So we Played the New Elyon MMORPG – 2020 First Impressions and Thoughts

I never expected to say this about the game, having played it as Ascent: Infinite Realm – but after playing it for several hours over the weekend.. I can say, with utmost certainty, that this was a ton of fun to play.

So Mrs Stix and I had the opportunity to jump into the South Korean version of the game ahead of its release in North America and Europe next year – hopefully – and this game is a substantial improvement over A:IR.
There are very large differences between the two games: Where A:IR largely took place in the skies, with a plethora of aerial activities, aerial PvP, aerial exploration and combat, Elyon is much more grounded and much more of a traditional MMO.
But that doesn’t make the game any less original or enjoyable.

You begin the game by choosing your faction, followed by your race and class. I wanted to go Blue because I’ve always been an Alliance player in WoW, an Elyos in Aion.. I just gravitate to the “good” side.
Interestingly enough, both factions have the same 4 races: Human, Elf, little racoon dude and Orc. There are currently 5 classes available, 2 melee, 2 casters and one ranged. Worth noting here is the fact that none of the classes are actually gender locked.
Meaning you can have male casters and female berserkers. The only gender locks in-game are the little racoon dudes. Unfortunately they have no female option, sorry furries.

The character creator was a lot better than I’d anticipated it being. It provided plenty of options to craft quite an impressive character. I feel like it was still a little inferior to Black Desert’s, but it felt like somewhere between BDO and ArcheAge.
Regardless, both Mrs Stix and I made some beautiful looking characters. And yes, before we go any further.. you could definitely edit the.. necessary assets to fully appreciate the game. You guys are welcome.

After creating your character you’re thrown directly into the story with a small introduction to the game and its mechanics, and then.. then you’re presented with a large world to go out and explore.
The world is completely open – there are no loading screens separating any of the areas from one another. It is completely, 100% open with the exception of the dungeons and raids.
It was refreshing to see, considering the vast majority of what we receive these days are either hub-MMOs or gated behind segregated zones. And those have their place – they do. But there’s just something freeing about having a large, open world to explore that you can’t replicate anywhere else.

While we both definitely had some difficulty understanding some of the quests – specifically the ones that required we utilize specific features, dragging gems into gear, following instructions on how to dismantle or upgrade, the majority of the game made perfect sense.
You accepted quests, you move from Point A to Point B to undergo those quests, then back to Point A to complete them.
However we did note that after a certain point in the game we came across a wall that prevented us from continuing the story without first hitting the level required. And to obtain that level, you were required to complete these “green quests,” that typically had you go out and kill x monsters.
This was the case all the way up to level 35, 36? I think, which is where we finished playing. The soft cap was level 40, with the max level cap being 50 if the world map is to be believed.
So leveling itself wasn’t too difficult – in about 5 to 6 hours we were almost at the soft cap. Being forced into doing those grinds though was a little tedious, but they might end up tweaking the rates a little bit. Maybe even add some diversity into the quest-type.

The main story actually had a story. I couldn’t follow it due to the language barrier, but it was definitely there. Not nearly as prevalent as in some MMOs but I’m glad to see there’s a reason to play through the game outside of just “hitting level cap.”
I did notice that – at least at the level we were at, which again was roughly mid 30s, there was still no form of flying.
We could glide, but we had no access to any type of aerial content. I’m pretty sure there’s still supposed to be aerial content in-game, right? I’m pretty sure I read that while they were toning that down, it was still expected to remain a core part of the game.
There were also dungeons, unfortunately I believe the first one was at.. level 35? And neither of us ever unlocked it before we had to turn in for the evening.
Raids are also present in the game and they’re something I’m definitely looking forward to trying out. I’ve seen some videos of them and man.. I’m excited.
PvP.. I didn’t get to experience. I don’t know when you gain access to PvP but at the same time, with how little we understood of the game in Korean.. it’s probably for the best we didn’t participate. I guarantee you it would’ve ended in us getting absolutely destroyed.

And finally, the combat. The combat felt great. Not amazing, but a vast improvement over Ascent: Infinite Realm. A:IR was tab-target, and not the good kind.
Elyon is full-action. You can aim your abilities, you require no target at all. It felt smooth. The animations were fluid and your skills actually felt impactful.
I’m glad that they opted to take an action route considering Elyon is from the very same developers of TERA – TERA is an action MMO that to date still has fantastic combat.
Like TERA, you possess the option of upgrading your abilities. Extra damage, reduced cooldown. These additives are unlocked periodically as you continue to level and are limited by a maximum number of points you can accumulate.

Overall, Elyon was a lot of fun to play. This was much better than I thought it was going to be. This was not sponsored at all – these are just our opinions on a game – a new, upcoming MMORPG slated for Western release in 2021.
I look forward to playing the game, even though it’s going to be buy-to-play as opposed to free-to-play like A:IR was going to be.