Wind Slayer Review

Wind Slayer is a 2D side scrolling MMORPG(Massive Multi Online Roleplaying Game). The game is owned by publisher, Outspark, and is free to play. Revenue generated comes from the premium items which can only be obtained by purchasing them with real world money. The system requirements are generously low so even with a 7 year old computer, it should run fine.

The graphics in general are cartoonish, heavily resembling other games of this genre like Maple Story and Wonder King, though I would place Wind Slayer's graphics somewhere between the two. The graphics though do look a bit raw and unrefined. They cannot compete with some of the newer 2D side scrollers. The animations for attacks and other actions are very basic and consist of very few frames. Something I did find amusing were the word balloons that appeared from the monster every time I hit it.

The backgrounds though were fantastic. Towns were given very different artistic styles which helped me differentiate them much more easily. Quite often I find that towns are well drawn in RPGs but they don't vary much in design. In Wind Slayer, one town was given a Japanese cherry blossom theme and was very horizontal, while the next town over was a mining town that had an orange glow that had given the impression the time of day was dusk and was a vertical town, using many platforms and levels to travel upward.

There isn't much to say about the sound effects. It became repetitive after a few hours of hacking at monsters. The music was very appropriate for the game, but I would have liked it more if there were different songs for each area; the same song was played no matter where I went. After the second day, I found that I preferred to have all the sound effects and music turned off.

The majority of the game play consists of finding monsters, killing them, completing quests, and obtaining loot from the defeated monsters. Like most RPG's you eventually choose a class, after reaching level 10 and finishing an initiation quest. After reaching level 30 you can choose one of two sub-classes.
The first set of classes at level 10 are;
Warriors: Warriors are combat specialists that wear the strongest armor and wield swords and shields. Their sub classes are Beserkers and Paladins
Archers: Archers attack their enemies from afar with quick and deadly strikes. They can become Snipers or Beastmasters.
Mage: Mages wield powerful magic to strike down their foes. They can become Elementalists or Summoners.
Priest: Priests call upon holy powers to heal friends and smite foes. They become Bishops or Dark Priests.
Monk: Monks channel the energy of their bodies and minds to become masters of the martial arts. They can become Shaolin or Counters.
Rogue: Rogues spring from the shadows to deal deadly critical strikes. They can become Assassins or Trappers.(the class that I chose)

Choosing a class and delving further into the combat system with class specific attacks reduced the monotony of the game. The classes are different but melee between all the characters remained awfully similar. As a novice, I was jumping around trying to attack monsters, hoping that they would land in my hit box. Combat was pretty much tapping the same few buttons over and over with some maneuvering. If you've ever played a platformer before then you should familiar with this type of combat. The fact that the character is made stationary every time he attacks further adds to the tedium, as does the fact that many skills cannot be used in mid-air.

The PVP system, which is a heavily promoted aspect of the game was not fun at all during the novice stage, which was level 1 to 11 for me. It wasn't any different from attacking monsters except that the targets were much harder to hit and at times, became an exercise in futility. Using simple maneuvering, dashing, and double jumps, I was able to avoid 8 players who were all chasing me, as I was the last man on the field. There are also some design flaws in the arena map as it is possible for a group of players to stand in the corner and repeatedly tap the attack button, effectively stopping anyone from approaching them unharmed. Post-class advancement, PVP became much more interesting. My screen filled up with special effects each time the teams met each other in the arena field. Although this made PVP much more interesting, it still boiled down to the same repetitive tedious combat system that drags this visually stunning game down.

The controls were simple and easy to learn. The arrow keys controlled movement, and there was a hotbar for skills and items. They took a few hours to get used to, but once I did, my character felt like an extension of myself. Like the rest of the game, the controls seemed designed to keep things simple and easy to learn.

This is my first review I will have written for this blog. I was hoping I had chosen a game that would exceed my expectations to start this blog off well but unfortunately that was not the case. I don't see myself playing this game for another week. The game is far too repetitive and lacks any excitement or variance. Monsters were extremely predictable in their attacks, and at times their pathing became bugged and they would run away or in random directions. I wouldn't recommend this game. If you want to play a 2D side scroller, there are plenty of other ones out there.