Camon Hero Revived as CardMon Hero

Remember Camon Hero from Uforia? It’s a card based fantasy MMORPG that was supposed to begin open beta testing in early June 2010, but never did. Months went by with no word about when the game is actually going to launch or if it will ever launch. Then – out of the blue T3Fun announced that they would be launching Camon Hero World-wide as “Cardmon Hero”. Uforia left a lot of gamers upset when they completely abandoned Camon Hero back in June 2010. I’m actually not too surprised they pulled a stunt like this, as they’re not exactly well known for their class. Their Game Masters in Mercenary Wars and Red War (two games published by Uforia) are extremely unprofessional. I think the only playable MMORPG they have on their website is NosTale. Everything else they publish is trash. I think Mercenary Wars is actually the worst MMOFPS out there – much worse than Mission Against Terror from Suba Games. Anyway, I’m getting distracted (again). I’m just glad that Camon Hero isn’t dead and it’s actually going to release. The game’s closed beta began on November 9 or so, but there’s no word on when the open beta will begin yet.

CardMon Hero is one of the few card based MMORPGs out there. I think aside from CardMon Hero – the only other client based card game is Wizard101 – but that’s more of a kids MMORPG than CardMon. Plus it’s a turn based MMORPG, Cardmon is a bit more actiony. There are a few browser based MMOs with card mechanics – such as Urban Rivals, but those are completely different than Cardmon Hero. Cardmon Hero is a game that I think will appeal to a lot of people. It has low system requirements, fairly crisp anime inspired graphics, and a ton of unique skills. What I personally really like about EverQuest 2 from Sony Online Entertainment and The Lord of the Rings Online from Turbine is their unique skill systems. Cardmon Hero has a classless system where players have access to EVERY skill in the game. However, players can only equip skills if they’re using the appropriate weapon. Certain skills can only be equipped if you’re using a 2H sword, 1H sword, Staff, Etc. Skills in CardMon hero are in the form of cards. You don’t start with very many cards, so while you’re grinding and exploring, you’re also finding new cards, which are basically new skills. I think the only other MMORPGs without set classes are Uncharted Waters Online from Netmarble and Ultima Online from Electronic Arts.

I had a chance to play Cardmon Hero in its closed beta phase and I was quite impressed. The game has some 100+ skill cards and an equal amount of summon cards for a total of 200+ skills. The thing that makes the game really interesting is that each character has access to hundreds of skills. If you want to use some ranged attacks – simply equip a staff. If you want to use some melee AOE attacks simply equip a 2H sword. Your weapon type determines which skills you have access too, which is an incredible dynamic. Even though the game’s graphics aren’t nearly as pretty as Heroes of Three Kingdoms or Jade Dynasty, the game still offers a lot to do. It’s a game I’ll make sure to play in open beta.

Good and Bad MMORPG Publishers

With over 200 MMORPGs currently on the market, there are also quite a bit of MMORPG publishers. What exactly is an MMO publisher? They’re the guys who license MMORPGs / MMOs from Asia and bring them to North America and Europe. A common misconception is that publishers are responsible for a game’s development – and this is mostly not true. Publishers are responsible for localizing and distributing a game in a specific region, and that’s it. They don’t make the games they publish. Anyway. I wanted to talk about a few of the major publishers and give you my verdict on them. I won’t talk about any browser games publishers or social games publishers. I’ll focus on free to play client based game companies.

Aeria Games

Aeria Games is easily one of the biggest MMORPG publishers in North America. They publish numerous popular MMORPGs like Shaiya, Last Chaos and Grand Fantasia. They are also the company behind numerous less popular titles like the MMOFPS WolfTeam and the sci-fi MMORPG Megaten – which is based off the Shin Megami Tensei universe. Aeria Games has a very easy to navigate website and a huge selection of games, which I like. My only complaint against them is that they shut down so many good games – like Project Torque and Dragon Sky. Still, they’re one of the bigger and more diverisfied MMO publishers, so I like them.

Verdict: Good

ijji

ijji is a big North American and European publisher best known for their large variety of MMOFPS games. For some reason they REALLY love publishing these MMOFPS titles. Their most popular games include Karos Online, Rohan Online, Soul of the Ultimate Nation, Alliance of Valiant Arms and GunZ. They publish a ton of other games and are releasing other new titles like Genesis A.D. And Karma: Operation Barbarossa as well. I love ijji’s website as it’s easy to navigate. What I love most about them though is their easy to use ijji “reactor” program, which is basically Steam, but for free MMORPGs – at least the ones ijji publishers that is.

Verdict: Good

Uforia

Uforia is a fairly new free to play MMORPG publisher based in California. They’ve grown considerably in the last few years and publish Camon Hero, Mercenary Wars, Red War, NosTale and Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins. Their website is okay to use, but what I dislike most about them is their selection of games. Both ijji and Aeria Games have a lot of high quality titles, but Uforia… not so much. If you’ve ever played Mercenary Wars of Red War, you’ll agree with me that they are quite bad. Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins is equally bad, because Uforia hasn’t been able to work well with the game’s developer, so the game hasn’t been updated in ages and bugs aren’t even being fixed. Support on the game’s forums are bad too.

Verdict: Bad

WeMade Entertainment

WeMade Entertainment is a Korean MMORPG company but publishes and develops a bunch of free to play games here in the U.S. As well as world-wide. Their most successful games include Mir 2 and The Legend of Mir 3. Since those games released though, they haven’t done much else to push the genre forward. Their other games like Avalon Heroes and Digimon Battle were playable at best and nothing more. All of their games have poor graphics and a lousy interface.

Verdict: Bad

Well there you have it. A look into four MMORPG game publishers. I’ll probably write about other publishers in the future. What are your thoughts on these companies? Are they good or bad?

Another Delay for Camon Hero – When is it Coming Out?

This post will be a little different than usual, because I’m going to talk about an upcoming MMORPG from Uforia called Camon Hero. The game isn’t exactly 2D, but it has great anime MMORPG style graphics. I actually really like the game’s artstyle, but what I look most about it is its original gameplay, as the game mixes standard fantasy MMORPG action with trading card game elements. Most people think “Oh crap. Card based gameplay? It must be slow paced like Wizard101 and Urban Rivals”, but that isn’t the case. In fact, Camon Hero plays more like GhostX and Dragonica Online than anything else. So let me say this just once. Camon Hero isn’t slow paced.

I’ve actually been itching to play Camon Hero for quite a while now. Since the game was first announced actually. But I won’t get a chance to sink my teeth into it for a while, as the game was scheduled to launch its open beta on June 8, 2010 but the game’s publisher – Uforia delayed the open beta indefinitely. It’s now July 9, 2010 as I write this and still no Open beta, not even an announcement of when open beta will begin. This isn’t too surprising though, as I’ve been let down by Uforia on more than one occasion. Red War looked like a promising game, as it was supposed to be inspired by Diablo 2, but it was terrible. I thought Mercenary Wars would be fun, because I generally love MMOFPS games, but I couldn’t stand playing it for more than an hour. NosTale is an alright game, but it’s published globally as well as in the U.S. (through Uforia), and I’d rather play the global version.

I absolutely hate it when MMOs get delayed indefinitely because it makes me think that they’re never going to come out. I guess I think this way because games like Parabellum from GamersFirst and Huxley: The Dystopia from ijji have been delayed numerous times and show no sign of ever reaching commercial release. Nowadays, if an MMORPG an make it to the open beta phase, it pretty much means it’s going to release. So seeing a game in perpetual closed beta is a bad sign.

Hopefully Uforia will get their act together and do a better job of informing their community on the status of Camon Hero. It sucks that they’re so hush-hush about things. If there’s a problem with the developer or the license, they should at least tell their players. Uforia really can’t do much though, as they’re only publishing the game, not developing it. I sort of like Perfect World Entertainment as a company because they self publish all of their games. They can actually listen to play feedback and implement it in their games. I know they added WSAD controls to Battle of the Immortals because players asked for it. Anyway. Time to keep waiting!