by ByteStixSpirits, creatures, and humans have been blessed with technology and magic as a means of living thanks to ELEMENTAL: the power that dwells inside all of nature and the resting place of the gods.
300 years ago, lust for this power drove the citizens of this world into a Great War with one another. But four heroes stood up in the name of peace and would restore harmony to the land…
Centuries later, the monsters and spirits have grown violent. The Dragons awaken from a three century slumber. A wave of tragic incidents ensues…
Each country dispatches their knights and adventurers to investigate the recent outbreak of bizarre happenings. What is the meaning of all this?
Now you must take up your arms and armor. On your journey you shall encounter beautiful witches, humble townspeople, despondent warriors, breathtaking vistas, and wicked adversaries.
Let nothing prevent you from solving the mystery behind the recent chaos! Our world is in peril.
Yup, and that’s the story behind Elemental Knights R – not that, honestly, from what I played it was easy to understand.
The localization in this game is.. terrible.
WHAT IS ELEMENTAL KNIGHTS R?
Elemental Knights R, which I’m going to refer to henceforth as just “Elemental Knights” because I’m lazy and don’t want to include the R at the end of every mention is an MMORPG.
An actual, full-fledged MMORPG.
It’s set in a large Anime-inspired world featuring and I quote – “borderless access” – as in, it’s an open-field MMO. With minimal loading screens. Honestly, I was surprised.
Although the game looks a little dated, the game itself is a kind of MMO I don’t see often on mobile devices.
We’re often so bombarded with auto-play, auto-combat MMOs that I almost didn’t know what to do when the game didn’t auto-anything for me. Which makes this an A+ in that regard right out the gate.
HOW IS THE COMBAT?
The combat is what you’d expect out of a game like this: It’s tab-target, but – at the very least, as a Mage, I possessed the ability to kite and attack.
Which felt.. unusual. It didn’t let me cast actual skills on the move but it allowed me to auto-attack while running away.
It looked very odd, I’ll be the very first to admit that. And the combat itself was pretty basic and generic, but it didn’t offer any form of auto-combat so I actually had to do everything by myself.
If you’re looking for a fast-paced action combat system or – heck – even a fast-paced tab-target combat system then this probably isn’t for you.
Although the game doesn’t offer auto-combat the combat itself was very slow and felt a little clunky.
CLASSES AND CHARACTER CREATION?
When I was told to try this out I was assured that it had a lot of character customization – and it’s honestly not bad.
You can play as 4 different classes: The Fighter, Cleric, Thief and Wizard.
You’re also given the ability to create your character, choosing between some pre-designed faces, hairstyles and hair colors.
For an Anime MMO it isn’t bad. It’s a lot better than most Asobimo games and they’re widely acknowledged as being some of the best in the Anime niche.
But overall it was still very limiting.
MY THOUGHTS
I love MMOs. I have two channels focused on them, so naturally.
Elemental Knights is an interesting take on it – if a little difficult to understand.
I love games that don’t hand-hold you with auto-play and auto-combat features, and this didn’t.
But at the same time, I’m not sure if that’s because the game just didn’t have the funding to do so.. because honestly, it doesn’t look like that high quality of a game.
Which is a shame because it could’ve been a fantastic game if it didn’t feel like someone ran a sub-par Asian MMO through Google Translate.
