Monato Esprit launches out of beta

by Seraphina Brennan on Jul 17th 2009 2:30PM

Betas, Fantasy, Business models, Launches, Free-to-play, Casual

Monato Esprit, a game that has been gracing our Betawatch column for some time now, has recently skipped completely over the open beta stage and jumped right out into the open world.

For those not in the know with Monato Esprit's premise, the world is a fantasy dreamland corrupted by the powers of dark, evil nightmares. Players get to take on the role of an archon, a winged hero who is tasked with fighting against the evil of the nightmares to restore the dreamworld of Monato Esprit.

The game's graphics fall into the "chibi" style of anime, taking on a very cute and simultaneously whimsical appearance. The game is free-to-play and will be supported with a cash shop powered by developer Reality Gap's new currency, MetaTIX. Seattle based Reality Gap will be extending their MetaTIX services beyond Monato Esprit, however this game marks the versatile currency's first use.

Interested in jumping in? Sign up with a MetaTIX account first (a bit backwards, hence why we're telling you) and then go to Monato Esprit's website to download the client.

Source

Tags: beta, chibi, currency, economy, f2p, free-to-play, launch, me, metatix, microtransaction, monato-esprit, reality-gap

Reader Comments (2)

BIG caveat it seems, from browsing that site:

"Monato Esprit is the first MMO to use the e-currency MetaTIX. Players purchase MetaTIX and use them like admission tickets to gain entrance to special areas in the world and purchase various services such as teleportation. MetaTIX also serve as the in-game currency for the world of Monato Esprit, much like “gold” in other MMOs, and can be used to purchase items from other players."

So it's actually real money trading for in-game currency. From what little I can browse about the game in its forums, you can only sell items to other players, no vendor trash.

I can't really say more without downloading the game client and trying to play the game itself, but that's got to be a first, and a really odd gameplay design.

This game had some awesome concepts before it was butchered by Reality Gap for their "MetaTix" system. They even removed the "Fate Card System" that was in the original game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuCppyaBWxU. Everyday you would draw a new card and it would effect your stats positively in some way it was a fun part of the game.

Also really disliked how they kinda hacked together an intro to "teach" new players how to play and redid the classes and skills, making them more generic. Though the NPCs are pretty amusing in the game which was pretty much retained. Another issue is that because of the MetaTIX system you get alot of garbage items from monsters that have no purpose whatsoever..because you can't sell them to NPCs. So you end up tossing alot of useless things.

Followed this game for awhile because the art and character design was by Yi Lee. http://www.tatoomcity.net/ I'm sad it was carved up so much.