Lost Saga MMO Has Awesome Graphics

Lost Saga, a fighting MMO from OGPlanet, has some really awesome anime inspired graphics. The graphics are actually a mix of Western and Eastern animations, as they blend graphics from games like Cloud Nine from Netgame and Team Fortress 2 from Valve. I’m surprised other new MMORPGs don’t opt for “easy on the eyes” style cartoony graphics, as in my opinion games with brightly colored anime graphics are the best. At least in terms of graphics. I loved the visuals in Battlefield Heroes, Bright Shadow and even Luna Online. One of the main benefits of cartoony graphics is low system requirements. Brand spankin’ new MMORPGs like Martial Heroes and Vindictus look great, but not everyone can play them due to the high system requirements. I figure games like Mabinogi and Secret of the Solstice are popular because they’re easily accessible. Shiny new graphics aren’t always the best, as they require most expensive graphics cards to run.

I think newer games need to start looking closely at games like Lost Saga for inspiration. Lost Saga seems to be the most popular fighting MMO out there and even found its way into the World Cyber Games tournaments. The game is more popular than Mini Fighter Online from Netmarble and Rumble Fighter from OGPlanet. The other reason why Lost Saga is rockin is because of its incredible amount of variety. The game has like 20+ playable characters which can all be leveled up individually. Players can switch between them mid game as well, so if you ever get bored of playing one “class” you can simply switch! Some new games like Heroes in the Sky also have excellent variety, but other newer titles seem to forget that gamers WANT variety. Variety and choice in my opinion is what makes Lost Saga so fun. Gameplay of course is important too.

Seriously though. I appreciate pretty 3D graphics as much as the next guy, but I sometimes think that better graphics do more harm than good. The most popular free MMORPGs today are the simplest ones. Games like RuneScape and Dungeon Fighter Online for example have simple graphics that most computers can run without lag. 3D MMORPGs on the other hand tend to be less accessible all around, at least the newer ones. So MMO Developers. I urge you guys to take a page from Lost Saga’s book and focus on making your games more fun and varied rather than “pretty”.

LaTale vs MapleStory vs WonderKing

There are three major free to play 2D side scrolling MMORPGs currently out there. MapleStory from Nexon is by far the largest as it’s old and established. The game has been available since 2003. Then we have LaTale which is by OGPlanet, which was released to compete with MapleStory. The graphics and art style are a bit different, but the core gameplay is for the most part identical. The one real difference is that LaTale has PvP while MapleStory does not. Then we have WonderKing from Ndoors. WonderKing sort of combines the fun aspects of both MapleStory and LaTale and adds a bit of its own touch. The game has sleeker 2D graphics, PvP, plenty of quests and more.

Out of the three my favorite is still MapleStory, as it’s been around forever. Since it’s been around so long the game has much more content than its competitors. In fact, the game now has over 12 different playable classes and each of those classes have 3 job advancements, for a total of 36+ playable classes. Plus, Nexon has been updating the game often with more and more new areas and classes, so that’s really awesome. Nexon also has the following games – Mabinogi, Vindictus, Combat Arms and Dungeon Fighter Online.

WonderKing is a far second. The game is certainly fun and well worth the download, but if you’ve played MapleStory before, the two games are just way too similar. You’ll just feel like you’ve ‘been there’ before if you play WonderKing. The PvP in the game is pretty interesting though, but you really have to invest a lot of time into the game to get to the fun parts of the PvP arenas. One issue with WonderKing is that it’s not nearly as popular as MapleStory, so finding people to party with and people to sell your items to may take a bit longer. Luckily though, the game has an awesome auction house system, which is something MapleStory has been missing for years.

LaTale is by OG Planet and comes in third place in my opinion. The game’s artstyle is distinctly different than both MapleStory and WonderKing and come off as weird to me. It’s published by OGPlanet, so you can always use your login for Lost Saga, Hockey Dash and Rumble Fighter for the game and it’ll work fine. In terms of PvP though, LaTale takes the #1 spot. It has the most variety in PvP and it’s also the most balanced, as there’s one option to equalize everyone in terms of level and gear for the duration of the PvP battle. This makes it so PvP actually takes skill and teamwork.

All three Free MMORPGs are good though, so make sure to try them all. I still think MapleStory is the best though, but if you guys disagree, let me know in the comments!