Florensia is Awesome

I downloaded and installed Florensia from Alaplaya yesterday and have been playing it nonstop. The game’s graphics are great and the game is set during the Victorian era. I mean, the game is set in a pretty generic fantasy environment, but the Victorian era architecture and character models make the game look at least a bit different than other fantasy MMORPGs. The game only has a handful of classes, but where the game really shines is its unique sea-based gameplay. The game has both a land and sea component to it. On land, Florensia plays a lot like Shaiya and every other fantasy MMORPG, but when players enter the game’s seas, they start at level 1. It doesn’t matter what level they are on land, the game’s sea based component is basically another game in and of itself. So players can experience an entirely new game on Sea. This is really original, because most MMORPGs never let you experience sea based gameplay.

Newer games like Tales of Pirates 2 from IGG and Kingdom Heroes from Aeria Games have sea based components as well, but all of these games copied Florensia. Florensia was the first game that really had an expansive sea based aspect. Another thing worth saying is that the sea based aspect of Florensia is actually really in depth. It’s basically a whole second game rather than just a feature. Players literally have a separate set of skills, experience and items for the sea component. Both the sea and land aspects of Florensia are top notch. The experience rate is a bit slow, but once you get used to its okay. In one day of casual playing, I reached level 14 or so. I know it’s not high, but the experience rate is low.

The only thing I’d like to see added to Florensia is more classes. As is the game only has like 5 playable classes, which is terrible. I dunno about you guys, but when I play an MMORPG, I prefer it to have a lot of classes – so if I ever get bored of my character, I can just try another class. I remember I played Dark Age of Camelot for years because it had like 30+ playable classes.

If you’ve never played Florensia before it’s worth trying. The guys behind the game do a great job keeping it up to date. It seems like every few months they add a boat load more areas to the game, so there’s no way anyone can really “finish” it. Like Requiem from Gravity, the game has plenty of quests too, so you’ll never have to outright grind. Instead you just quest your way to experience, which is always more fun than outright grinding.

Away From MMORPGs For a Bit - S4 League 4tw

Yesterday I re-downloaded S4 League again, one of my favorite third person shooter MMOs. In fact, it’s one of the only third person shooters aside from Battlefield Heroes. I used to play the game regularly about a year or so ago, but I sort of got bored of it. After playing a boat load of generic tactical MMOFPS games, I wanted to give the game another try, and I’m glad I did. S4 League is crazy fun and it’s just as fun as I remembered it to be. Since I last played a year ago, Alaplaya did a lot with the game. The most notable change is the elimination of lag. Multiplayer matches have practically zero lag now. Plus, there are a boat load of additional maps. Another neat thing is that unlike games like Soldier Front and Sudden Attack, weapons don’t disappear over time, so even though I didn’t play in a year, all of my weapons were saved, which rocks.

I’ve spent much of last week studying for finals and getting school stuff finished. I still have a few more finals to get through, so I can’t really commit to an MMORPG, though I do want to try the new game by IGG – Tales of Fantasy. For those that haven’t heard of it, it’s a 3D MMORPG with largely realistic graphics. So until my finals are done, I’ll probably stick with S4 League is a bit longer. S4 League is fun because I can play it in short bursts without ever spending too much time at once on it. Kind of like Heroes of Gaia and other browser MMORPGs.

I’ve always been a big fan of GunZ too, as I’ve played that game on and off. I played it even before ijji began publishing it 3+ years ago, back when the developer published it worldwide. I do like that ijji is publishing it now, as there are so many less hackers. I think anyone that likes GunZ will also love S4 League, as they’re very similar games. S4 League is just newer so it looks nicer. If anyone plays S4, leave your IGN below and maybe we can play sometime?