super realistic; it's just how the graphics are displayed. The entire game has an ancient Asian art style to it, giving it a very classical feel. The scenery is quite amazing, I found myself wandering around the world of SoF just to see what the world looked like, dying quite a few times in the process. The armor and weapon animation is also quite stylish; I’ve never quite seen so much detail put into armors and weapons in any other MMORPG that I’ve played. At last, we come to the skills! Skills are the main way of fighting in Scions of Fate, and are nothing short of breathtaking! It's every six year olds dream, lots of flashing lights, things that go boom, and flashy lights! Did I mention flashy lights already? Anyway, I found I was able to entertain myself during leveling periods by just watching the skill animation go off. I'm pretty sure that you could hypnotize yourself with those skills, that or cause blindness.
Community
One thing I noticed about Scions of Fate was the dwindling community. At one point in the game, I was actually able to name every character who was above level 80 from sheer memory (this would change weekly due to the character transfer, see below for details). While the community is [very] small, you can still find some very kind and helpful people who will be willing to get you adapted to the world of SoF. On the other side of that coin of course, there are some not so nice people who will try and trick you into doing things that will result in bad things happening to your character.
A unique aspect of this game that I’ve never quite seen before is the Skill Transfer item. In a nutshell, this item (it costs $30!) allows one character to transfer his/her stats, skills, and even class onto another character. Usually, two characters will arrange it so one will sell their character for money (usually gold), and then the other will use the transfer so he inherits the abilities of the seller.
Performance
For the most part, Scions of Fate handles quite well, you should be able to get through most of your daily activities without facing much lag. However, during server wide events where nearly all characters are present, you will face horrible lag that sometimes causes the entire game to crash. So unless you have a very powerful computer, I would suggest avoiding scenarios where loads of characters using bright colorful attacks.
User Friendliness
Scions of Fate has the average display features to allow smoother game play. There's a HP and Chi (Mana) bar, there's a chat box, a skill bar, a minimap, and an area on the bottom right of the screen where your buffs/powerups appear. Everything is movable.
Overall
Overall, I can't really suggest SoF to a broad catagory of players. While some will find it entertaining, many will find it mildly frustrating to play through, assuming they arn't hypnotized by the shiny lights that is.
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