Astonishia Online - Return of the Legend

Astonishia Online tells the storis that take place 13 years after what the PC version of Astonishia tells. Goorm Interactive is about to recruit 10000 testers before Feb. 2nd. Game details including 11 available characters, battle gameplay video and unique systems introduction have been unveiled via official site.

Astonishia Online Closed Beta sign ups are now open! Astonishia is an upcoming MMORPG with beautiful cel shaded anime styled graphics. The best thing about Astonishia Online is the the original developers (Sonnori) decided to go with the old school system. Which means original RPG players will enjoy their turn based fighting with players online, at least that's what it looks like from the promotion video presented below. It's been awhile since a game like this came out, it may remind you a bit of Atlantica Online. Let's hope it is different though, since I wasn't much a fan of AO.  Check out the full Closed Beta schedule below along with the awesome teaser video.

Closed Beta Schedule
All dates and times are in Korean format so don't forget to convert!

Closed Beta Signing Up Phase
January 26, 2010 - February 02, 2010

Closed Beta Testing Phase
February 04, 2010 - February 07, 2010

Developer: Sonnori
Game Publisher: Goorm Interactive
Game Site: http://aso.goorm.com/

Astonishia Online first closed beta test ended very successfully. I've managed to get a couple gameplay videos during the first CBT. A lot of foreign gamers are probably still confused on the whole system of the game so I will be explaining it below. There are a total of eleven playable characters, a male and female for each of the classes except the dwarf male (may change in the future). Get to know more about the game and check out the short preview below.

Character Creation

There are a lot of MMOTBRPG's out there but they aren't as successful and well known enough like Atlantica Online. Astonishia Online is making it's way up there fast, having personaly tried the CBT myself I have very high expectations for this game. I felt the graphics needed a bit more tweaking but other than that I felt like playing an online version of an RPG game on PS3 or XBOX360. Not that it's bad thing, I love the graphics Astonishia Online has to offer. I also love the fact that they kept the old school fighting system of original RPG's. There has been a lot of fast paced action rpg's out there, so a nice turn based MMORPG is a good idea.

Solo Gameplay

Now to explain the party system! Partying with other PC players in this game is much more efficient than solo'ing. You can compare the video above to the one below, and you can see the differences. Every five levels you open up an NPC slot in your NPC-Party setup. So let's say you achieve level five, you open up a character slot where you can get new NPC in your party. These NPC's are the same ones from the character creation screen. However, they can't be customized like your main character. Anyway, when you are partied with other PC players in game, your character shows a link to the leader. You must stay within the link range of your party leader, the link represents that you are still in the party when your leader aggro's a mob. If your leader aggro's a mob and your link isn't visible then you won't be in the party fight. This is very bad for players who love to go AFK, the reason is because in higher level dungeons mobs aggro and stack up. Meaning if you lose sight of your party and aggro one mob, eventually while you are fighting your one mob another will come, and another til you're dead. After you die you can self res and run back to your party and assist them by finding the first mob they aggro'ed. Or res in town if you don't have any self res items available.

Party Gameplay

Leveling was pretty easy in CBT so grinding wasn't much of problem. Speaking of grinding, weapons and armors can also be grinded for their glowy shiny effects. The only thing I didn't like about Astonishia CBT was running into walls and getting stuck. The controls need a bit more work, most MMORPG's these days use WASD. Astonishia uses WASD but it feels a bit awkward as if something is missing. Other than that I can't wait for CBT2 for Astonishia Online, maybe then you guys will have a CBT review by me.

Developer: Sonnori
Game Publisher: Goorm Interactive
Game Site: http://aso.goorm.com/