ArcheAge's third Korean closed beta phase officially kicked off last night (or was that this morning -- it's all running together), and as a result, a couple of interesting new videos are floating around the interwebs. First up is a lengthy look at the game's character creation options followed by a 15-minute romp through the sandpark title's expansive world courtesy of an unedited play session video.
While the character creation clip is pretty spiffy in its own right, it pales in comparison to the nifty swimming animations and underwater effects on display in the second clip. Exploration is the order of the day here, as we don't get to see any combat or crafting. There's plenty of eye candy though, and you check out both clips after the cut.
What's with the majority of korean mmos being so skimpy with character creation? I realize there's the face paint options, but face presets? Aion's the only korean developed game so far that's done it right. I guess it's just on par with the substandard gameplay most of these games have...
@Manticon Only three of the reported-to-be eight races are in at this point, so I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that character creation is very basic because it's still in development.
You can add Tera as well as Blade & Soul to that list.
Granted, they're not going to release in NA for quite some time, but they exist and they do have quite a few more options on display than what's shown in that video.
It's worth noting that our first glimpse of Tera's character creation did not include the facial sliders, only presets as seen in that video. It's entirely possible they'll be adding sliders down the line like Bluehole did with Tera. However, given the response to a question regarding this in an interview (where the developer said the engine wouldn't play nice with it), I wouldn't get my hopes up.
The only other impressions I have from the video are that the cat people (I apologize for not knowing their official name) remind me somewhat of the Na'vi from Avatar, and that I still have no idea why beard color is fixed while hair color is changeable. I think they did a fairly good job of keeping them similar enough, but there are only three hair colors (so far?) for the human-analogue males.
There will be more videos going up tonight and tomorrow, all throughout the week, Mr. Reahard. Coming soon is a 15 minute gameplay clip from the human starting area. It's of a person who knows where all the quests are and how to do them, and it shows off some graphics. It's at nighttime, though.
hmm.. can't say the character creation impressed me much. It's certainly pretty but dreadfully limited on choice reminding me quite a bit of Vindictus (fun game don't get me wrong but character creation diversity is sorely lacking)
Character creation aside, the gameworld visuals are positively stunning, however, as my collectors edition FF14 dust collector proves, pretty does not a good game make... so color me curious enough to keep an eye out for more on this one behind GuildWars2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Never understand why these Korean/Asian mmos always seem to have great looking worlds and environments, and the western mmos always look like crap graphically or mediocre at best.
AoC is about the only one that could stand toe to toe with a asian mmo graphically. (if someone says LOTRO, I'm going to punch you)
It's all in aesthetics, influences, and what you are looking for.
Most of the Guild Wars imagery/backgrounds/world were done by Korean artists and I notice certain Asian-quirks in the designs. This makes it a bit "other-worldly".
I am fine with American graphics in certain MMOs, it's just what are you willing to accept. Some people may complain, but it's all about art-direction and style in the end and how well does it work.
